07.29.09
Posted in Dell, Finance, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 3:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“I’ve killed at least two Mac conferences. [...] by injecting Microsoft content into the conference, the conference got shut down. The guy who ran it said, why am I doing this?”
–Microsoft's chief evangelist
Summary: A “Highly Confidential” message from Steve Ballmer to Richard Fade (about Dell)
TODAY’s Comes vs Microsoft exhibit is Exhibit PX07450 [PDF]. It is mostly about Windows 2000 and it was sent by Steve Ballmer. The full text can be found below, but to highlight some bits of interest, watch the part about LinuxWorld (IDG). Last year we showed that Microsoft was sponsoring a Wall Street-Linux event, probably to accomplish its own goals. In the following message we find:
It’s untenable for our “Premier Partner” on Windows 2000 to be doing aggressive market development for another OS (If Kevin protests they are not being aggressive we should remind him who sponsored Linux World this year etc.)
Lo and behold how Microsoft uses these IDG sponsorships as a manipulative tool. LinuxWorld, which is now gone for good, had a Windows-powered Web site, which was used against GNU/Linux. Linus Torvalds has declined invitations to attend LinuxWorld for several consecutive years
Speaking of Windows-powered Web sites:
Main idea behind this is to take the structure of Dell.com running total MS solution and evangelize this to the general market. “Microsoft and Dell uniquely qualified to deliver eCommerce for your business”
Dell.com is still running on a Microsoft stack. Microsoft tried this with Intel, too. █
Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft – exhibit PX07450, as text
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Posted in IRC Logs at 2:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Enter the IRC channel now
To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Virtualisation, VMware, Windows at 2:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: New VMware management makes irrational decisions, has Microsoft qualifications
“VMware turned into my enemy,” tells us a former employee of the company. According to him, it all happened “after a clueless manager was allowed to get [him] fired.” According to our source, this manager only had one qualification, an MSCE.
This may be interesting because of EMC’s intervention. It overthrew the old management and installed Microsoft instead.
“According to our source, this manager only had one qualification, an MSCE.”Tucci threw VMware’s management out and 3-4 Microsoft executives are now running the company (here is the latest addition, Mark Lucovsky), whose top technical staff too was ousted or escaped. Microsoft’s hand in this is a possibility.
Regarding that new manager, we learn that “he was a bully manager that everybody was afraid of except me. Unfortunately nobody else would go with me to HR to complain.”
“VMWare brings back the dark ages… Indentured servitude, cronyism, draconian management,” says one review among other pages with equally unnerving testimonials. There is clearly something rotten there.
Some people resort to class action lawsuits. “When the economy improves,” says our source, “there will be an exodus from VMware in my opinion.”
VMware is still a member in the Linux Foundation, but as we have shown before, they do a lot to support Microsoft's ambitions these days. █
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07.28.09
Posted in Apple, Finance, GNU/Linux, Google, Marketing, Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 6:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft has no immediate response to sharply-declining margins, so it hastily points to products that do not exist yet
THE TRUE impact of GNU/Linux [1, 2] on Microsoft's poor results (and subsequent sharp fall, which was expected [1, 2]) is one that even Mac sites have taken note of. From Roughly Drafted:
The Vista Myth: Why Windows 7 Won’t Turn Microsoft Around
After posting a spectacular 17% revenue drop, the company’s first ever year over year decline, Microsoft and its satellite pundits have assembled a seemingly plausible distraction/solution going forward: Windows 7 will boost sales of generic PCs back into orbit and erase the crater caused by Vista and the recession. They’re wrong, here’s why.
[...]
Microsoft is facing multiple competitors in the low end arena as well. One is the threat posed by free distributions of Linux and Android, which can potentially stand in place of Windows on low end hardware, resulting in major savings to manufacturers. So far, Microsoft has been able to scuttle adoption of Linux on netbooks by dumping Windows XP licenses on manufacturers for free. That’s obviously not a long term strategy, as Microsoft simply can’t run the Linux community out of business, nor can it keep giving away software for a growing segment of the PC business.
[...]
Mr. Ballmer, welcome to 2009. It’s not developers, developers, developers that you need, it’s customers, customers, customers.
It remains a sad fact that Microsoft uses a product which does not exist yet (Vista 7) to justify its fantasy about marvelous comebacks. █
“[W]e’re not going to have products that are much more successful than Vista has been.”
–Steve Ballmer, 2008
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Posted in Antitrust, Apple, Europe, FSF, Microsoft at 6:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Exclusion of competition, courtesy of the largest providers of non-Free operating systems for desktops
A FEW days ago we wrote about the European Commission's progress with Microsoft — a progress that still discriminates against Free software. Bloomberg has updated coverage of all that and the FSFE has just written a semi-formal response of its own. It rightly calls for global action because not only European citizens were injured by Microsoft’s abusive and illegal behaviour.
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) congratulates the European Commission on its firm stance in the antitrust investigation against Microsoft, which has led the company to offer a settlement. For any such settlement, getting the details right will be crucial for competition and innovation in the web browser market.
“To ensure genuine consumer choice, the ballot screen must be made available to Microsoft Windows users around the world, not just in Europe”, says Karsten Gerloff, President of FSFE. “The company is upholding its dominance thanks to the network effects created by its illegal practice of bundling Internet Explorer with Windows operating systems in all markets where it sells its software. In a globally interconnected market, remedies must be global.”
Be aware that Web sites which spin this as a scapegoat scenario where Apple and GNU/Linux should be similarly treated are conveniently ignoring the fact that the European Commission punishes Microsoft for criminal behaviour and illegally-obtained monopoly; it is not solely about leveling the playing field, which would be trivialisation of the big issue.
“Microsoft allowed us to [remove Internet Explorer from Windows] but we don’t think we should have to ask permission every time we want to make some minor software modification. Windows is an operating system, not a religion.”
–Gateway Computer Chairman Ted Waitt
Another company to keep an eye on would be Apple, whose latest mischiefs we wrote about several days ago. Apple is not a friend of Free software. Add to this list its new attack on VoIP that ts may be carrying out at the behest of AT&T, which would not only violate neutrality regulations but also constuitute collusion.
Now it’s hard to say with certainty who’s to blame for these app rejections, but a good many fingers are pointing to the cellular carriers — and given AT&T’s previous statements about the SlingPlayer app, it’s hard to argue with that. For its part, the company hinted at finding a workaround via web apps, much like they did when Apple gave Latitude a cold shoulder — but doesn’t that feel just a little 2007?
This is also covered here. According to one source, Russian Telcos are generally attacking Skype at the moment, using FUD to conceal competitive reasons. █
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Posted in Deception, FUD, Marketing, Microsoft at 5:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Professional who manipulates the news becomes a Microsoft Vice President
AS we have shown before, Waggener Edstrom is Microsoft's external PR department. Microsoft is moving unethical behaviour outside the company because if anything goes badly, then Microsoft can blame some “naughty company” and pretend that Microsoft is innocent.
Steve Ballmer’s wife, for instance, came from Waggener Edstrom and we feel obliged to pass on this report about Waggener Edstrom’s Microsoft head moving right into Microsoft where he shall replace Mr. "talking points" Cohen.
Microsoft’s newest Corporate Vice President, who picks up his blue employee badge at the end of August, will be someone very familiar with the inner workings of the company.
Frank Shaw, who currently heads the Microsoft account at PR agency Waggener Edstrom, will become the company’s new Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications.
For those who do not remember, Waggener Edstrom is oriented around brainwash, bribery of bloggers, and stalking/harassment of journalists [1, 2]. Maureen O’Gara, whom we mentioned in the previous post, is also connected to them [1, 2]. █
“I’m a huge fan of guerrilla marketing.”
–Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Watch
Update (29/07/09): It turns out that Simon Sproule left after just 5 months in this role.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents, SCO at 5:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Sys-Con responds to critic whom it exploited with “Jihad”
AD HOMINEM attacks are a convenient method for shooting down not only those who disagree but also those who expose.
In all sorts of ways, Sys-Con has been promoting Microsoft and SCO agenda for quite some time. One person in particular, Maureen O’Gara (MOG), stood out as suspect because of the sheer SCO bias and the relationship with Microsoft [1, 2]. This is not a personal attack because it refers only to professional details, such as those that may (and obviously will) lead to bias.
“In all sorts of ways, Sys-Con has been promoting Microsoft and SCO agenda for quite some time.”Sys-Con went way too far when Maureen O’Gara, whose relationship with the publication goes beyond just employment, stalked Pamela Jones (even her family), and then published personal smears that had nothing to do with the subject at hand. One of the regular trolls who harass this Web site has been doing the same things to other people, but that’s another story.
Sys-Con has just fallen quite deep into the mud, again. When exposed, it started to personally prosecute and harass the messenger, who finally speaks out. It is primarily about Ulitzer, which is really just an offshoot of Sys-Con.
Carla at Linux Today adds: “Linux Today readers might recall that Fuat Kircaali, CEO of Ulitzer, is also the CEO of Sys-Con Media, notorious for publishing the infamous Maureen O’Gara’s “expose” of Pamela Jones of Groklaw.”
Anyway, about Ulitzer/Sys-Con:
It all started at the end of March, 2009, when I discovered that I was listed as an author on a site called Ulitzer (http://ulitzer.com)*. They had used my name as a subdomain on their site (aralbalkan.ulitzer.com; this has since been removed) and the site presented a photo of me, stating that I had been an author with them for several years. They had also scraped my blog posts and were reproducing them on the site under a different license to the one that I had published them under.
Beyond simply using my content without permission, they had misappropriated my identity by stating that I was one of their authors. And I wasn’t the only one. To this day, David Heinemeier Hansson (http://davidheinemeierhansson.ulitzer.com/) is a Ulitzer author (he’s apparently been writing for them since November 24, 2005), as is – quite ironically, I may add – Matt Cutts (http://mattcutts.ulitzer.com/), head of Google’s webspam team, who has apparently been a “Ulitzer author since September 3, 2008″.
Other prominent Ulitzer authors include Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly, http://timoreilly.ulitzer.com/), Jeremy Allaire (@jerBrightcove, http://jeremyallaire.ulitzer.com/), Dion Almaer (@dalmaer, http://dionalmaer.ulitzer.com/), and Michael Arrington (http://michaelarrington.ulitzer.com), among many, many, others. Needless to say, I can only assume that many of these authors don’t have a clue that their identities are being misappropriated and that their content is being used without permission.
[...]
Following that first article, they published another article, titled “Turkish Web Designer Declares Death on Twitter” in which they stated that I was “said to be organizing an underground group to kill or bodily harm the company representatives according to his Twitter logs” and continued to compare me to the Turkish assassin who “shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981″. The details of that article are documented here.
[...]
I am not the first person Sys-Con have attacked like this – they also very publicly attacked Jame Ervin, calling her (among other things) a “bitch” as documented here – but I would like to make sure that I am the last. This is an opportunity for us to say “no” to Sys-Con once and for all and to make them understand that we will not put up with online bullying.
I do not have, nor have I ever had a “cihad”, jihad, or any other “*had” with Sys-Con but what I have had is enough of their bullying.
So what can we do? Well, several things.
Boycott Sys-Con
[...]
Ad revenue: or, how Sys-Con spams Google with duplicate content
In order to get ad revenue, Sys-Con and Ulitzer scrape the RSS feeds of authors (sometimes without their permission or knowledge) and then display this content alongside a deluge of advertising from their sponsors.
For years we have openly complained that Sys-Con was spamming Google News with name/word-loaded pages that contain almost no story or just a press release with tons of arbitrary words/brands appended.
Moreover, after years of pretending that Maureen O’Gara was kicked out for what she had done, this lady was permanently brought back, unmasked, and then shown with a full name rather than an old alias (with some very old photo of hers). She is still boosting the SCO agenda and Microsoft’s patent racket against Linux. We watch it closely but rarely remark on it as that would draw attention to known troublemakers. █
“Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!”
–Friedrich Nietzsche
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Posted in News Roundup at 4:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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The phrase “Iron Linux” had become a motto for Promwad Innovation Company when preparing reports for V International LVEE conference. Company’s employees presented a range of presentations, the main goal of which was to show to the audience uncommon examples of application of Linux on different hardware platforms, or, in other words, show “Linux life forms in hardware and how to locate it there”.
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UNIX
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Whenever an operating system — however obscure — comes up with a killer feature, it’s worth sitting up and taking notice. And there’s no doubt that OpenSolaris’ Time Slider feature is heavily armed and dangerous.
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AT&T-owned Bell Laboratories withdraws from development of Multics, a pioneering but overly complicated time-sharing system. Some important principles in Multics were to be carried over into Unix.
Ken Thompson at Bell Labs writes the first version of an as-yet-unnamed operating system in assembly language for a DEC PDP-7 minicomputer.
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Applications
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Recently I profiled the latest LiVES video editing system, and in that article I mentioned that I intended to buy a camcorder for use with LiVES and other video editing software. Since then I purchased a Samsung SC-D382 midiDV recorder. Studio Dave is now on its way to becoming Studio DV.
[...]
And just for the sake of completeness I must mention that VLC can read from V4L (Video for Linux) and V4L2 devices, i.e. your webcam. Too cool.
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Desktop Environments
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These are not the only desktops available for GNU/Linux. Many regard LXDE, another lightweight desktop, as an up and coming choice, although it lacks some of the polish of Xfce. Others prefer one of the time-honored window managers, or simple graphical environments, such as IceWM or FVWM, or the tiled window managers like ratpoison. Without straining, you should be able to find several dozen alternatives, most of them catering to a specific need or design philosophy.
But, mostly, GNOME, KDE, and Xfce are the deskops that people are likely to see most often. Each is a useful place to start, and, if it doesn’t suit you, one of the others can be installed in minutes. Graphical environments can be confusing in GNU/Linux, but one thing is sure — you’ll never lack alternatives.
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I am a big fan of light desktop environments. Well, most people looking for a lighter alternative normally settle for a lightweight window manager, such as Fluxbox or AwesomeWM.
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Thasunke Witko is the Oglala Lakota name for the native American more commonly known as ‘Crazy Horse’, one of the main leaders of the tribes who fought the white man at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
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Overall, Mint 7 offers most of the software that an average user needs. Though I have issues with the OS, it still can be used as a “light” desktop.
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Matthew Szulik, Red Hat’s former CEO and current chairman, has been in semi-retirement for the past two years, but you’d never know it from listening to his interview with the BBC’s Peter Day. Szulik, ever the revolutionary, talks up open source’s opportunity to disrupt conventional software and promote social reform.
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Ubuntu
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As I scour the market for a potential Ubuntu netbook purchase, I’ve stumbled onto two interesting tidbits of info: First, Ubuntu netbook demand recently exceeded supply at System76. Second, another niche Ubuntu PC maker will introduce a netbook this August.
Sorry I don’t have specific “sales figures” for you. But I do have anecdotal pieces of info…
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CrunchBang is a fine distro. It is very fast, and thanks to OpenBox, full of configuration options for the power user. The initial drab desktop can be configured to a very graphical environment, or left as-is.
A casual Linux user might be better served to start with a more standard distro like Ubuntu or OpenSuse, with all the graphical eye-candy. CrunchBang ain’t pretty out of the box, but it surely gets the job done quickly!
If you have an older machine, or are looking for a fast distro with many customization options for you to design the desktop of your dreams, then you will definitely want to try CrunchBang Linux.
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GE Fanuc has announced a Linux-compatible SBC (single-board computer) using the military-friendly VPX format. The VPXcel3 SBC341, “available in five ruggedization levels,” includes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, DDR3 memory, and 1GB of flash storage, according to the company.
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Atmel announced a new member of its Linux-compatible ARM9-based SAM9G family of industrial-focused embedded processors. Touted for supporting DDR2 memory and 100Mbps+ data rates, the “AT91SAM9G45″ clocks to 400MHz, supports LCD touchscreens and 3.3 V power, and offers a 480Mbps USB interface, says the company.
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VDC Research issued a report estimating that Wind River has pushed past MontaVista Software, taking the top spot among commercial embedded Linux providers. In a separate study on the overall embedded market, meanwhile, VDC said that real-time solutions outperformed the general embedded market last year, with nine percent growth over 2007.
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Timesys Corporation (http://www.timesys.com), provider of LinuxLink, the first commercial software development framework for building custom embedded Linux based products, today announced LinuxLink availability for the new OMAP-L137 processor from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). This represents the first LinuxLink release for the low-power OMAP-L1x applications processors and will be followed by support for the OMAP-L138 processor.
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With our international program still developing, technological kinks being worked out, and our local teacher and University students still exploring and researching ways for the XO’s to be integrated into the California 3rd grade curriculum, we have not yet done extensive documentation and created a resource model. We have been conducting sit-in observations of the class, and working with the teacher to understand his needs, concerns, and ideas for the future.
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Today we are going to create some realistic graffiti in the Gimp. This tutorial is partially inspired off of Photoshop tutorial by DreamDealer v5.0 at DreamDealer.nl Let’s get started!
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The open source project that aimed to get iPods and iPhones working with Linux and other software should be re-posted next month.
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As a college student, open source philosophy has a lot to offer you. You can not only take advantage of the great resources open source has, but also become a part of a movement that shares more freedom of ideas. In these lectures, you’ll learn more about the open source philosophy and what it can be used for.
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The current stable release of Plex is version 0.8.1 released under the GNU General Public License (GPL2), apart from the Plex Media Server which is currently closed source and connects to the GPL licensed client over the network.
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This “Community Edition” is a free version under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.
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Calibre is under GPLv3 license for Linux, Mac OS and Windows download.
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Office Suites
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OpenOffice.org 3 is developed using an open-software, “no secrets” approach. Anyone can look at the programs and suggest improvements, or fix bugs. Anyone can report problems or request enhancements, and anyone can see the response from other users or developers. The status of current and future releases is displayed on a public wiki, so you can decide if and when you want to upgrade to take advantage of new features. Anyone used to commercial software and its hyping and marketing speak will find OpenOffice.org 3 refreshingly different. Enjoy the benefits of open-source!
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What’s not to like about Google Apps? It has a ton of features, it’s incredibly easy to collaborate with other people, and it’s free. Well, how about the fact that your data is only as accessible as Google decides to make it? If you’re looking for the usefulness of a Web-based collection of office apps but want complete control over your data, OpenGoo might be just the answer you’re looking for.
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Hours before the second P2P file-sharing trial in the US gets underway, the judge finally rules that defendant Joel Tenenbaum cannot claim “fair use” in the case. The proposed defense would be “so broad it would swallow the copyright protections that Congress has created,” she wrote.
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TASER International has – at least for now – dropped a trademark infringement suit against Linden Lab, which operates Second Life.
Luis Casas Luengo, Director of Extremadura’s Fundecyt foundation 07 (2004)
Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.
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