Summary: OpenSUSE news mostly centered on KDE4 as default desktop environment
THE MAIN development this week was to do with KDE, but before we delve into that, worth stressing is the fact that OpenSUSE is shortening support windows.
“I’d put the Linux phenomenon really as threat No. 1.”
–Steve Ballmer, 2001
Summary: Signs of gains and prospects for mobile Linux, but whose Linux?
GNU/Linux leads to the cheapening of Windows Mobile, just like in sub-notebooks. In simple terms, GNU/Linux is a competition so strong to Windows that Microsoft is left without choice but to reduce its prices. The following report, which is based on another from The Digital Times® (subscription required), states in its headline that “Microsoft Will Make Windows Mobile Cheaper To Compete With Open Source.”
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) will adopt a two-pronged approach to the mobile operating system market that will be able to compete against both the iPhone and Android, according to a report in DigiTimes that claims to know Microsoft’s Windows Mobile roadmap.
This may have a negative effect on profitability in the already-struggling unit of operation which is Windows Mobile. Some wonder why Microsoft has seemingly given up on this market. From Matt Asay for instance:
Microsoft’s curious lack of ambition in mobile
[...]
Microsoft is fond of talking about just how much it spends on research and development. But it’s time to stop talking and start shipping. I’ve heard rumors of an exceptional mobile product on the way from Microsoft, but that’s all I ever hear: something “in the cooker” that will “rock the world soon!”
As Morrissey used to croon for The Smiths, “How soon is now?”
Another new report is suggesting that Samsung builds its own Linux-based operating system for mobile devices.
So far Samsung has been pretty platform agnostic, merrily churning out phones for any open mobile OS available, with unifying TouchWiz interface on top. But now it seems that Samsung has started working on their own Linux based mobile OS. According to Mobile Review:
(Samsung is) now working on a vertical Linux-based solution of their own, using their proprietary TouchWiz interface to tie up various platforms and prepare themselves for the upcoming Linux-powered devices… Samsung might be a little late (with their mobile Linux OS effort), but through various marketing tricks is covering it up. For now Samsung is spreading it’s widgets to phones and netbooks, but it is too early to call it fully vertically integrated solution.
The big problem here is that Samsung pays "Linux tax" to Microsoft.
According to MoblinZone, the SUSE-based Moblin may gain in the future and the problem there too is that “Linux tax” remains a possibility.
Linux x86 vitality bodes well for Moblin project
We could not determine if the above site is an Intel marketing blog because it was registered at “Domains by Proxy, Inc.” (betterwhois reveals nothing more). Microsoft’s front group ACT registers domains in the same way. Regardless of what’s behind Moblin, here is a new review of the beta.
The Intel backed linux OS reaches beta stage so we decided to give it a test drive
Linux seems likely to gain dominance in the mobile arena, but products like Android exclude GNU and add DRM. Moreover, it is concerning to see this potential that Microsoft will leech off of Linux-powered devices using software patents. Involvement by convicted felons like Intel and companies like Samsung and Novell (which joined Microsoft’s patent racket) does not help at all. █
“It puts the Linux phenomenon and the Unix phenomenon at the top of the list.”
–Steve Ballmer, 2001
“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.”
–Bill Gates
Summary: In another money-grabbing move, Microsoft attacks the very same people who helped it
Microsoft continues sending its 'partners' to prison. We saw many examples of this recently [1, 2], even in China where Microsoft depends on counterfeiting more than anywhere else. Well, there is more action in China right now, and it is directed against the people who are spreading Microsoft’s software and making it widespread.
Microsoft scored a big victory in China yesterday, after four people were reportedly sentenced to jail terms for reproducing and distributing illegal copies of the firm’s Windows XP operating system.
Their mistake is that they spread Windows XP rather than Windows Vista as Microsoft would have liked. The headlines even emphasise that XP is the problem and 2 months ago we explained why.
China Jails Four for Microsoft XP Piracy
[...]
One of his accomplices received the same prison term and two received two years each.
Microsoft will no doubt pretend that it is a victim, but the reality is different and a lot more complex. Microsoft understands that counterfeiting may be a matter of its survival because people cannot bear the prices.
“Microsoft’s actions are counter-productive as they will likely lead more people to exploring alternatives.”Microsoft will probably let Vista spread there illegally (there have been reports about Microsoft turning a blind eye to exactly that), not XP. So the scapegoats’ offence is that they are spreading an operating system which is not supposed to be on the market anymore, with a few exceptions. Another offence is that they profited in the process.
Microsoft’s actions are counter-productive as they will likely lead more people to exploring alternatives. Microsoft has only the advantage of being friends with the Chinese government, but as abuse becomes evident, anti-monopoly probe is initiated, and the local workforce shrinks, more people will move to GNU/Linux, which is better anyway.
There is no telling if the following testimony is true, but “Former Insider” writes in Linux Today that:
Microsoft fired me…
…the day before my wife’s immigration interview.
Could it have been coincidence? How was my supervisor supposed to know? Maybe because I emailed asking for that day off, explaining why, and s/he replied in the affirmative.
Mr. Immigration Man was not pleased when I showed up as her sponsor with no job. Fortunately I got a better job at another company a month later (this was between recessions).
You don’t need to be a whistle-blower to get fired from Microsoft. You just need to be on the wrong side of office politics.
I will never work with or that company again, even if I have to move to another city. (…And for the record, I was a Mac owner two months later, and went on to install Ubuntu on said Macintosh.)
This is another example where being vindictive works against Microsoft. By choosing crude behaviour Microsoft is only alienating and thus driving people to GNU/Linux. █
“No less than Bill Gates himself said in a recent Fortune article that Microsoft competes better against Linux in China when there’s piracy than when there isn’t.
“So, Microsoft actively looks the other way as people pirate its software. It builds its market share that way, and lets people get used to the idea of having Windows at a certain price.”
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Summary: FUD from Nicholas Negroponte is being challenged
IN our many writings about OLPC, we’ve covered a lot of ground and explained why companies like Microsoft and Intel sabotaged this good project. The FSF may deliver a formal message on the subject later this month.
But what pretty much escaped everyone’s attention is the following post from Ivan Krstić, who is refuting Nicholas Negroponte. Bender went through the rebuttal to verify or maybe even endorse. The technical peril, claims Krstić, was the hardware, not the software.
Nicholas, evidently, still remains blissfully unaware of any of this. As is plain to see from his own words, what he considers to be the biggest mistake of the project has nothing to do with Sugar the GUI, and everything to do with the gross, hairy, complicated systems development work that OLPC was doing to support the XO’s special hardware features.
So there. He said it. He was among the key technical people inside the project.
We have just created a new page that presents the OLPC story in a more logical, chronological fashion. █
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Summary: Timely new picks of patent news
• Microsoft trying to patent studying evolution
Microsoft filed a patent two years ago for widely used methods for determining evolutionary relatedness, causing disbelief and apprehension among researchers.
• If Your Computer Detects You Laughing At This Patent Drawing, You May Have Infringed On The Patent
ChurchHatesTucker alerts us to the news that Sony has applied for a patent on an emotion detection device that could, for example, recognize when someone viewing a television or playing a video game is laughing.
• There Is No Harmony In A Patent Thicket
As China and India are exhorted to increase intellectual property protection and enforcement to higher standards – “harmonization” in the rhetoric of its proponents – they risk emulating the detrimental IP systems of the developed world. The United States, widely viewed as the most innovative nation in the world, has a patent system that has, according to Jaffe, “become sand rather than lubricant in the wheels of American progress” (Jaffe 2004). Even more worrying, the trend in international intellectual property is actually speeding past the American level of protection, raising concerns that the incredibly strong IP in countries will diminish, rather than promote, innovative capabilities.
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To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.
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Summary: New ODF Alliance member, more vendor support, and another, more positive way to view the i4i ruling
EARLIER in the week we wrote about a Fraunhofer study which seemed rather biased. As Glyn Moody put it, there “seems there’s some kind of Microsoft involvement.”
This study addressed and even defended the existence of multiple standards that achieve more or less the same things; one is based on the proprietary format (and platform) of a company that bribed people and corrupted an international standards body in order to call it a “standard”, whereas the other is created and backed by many organisations, universities, and governments. Needless to say, the former is Microsoft’s OOXML and the latter is ODF.
There is news right now about the ODF Alliance growing even larger thanks to the addition of Spotlight Cameroun. In its formal announcement, Spotlight Cameroun states:
OpenDocument Format (ODF) is the only open standard for office applications, and it is completely vendor neutral.
Malaysia and Brazil are among the prominent supporters of ODF (at a national level) and over in Brazil we now find more evidence of this. In addition, IDG News Service reveals that TextEdit has ODF support, which is wonderful news. It has been the case for quite some time, but we’ve just learned that TextEdit will soon support saving as ODF, which is important progress.
The most recent version of TextEdit, included with OS X Leopard, can open and edit files in rich text format (.rtf), Microsoft’s old and new Word formats (.doc and .docx), and the OpenDocument format (.odt) used by OpenOffice.
TextEdit is quite widely used, so it’s another notable win for ODF.
In previous posts about i4i [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11] we mentioned the fact that ODF FUD had arrived from the Burton and Gartner groups, both of which work with Microsoft. Sadly enough, even after Burton and Gartner were proven wrong, a few people are adding harmful noise via Twitter by linking to Asay’s misinformed post and adding remarks like this: “Of course i4i says ODF doesn’t infringe, they have no money..”
No, it’s because it’s technically not infringing. Such remarks are worth correcting as they only encourage uncertainty and doubt. The real patent danger to ODF is Microsoft, not i4i. See for example:
Regarding the i4i case itself, here is another smoking gun:
Microsoft embarrassed by new XML patent email
[...]
“We saw [i4i's products] some time ago, and met its creators,” said Sawicki in the Jan. 23, 2003, e-mail. “Word 11 will make it obsolete. It looks great for XP though.” Word 11 was the in-development code name for what was eventually dubbed Word 2003.
The infringing part is custom XML, as the following article quotes:
Specifically, Microsoft must refrain from “selling, offering to sell, and/or importing in or into the United States any Infringing and Future Word Products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX or .DOCM file (containing custom XML),” the injunction states.
Contrary to Microsoft’s sensationalist defense, the world will be fine without Word. From FCW:
Imagine a world without Word
[...]
Microsoft Word, though popular, is not the exclusive word-processing software of the federal government. For example, the Joint Forces Command is using OpenOffice for a small experimental project, said Kathleen Jabs, a spokeswoman at the command.
The i4i case is another massive opportunity for ODF (and ODF-compliant software) to gain dominance. It is good news to open standards, not just to Free software, to which ODF is a prerequisite but not the other way around. █
“Microsoft sees what’s coming. Things like Word and Excel sort of like a drug now getting ready to go generic.”
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Summary: Apart from IE8 support, Microsoft’s joint campaign against Google receives backing from its new vassal, Yahoo!
SHORTLY after Yahoo had become a "zombie" of Microsoft, the impact on Free software at the company became apparent. Yes, very shortly after Yahoo’s deal with Microsoft, Hadoop’s principal person decided to quit, which works well for Microsoft because Hadoop builds so-called ‘clouds’ that compete against Microsoft on the Web. Moreover, in contrast to Yahoo!’s recommendation of Firefox 3.0 last year (under Jerry Yang’s leadership), Yahoo! now promotes IE8.
Well done, Bartz. Really, well done. Microsoft loves you.
In addition to all this, we now learn that Yahoo is joining an anti-Google coalition, which involves no-one other than Microsoft. Well, Microsoft was Yahoo’s enemy one year ago when Yahoo was becoming friends with Google, remember? Microsoft used its might inside the government to break apart those two willing partners. And now — one year later — Yahoo! is headed by a former Microsoft ally (Autodesk CEO) and a poisoned board of directors. This changes the story completely. Engadget puts it like this:
Microsoft, its new pet dog Yahoo, and Amazon have decided to join together in the soon to be formed Open Book Alliance.
Microsoft didn’t have to buy Yahoo!, yet in many ways Yahoo! seems like an asset of Microsoft now, just like Citrix, Corel, or Novell.
“To stress how hypocritical Microsoft has been, it too scanned many books before it called the whole thing off.”It ought to be emphasised that Microsoft supported more aggressive actions, including lawsuits, against Google’s book scanning. To stress how hypocritical Microsoft has been, it too scanned many books before it called the whole thing off. It was losing the game to its competition, Google. At the same time, Microsoft used underhanded legal and political tactics to derail Google’s endeavours, so this is merely the latest such attempt. This is not the first time that Microsoft (co-)creates or supports a coalition against Google in books, either directly or by proxy, as proven many times before (it’s not a theory, it is substantiated).
It should also be added that quite a few Amazon managers came from Microsoft. Amazon’s infatuation with DRM is no news, either [1, 2].
Maggie Shiels, who routinely spreads pro-Microsoft material, is also promoting Microsoft’s cause, but to be fair, it was covered by very many people, so this may not mean much other than media contacts like Microsoft PR or even those whom Microsoft employed to seed anti-Google AstroTurf campaigns. █
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