07.19.09
IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: July 18th, 2009
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Another Microsoft Product Dies as the Company Prepares for Horrible Financial Results
Summary: GNU/Linux is still destroying Microsoft by eliminating its profit margins
MICROSOFT has been killing many products recently. In the past 9 months alone, Microsoft put to end to almost 20 (maybe more, but it is difficult to keep count). We estimated that Microsoft kills, on average, about 2 products per month. So indeed, it’s time for another death knell. This one used to be a rumour. It is about Popfly, which is GNU/Linux hostile [1, 2] (also mentioned very briefly in [1, 2]).
Fortunately, given the anti-competitive nature of Popfly, this product is now officially dead.
Microsoft is shutting down its Popfly mashup tool, company officials are confirming.
Microsoft may have no choice but to shut down many more services and products. Based on this new report from the Wall Street Journal, we might see a recurrence of last quarter's results with Microsoft profits falling another 30% or more (in reality it may be a lot worse), to a great degree due to GNU/Linux which eroded Microsoft’s margins (dumping and kickbacks take their toll).
Microsoft Seen Posting Sharp Profit Decline For Fiscal 4Q
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is expected to post declines in profit and sales for its fiscal fourth-quarter next Thursday, as the software giant contends with flagging sales of personal computers bundled with its technology.
Microsoft will surely try to blame the economy, but Google and IBM have both just reported a rise in profit (both companies use GNU/Linux); Red Hat did too not so long ago and it is part of a trend.
Our reader Goblin wrote about the meaning of Microsoft’s expected sharp decline in profit.
It is being reported that Microsoft’s figures for Q4 that are due to be posted next Thursday are expected to be down, again.
One key reason for this is GNU/Linux, as it was confirmed by the press before (Microsoft has underperformed for a long time, but it bought back shares). Ars Technica wrote : “Client software felt the slump in PC sales, and was further harmed by the shift to netbooks; many of these run Linux, which helps Microsoft not at all.” CRN wrote: “Microsoft, like much of the IT industry, was caught off-guard by the rapid rise of the netbook category, but moved quickly to offer a netbook-specific version of XP Home to stem the tide of Linux on netbooks. When one considers that getting some revenue is better than getting none, that was a wise move.”
Another reader of ours reminds people that ARM-based sub-notebooks are going to cause another major headache to Microsoft because Vista 7 won’t run on them. Our reader writes:
We’ll see if AlwaysInnovating.com can ship this month as claimed.
I’ve wanted a solid-state ARM-based netbook since around 2001. ARM-based tablets have been around since Zaurus and in 2007 started to kick ass with OpenMoko and the Nokia N810. The software has started to catch up. Now netbook-oriented distros are being ported to ARM and industry has planned six to ten ARM-based netbooks for 2009.
It looks like the first one is about ready.
If it gets 10 hours of battery, even die hard Bill fans will find a way to upgrade to Linux even if only on the netbook.
As noted last week, ARM-based sub-notebooks are expected to grab 55 percent of this market. This can’t be good for Microsoft. █
“Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company, declared a profit of $4.5 billion in 1998; when the cost of options awarded that year, plus the change in the value of outstanding options, is deducted, the firm made a loss of $18 billion, according to Smithers.”
–The Economist, 1999
Microsoft Product Manager: “Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let’s move on and steal the Java language.”
Summary: Microsoft speaks about “killing Sun’s Java.”
WE ARE STARTING to cover Java territories from the Comes vs Microsoft case, which Microsoft paid to settle, apparently with the condition that all this evidence will disappear. Today we offer the text version of Exhibit px_2768 (1997) [PDF], which shows Microsoft’s treatment of cross-platform, Java, and competition in general. The full exhibit can be seen at the bottom (or the original PDF), but to give some pointers and highlights, see the following message from Prashant Sridharan, Microsoft’s Visual J++ Product Manager:
If we, as a company, are interested in promoting Windows, why bother with AFC? In my own opinion (apart from Ironwood, J/Direct, or any of the other politically-charged topics now), we are horribly inconsistent in this regard.
Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let’s move on and steal the Java language.
That said, have we ever taken a look at how long it would take Microsoft to build a cross-platform Java that did work? Naturally, we would never do it, but it would give us some idea of how much time we have to work with in killing Sun’s Java.
For readers’ convenience, the context too is displayed in the full exhibit. This fits our analysis that Microsoft et al (and now Novell [1, 2, 3]) are essentially fighting against Java with their .NET infatuation (or Visual J++ prior to that). This is done unethically in Microsoft’s case. It it also important to remind people how Microsoft really feels about Java now that Microsoft is invading Java conferences, pretending nothing negative was ever intended by Microsoft. █
Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft – exhibit px_2768, as text
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07.18.09
Upgrade Complete
Summary: Site gets better, faster, more robust to trolling
THE CONTENT management system of Boycott Novell has just been upgraded and slightly newer add-ons included. While we are preparing a commenting policy, comments require that people register with the site. This is trivial to do. It is not a censorship policy, but it reduces hit-and-run trolling. The suggestion came from 3 readers. █
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Commenting Policy to Change Due to Abuse and Intimidation from Trolls
Summary: Change is needed as attempts to harass this Web site and people behind it reach new heights (including libel against me)
GreyGeek, who is known to many as a popular participant from Linux Today, has just left the following comment, which led us to deciding to alter the commenting policy (it used to be strictly “no intervention”).
After reading all these comments one thing seems very apparent: Microsoft has INCREASED the number of TE’s assigned to you and this site. They are flooding each article with hostile comments linked with other comments on other articles by themselves and other TEs. Twisting, spinning, dodging, ducking, weaving, lying, and with plenty of ad hominem attacks to flavor their mutual love fest.
Yet, they never explain James Plamondon’s mea culpa, or his belief that Microsoft has continued to employ the very same techniques first noticed, posthumously, on the Compuserv Canopus forum, initially occupied mostly by OS/2 users. Joe Barr described the TE’s behavior and tactics (although he and the rest of the world did not know about James Plamondon’s digital terrorists at the time) in an appropriately titled article, “SLIME” (Spin, Lies and Insults by Microsoft Employees), and included this comment:
Online thugs, dimly lit cyberjerks who use the foulest imaginable language on anyone who disagrees with them, male or female, roam free. I recently reported the foul-mouthed William Beem to both CIS and the police for making threats. Other vermin contribute nothing but content-free ad hominem, including one pathetic munchkin who openly wishes me a horrible death. Me? I’m following Payne out the door. The stench on Canopus is more than I can bear
The original site is gone, but here is an archived copy of the SLIME article: http://web.archive.org/web/20070912130345/www.pjprimer.com/slime.html
better make a copy before “something” happens to it.Wong’s mistake was to brag about his new position as an MS TE on line when he was first hired, thus exposing himself for what he is, one of James Plamondon’s creatures, a hired gun working for Microsoft. You can describe his posts as “gunning”, for that is what they are and what they do. If you are on the receiving end of one of their ad hominem campaigns they could be considered Digital Terrorists. Wong probably considers himself a digital samurai. One who would employ the Slog or the set up the Stacked Panel with no moral whims what so ever about astroturfing a site which is not Pro-Microsoft. “Bidness is bidness”. A paycheck is a paycheck.
Following in the footsteps of former Microsoft TE’s like Segal (“Barkto”), Diamond and Shupak, Wong and the other TEs infesting the comments section here are trying to do what their cohorts did to the Canopus OS/2 forum — hijack it or shut it down. Here is Joe Barr’s account of the “Barkto” event and evidence of Microsoft’s collusion:
http://lists.essential.org/1998/am-info/msg01529.htmlThey succeeded by sheer volume of posts and relentless ad hominem attacks against any not in the Microsoft camp, in order to hijack Canopus and drive out Joe Barr and other civil people. They can’t hijack this site because they don’t own it and they can’t turn you. That only leaves the last tactic — volumes of self-reverential negative postings, making all sorts of claims about “defeating” or “exposing” you or what ever. I often wonder how they can read about the graft and corruption revealed the internal MS emails revealed in the DOJ or Combs trials and not resign, or at least vomit. Anyone who can read Comes 3096.pdf and still want to be a TE has the kind of morals that Plamondon was looking for.
I have a suggestion. Allowing these MS shills to share the same threads as civil folks gives them too much front page space. That is precisely how they hijacked Canopus. Just like DELL and the other PC OEMs were/are forced to keep hardware featuring Linux to back pages or face get their “air supply cut off” by Microsoft not funding ad revenues, you should move obvious TE posts to another page, referenced by a single link which marked as such and is surrounded by all sorts of disclaimers and warnings about the content contained therein.
[...]
As I said, move the obvious AstroTurfs to a second page, accessible via a single link, surrounded by warnings of the hostile nature of the content, just the way MS has forced PC OEMs to hide Linux offerings.
It’s as fair a treatment as these egotists deserve. It is obvious that they are using the Canopus Attack method to swamp your website with the most outrageous postings possible, devoid or content, arguing over words, …. all the hallmarks of the Canopus Attack. They’ve got it down to an art form, like obnoxious WFW tag team members. Now you have “Lefty” threatening to sue you… classic MS tactic. That’s how MS muzzled the security people into forcing them to release news of security holes ONLY to Microsoft.
While “Lefty” is not related Microsoft (contrary to the insinuated claim from GreyGeek), his professional activity does suggest that it is in his financial interests to silence this Web site (along with other groups like the FSF*, which seek to forbid what his employer depends on**). This includes software patents. So he came here with false accusations against me, then flooded the Web site (and the Web at large) with the same defamatory false accusation, and then he aggravated everything and everyone who is in this Web sites (cursing beyond people’s imagination with about 100 lengthy comments per day), which leads to the suspicion that it was deliberate provocation of everyone, intended to find a reason for further harassment.
“I can see the IP addresses of those who are mod-bombing and fueling verbal attacks on this site, including libel against me.”To be clear here, the victim is me. I was accused of something I did not do in the first place and the rest was more of the same. The whole campaign was backed by many other trolls who promoted the same lies using quantity — sheer quantity — of comments and mod-bombing. I can see the IP addresses of those who are mod-bombing and fueling verbal attacks on this site, including libel against me.
The reference to lawyers as silencers is familiar. Actually, our server administrator*** received a similar type of treatment. Microsoft threatened to sue him for writing a factually correct blog post about security problems that their software had. That was a few years ago.
If comments are made harder to leave, then the trolls get their way, so we are still trying to work out how to clean up future feedback on posts.
Those who do not honour freedom of expression resort to intimidation and libel, which sometimes comprises or includes dishonest smear campaigns.
Lastly, adds GreyGeek:
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/03/the_microsoft_m.html
It amazed the journalist at Wired, in retrospec, how easily he was spun by Microsoft.
And, I have NO DOUBT that you have read the emails which describe “handling” the journalist O’gara, who wrote and writes much like you.
Assign TE’s to this site? When you say “we” I know you aren’t referring to other Penquins or even rocks in your pocket.
We have already exposed (and reported to the FTC) at least one Microsoft TE who endlessly trolled this Web site in recent days. █
_______
* He has already attacked Richard Stallman by taking satire out of context.
** He is not here on his own behalf. The employer is not dissociated from this because the topic discussed here is not politics, for example. If a person promotes his employer’s agenda or vilifies his employer’s competitors outside work (addressing the very same subject as in work), then he or she does this for financial gain. Period.
*** The man who kindly donated server space after of this Web site came under persistent and repeated DDOS attacks, which led to problems with the old Web host.
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Novell and Xandros Promote Microsoft Patents, SFLC Warns About “Microsoft Patent Aggression”
Summary: Novell promotes patent encumbrances with Microsoft, Xandros helps Windows again, and the SFLC warns about Melco
WE ARE not truly expecting Novell to issue a response to the racketeering news about Melco [1, 2, 3] because Novell too is part of the same type of racket. To make matters worse, Novell uses this racket to market its distribution of GNU/Linux at the expense of competitors while Novell also decreases its contributions to Linux. But look! Novell acquired some more software patents last week. Just what Linux needs: software patents.
Intentional-stance characterization of a general content stream or repository, patent No. 7,562,011, invented by Stephen R. Carter of Spanish Fork, and Delos C. Jensen of Orem, assigned to Novell Inc. of Provo.
[...]
Methods, systems, and data structures for electronic addressing, patent No. 7,558,826, invented by A. Kent Sievers of Orem, and David R. Hansen of Highland, assigned to Novell Inc. of Provo.
User MoreInterop (the Microsoft/Novell Web site) promotes Microsoft and Novell’s software patent coupons in a bunch of new videos that it has just uploaded to YouTube. That’s Microsoft and Novell fighting against GNU/Linux for which Microsoft cannot be paid owing to racketeering (notably Red Hat). The videos make it clear that it is just about the “customers” (if Novell is to be believed at all) but nobody else, including the volunteering producers of Novell’s products. Novell is exploiting and betraying the very same people that built SUSE. They are are not just Novell/S.u.S.E. employees, who were part of a collective effort that ought to be respected.
In other news, the following press release has just been published and it shows how Xandros too is helping Microsoft, its software patents partner. It’s part of a trend.
BridgeWays, a division of Xandros, today released a series of management packs that enable system administrators to manage business critical applications on Windows, Linux, and Unix from a single console. The new management packs help extend Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 to additional business applications on Windows and to the 85% of enterprise data centers with cross-platform environments.
For more details on this, see:
- Microsoft and Novell Celebrate Marriage in Public, But Customers Still Choose Red Hat
- Xandros, Brought to You by Microsoft Show
- Novell and Xandros Are Promoting Windows, Again
- Microsoft Wants to Control GNU/Linux, Novell and Xandros Help with This
How can Xandros and Novell (and by inference Microsoft) be stopped? Well, the SFLC has just published the following post which reminds developers why they should choose the GPLv3.
Microsoft Patent Aggression Continues Against Free Software
[...]
What we see in this agreement between the Melco Group and Microsoft is another little above-water piece of the same patent aggression iceberg that Microsoft has placed in our community’s way. They continue to shake down companies that distribute GNU/Linux systems for patent royalties. As I’ve written about before, it’s difficult to judge if these are GPLv2-compliant, but they are almost certainly not GPLv3-compliant. If there were ever a moment for the community to scramble to GPLv3, this would be it, if for no other reason to defend ourselves against the looming aggression.
In my correspondence with Linus Torvalds it was made apparent that he would rather allow such patent deals than defend the integrity of Free software. He still underestimates the value of the GPLv3 and everything that’s at stake. █
Why Novell and Ubuntu Suppress Opposition of Mono
Summary: Two new analyses from the Mono-Nono Web site
JASON has just published two posts that hit the nail on the head. The first one is a detailed explanation of how, why, and who might be interested in suppressing Mono opposition. There are many reasons to ignore these gagging attempts, which include relentless attempts to assassinate the character of individuals and reputation of Web sites. We’ve seen Miguel de Icaza cursing Sam Varghese for example. Why? Because he happens to support the FSF when it comes to his stance on Mono and GNU/Linux. It’s like some sort of Microsoft/Novell-organised McCarthyism.
From Jason’s post:
A lot of times, mono critics are told we should just “shut up”. Everything that needs to be said has been said, no one is going to change their mind, and there is no point in going on about things.
Let me tell you why I reject that.
[...]
Reason four: It is too important
We aren’t talking about arguing over the One True Brace Style here. Team Mono wants to be on your desktop. They want more Mono and even Moonlight up in GNOME. If they get GNOME based on .NET, then you can bet your sweet object code they are coming for KDE.
Reason five: It sets a bad precedent
First was C#/CLI, then .NET, then Moonlight. Each iteration has been less Free and more risky to build on. Each one is ever closer to some exclusive Novell-Microsoft arrangement.
What of the next Microsoft technology that Team Mono decides needs to be cloned? Microsoft can afford to have every component integrate tightly – in fact, it is to thier advantage to do so. But we who rely on standards and promises to protect us can not be so cavalier.
Reason six: That’s what Novell wants
Listen, Novell management is not a bunch of idiots. There can be no question that they knew entering into a relationship with Microsoft would be taken as a betrayal of the community. There is no doubt in my military mind they sat down and tried to judge the cost as best they could, and you know what they came up with…
Sadly enough, as a subsequent post puts it, Ubuntu separates Mono critics from the discussion. This is a tactless move for reasons that are explained in the post.
Time to draw attention to the “Free Speech Zone” on the Ubuntu Forums.
The target
For perfectly understandable reasons, Team Mono is really targeting Ubuntu to get ever more mono applications in by default. Banshee is virtually a given at this point, and GNOME-Do is a likely follow up. There is a blizzard of pro-mono misinformation on the Ubuntu Forums – which it breaks my heart to say, doesn’t exactly have quite same level of intellectual rigor as the Dialogues of Plato.
Whoever takes over these distributions — be it Microsoft-sympathetic people or even Microsoft employees — they are ruining GNU/Linux, sometimes knowingly. Some people’s perception or vision of GNU/Linux is another Mac OS X with DRM, patent fees, .NET, and a desktop which is built based on Microsoft Silverlight (ask Miguel de Icaza about it). What would be achieved? This is not the GNU system and it is the antithesis of Free software.
“We are divided between people like Novell employee or Microsoft folks and those who are actually GNU/Linux users defending their platform, their territory.”Ubuntu does not even deny suppressing opposition to Mono anymore. What a spit in the face of the FSF and the large majority of the GNU/Linux users out there, who agree with the FSF. Ubuntu suppressed Mono opposition before and even eliminated it (it disappeared, according to Jason), which is what led to the creation of the Mono-Nono Web site on the face of it.
Some will say that we’re a “divided community”; yes, maybe we are. We are divided between people like Novell employee or Microsoft folks and those who are actually GNU/Linux users defending their platform, their territory. To a certain degree, this is indeed the case.
Several companies and organisations (e.g. VMware, ISO, OSI, Yahoo, XenSource) found out the hard way what happens when Microsoft takes over staffing or — as in Novell’s case — starts paying people’s paychecks in other companies.
The foresight of the FSF has been excellent for many years and the GNU GPL was defended for decades (it is the most popular software licence right now). Rather than reject the FSF, people should reject those who foolishly reject the FSF's advice. █
“He [Bill Gates] is divisive. He is manipulative. He is a user. He has taken much from me and the industry.”
–Gary Kildall
Novell News Summary – Part II: SCO, McAfee, and PlateSpin Migration
Zion National Park
Summary: Bits and pieces from the past week’s news
THIS has been another boring week. For those with limited time, well.. it’s a post that can be spared. As the saying roughly goes, “move along, there is nothing much to see here.”
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