Summary: Legal action is all that Microsoft has left now, just like SCO less than a decade ago (SCO is now bankrupt and today’s bankruptcy hearing is cancelled)
In his latest headline, Locutus has just asked, is “Microsoft turning into a toothless tiger?” The answer is yes, but with a caveat.
What do you think? Is microsoft heading towards the gentle river of retirement? Does this tiger still have teeth in it? Or is it being squeezed in a vice of an apple with a suspected rotten core on one side and a fishy breathed penguin on the other? Lets not forget that the devil is, as always, lurking in the background waiting its turn in the limelight.
A couple of hours ago, Wildeboer (from Red Hat) told us that “the tide is turning on MSFT. From self-perceived innovator to litigator.” (to which I replied with, “SCO went through the same phase”). Microsoft is currently suing and threatening many companies that sell Linux, going as far as racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] (exactly like SCO). This makes Microsoft a tiger, but it’s afraid of opening its mouth and showing no teeth (infringements).
Groklawhas just said that today’s SCO bankruptcy hearing (intended to start shortly) was cancelled.
The bankruptcy hearing set for May 17 is cancelled, and this time they are giving us some advance notice…
SCO is essentially dead. It’s a sordid mess and a sign of things to come for those who follow similar footsteps, including SCO’s paymaster, Microsoft.
UK Court Says Software Company Can Be Liable For Buggy Software
[...]
That said, software liability has been a hot topic in Europe lately, and now Slashdot points us to the news that the UK High Court has ruled that a software company can be liable for buggy software. More specifically, the court found that a clause in the license agreement, which said it would not be liable for defects was found to be an unfair contract term.
Big problem there for Microsoft (see the Slashdot debate). This is not the first time that the fundamentals of Microsoft’s EULA are challenged in the UK, as we noted some days ago (with links). But anyway, Microsoft doesn’t care about the law. Its EULA too is an intimidation tactic which was never thoroughly tested in a British court of law. █
“On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO’s strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO’s financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital.”
Original by Swampyank, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.
Summary: Microsoft is a distant third or worse because UNIX and Linux phones take over the planet, whereas Microsoft’s ISV advantage is wiped off this planet; Microsoft tries to turn Android (its worst nightmare) its a patent night mate
REALITY OUGHT to be separated from fiction when it comes to Windows Mobile (which Microsoft is sevenwashing at the moment). Microsoft has introduced something called “KIN”, but early reviews of it have been negative if not atrocious [1, 2, 3]. This is an excellent example of how far behind Microsoft has fallen (with Linux/Android leading the way). KIN is a relatively appalling product like Zune and SideKick which it is based on. Combining three failures like Windows Mobile, Zune, and SideKick won’t make a success, just as combining Yahoo! and Bong [sic] won’t make something better than Google.
As we showed some months ago, Skype and Adobe (among other key vendors of proprietary software and even free/libre ones like Mozilla) had abandoned Windows Mobile. Although it was announced or at least insinuated some months ago, the mainstream press is only now catching up [1, 2] with the fact that Skype works on GNU/Linux and Linux phones but no longer on Windows phones. ITWire‘s headline says that “Skype is everywhere – except Windows Phone” and The Inquirer says:
VOIP AND CHAT OUTFIT Skype is sending out confusing signals regarding its support, or maybe lack of support, for Windows Phone 7.
Earlier today Dan Neary, Asia Pacific VP and general manager of Skype, said that the firm decided not to support Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series operating system. Neary justified Skype’s decision by saying that the operating system had a “lack of user optimisation and partner support.”
The KIN will have many other problems, but the mobile chief left the company, which is revealing. There is no real plan for a renaissance and Microsoft can’t acquire Palm, either (HP is said to have just elected Palm's Linux-based OS to replace the porky Vista 7). It’s truly a messy situation for Microsoft and as I4Uputs it, “Microsoft Has No Idea What To Do With The Kin”
Redmond’s mobile strategy has never looked more schizophrenic than it does now. Microsoft has no idea what to do with the Kin, or with WP7.
Microsoft has already insisted that it targets a niche with those relatively primitive phones. Microsoft named children as its source of lust here, so these phones were put to the test in the hands of the target audience, namely young people. How did that work? A disaster.
Matthew Miller, usually a fan of Microsoft products, has just published a very long review (Microsoft may have sent him a phone as schwag). He concludes negatively as follows:
I spent very little time myself with the Kin devices so I only have some basic impressions of using them. However, I agree with my middle daughter that the user interface can be a bit confusing and overwhelming at first. The menus and some other options are not always consistent across the devices and this surprised me a bit since the project has been under development for quite some time. With the social networking focus I was disappointed that richer Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter experiences were not present at launch. You can get a better experience with these services on the iPhone, Palm Pre Plus/Pixi Plus, Google Android devices, and other smartphones that are priced similarly to the Kin devices so I have yet to see any compelling reason for someone to buy a Kin.
In other words, the daughter would be better off with Linux.
These days, it makes much more sense to buy a smartphone that has an SD card slot and allows app downloads. That’s especially true since the Kins are going to have to compete with full-fledged smartphones such as theLG Ally, an Android-based smartphone that is being sold by Verizon online at the same price as the Kin Two. Granted, the 8-megapixel video camcorder in the Kin Two is a clear advantage over Ally’s 3.2-megapixel camcorder, but that’s not saying much, considering that that the Ally brings Android 2.1, with all its apps, to the table.
Once again they name Linux as the better option. Poor Microsoft. It cannot compete with Linux based on technical merit (pricing aside).
“Microsoft Did not Make Progress the Way Gates Intended,” says this other news headline which refers to Microsoft/Windows in “smartphone projects”.
But to me, nothing was extremely impressive to the extent that my socks would be blown off. At this rate and amidst this level of competition, Microsoft needs to step up on things and stop wasting time. Because sooner or later, someone is going to come up with something better so Microsoft needs to incorporate its ideas into something solid quickly and hit the shelves with a full frontal blow.
Summary: Responses to a referral which was intended to help determine whether or not software algorithms should be patentable in Europe
THE output of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) was covered here 3 times last week [1, 2, 3], but we have found no formal statement from the FFII, until now (full press release appended at the bottom):
Brimelow Referral on software patents dismissed: ‘time for the legislator to take over’
Munich, 13 May 2010 — The highest appeal chamber of the European Patent Office, the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA), has decided on patents for computer programs. The questions on point of law from President Brimelow were decided to be “inadmissible” under Article 112(1)(b) EPC. It chided the President for bothering the board with her questions. For such requests Alison Brimelow was recommended to ask her legal staff.
An unexpected, good result: after more than a year and a half of review (referral G3/08), the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal has declared that the four questions posed were all inadmissible. The patent office is thus does not have the power to decide for itself whether or not software should be patentable.
If you believe that no news is good news, then 3/08 is wonderful news because the 61-page decision found the referral inadmissible and, therefore, declined to reach the merits. It’s an interesting (if non-committal) read, and some of the questions raised are fascinating. Consider the following: “Must a claimed feature cause a technical effect on a physical entity in the real world in order to contribute to the technical character of the claim?” Great question–but the EPO Enlarged Court of Appeal declined to consider this one and all of the others.
The decision in Europe is very important because it represents an attempt to expand software patents beyond the United States (and Japan, among perhaps a few more countries). It’s an attempt to change the tide in the same way that the DMCA broke loose after heavy lobbying from Hollywood. Europe is a key checkpoint to them, but it’s a tough nut to crack because Europe cannot be blackmailed, unlike poorer regions.
The following video from Taiwan (May 2005) shows Richard Stallman theorising that Microsoft is trying to pass software patents in other countries before litigiously attacking Linux in order not to reduce the chances of legalising software patents (Germany has just approved the FAT patent from Microsoft and it affects the EU-based TomTom).
Skip to 1(hr):25(min) to hear Stallman talk about Microsoft and software patents. As mentioned earlier today, Stallman also notes that Microsoft is a criminal company that was convicted 3 times and should therefore not be supported by governments. All in all, this is a very good delivery without interruptions or awkward pauses. It is calm and well focused. █
Brimelow Referral on software patents dismissed: “time for the legislator to take over”
Munich, 13 May 2010 — The highest appeal chamber of the European Patent Office, the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA), has decided on patents for computer programs. The questions on point of law from President Brimelow were decided to be “inadmissible” under Article 112(1)(b) EPC. It chided the President for bothering the board with her questions. For such requests Alison Brimelow was recommended to ask her legal staff.
The EBoA also looked into the substance but felt not competent to define a key term as “technical”. The board prefers a legislator to decide patentability of computer programs: “…a presidential referral is not admissible merely because the European Parliament and Council have failed to adopt a directive on CII patenting …When judiciary-driven legal development meets its limits, it is time for the legislator to take over”.
FFII welcomes the spirit of the decision. “The European Parliament should now ask for a new directive for harmonization. Five years ago the European Commission and leading members of the European Parliament suggested that”, explains FFII president Benjamin Henrion.
“The referral was overshadowed by institutional politics”, adds André Rebentisch, the FFII general secretary. “The Board had to reject it for formality reasons, as recommended by Prof. Joseph Straus. Still I found the initiative of Alison Brimelow very fruitful. She restarted a technical debate over patenting rules for computer programs. The amount, diversity and quality of the third party statements, together with the length of the final decision are telling. We ought to continue a broad and open exchange of views.”
Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-484-56 61 09 (mobile)
bhenrion at ffii.org
(French/English)
About FFII
The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.
Posted in Asia, Microsoft at 3:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“I think he [Bill Gates] has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses.”
–Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
Summary: Microsoft is attacking so-called ‘pirates’ who are Chinese, having previously encouraged them to do what they do so that Microsoft can “collect sometime in the next decade,” according to Bill Gates, who is now helping the regime suppress the Chinese population
MICROSOFT’S BOUNDLESS GREED has led to a lot of legal and crackdown actions in China recently. Windows revenue/profit is not what it used to be (a year ago it was down 40%), so Microsoft starts squeezing those whom it encouraged to use Windows without paying. China is of course a top target because of its attitude towards copyright (almost nobody in China bought Vista and the numbers were unbelievable) and Microsoft is now raising the temperature among Windows users/distributors. Here is one of the latest developments:
Microsoft’s Piracy Lawsuit Against Chinese Internet Café Postponed
The hearing for a lawsuit filed by Microsoft China against an Internet café company for software piracy has been postponed after Microsoft’s attorney requested an additional 1 million yuan in damages.
If successful, the lawsuit could have far-reaching consequences for many more Internet cafés in China, where owners are making and using illegal copies of Microsoft software.
For those who do not know, Microsoft admits benefiting from counterfeiting. It’s not quite the victim here. The victim is the Chinese population, which has a ‘pusher’ trying to get it ‘addicted’ so that the people of China cannot or will not use software that respects their freedom and can enable activism for change [1, 2].
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
This comes at a good time because Microsoft’s ‘piracy’ lies have just been released by the BSA [1, 2], mostly to receive coverage from clueless journalists [1, 2] (probably selected based on their obedience) and even Lance Whitney, contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine. Watch his headline and shallow coverage. Only people in the comments have pointed out the fact that he spouts out propaganda (without even attributing it to the source of the claim, instead making it look like CNET’s judgment).
As the shareholder of China Railway, the Gates Foundation also suffered a lot from it. In calculation with the average price of 5.89 yuan for China Railway in Q1, the foundation has had a floating loss of nearly 20 percent on the share of China Railway.
Notice that they are shareholders. It is not a donation and this is where the big money is going (sometimes to produce tax-exempt profits for the Gates Foundation).
Earlier this year we showed Microsoft being accused by the US Congress of “enabling tyranny” in China [1, 2]. Earlier this month we found Bill Gates defending this tyranny, as usual (he too created a tyranny).
Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates on Monday said the Internet needs to thrive in China as an engine of free speech and described official online censorship by Beijing as “very limited.”
He should speak to the Chinese people — not the wealthy tyrants — before he describes Chinese censorship as “very limited.” He belittles the seriousness of the issue, but then again, he is a longtime friend of this regime.
“New Chinese law may force Microsoft, Yahoo to follow Google out,” says the headline of this new report from IDG. Is that why Gates is sucking up to the regime?
The Chinese government today made sweeping changes to its state secrets law that directly affects Internet companies operating in the country. The amended law goes further to force these companies to help the Chinese Communist Party suppress free speech and censor the Internet.
But wait. Gates insists that this “suppress[ion of] free speech and censor[ship of] the Internet” is “very limited.” Whose side is he on? █
“Gates has created a huge blood-buying operation that only cares about money, not about people.”
A just-published attack tactic that bypasses the security protections of most current antivirus software is a “very serious” problem, an executive at one unaffected company said today.
A new round of targeted malware emails has been seen in the past few hours. HR teams should not open emails purportedly containing unrequested resumes.
[...]
At the time of writing, the VirusTotal website reports that 22 out of 41 AV products will correctly identify the malware – expect the remainder to be covered within the next 24 hours.
SteelEye Technology, Inc. (steeleye.com), a leading provider of business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for multi-vendor IT infrastructures, today announced that Dave Bermingham, director of product management, received the Microsoft MVP Award for his work in the cluster technical community.
Summary: Another sincere take on Vista 7, courtesy of a businessman who has tried the operating system for 6 months in his small enterprise environment
THE reality behind Vista 7 is distant from perception. Microsoft has spent so much money on marketing and bribed so many people (we have given actual examples) that a lot of people perceive Vista 7 as a success and Vista as “merely a mistake”. Intel has learned from its own experience that Vista 7 does not work for business, but it’s good for increasing sales of chipsets.
One who offers apologetic words to Microsoft is still not satisfied with Vista 7, not even after half a year. He is the owner of the Marks Group, which he describes as “the author of four best-selling small business books.” He wrote an article which BusinessWeek has just published, in which he says:
I kvetched when Windows 7 came out, and then again six months later.
Here is the article he points to (an article which we missed, dating a month earlier). He basically says that Vista 7 has harmed productivity where he works.
After installing Microsoft’s latest operating system, one business owner finds his staff covering less ground
[...]
Yet so much of Windows 7 resembles Microsoft’s operating systems of the past. Some of my applications still freeze, and I still reboot and start over, hoping it won’t happen again. Networking still takes an information technology professional to set up.
[...]
Running a business? Buying a new computer? Don’t get too excited about Windows 7. It’s fine, but our upgrade didn’t improve our game. And I’ll never be able to cover as much ground at shortstop as I once did.
“It’s a small improvement over Vista,” explained our reader Ryan about Vista 7 (he has used both Vista and Vista 7), “but you’d be doing a lot better to get a RAM upgrade or a new CPU and sticking with Vista if that’s what you already have. CPUs get pretty damned cheap if you get them as an OEM part that’s a couple years old. I remember I got a system in 2005 with a Sempron 3100+ and by 2006, I upgraded to a Athlon64 3400+ for about $20. I saw a nice across the board performance improvement of well over 30%.
“Vista to Windows 7 will speed your PC up about 5% and cost at least $120.” –Ryan Farmer“Vista to Windows 7 will speed your PC up about 5% and cost at least $120. It’s better to upgrade a Vista era PC with more RAM and a new CPU than with a copy of Windows 7.”
Microsoft still relies on bundling here. Microsoft doesn’t need to sell Vista 7; it just needs to ensure — using illegal tactics most of the time — that OEMs do not offer anything but Vista 7 and then convince people to spend their money on a new PC.
Those who are looking for a well-behaved and light operating system should take a look at GNU/Linux. Increasingly, Linux gets preinstalled on devices (tablets and smartphones for example), often with GNU. █
Summary: Google’s work in the area of Linux and the area of office suites is hurting two of Microsoft’s primary cash cows; Microsoft responds with deception and hype
WE RARELY wrote anything about “SYNC”, perhaps with a single exception. As some short background, we provide many references at the bottom [1]-[8] to show that Linux use is growing quickly inside cars and Microsoft is merely catching up and making little or no progress (with Ford and with Kia).
General Motors (GM) is said to be preparing to put Linux in the car. In this case, Android will be fitted for purposes of GM clients and news coverage includes:
Google is reportedly in talks with General Motors about putting Android into cars, allowing remote unlocking and startup while rendering GM’s OnStar product redundant.
GM is amidst negotiations with Google that could bear the fruit of an Android OS for GM’s vehicles alla Microsoft Sync and Ford. The new OS would allow users to pair their vehicles with virtually any cell phone, as well as offer some remote access options such as; remote open and start.
Google is reportedly in talks to connect its Android operating system with General Motors’ OnStar car service. If the early clues prove to be true, the Android-OnStar combination could pack a whole lot of power into the palm of your hand.
It is not just Windows and other proprietary operating systems that are going to suffer.
Google Versus Office
Google is often an enabler of Free software and GNU/Linux (or just Linux in the guts of Android), but there is more to this story because Google also produces a lot of proprietary software that disrespects the user and holds the user’s data away in the so-called ‘cloud’. We are reminded of it this week because OpenOffice.org and other Free software are left in the dark while Google and Microsoft wrestle over data and advertising using their Web-based office suites (and most of the press forgets to mention other possibilities while attention is diverted to proprietary software that swallows people's data, too).
The GENIVI Alliance, an automotive industry association driving the development and adoption of an open in-vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference platform, will be demonstrating the initial implementation of the GENIVI 1.0 platform in Las Vegas during International CES 2010, January 7th – 10th.
Tokyo-based ZMP Inc. is readying a Linux-based car robotics platform designed to test automotive robots and autonomous navigation algorithms. The RoboCar is built on a 500MHz AMD Geode LX800, and offers a stereo camera, multiple sensors, and an optional image recognition module, says the company.
MP, the Japanese company that created the open hardware Pino humanoid robot, has announced a Linux and AMD-Geode based RoboCar (PDF format). The 6 lbs, 17 inch long RoboCar is 1/10 the size of a real car. It’s intended for use as a test platform for autonomous car technologies. While it looks like it’s made from RC car parts, the company claims the maneuvering accuracy is much higher than possible with toy cars. The hardward includes an AMD Geode LX800 processor running a soft real-time GNU/Linux system.
The GENIVI alliance, of which Visteon is a part, aims to provide a standard Linux automotive infotainment platform, so developers can easily build for multiple cars. Visteon showed off a GENIVI system running off an Intel ARM processor, and powering four different LCDs, an instrument cluster, navigation, and two rear seat monitors, simultaneously.
Since its founding in March 2009, GENIVI has grown from eight founding members, including BMW Group, Delphi, GM, Intel, Magneti Marelli, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Visteon, and Wind River, to more than 40 members and continues to drive automotive and consumer electronics connectivity, multimedia and performance capabilities through open source adoption.
Up to now the automotive branch has not been famous for its engagement in Linux and Open Source. Now the chairman of the new open source alliance Genivi is talking about motives and plans.
This automated vehicle uses a dozen Intel Core 2 processors, but at the bottom of the software stack is Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper Drake” Linux. Ubuntu 6.06 was chosen for being an LTS (Long Term Support) release. Perhaps next year’s vehicle will be running Ubuntu 8.04?
With four years of autonomous racing experience and using Yellow Dog Linux, San Diego’s Axion Racing is excited about showing folks other things that can be done using a PlayStation console.
A proper explanation of what Microsoft is doing here was provided many times before and today’s news is the addition of a new victim, namely the state of Alabama.
Sadly, not a single news source (mostly local news [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], which is notorious for publishing PR over 50% of the time, based on a recent study) has bothered to actually study what Microsoft is doing here. Associated Press too says that Microsoft provides ‘free’ “tech. training” when it fact all that is offered here would be proprietary Microsoft software training, which makes Microsoft stronger with state assistance.
The state of Alabama and Microsoft will work together to provide free technology training to Alabama residents.
• Tennessee officials announced the state had joined forces with Microsoft in a public-private partnership to provide free technology training to Tennesseans. Through “Elevate America,” Microsoft will work with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to distribute 25,875 vouchers for free, online technology training and certification. Workers can take these free online courses from home, or at Tennessee Career Centers or Tennessee Technology Centers.
It is a shame that no report has explained what Microsoft is really doing it. Microsoft uses the state authorities just like it has been been using schools in order to indoctrinate those who are most vulnerable and least able to afford Microsoft’s digital shackles. Watch how Microsoft is using kids to advertise such campaigns. There is a new press release titled “Microsoft and Boys & Girls Clubs of America Bring 21st Century Technology Skills to America’s Youth”
As Richard Stallman states in his talks about Free software, Microsoft is a criminal company that was convicted 3 times and should therefore not be supported by governments, let alone be given the opportunity and aid to make more clients who could otherwise be taught about Free software and trained for the use of Free software that respects their freedoms and communities. Well, that’s just what happens when corporations have enormous control over public officials and public office. █
