11.20.09
Fedora 12: Video
Summary: Short new demo of Fedora 12 KDE, as Ogg
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Why Windows Seems Like a Dead End
Summary: Yesterday’s USENET post from Richard Rasker quoted verbatim
Subject: Windows 7′s dirty secrets revealed
From: Richard Rasker <spamtrap@linetec.nl> (Linetec)
Date: Thursday 19 Nov 2009 18:07:34
Groups: comp.os.linux.advocacyAn interesting look under the hood of Windows -- and in particular Vista 7: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/18/windows_7_heart/ It would appear that quite a bit of criticism on the technical implementation of Windows and the knowledge of Microsoft's programmers actually isn't all that far off the mark: - Criticism: Windows is such a convoluted mess that even Microsoft doesn't understand it any more: "the operating system is full of internal dependencies, and as Russinovich admitted: "We don't really understand those dependencies". Engineers have added features to low-level APIs that assume the presence of dynamic link libraries (DLLs) that belong with higher level APIs, and when you try to extract just those low-level components, they break." The upside here is of course that they're actually working on improving things in this respect, even though I think that the *nix way of dealing with libraries is far superior. - Criticism: Windows depends heavily on dirty hacks to offer at least the illusion of speed: "Microsoft has been in the habit of combining unrelated APIs into the same DLL for performance reasons." and "Microsoft also picked out 300 common user actions, such as clicking the Start menu or opening Control Panel, and gave them intensive optimisation to improve perceived performance." - Criticism: Windows encourages sloppy, messy programming: "How about reliability? This was fascinating. Microsoft observed that 15 per cent of all user-mode crashes and 30 per cent of shutdown crashes were caused by heap corruption: applications that try to access freed memory, or memory beyond what is allocated. Its solution was a feature called the Fault Tolerant Heap (FTH). ... "The user gets better reliability at the expense of performance, which suffers by up to 15 per cent or so, while buggy applications work better than you would expect." I really don't think that this is a good idea. If there's one way to make a computer behave less predictable and perhaps make programmers lazy and sloppy, it's to implement fault tolerance for software bugs. Richard Rasker
Hypothesis: Mono Proponents Will Replace GIMP with Paint.NET
Summary: A reader believes that an application which promotes .NET/Mono might be marketed to GNU/Linux-using public some time in the future now that the GIMP is removed from Ubuntu, due to another Mono application
BACK in June we warned that a Canonical employee who had come from Microsoft wanted to remove the GIMP. Reason? Because a simplistic Mono application was seen as a “good enough” replacement. Let’s not forget where GTK came from.
It turns out that our concerns were justifiable because despite opposition, the GIMP is to be removed from Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). What will be used instead? F-Spot, which helps Microsoft [1, 2]. Is Novell’s Banshee next [1, 2, 3, 4]?
Over in Slashdot, people complain about the Mono part of it, but some agree that the GIMP is too much, despite the separation into plugins which simplify everything.
It’s not just GIMP either. In the FOSS world, there are scores of apps that can do some very impressive things, if you understand the technical areas they appeal to.
If Canonical thinks of disk space as an issue, then why not remove Tomboy (or replace it), then remove Mono altogether? It would also be legally safer [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
We have attempted to find out why Fedora 12 made a similar mistake. Our reader Brandon quotes Kevin Kofler (Fedora) as saying: “At the point where some of the Fedora GNOME users complained about no F-Spot on the live images, I actually made a serious proposal to ship Digikam on the GNOME spin. I even offered to help making it use QGtkStyle when running under GNOME and this kind of stuff. They rejected it anyway.”
“I actually made a serious proposal to ship Digikam on the GNOME spin. I even offered to help making it use QGtkStyle when running under GNOME and this kind of stuff. They rejected it anyway.”
–Kevin Kofler (Fedora)“The removal of GIMP is an attack on free software,” argues Brandon, “Guess who invented gtk? GNU Image Manipulation Program. I see this as nothing but forced advertising. You don’t need gimp, try f-spot w/ mono.”
“GIMP isn’t that hard,” says cubezzz. Brandon argues that “it’s about replacing gimp with paint.mono without a public backlash. I’m going to be looking into it.” It was argued by someone that this application was ported by Miguel de Icaza himself.
So what does Miguel do these days? He is hanging out with his colleagues at Microsoft (he’s in the board of Microsoft's CodePlex Foundation now). It’s their annual development event and one of our readers writes to say: “Miguel does not get computers. And Microsoft is now threating families.
“Here it is:
someone with a family and tuition to pay has to tread carefully when taking a technology to the open source route.
“The real core of the article is that it comes during a Microsoft media and astroturfing blitz. Miguel is part of it here. And after all these years he shows that he has absolutely zero understanding of computers: you don’t sell software, you *use* it.
“Miguel does not get computers. And Microsoft is now threating families.”
–Anonymous“That is also the fundamental problem with software patents and the two events, the media blitz and the attack on European legislation, are probably related in more than timing.”
It ought to be added that PDC was used last year in order to bribe influential bloggers with laptops and exclusive access to Vista 7; this way, Microsoft set the tone for future coverage of Vista 7.
Regarding Miguel’s role at PDC, the quote above is not so shocking. Novell is selling some Mono products as proprietary (Novell claims to be a “mixed source” company [1, 2, 3, 4]).
Who needs Steve Ballmer for FUD when people have Novell and Miguel doing all the FUD? It gives the FUD more credibility. And while Silverlight is failing Miguel is helping it, trying to save it and assist its adoption (versus web standards). Have people not realised that there is a conflict of interests here because of his position that he serves for Microsoft? █
via Wikipedia
O’Reilly and Microsoft Abandon Web Standards, ‘Open’ Web Foundation (OWF) Wants Them Redefined
Summary: As HTML5 is approaching, vendors continue in their attempts to gain ownership and exclusivity over content using formats and protocols
MICROSOFT’S control of the media is an important subject because it leads to “perception management” [1, 2], as exemplified in the previous post. Glyn Moody reveals that “the Editor of The Next Web Italy, @Contz, is “Junior PR at Microsoft Italy”; tiny conflict of interest there, perhaps…?“
It’s not just publications as such which are affected by Microsoft marketing people. O’Reilly and Microsoft decided to work together some months ago and now we find that O’Reilly is abandoning web standards and requiring that Web users install proprietary software to read books.
Safaribooks online were availabe in HTML-View for a long time and were accessible with free software.
Now the O’Reilly Safari team has decided to stop this and deliver online books in Adobe flash format only for online reading. As expected gnash does not work.
This means reading and browsing O’Reilly books online is no more possible with free software.
This is not about Microsoft, but it shows that O’Reilly lost its way. From a UNIX/Linux-oriented (and thus standards-friendly) origin it found its way into “Web 2.0″ and other such abstract nonsense.
Speaking of standards, Microsoft starts talking about Internet Explorer 9, which is another departure further away from web standards (DirectX in addition to XAML and ActiveX). Microsoft just cannot permit the World Wide Web to be interoperable.
Glyn Moody shares this new article about HTML5 and also looks with concern at the Open Web Foundation, where “open” is a deceiving term (Orwell must love this!).
The great promise of HTML5 is that it will turn the web into a full-fledged computing platform awash with video, animation and real-time interactions, yet free of the hacks and plug-ins common today.
While the language itself is almost fully baked, HTML5 won’t fully arrive for at least another two years, according to one of the men charged with its design.
In the mean time, Moody shows why the Open Web Foundation is not on the good side.
But independently of these details, there’s another big problem with the Open Web Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation has been pushing the idea of the Open Web for some time now; the appearance of this new foundation, with its agreement, is likely to muddy the waters around the concept of the open Web considerably. But then, that’s maybe what some companies involved in the OWF want…
Heise has some more coverage of the OWF. █
“Another suggestion In this mail was that we can’t make our own unilateral extensions to HTML I was going to say this was wrong and correct this also.”
–Bill Gates [PDF]
Novell Wants to Change Perception
Summary: Microsoft and Novell want you to feel differently (deceived) about them and their products; resources allocated to the task
Microsoft openly engages in what’s known as “perception management” [1, 2]. It’s a PR tactic which is akin to hypnosis and Vista 7 was a good example of it. Now watch this new post from Novell’s Ross Chevalier, suitably titled “Speak Up! What did you do to change the perception of Novell today?”
It’s not just to Product Management to handle, we all have experience, we have expertise, we have perspective so I am asking you again in this context, what can I do today to positively enhance the perception of Novell. Don’t wait for someone else to do this, we all must do it. Hit it hard and hit it often.
It was only weeks ago that Novell/SUSE created the official "OpenSUSE boosters" team, which is funny because we wrote about Novell recruiting "OpenSUSE boosters" a year and a half before the "OpenSUSE boosters" team existed. We even named it correctly.
People must understand that Novell also uses a lot of PR to defend its patent deal with Microsoft. Novell is messing with people’s perception. The same goes for Mono, which is an amateur product of Novell.
It is so ironic that Novell allocates PR budgets that advance Microsoft’s interests because at the same time Novell is suing Microsoft, which wants to dismiss the case. Here are some of the latest details from Groklaw:
There are more filings in the Novell v. Microsoft antitrust case over WordPerfect. Many, many more, mainly exhibits, a total of about 2,540 pages. Some exhibits themselves run to nearly 200 pages, and Novell has 158 exhibits. So, what is happening?
[...]
I see Novell has found quite a lot already. Microsoft, Hassid tells the court in his affidavit, did turn over a database, but it can’t provide it to the court because it “requires special software”. Perfect, no?
My other worry is that at the end of the day, all these materials will be lost, sent to the deep by some confidentiality term in an agreement. It could happen, so that I why I thought I should tell you what is happening and that I need your help to get this done thoroughly. There are some fascinating documents on the list from the Canopy/Caldera days, their litigation against Microsoft, as well as the Comes case.
I so wish all filings in civil trials, subject to confidentiality rules, would be made public for free. It’s so obvious to me that people do want to know, and in a digital age, it’s so easy to let the public have access to this information without having to pay an arm and a leg. It’s $.08 a page, which seems very little, but when you get into thousands of pages for just one article for just one case, well, you can do math. It really adds up fast. And that just doesn’t seem like the American way to me, where we have always believed in the public’s right to access their court system.
Groklaw must be referring to the lost Caldera exhibits [1, 2] and Comes vs Microsoft exhibits, which Microsoft tried to bury using a secret settlement in Iowa. They must have hoped to change perception by hiding crucial evidence from the public. █
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Patents Roundup: Observations About WIPO Numbers, Deteriorating System and Its Effects
Summary: WIPO releases some rather revealing statistics and out-of-touch patent systems are still put in doubt
YESTERDAY we showed that the patent systems are being hijacked by lawyers, but this covers mostly patent trolls and middlemen, whereas it neglects the role that monopolising multinationals typically play. According the the Business Mirror, data from WIPO shows that well over 90% of the patents in the Philippines have nothing to do with the Philippines. It’s like “intellectual imperialism”.
THE country’s patent landscape continues to be dominated by foreign owners, with data both from the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) indicating that over 90 percent of the patents applied for and granted here were from nonresidents.
Wipo’s 2009 World IP Indicators revealed that the Philippines had the third-largest number of patent applications among 20 emerging countries that the group surveyed after the Ukraine and Indonesia.
However, 96.4 percent of the patents granted in the Philippines were issued to nonresident filers.
The report, which was based on the 2006 worldwide statistics, also showed that 92.9 percent of the patents filed in the Philippines were from nonresident filers.
This happens in India as well (companies like Google, Microsoft, Nokia and BT are examples we gave); multinationals are protecting more territories. Is this really the purpose of patents as protectionist measures? More information of this kind can now be obtained from WIPO now.
WIPO has launched an enhanced online patent information service that will improve public access to information on patents filed and granted around the world. WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE®, which currently hosts data on more than 1.6 million international patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), has been extended to include several collections of national and regional patent information.
In the New York Times, one author goes further and suggests constructing a different patent system. It points out:
The quality of American patents has been deteriorating for years; they are increasingly issued for products and processes that are not truly innovative — things like the queuing system for Netflix, which was patented in 2003. Yes, it makes renting movies a snap, but was it really a breakthrough deserving patent protection?
As things stand, “The More Innovative You Are, The More You Get Sued,” argues TechDirt, which points to Business Insider.
Shazam Entertainment, makers of the popular iPhone app that tells you what song is playing in the car, store, bar, restaurant, etc., is getting sued for patent infringement by Digimarc, another software company. The suit covers three patents; two date back to 1995 — long before the iPhone.
TechDirt also wrote about the role of intellectual monopolies in banning Windows XP [1, 2]. Embargo does not equal innovation. █
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