Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft on Competition: “We Need to Create the Reputation for Problems and Incompatibilities to Undermine Confidence”

Angry girl



Summary: Microsoft is vandalising not only competing products of 'partners' but also their reputation

YESTERDAY we wrote about saboteurs and FUD against OS/2, showing that Microsoft may have even broken the law in order to advance its agenda. Today we deal with another court exhibit, Exhibit plex_5401 (1991) [PDF]. It may be old, but it was never made widely accessible to the public, so we share it here and explain how it relates to the present.



Brad Silverberg, one of Microsoft's most aggressive people (he said “cut those f*ckers off” when a company chose DR-DOS), is herein expressing and defining Microsoft FUD. Cameron Myhrvold, the brother of Microsoft's patent troll (Nathan Myhrvold), is in circulation as well and both are currently in Ignition Partners, which seemingly helped the hijack of Xen.

Watch what Silverberg writes:

>From bradsi Thu Oct 24 09:18:30 1991 To: samt Subject: Re: DR DOS, will they/won't they buy

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:16:23 1991

This is a very important point. We need to create the reputation for problems and incompatibilies to undermine confidence in drdos6; so people will make judgements against it without knowing details or fats. it's will be tricky to do; we should dig up as many user stories as possible. compare drdow6 to dos4; ibm has expereince will building bad/incompat dos's.

we should think how we can get this down. (done).


That sounds very clearly like a plan to misbehave. Further down it is also shown that "kathybe" invites these chaps to the OS/2 briefing. She says: "I have not heard back from you."

From kathybe Wed Oct 23 17:16:34 1991 To: adamwa alistair andys bobmu bradsi cameronm carls claraj davidt davidtu davidwo dwaynew ericfo gregl karlst kevine markclbobt nikim perttir randyk roberth stewc tycar vesas Cc: Corptech Subject: URGENT - Can You Come on 10/29? Date: Wed Oct 23 17:13:24 PDT 1991

You were invited to attend the rehearsal presentation of the OS/2 Issue Account District Briefings on 10/29. I have not heard back from you.

We need you to review these presentations to ensure that the info we are presenting to customers and the field is correct. We will be doing six (6) districts over the next eight weeks which covers 70


Yesterday we saw what kind of OS/2 presentations Steve Ballmer was giving. He put in an application which was specifically designed (by Microsoft) to crash OS/2 and ruin the demonstrations.

It's all something to bear in mind now that Microsoft is trying to prove ODF is broken. Microsoft was an IBM and OS/2 partner at this time of sabotage and FUD. Now it is pretending to be an ODF partner with IBM, Sun, Oracle, Google, Red Hat and so on. Needless to say, Microsoft is still badmouthing ODF behind the scenes and it is reducing ODF interoprability [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].




Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft - exhibit plex_5401, as text










Tim Brewer

>From timbr Thu Oct 17 17:47:17 1991 To: cameroom viktorg Cc: bradsi davidool jeffbe lisacr Subject: Lotus AMI Pro 2.00 wrongly shipped COMMDLG.DLL from 6/14/91... Date: Thu, 17 Oct 91 17:48:05 PDT

Hi Cameron and Viktor - Apparently, Lotus wrongly shipped COMMDLG with thier AMI Pro 2.00 product. They picked up the beta 1 COMMDLG which was NOT included in the list of files available for redistribution. We need to contact them, have them update to the beta 2 release of COMMDLG and notify their customer base that they need to upgrade COMMDLG or they may affect other software components that use COMMDLG.

We did not give them permission nor did they ask anyone here to include COMMDLG with AMI Pro 2.00. They also ship OLECLI and OLESVR from beta 1 which is fine.

This issue was broght to my attention because it is affecting OC/Windows. (JeffBe has more details if you want them)

Please look into this asap. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks, Tim Brewer

##################################################### 235 From garygi Wed Oct 23 16:49:21 1991 To: bradsi Subject: EMAIL auto_notify

Re: reg win users Received OK on Wed Oct 23 16:49

User Message follows --------------------

At Comdex until Friday 10/25.

##################################################### 236 From susanb Wed Oct 23 16:49:42 1991 To: bradsi Subject: EMAIL auto_notify

Re: reg win users Received OK on Wed Oct 23 16:49

User Message follows -------------------- A combination of jury duty, two European launch tours and some vacation time will keep me out of the office almost continuously until Noverber 11. I'll check in on email and by phone. Peggyk can reach me or forward your requests to the appropriate ebu manager. Or try one of the following: Malindaf for marketing issues Tomr for development issues Brucej or Arts for program management issues Rogersh for testing issues Betsyd for user ed issues.

##################################################### 237 From bradc Wed Oct 23 17:01:52 1991 To: bradsi Subject: RE: more on rom dos Date: Wed Oct 23 17:02:18 PDT 1991

great, thanks. I have already explained to him the difference, he gets confused b/c

the delivery vehicle to oems is called the rom addendum.

on another matter it appears that i have to go to monterey on sunday

b/c you and joachimk can't go to this phoenix thing. remember that

CONFIDENTIAL

MSC 00726592

MX 6164977 CONFIDENTIAL

Plaintiff's Exhibit 5401 Comes V. Microsoft

RBC 003451

you volunteered you or me? as i indicated b4, i don't want to go to

be honest and am very bummed. i am your very loyal gpm but would you mind if i asked you to checking with me first b4 volunteering me for travel?

brad2

>From bradsi Wed Oct 23 16:31:25 1991 To: bradc Subject: more on rom dos

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:31:07 1991

I spoke to paul sherer yesterday. he asked about apm and I told him we would be announcing it soon ; we'd comment fully then. He also had the impression it would ONLY work with rom dos.

##################################################### 238 From dennisad Wed Oct 23 17:03:54 1991 To: bradsi davidcol Subject: Re: ppt Date: Wed, 23 Oct 91 17:03:49 PDT

Yup. Already agreed with Dave that I would come up with the "migration sheet" for ppt.

##################################################### 239 From sami Wed Oct 23 17:04:18 1991 To: bradsi Subject: Re: DR DOS, Will they/won't they buy Date: Thu Oct 24 09:59:42 PDT 1991

Well ...

I hadn't exactly meant to put it across that way,

but ...

You hit the nail on the head.

>From bradsi Thu Oct 24 09:18:30 1991 To: samt Subject: Re: DR DOS, will they/won't they buy

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:16:23 1991

This is a very important point. We need to create the reputation for problems and incompatibilies to undermine confidence in drdos6; so people will make judgements against it without knowing details or fats. it's will be tricky to do; we should dig up as many user stories as possible. compare drdow6 to dos4; ibm has expereince will building bad/incompat dos's.

we should think how we can get this down. (done).

##################################################### 240 From bradc Wed Oct 23 17:08:59 1991 To: bradsi Subject: RE: FW: apm/ms-dos 5 rom update Date: Wed Oct 23 17:09:42 PDT 1991

yup,good point - this was meant to discuss rom dos only but the message could be confused.

we will check with ray.

MSC 00726593

MX 6164978 CONFIDENTIAL

RBC 003452

>From bradsi Wed Oct 23 16:30:13 1991 To: bradc Subject: FW: apm/ms-dos 5 rom update

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:29:55 1991

I don't understand this mail, brad. it doesn't say anything about file transfer. It amkes it seem like power manager ONLY works with ROM DOS. That's VERY confusing.

We should make it very clear that all the pieces work with DISK-BASED ms-dos too.

In addition, we should ask rayka where all the oem's are for rom dos? we got lots of rather nasty mail from him about our mistakes; i'd like to know where the customers are now.

##################################################### 241 From davidool Wed Oct 23 17:12:00 1991 To: bradsi Subject: XGA driver Date: Wed Oct 23 17:11:18 1991

Cool, sound like comdex is windex for real...that's GREAT! I started reading paul sherer's article, but didn't finish...hope to finish tonight.

Some ISVs and OEMs got the spec, I can find the exact list if thats important.

On the issue of what to ship, we have some talking to do. Disk space is looking pretty grim for adding much at all. Are we absolutely hardcore about not adding another disk. The AGFA guys were here today and talked about how many fonts are in PCL 5 printers. They claim 26.5 million fonts in printers, just counting CG Times and Universe. Shipping a TrueType version of those would certainly be great for a large % of Windows users.

See ya when you get back.

##################################################### 242 From viktorg Wed Oct 23 17:15:29 1991 To: cameronm timbr Cc: bradsi davidool jeffbe lisacr Subject: Re: Lotus AMI Pro 2.00 Wrongly shipped COMMDLG.DLL from Date: Wed, 23 Oct 91 17:13:18 PDT 6/14/91...

I'll give them a call tomorrow (Thursday.) FYI, I have experimented with this, and it does seem to overwrite a newer version of the DLL - ie, it left my beta II version of COMMDLG intact. If I'm correct (I will verify with Lotus,) than there should be no problem with OC/Win - let me know if you have different data (essentially, I need to determine the urgency/gravity of the problem, as AMI has shipped already.)

thx, viktor

##################################################### 243 From kathybe Wed Oct 23 17:16:34 1991 To: adamwa alistair andys bobmu bradsi cameronm carls claraj davidt davidtu davidwo dwaynew ericfo gregl karlst kevine markclbobt nikim perttir randyk roberth stewc tycar vesas Cc: Corptech Subject: URGENT - Can You Come on 10/29? Date: Wed Oct 23 17:13:24 PDT 1991

You were invited to attend the rehearsal presentation of the OS/2 Issue Account District Briefings on 10/29. I have not heard back from you.

We need you to review these presentations to ensure that the info we are presenting to customers and the field is correct. We will be doing six (6) districts over the next eight weeks which covers 70

MSC 00726594

MX 6164979 CONFIDENTIAL

RBC 003453



Credit: wallclimber and RCH.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Why Would Anybody be Afraid of Talking to Richard Stallman?
We need to get rid of the baseless stigma
EPO on Strike
organisation operating outside the Rule of Law
Affirming What We Already Know: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is Profoundly Incompetent
"SRA ordered to pay solicitor £50k in costs after failed prosecution"
RMS Was Right 35 Years Ago
Stallman’s viewpoints have remained the same
 
Free Software in Swiss Media This Week
RMS is still going places with his Migros bag (Swiss retail giant)
TV Programs Disseminate False Numbers of Microsoft Layoffs (About 31,000 Laid Off Last Year, Not Including PIPs, Contractors and so on)
large-scale layoffs are inevitable, no matter how long Microsoft delays or procrastinates
Links 30/01/2026: Microsoft's "OpenAI Is Headed For Bankruptcy" and Bitcoin Crashes
Links for the day
Amutable is a Microsoft Proxy Like Xamarin, With Some IBM/Red Hat Staff Added for Good Measure
Amutable chasing money and trying to impose TPM etc. on everybody
The Letter Sent to the Ringleader of the Alicante Mafia This Week
Call for industrial actions to stop the salary erosion of EPO staff
Oracle's Debt Exploded by 22 Billion Dollars in 6 Months, the Ponzi Scheme With Scam Altman Was Classic 'Pump and Dump'
The founder of Oracle now uses his wealth for right-wing ideological reasons, nothing else
Facebook ('Meta') is Dead Meat, This GAFAM Company's Debt Exploded by Almost 33 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months (11 Billion Per Month)
we can expect many sales/contracts to get canceled
Australia's top nurse takes on Musk, Zuckerberg & rogue health influencers, birthkeepers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XVI - The Associates of Mr. Cocainegate Don't Want to Talk About Cocainegate (Right of Reply)
Nobody wanted to talk about cocaine at the EPO
The "Open Source" (Corporate Openwashing) Fake Community Rejects Democracy, Open Source Initiative is in Effect Dead
This is basically the end of the OSI
Cracks and Holes in Microsoft's Slop Bubble (Also, Windows is Declining)
"More Bad News For Xbox As Microsoft Blames Gaming For An Annual Decline In Its PC Business"
Microsoft's Debt Exploded by More Than 20 Billion Dollars This Past Year, Says Microsoft
Expect more mass layoffs
Strike at the EPO Today
Next month we'll start a new EPO series
State of the Slop and The Register MS Runs Ads as 'Articles'
Yesterday we could not find much slop about "Linux"
Gemini Links 30/01/2026: Announcing Crossyword and SYN Attack
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 29, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 29, 2026
Gemini Links 29/01/2026: Naps, Letting Go, and Terribly Cold Weather
Links for the day
Links 29/01/2026: Kennedy Center Officials Resigning and Amazon to Cut 16,000 Jobs
Links for the day
Goodbyes to Red Hat and IBM
PIPs let them do the same with less "wasted" on severance or with obscene narrative-shaping
The Need to Understand the Projection Tactics Against RMS
There's an old and common saying (or "wisdom") about who's guilty when there's a fart in elevators (lifts)
Links 29/01/2026: Neocities Is Blocked by Microsoft, “Intellectual Freedom Centers” as the New "Intelligent Design"
Links for the day
Microsoft XBox Dying Not Only as a Console, Reveals Microsoft
Microsoft is trying to rebrand or repurpose the brand
Don't be Mistaken, Microsoft Boasts About Money That Does Not Exist and Revenue (Buying From Oneself!) Is Not Income
the company's debt grew
Fedora is IBM and There's Hardly Any Community Left
It's more like an onboarding mechanism for unpaid labour at (and for) IBM
IBM's Financial Performance in IBM's Own Words: Money Down, Debt Up Sharply
IBM isn't a healthy company
In Dominica, GNU/Linux Has Risen to All-Time High in 2026
a lot of America is moving to Free software this year
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XV - EPO is on Strike Tomorrow, Lots to be Angry About (Except Money)
We'll soon finish the series
Gemini Links 29/01/2026: "Lady Audley's Secret" and "The Value Of Our Fear" (Carney's Speech)
Links for the day
Emmanuel Macron on Europe's GAFAM Addiction/Dependence: "There is No Such Thing as Happy Vassalage"
Microsoft has long worked to prevent commodification
It's Official, Mass Layoffs at IBM Again (2026)
In a matter of days we'll just see how much IBM's debt has grown
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Laos and Microsoft: About 10% Windows, 0% Bing
There are many more nations like it
EPO Technical Meetings Show no Breakthroughs, a Strike Goes Ahead This Friday
Apparently there was another (fourth) meeting today [...] The industrial actions are working already
Google News as the Sole Source of Slop About "Linux", a Feeder of Slopfarms or Serial Sloppers
At least it's no longer hard to 'contain' the slop problem, knowing which domains are the culprits and seeing that Google is their main 'feeder'
IBM to Announce 'Results' Shortly, Expect Lots of Chaff Like "Quantum" and "Hey Hi" (Nothing Material to Show)
We're still seeing layoffs and an exodus
Links 28/01/2026: ChatGPT Has Financial Problems, White House Sharing Fakes (or Deepfakes) in Official Accounts/Sites
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/01/2026: FlatCube NES Port Finished and "Why I Still Write on the Small Web in 2026"
Links for the day
Upcoming Techrights Series About the Public Appearances of Richard M. Stallman (RMS) in the United States
we plan to drop all pretences about "Open Source" and instead focus on Software Freedom
Upcoming Techrights Series About the Experiences of EPO Insiders
We'll start the new series some time next week
Links 28/01/2026: Microsoft Ordered to Stop Spying on School Children, Apple's Brand Tarnished by Its Complicity With Human Rights Abusers
Links for the day
Upcoming Techrights Series About the Failure of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to Stop Hired Guns Who Work for Americans That Abuse Women
The SRA has demonstrated nothing but considerable incompetence at many levels
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XIV - The EPO Vice-President Steve Rowan and the Hidden Alicante Connection is a Big Deal
We'll soon take a closer look at Ernst
Gemini Links 28/01/2026: Particle and AirMIDI
Links for the day
Amandine Jambert (EDPB/CNIL/FSFE), motive for lying, trust in blockchain and encryption
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 27, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, January 27, 2026