Bonum Certa Men Certa

Windows Phone 7 Falls on Its Face and Microsoft Still Wants Patent Royalties on Linux Phones

Zune Mayday
Via OpenBytes



Summary: Microsoft disappoints many people with its announcement of a product that shows little progress; Microsoft's plan B still relies on the Novell-inspired patent deals

"Microsoft made a phone, and I hate it already," says this headline from The Register. It's just an exercise in rebranding with "7" because Windows Mobile in inherently poor.



Microsoft's next mobile platform will probably make for nice mobile phones, but for those of us hankering after a mobile computer it's just going to be annoying.


The former editor of Microsoft Watch, Joe Wilcox, is not impressed by Windows Phone 7, either.

“So what does Microsoft do to gain some more attention? On the face of it, fake hype.”Android and Linux (MeeGo and LiMo for example) are actually quite dominant in the news from the big event called Mobile World Congress and Apple is pretty much absent, except in its closed, echo chamber events. So what does Microsoft do to gain some more attention? On the face of it, fake hype.

Earlier this month we showed what appeared like fake "leaks" whose purpose was to create Windows Phone 7 hype. In order to increase audience size, Microsoft is possibly producing some more fake "leaks" and right now it claims that its site is down due to "unexpected" demand. It's hard to believe that Microsoft lacks server capacity.

"Due to the unexpected number of click-thru's to the Windows phone 7 Series website it's decided to crash, will have it back up asap," he said on his Twitter account about two hours ago.


Sounds like a potential fake. Our reader Omar Hafez says: "If Apple want to prove how really dumb they are, they would let MS's new blatant cloning of the iPhone slip without the lawsuit." Another reader writes about "what Gates really thought of the iPod". He links to some Comes vs Microsoft exhibits, namely PX07255 and PX07219. This couple of exhibits are of interest in this context. These relate to recent comments on the iPhone -- ones that came from Gates. If one reads the Comes documents, s/he can contrast that with his current utterances. A case of "temporal cognitive dyslexia" as our reader calls it? In Exhibit PX07255, one finds E-mails from 2003 where Jim Allchin and others bemoan Apple's success and say: "There is no question we are being clocked by Apple in a number of dimensions." In PX07219, Gates said about the iPod: "Warren Buffett just loves the thing."

Gates is now saying: "So, it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough."

The translation of which can go like this (from our reader): "It's not that Microsoft failed with their own clone of the iPhone, it's that they didn't aim high enough. Could've beat Apple if we tried... sour grapes anyone?"

The phone from Microsoft resembles Sidekick (an acquisition of Danger, former home of Android's brainchild), which we wrote about in:



Going back to Windows Phone 7, Glyn Moody jokes about Microsoft "building on the success of the *Zune*: only MS could do that". The Zune was an utter disaster and Microsoft has just appointed new managers (the previous ones quit in droves) who are mostly unknown and inexperienced.

Version 7 of Windows Mobile may be as as insignificant as Windows Mobile 6.5. This is good news for the many Linux phones, which Microsoft is still trying to tax with software patents, as it already does in LG and Samsung. We will write about this on Saturday. In the mean time, here is an old reminder of how Microsoft uses the Novell deal to achieve this.

Qualified as “symbolic” by several editors of daily newspapers, the agreement signed by Microsoft and Novell on November 2, 2006 is indeed just such. But it doesn't not make a good news for Free Software. Through buzzwords as “interoperability” or “open standards”, Microsoft managed to divert the journalists' attention from the essence of the agreement: Microsoft only embraces Novell to try to suffocate better Free Software in general.

The first issue with this agreement is that Novell agrees to pay a tithe for the distribution of copies of popular free software containing code which supposedly falls under the purview of Microsoft patents. The Linux kernel and various pieces of software used on computer servers are concerned. In return, Novell obtains the guarantee that Microsoft will not pursue it, nor its customers. Developers contributing to OpenSuse, the community version of Novell's commercial offer (Suse), as well as the voluntary free software developers, would also be authorized to contribute to the free programs listed in the agreement.


Jeremy Allison, a former Novell employee who left the company in protest against this deal, recently told the crowd in LCA 2010 that Microsoft would try to use those software patents to collect revenue from Linux phones [1, 2]. Microsoft cannot compete in phones, but it still strives to take away money from those who succeed.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

An Illusion and Cult Worship of Magnitude (Ubiquity as "Victory")
GNU has been around for over 40 years and it'll likely continue to exist for another 40 (in some form)
Wall Street Does Not Care About Microsoft's Impending (August) Layoffs, It Believes Lies From Microsoft, Whose Debt Grows Rapidly
If Microsoft is doing so well and swimming in money, why so many cuts (about 29,000 layoffs so far this year)?
Riot for peace & Love: Catholic Influencers and Digital Missionaries welcome Jubilee of Youth
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
A Lot of Supposedly "Successful" Businesses Are Just Debt-Racking Vessels Without Any Prospects of Financial Sustainability
The probability of bankruptcy of any business is more than 0%
theregister.com: The Voice of Microsoft US?
It basically sold out
Yes, You Can Love and Adore Things Whilst Also Criticising Them
Is society being divided and groomed/primed to be resistant to constructive criticism?
Links 31/07/2025: War in Ukraine, Security News, and Cyberattacks Against Journalists on the Rise
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/07/2025: Fake Money and Gemini Diaries
Links for the day
Google: From Pointing to Relevant Sites to Pointing to Social Control Media to Actually Parroting Social Control Media as "Facts"
Google has become a misinformation company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 30, 2025
How to Report Apple Layoffs Without Saying the "L" Word
don't look for the "L" word
Wayland Considered Harmful (to GNU/Linux Adoption)
it's not limited to games
My Experience With Judges Has been Positive, But We Must Still Pursue SLAPP Reform in the United Kingdom
We believe it'll be a "feather in the cap" if we can help change laws in the UK to better protect investigative reporters
Slopwatch Makes the Web Better
Remember what happened to BetaNews?
Slopwatch: Google News is Pumping in Lots of Web Traffic Into Fake Sites That Say "Linux"
somewhere between 30% and 40% of today's "news" about "Linux", as seen by Google News, is LLM slop
Links 30/07/2025: Climate Calamities Highlighted, Kyrgyzstan Crackdown on Expression/Freedoms
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Watson’s List of Limits, Lysenko 2000
Links for the day
Some People See What Others See... But Only 40 Years Later
When people deviate from "the norm" they typically get ridiculed and dismissed as "crazy"
Links 30/07/2025: Tea Class Action and Google Killing the Web With Slop
Links for the day
Last Month Our IRC Community Turned 17
Funnily enough we never missed a single day when it comes to logging
"The Unix Kernel"
Linux was inspired by MINIX
The Register Relays Microsoft Marketing, Dubs That Marketing "Research"
Hours ago they did a "Microsoft sez" piece
Dealing With Sociopaths, Liars, and Cranks
A dysfunctional society such as this would never develop
Not Owning Mobile Phones
It's not about resistance; it's common sense
Google 'Search' is Fast Becoming No Better Than Social Control Media Infested With Bots
Google emerged almost 30 years ago as a company looking to organise the Web and direct people towards informative pages. That Google is dead.
PCLinuxOS Had Functional Backups Before the House Fire, the Site Will be Restored in New Webhost
This is the direction we want for GNU/Linux, not some IBM sales strategy
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Two Sides of Me and "Hooked on Cosmic Voyage"
Links for the day
Microsoft Will Continue Resorting to Crimes in Order to Keep GNU/Linux Usage Down
It is a real problem and we'll revisit it later this week
GAFAM 'Revolving Doors' at The Register and a "Bribe Price List"
"an analyst at Microsoft"
Microsoft Rapidly Shrinking (No, It's Not About Efficiency, It's About Unbearable Debt)
We'll soon see how much debt grew in the past quarter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Corruption is the Standard Operating Procedure at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The EPO is a dictatorship that stains Europe
Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) at the European Patent Office (EPO) Requests an Urgent Meeting to Avoid Abolishing the Office
This is dictatorship led by the most corrupt
Slopwatch: Fake 'Linux' 'Articles' and Spamfarms/Slopfarms
at least 5 fake articles in one day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Wayland Unfit for Use and LLM Slop Faking One's Language Skills With Robot Communications
Links for the day
Before the OSI Was Bribed and Hijacked by Microsoft via GitHub and Compromised Management...
The OSI isn't even remotely "woke"
Nailing the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype Bubble
So-called "hey hi" as they define it now is all about large companies or regimes remotely controlling the processes running on your machine and even your very own behaviour on your machine, which is in effect no longer your machine but some remotely controlled apparatus
The OSI Has Been Silent for Over 3 Weeks, It Has a Severe Trust Issue After Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary GitHub
OSI took a lot of money from Microsoft to become a Microsoft lobbyist
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users" Now as a T-shirt
That's shown along the sidebar
Bribery is OK If You Work for Microsoft (No Punishment Expected)
It's very troubling and a symptom of a broken society/system when particular laws or rules are applied and enforced against some people but not against others
Links 29/07/2025: Bad Climate and "Fair Software Licensing" Blasts Microsoft
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2025: Data Brokers Gone Wrong/Rogue and "Copyright Thicket"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linuxconfig.org, Linuxsecurity.com, Fagioli, The Register
Today's "Slopwatch" isn't the first article about LLM slop
Someone Should Remind Microsoft Lunduke That Microsoft Hires Many Sexual Criminals and Pedophiles as Well
Microsoft Lunduke on an "expedition" to find one or more perverts, then generalise to everyone in the "community"
Cash Machines (ATMs) Make Mistakes and They're Proprietary Software
Correcting mistakes is a colossal challenge
We Cover Topics Other Sites Are Too Afraid to Cover (Even When They Know the Facts)
It's not that they doubt the truth, they just realise there may be consequences for talking about it
They Try to Tell Us the Free Software Foundation Inc is Dying, But Its Revenue Doubled Since the Dot-Com Bubble Burst
Being in "Activism" is never easy; but it does positive things for society
Yes, Microsoft is the Problem
"I am no MS shill."
It's About the Cost of Workers, Not the Fictional Skills Shortage (That Does Not Exist, the Media Spreads False and Sometimes Self-Fulfilling Narratives)
This issue isn't limited to computing, some dub it "globalism"
Another Failed Use Case for Chatbots (LLM): Legal Advice and Analysis
They're just some self-discrediting toy that costs way too much to operate
Links 29/07/2025: More Pushbacks Against Slop and More Praises of Tom Lehrer
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Purple Yarrow and Understanding Op Amps
Links for the day
This Monday WebProNews Absolutely Flooded the Web With Fake (LLM Slop) 'Articles' About "Linux", Google News Promoted Them as Legitimate
All of the following are fake articles attributed to pseudonyms or authors that don't exist; the images are also slop. Why does Google promote these?
Linuxiac is Not a Slopfarm, But at Least Some of Its Articles Are Machine-Generated Fakes
what we said about it was correct
Expect More Microsoft Layoffs
"Are more job cuts coming?"
Microsoft Behaving Like It's Running Out of Money to Pay Salaries
Does that seem like the behaviour expected from a company which claims it is "worth" trillions?
LWN Downtime Due to Linode, Not LLM Bots
"I’ve received an email letting me know that there is a potential for data loss."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 28, 2025