Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Obeys Neither Open Standards Nor Open Source Software Doctrine

Image: stuffing-capable ISO



Summary: Microsoft is preaching about standards and open source again, having just had managers vilify both (sometimes resorting to outright corruption); IE9 another new example of harming Web standards and snubbing Open Source

IDG's pseudo-open source blog has a new hit today. It's Microsoft's Walli [1, 2] again and he wants to educate us dumb communists, explaining to us what "Open Source" really means. "Please Don’t Confuse Standards with Open Source Software" says his headline and one can imagine the rest of those Microsoft talking points. Microsoft loves proprietary software development methods and when it comes to standards, it loves labeling its own proprietary APIs/protocols "standards" (recall what Microsoft did to ISO).



"They call it open source for marketing purposes," explained to us gnufreex a couple of hours ago, "but they are doing business by GNU manifesto." [update 18/9/2010: gnufreex asked to emphasise he referred to Red Hat here]

As we showed earlier today, Microsoft pretty much admits that it hates Open Source (not just Free software). It's good that the technology press has been paying attention to it. "Microsoft slags off Open Sauce" says the headline from TechEye:

While software giant Microsoft has been trying to tell the world plus dog that it really loves Open Sauce, there are signs that some company executives did not get the memo.

Hernan Rincon, president of Microsoft Latin America, has been hitting the press claiming that "open" really is a way of saying "incompetent":

He claimed when software companies cannot compete they are declaring their product to be "open". This apparently "masks incompetence".

"When convenient, the companies say they are open and they they use it for your own benefit, " he added in our Babelfish translator.


It's not just Open Source that Microsoft is clearly hostile towards (to the point of violating licences repeatedly after exploitation). At Microsoft there is still hostility towards the Web, with obvious examples like Silverlight (very anti-Web standards) and even Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), which Microsoft boosters say will fracture of the Web. We wrote about the subject earlier today and Swapnil Bhartiya says more by claiming that IE9 is a Chrome and Firefox "rip-off" (his own headline).

The browser seems to an obese boy, unlike lean Chrome and Firefox. The setup file itself was twice the file size of Mozilla Firefox 4.

Firefox was smaller in size (10MB), almost half the size of IE9. It installed fast and was up and running while IE was still installing.

Typical of Microsoft's flint-stone age approach, you have to 're-start' your machine in order for IE 9 to work. Doesn't matter how much important work you are doing, you have to restart.


IE9 is bad for other reasons [1, 2, 3] and no component of it is available for code audit, let alone for sharing. Just about any other Web browser -- Opera and Safari included -- has at least something that's Free software inside it. Microsoft loves Open Source? Don't bet on it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Eliminating Over 20,000 IBM Workers by Year's End, Insiders Claim
the layoffs are silent
The Register MS Publishes More Word Salads Promoting "AI" Because It's Paid to Do So
Hype, name-dropping, and scaremongering
Linux Foundation is Plagiarism Hub, Linux is at Risk From It
Torvalds never looked weaker and more compromised
 
GNU/Linux Continues to Grow in China
GNU/Linux reached its highest point in a month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 03, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, September 03, 2026
Gemini Links 04/09/2026: Forgotten Realms Avatar Series and Slop Plagiarism's Footprint in Gopher/Geminispace
Links for the day
Like Uber, Paypal's Debt Has Shot Up 2.5 Billion Dollars in 3 Months, Now the Mass Layoffs Come to India
even reducing the salaries by offshoring isn't enough to save the company
Microsoft "engineers who aren’t critical are let go" this week/month (silent layoffs)
"stack ranking"
Is Microsoft Trying to Kill What's Left of XBox by Year's End?
How many people will still bother purchasing these consoles by the end of the year?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 170 Out of 200: Downtimes
Yesterday traffic skyrocketed here
Gemini Links 03/09/2026: Google Maps, Gemini's Early History, and Suppressing Slop Plagiarists
Links for the day
Links 03/09/2026: Unsafe Skies, Thunderbird Adopts Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in Traps, "Xbox Live Down Again"
Links for the day
Growing Thirst for Free Software, the LibreOffice Edition
LibreOffice is in "high demand"
Links 03/09/2026: John Ternus Enters Apple Amid Mass Layoffs, Journalist İrem Delice Arrested
Links for the day
Stallman.org Down Due to Virtual Machines Issue, "Senior Engineers are Investigating the Issue" Since Saturday
RMS site down due to virtual machines issues upstream
Gemini Links 03/09/2026: Back in Japan, Another New Year, Reasons to Avoid Have a "Smart" "Phone", and Rant About Built-in Batteries
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 02, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 02, 2026
Identi.ca is Practically Dead, Just Like All Social Control Media (Eventually)
All Social Control Media is a waste of time
Gemini Links 02/09/2026: Intentions, Publishing on Workstations, and Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA)
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Reaches 6% in Nepal
Today I checked GNU/Linux in Nepal again
SLAPP Censorship - Part 169 Out of 200: Calling People "Nazis"
'Cancel culture' in action
GNU Turns 43 This Month, GNU/Linux Turns 35 Next Year
It seems like no area of computing has not been impacted by the GNU/Linux revolution
Uber Debt Grew 2.5 Billion Dollars in 3 Months, Company Lays Off at Least 10% of Workforce
The media repeats the "official" numbers
Links 02/09/2026: The Machine Stops, AuraSearch, and DOOM 1/2
Links for the day
1-1 Meetings at IBM This Week, PIPs Expected, Maybe RAs Too
As usual, we invite whistleblowers to tell us what's going on
Links 02/09/2026: Germany Blames Russia for Leipzig Airport Drone Attack and China Gains Power as US Faces Humiliation in the Midst of Presidential Cover-up
Links for the day
Quit Talking About "AI Layoffs" and Talk About How Chatbots and Other Bots Broke Recruitment Processes by Cheating
Bots talking to other bots isn't HR; it's a catastrophe
It's Inevitable Anyway, So...
of course blame Chinese Communists for the "anti-AI" messages
Robotics Isn't "Hey Hi", Robotics Isn't New Either
Is the official Arduino blog becoming shilling platform for Qualcomm's "hey hi" [so-called 'intelligent'] chips?
Giving 'Free Publicity' to the People You Hate and Attack
Be careful what you wish for in social control media
Today We'll Focus on Growth of GNU/Linux
We've meanwhile noticed that Clownflare statistics for north American nations show 19% of requests (CDN) originating from GNU/Linux
IBM Secret (or Silent) Layoffs in September 2026
We need whistleblowers
Gemini Links 02/09/2026: GAFAM's E-mail Cartel, ROOPHLOCH 2026, and Homeworlds
Links for the day
Not Only Microsoft and IBM Hide Layoffs (Secret Layoffs) and Fail to Follow the Law (or Bypass It)
Microsoft's tactics are not so unique
People Who Participate in the Slop Plagiarism Pyramid Scheme and the Moral Dilemma (What's Acceptable for a Salary?)
giant pyramid scheme
State of the Slop, Linux Edition
Whether slop about "linux" becomes rarer by the end of this year, well... time will tell
Links 02/09/2026: 'Open' 'AI' (Proprietary Slop Plagiarism) Destroying Evidence, "Data Center Backlash Has Officially Rattled Scam Altman"
Links for the day
Andrew Lee Has Turned Freenode Into a Slopfarm (Because Who Needs IRC Anyway?)
The site is churning out slop all day long
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 01, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 01, 2026