04.23.09

IBM Does Not Support OOXML

Posted in Deception, FUD, IBM, Microsoft, Open XML, OpenDocument at 12:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Response to new disinformation from the Microsoft camp

Microsoft cheerleaders like Alex Brown and Jesper Lund Stocholm are quite deliberately misinterpreting or mis-presenting a vote related to OOXML by claiming that IBM “supports” OOXML.

What is it that vendors/companies voted on? Groklaw explains:

Details: Subject: Approval to Adopt the International Standards listed below as American National Standards:…Question: Do you approve the Adoption of:

ISO/IEC 29500-1:2008
ISO/IEC 29500-2:2008
ISO/IEC 29500-3:2008
ISO/IEC 29500-4:2008

as American National Standards?…

Voluntary Standards are developed with the intention and expectation that the standards will be suitable for wide application. As their use is likewise voluntary, an affirmative vote does not commit an organization or group represented on the committee to the use of the voluntary standard under consideration. If you find that you cannot vote YES and wish to vote NO or ABSTAIN, please state this and explain the reasons for your position in the places provided.

Here is another explanation of what goes on here:

IBM votes for OOXML at the ANSI (the U.S. standards body) and the Microsoft-sponsored mob rejoices. The problem? Despite what it seems, the rules of the particular TC at the ANSI did not allow members to go against a previous ISO vote on the standard. In short, Jesper & Co are dancing over the body of a dead horse, or rather, continue to behave like some analysts who claim that Bernie Madoff’s business has a great future. Is OOXML a standardisation ponzi scheme? I think it is.

In the same vein, an important question to ask would be, “Is Microsoft a Ponzi scheme?” One Microsoft shareholder thinks it is and says so publicly. Other Microsoft investors might sue and there is unpleasant news coming tonight. █

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Novell’s Business Strategy Called “Murky, Messy”

Posted in GNU/Linux, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, SUN at 11:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Comparison between Sun’s vocation and Novell’s

WHEN Novell had approached Microsoft (not the other way around), it soon invented software patents as a business model for offering added value to open source software. Sam Dean, inspired by Matt Asay, compares the strategy of Sun to that of Novell and he has hardly any good things to say:

Give people useful software for free, charge reasonable prices for the support they’ll need, and grow the business. Novell and Sun, by contrast, have both engaged in many murky, messy business strategies that have nowhere near the simple elegance of Red Hat’s model.

From Asay:

Red Hat is an open-source company, while Novell is not, as Novell’s CEO and CFO both emphasized in Novell’s most recent earnings call. Sun, for its part, was desperately trying to reinvent itself as an open-source company, but struggled to do so given the weight of its declining hardware businesses.

[...]

Indeed. The problem for Novell is that this strategy, which started back when i was still with the company in 2003, has never really worked. While I agree that some mixture of “proprietary” value-add and open source is critical to ensuring community and corporate success, I believe Novell has approached open source in the wrong way, though its strategy is understandable given the legacy it continues to have to service

Novell — more than Sun, according to a survey — was not expected to survive this year. But who might be a suitable suitor for Novell given that it’s so heavily tilted towards Microsoft? Could IBM use the money it saved (prospective Sun acquisition) and scoop up Novell for a much lower value instead? That would guard it from UNIX lawsuits like SCO’s. On the other hand, it’s so satirical and it would hardly make business sense.

Who might be an acquirer of Novell then? Who would benefit from its software patents portfolio, its aging software, and the semi-functional imitations (me-too-ware) of Microsoft software? █

“[The partnership with Microsoft is] going very well insofar as we originally agreed to co-operate on three distinct projects and now we’re working on nine projects and there’s a good list of 19 other projects that we plan to co-operate on.”

–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO

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Announcement: Mono-Free Tomboy Replacement (Gnote) Releases Version 0.2.0

Posted in GNOME, GNU/Linux, GPL, Mono at 11:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Gnote puts the GNU (or Freedom) back in GNOME

Summary: The new release of Gnote and its significance

A former Novell engineer has just released a new version of Gnote, whose great value we explained in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The project is growing quickly because it’s mostly a constructive port to Microsoft-independent grounds.

This a recommended upgrade for existing Tomboy users although it may not be complete just yet. There will hopefully be a Ubuntu derivative out there which contains no Mono and instead contains packages like Gnote and Mononono (installed by default). Here are some programs such a derivative ought to avoid. █

“[...] we know that Microsoft is getting patents on some features of C#. So I think it’s dangerous to use C#, and it may be dangerous to use Mono.”

–Richard Stallman

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Microsoft Has Already Decided: Google is Dirty, Microsoft is Clean

Posted in Antitrust, Deception, Google, Microsoft at 10:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

[sarcasm] Google will eat your baby, according to Microsoft [/sarcasm]

Summary: Microsoft blocks Google for offering search (and for competing against Microsoft), but it does not block its own search site/s

FURTHER TO A story that we covered last week, there is important information worth adding. We asked whether all search engines are being blocked by Microsoft’s filters, including its own. We’ve finally found the answer to that question which is so crucial:

Install Microsoft’s Family Safety Filter (FSF) – and protect your family from vile and extreme websites such as, er, Google.

[...]

However, “with the filter on, Microsoft’s own search engine, live.com comes up.”

Here is the original (source). Microsoft is safe for search but Google is not, according to Microsoft.

Google should really carry this up to antitrust authorities, but given their previous experiences with USDOJ cronies like Barnett [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], this may be a waste of time. █

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Does Microsoft Use Extortion to Sign MOUs?

Posted in Antitrust, Deals, Microsoft at 10:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft’s “sign our deals or we sue you” strategy

A Microsoft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aka "Project Marshall", is a deal that prevents competition from Microsoft rivals. It is how Microsoft shuts the door to exclude superior and more affordable offers from all sorts of other companies. For actual examples see:

A regular site participant told the following story, which we have not yet summarised, so here is the raw log:

zer0c00l	Today i came to know that ms has threatened my educational head on licensing issue	Apr 23 11:37
zer0c00l	my head of the department told me personally	Apr 23 11:37
schestowitz	oiaohm: watch picture: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/04/2…	Apr 23 11:38
zer0c00l	they threatened of lock down the whole educational institution	Apr 23 11:38
zer0c00l	so they agreed and signed a MOU with ms	Apr 23 11:38
schestowitz	Wow.	Apr 23 11:38
schestowitz	Which educational head	Apr 23 11:38
schestowitz	Regional?	Apr 23 11:38
zer0c00l	my college	Apr 23 11:38
schestowitz	Ha	Apr 23 11:38
schestowitz	Do you have written proof?	Apr 23 11:39
schestowitz	It can be anonymised	Apr 23 11:39
schestowitz	And be pass to the European Commission	Apr 23 11:39
schestowitz	They have fined to serve the criminals from Intel shortly.	Apr 23 11:39
zer0c00l	schestowitz, i dont have any written proof	Apr 23 11:39
zer0c00l	will try to get one	Apr 23 11:39
zer0c00l	but he said in our valedictory function	Apr 23 11:40
schestowitz	Try getting proof	Apr 23 11:40
zer0c00l	“if you won’t buy 200 license we will engage anti-piracy operations on your institution “	Apr 23 11:40
zer0c00l	ok	Apr 23 11:40
zer0c00l	sure i will	Apr 23 11:41
schestowitz	Word of mouth is good, but it’s better to show something.	Apr 23 11:41
schestowitz	zer0c00l: that is extortion	Apr 23 11:41
schestowitz	It’s illegal	Apr 23 11:41
schestowitz	And it’s very typical	Apr 23 11:41
schestowitz	I heard it before.	Apr 23 11:41
zer0c00l	hmm	Apr 23 11:41
zer0c00l	bad ms	Apr 23 11:41
schestowitz	Anything else you were told?	Apr 23 11:42
zer0c00l	no	Apr 23 11:42
zer0c00l	i will try to collect for sure	Apr 23 11:42
zer0c00l	i raised a question regarding the software usage,	Apr 23 11:42
zer0c00l	so he replied back with these answers	Apr 23 11:43
zer0c00l	he said we were forced	Apr 23 11:43
oiaohm	IBM and Oracle are going to get into a little bit of a fight soon.	Apr 23 11:43
schestowitz	Was there illegal use/copies?	Apr 23 11:43
zer0c00l	no	Apr 23 11:43
schestowitz	I mean, typically there is.	Apr 23 11:43
schestowitz	In certain nations it’s common	Apr 23 11:43
oiaohm	MS is kinda going to find themselves in the middle.	Apr 23 11:43
zer0c00l	they are now using some volume licensing	Apr 23 11:43
schestowitz	And Microsoft has publicly endorses counterfeiting, so long as people move to another OS	Apr 23 11:43
schestowitz	oiaohm: IBM has already manage a new migration route to DB2	Apr 23 11:44
schestowitz	So they don’t stand idly.	Apr 23 11:44
oiaohm	postgresql vs Mysql	Apr 23 11:44
zer0c00l	they paying ms some 1 million yearly	Apr 23 11:44
oiaohm	db2 vs orcale.	Apr 23 11:44
oiaohm	Let the war being. Last one standing.	Apr 23 11:44
oiaohm	Both now make there own servers.	Apr 23 11:45
oiaohm	We have not see a hardware maker face off in a long time.	Apr 23 11:45
schestowitz	zer0c00l: for how many licences/people?	Apr 23 11:47
oiaohm	The fun part by the end of it. Either IBM will aquire Orcale or Orcale will aquire IBM or a draw.	Apr 23 11:47
zer0c00l	atleast there will be some 800 computers in the college	Apr 23 11:48
schestowitz	oiaohm: their market cap isn’t far apart	Apr 23 11:48
zer0c00l	they have only 200 licenses	Apr 23 11:48
schestowitz	1 million for 1000 PCs?	Apr 23 11:48
zer0c00l	office, visual studio	Apr 23 11:48
zer0c00l	it includes	Apr 23 11:48
schestowitz	Extra addictives	Apr 23 11:49
schestowitz	Get kids to program /for/ Microsoft	Apr 23 11:49
zer0c00l	schestowitz, yes thats the plan	Apr 23 11:49
schestowitz	And lock their data inside the OOXML capsule that only Microsoft Office can open when they grow up	Apr 23 11:49
oiaohm	I have found ms will get quite cheep when you say in a school envorment MS has 2 options 1 software for nothing 2 Linux gets installed everywhere.	Apr 23 11:49
schestowitz	zer0c00l: nice company…	Apr 23 11:49
zer0c00l		Apr 23 11:49
zer0c00l	schestowitz, but the professor has now poised to change the system	Apr 23 11:50
oiaohm	Most times MS chooses the cheap licences.	Apr 23 11:50
oiaohm	Be away of MS other licencing system. Per student zer0c00l	Apr 23 11:50
zer0c00l	he asked me to install GNU/linux in each and every systems	Apr 23 11:50
oiaohm	aware	Apr 23 11:50
zer0c00l	i have installed 200 systems so far	Apr 23 11:50
zer0c00l	just dual booting it	Apr 23 11:50
oiaohm	Yep that normal MS threat.	Apr 23 11:50
oiaohm	See we have linux here.	Apr 23 11:51
schestowitz	oiaohm: yes	Apr 23 11:51
zer0c00l		Apr 23 11:51
schestowitz	oiaohm: let me find ref	Apr 23 11:51
schestowitz	That I found this morning.	Apr 23 11:51
schestowitz	“Linux club helps firms hide from Microsoft”	Apr 23 11:51
schestowitz	“Local authorities and companies who are interested in ditching their proprietary software in favour of open source are being encouraged to join a confidential scheme that aims to protect them from the attentions of firms such as Microsoft.”	Apr 23 11:51
schestowitz	“The initiative, called The Incubator Club, is said to be a response to the tactics employed by some major software vendors against firms and organisations who consider using Linux.”	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	“According to Eddie Bleasdale of Netproject, an IT consultancy firm that runs The Incubator Club, Microsoft has repeatedly tried to stop potential Linux migrations — sometimes with notable success.”	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	““Whenever we’ve gone public about a client moving to Linux, Microsoft has come in and offered remarkable incentives for them to stay as they are,” Bleasdale told the Open Source in Local Government conference in London on Tuesday. “	Apr 23 11:52
oiaohm	Per student licencing gets very stupid.	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	Source: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/sof…	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	But in this latest case it’s extortion	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	“Pay us for all machines or we sue you”	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	Microsoft uses patents too now	Apr 23 11:52
zer0c00l	schestowitz, yes	Apr 23 11:52
schestowitz	The vague patent threats	Apr 23 11:52
oiaohm	School with Per student has to pay like 25 dollars per student and you can install as many copies of the software you like.	Apr 23 11:52
oiaohm	So much for anti pirate.	Apr 23 11:53
schestowitz	So even if you don’t have any licensing issues (with Windows) they’ll raise Linux-patents issues	Apr 23 11:53
schestowitz	Seen before	Apr 23 11:53
schestowitz	They use it against large companies	Apr 23 11:53
schestowitz	Horacio spoke about it in 2007	Apr 23 11:53
schestowitz	The companies don’t want to identify themselves	Apr 23 11:53
schestowitz	Those that sell out, that is.	Apr 23 11:53
oiaohm	Lot of large companies threaten back.	Apr 23 11:53
oiaohm	Its the smaller companies it works on.	Apr 23 11:54
*mib_t0pudo (i=c910e07d@gateway/web/ajax/mibbit.com/x-deacd5ba8fb7030e) has joined #boycottnovell		Apr 23 11:54
schestowitz	oiaohm: maybe some companies won’t bother fighting back	Apr 23 11:54
schestowitz	The idea is to make Linux “Scary”	Apr 23 11:54
oiaohm	Most large companies have large patents.	Apr 23 11:54
schestowitz	So they won’t want the trouble and just be swayed into Linux	Apr 23 11:54
schestowitz	That’s Allison’s thesis (or was it gpl-violations’) about TomTom	Apr 23 11:54
oiaohm	Reason why they hit back they take the point of view MS might anyhow.	Apr 23 11:54
oiaohm	For invalid software installs.	Apr 23 11:55
oiaohm	So they extract extra moment.	Apr 23 11:55
schestowitz	Try to scare device makers who use Linux and don’t want to encouter difficulties	Apr 23 11:55
oiaohm	MS only try to scare weak looking device makers.	Apr 23 11:56
oiaohm	Once that look to have good cash reserves they don’t touch.	Apr 23 11:56
schestowitz	Layoffs mentioned in mini-msft now: http://minimsft.blogspot.com/200…	Apr 23 11:56
schestowitz	oiaohm: yes, TomTom reported bad financial results days before MS sued over FAT	Apr 23 11:56
schestowitz	No coincidence IMHO	Apr 23 11:56
schestowitz	They use a vulnerable and demoralised company at times when investors put pressure	Apr 23 11:57
schestowitz	And OIN has not struck back like it promise	Apr 23 11:57
schestowitz	So Microsoft is now going around secretly collecting protection money, saying that TomTom paid, therefore there is no mdeniability	Apr 23 11:57
schestowitz	*deniability	Apr 23 11:57
oiaohm	There has been a lot of other things going on.	Apr 23 11:58
oiaohm	OIN has been sitting back and watching. Lot of .net supporting companies having been jumping ship.	Apr 23 11:59
schestowitz	oiaohm: how is this related?	Apr 23 11:59
*magentar has quit (Read error: 104 (Connection reset by peer))		Apr 23 11:59
oiaohm	The patent attack on TomTom proved MS patent promise is not worth spit.	Apr 23 12:00
oiaohm	So particular .net companies are looking for other solutions like blender.	Apr 23 12:00
oiaohm	OIN winning against MS might slow that down.	Apr 23 12:00
oiaohm	Yes sometimes it pays to sit back and do nothing and let nature happen.	Apr 23 12:01
oiaohm	I really would hate to be in the OIN chair right now trying to pick the best move.	Apr 23 12:02
MinceR	it happens too slowly	Apr 23 12:02
MinceR	m$ should be killed quickly.	Apr 23 12:02
oiaohm	Patent attacking MS now would not be sure to kill them quickly either.	Apr 23 12:02
oiaohm	They have enough money still to draw it out.	Apr 23 12:02
oiaohm	Yet there money reports say they are in a down wards spirle.	Apr 23 12:03
oiaohm	Rule of business if a tactic has worked well copy it.	Apr 23 12:03
schestowitz	brb	Apr 23 12:04
oiaohm	MinceR: the hard thing is picking the right point to hit MS at its weakest.	Apr 23 12:05
oiaohm	Great MS is delaying it must not be good. After the close of trade they will release the 3Q.	Apr 23 12:08
oiaohm	If its good you normally release it at the start of trade to make stock trade high.	Apr 23 12:08
schestowitz	oiaohm: I don’t agree	Apr 23 12:09
schestowitz	Also, Ubuntu 9.04 has just been officially release	Apr 23 12:09
schestowitz	Microsoft will do more damage unless it’s clipped now	Apr 23 12:09
schestowitz	European Commission need to intervene too	Apr 23 12:10
schestowitz	For all I can gather, Microsoft is now more aggressive then ever	Apr 23 12:10

In additon, below we append an E-mail that shows the very same victim being pressured to pay for software ‘upgrades’ (some people consider them downgrades). █

Appendix: Evidence of Microsoft forcing the customers to upgrade

Read the rest of this entry »

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Microsoft Does Not Deny Rumours of Further Layoffs

Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft at 4:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Muhammed Saeed al Sahaf

Summary: Microsoft is unable to dismiss further cuts

THE LATEST suggestion that more layoffs are heading Microsoft’s way is backed by what an analyst refers to as “multiple sources”. We wrote about this twice already. GNU/Linux is among the main causes, others being Google and similar disruptive forces in IT. It turns out that a Microsoft spokesman has responded to the suggestion that more layoffs will be announced shortly. Here is the relevant portion from the Seattle P-I:

Microsoft is scheduled to release its third quarter earnings on Thursday. The last set of layoffs were announced at the same time as its second quarter earnings.

Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos responded Monday, “As we said in January, we will continue to assess the market and economic situation over the next 18 months and make adjustments as needed. Beyond that, we have no other details to share.”

This was said in response to: “Over the last week, we have heard from multiple sources that Microsoft may engage in additional restructuring activities in the near-to-mid term [...] While our checks seem to unanimously imply further headcount cuts, there is uncertainty around whether such cuts will be a moderate revision to plans announced in January or is a sizable addition to prior headcount reduction plans.”

Microsoft will leave its report on the counter this evening, so executives may not get around to delivering answers before Friday. The report, however, will reveal what Microsoft tells shareholders about GNU/Linux. █

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The Bill Gates “Security as a Lock-in”: Thy Name is TPM?

Posted in Bill Gates, GNU/Linux, IBM, Kernel, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 3:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Introduction to “Trusted Computing”:

Summary: Microsoft uses the Windows zombies disaster to promote computing whose operation can be controlled by remote authorities

BASED ON A MEMO that we shall publish one day in the future, Bill Gates intended to use “security” as a lock-in mechanism. It is very common — not just when it comes to Microsoft for that matter — to use “security” as an excuse for seizing greater control. We saw it when comes to OOXML very recently.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Microsoft totally dropped the ball when it comes to security. According to the following new report which stems from Microsoft friend and pusher for software patents in Europe (namely Finjan [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]), even governments are severely impacted by this.

Botnet ‘ensnares government PCs’

[...]

The Cabinet Office would not give details of what the compromised machines had been instructed to do, nor the names of the different government departments that had been infiltrated.

This one particular report mentions Windows, but many similar reports so characteristically do not; they must be too shy. And here we have another new report from a security conference where Microsoft proposes ineffective cure for a disease it created. Microsoft uses this catastrophe to promote TPM, which would have many devastating effects.

Regarding this article, says one person:

The most successful security model would be to deny all Windows computers connection to the Internet. There, all done. No more viruses, no more spam, no more bot nets.

Another says that “this stuff is scary” and the last message explains what Microsoft could be up to.

I don’t mind TPM as long as *I* get to control it. I’ll even be willing to *permit* it to participate in Microsoft’s chain of trust, as long as I can also use it to boot my own OS that *I* trust.

Prediction… As soon as new PCs come with TPM that trusts only Microsoft, we’ll see just how trustworthy that whole business/software model is. It’ll either get cracked, or the market will head in the other direction. It isn’t just Freedom-Heads here, it’s also companies that want to control their own images. Customer-controlled TPM is good for them as well as me. Microsoft-controlled TPM is good only for Microsoft.

As we showed before, IBM may be trying to do the same thing to Linux, so we are appending some information below. █
_______
[1] IBM Brings Trusted Computing to Linux

The architecture involves the “Trusted Platform Module” (TPM) chip that provides hardware storage of private keys, making it impossible for hackers to spoof computer systems. Any attempts to hack into the system would change the system code, which could be easily detected. By adding a new feature to Linux, the research team has successfully performed security checks that go above and beyond checking the first few steps in powering on the system, the feature designed by TCG. The new solution validates the operating system kernel and all application software running on the system.

[2] Cisco, Microsoft, Others Get Together On Security

Microsoft, Cisco Systems and the open-standards Trusted Computing Group each developed their own NAC approaches, which use a variety of software and hardware to boost network security.

[3] Why the world needs openness, not interoperability.

This NAC/NAP lovefest would be laughable if it weren’t such a kick-in-the-teeth to the rest of the industry, enterprise IT, and all Internet users. A Cisco/Microsoft oligopoly stalls implementation, stifles innovation, and makes the network less secure. In this way, Cisco and Microsoft are standing in the way of progress.

[4] Trusted Or Treacherous Computing?

Microsoft describes how to revoke rights to render based on ‘who the user is, where the user is located, what type of computing device or other playback device the user is using, what rendering application is calling the copy protection system, the date, the time, etc.’ Someuch for Microsoft’s you-should-have-control assurances.

[5] The Future of Trusted Linux Computing

TC With User Freedom At Helm. The idea of TC in the Linux world is actually a fairly reasonable one. Providing a root-locked, buttoned down environment that system administrators will be able to control the security of the controlled network and those workstations within it.

With the absence of proprietary code in the mix, users will indeed, find themselves more inclined to trust their own administrators to make the best choices under such a controlled environment.

[6] Root-locked Linux for the masses

Eddie Bleasdale, open source evangelist and the man behind NetProject, has a new plan. Secure, managed desktop computing: Linux for the non-techies.

At the heart of the Trusted Computing Project is a £200 black box, about the size of those funny little Mac boxes, running a root-locked Ubuntu distribution. The user pays an annual fee of £50 for secure support from a proper Linux geek.

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