10.18.10
Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer at 6:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Photo via Wikipedia, speech bubble added
Summary: The man behind the ‘reinvention’ of Microsoft is giving up
THIS was predictable. We said it would happen some months ago. We wrote about him on numerous occasions as well. For anyone who still has doubts about Microsoft’ fast demise, this is possibly the seal.
Coverage so far includes (“retirement” is somewhat of a cushion/euphemism by the way):
This massive news marks the beginning of the end of ‘new’ Microsoft — the one which dreamt of Fog Computing. Is Ballmer about to leave too? █
“Microsoft can’t charge $80 or $100 when there’s Linux for free on netbooks,” Rosoff said. On regular PC sales, Microsoft’s profit margins are typically about 70 percent to 80 percent, he explained.”
–Microsoft Press
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Posted in Apple, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Law, Microsoft, Patents at 4:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A concise look at what Apple and Microsoft have been doing with software patents recently
RATHER than name companies we could name behaviours or policies that impede GNU/Linux adoption. But companies which attack Linux using software patents are almost exclusively Microsoft, Apple, and Microsoft-tied entities such as Acacia.
SCO too is funded by Microsoft, but its empty allegations were copyright based and they go a long way back. It’s all nonsense and obviously anti-competitive. “Rethinking Intellectual Property” is a recommended upcoming course from Stephan Kinsella. He does make the distinction between patents and copyrights. He also explains why both laws require change. They are tools of abuse.
Here is a new piece titled “Microsoft Keen On Protecting Its Intellectual Property” and some European propaganda about Microsoft “innovation” (often a prelude to patent lobbying). It ought to be clear by now that “Microsoft Is Playing Hardball with Motorola” over Linux as part of its attack on Android. From the beginning of the month we have:
Microsoft Marshals Dealmakers, Lawyers to Take On Android
[...]
On Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he looks forward to collecting revenue from Android handset makers, including HTC, which has a licensing agreement with Microsoft.
It’s not just Microsoft that’s doing this. Apple too is using these disgusting tactics (patent lawsuits against Linux) and Motorola is now pushing to invalidate Apple patents. From Engadget:
The smartphone intellectual property wars are seriously heating up, as Motorola sided with HTC this week in an effort to cover its own rear. Remember those twenty patents Apple aimed at the Taiwanese OEM? Motorola says they’re no good, and is trying to get them thrown out of court — an important tactic, because if the patents do hold water and are successfully used against HTC, Apple might turn around and sue Motorola with them too. That’s because there’s more at stake here than OEM phones, but Android as a whole, and as such other manufacturers that implement Android might potentially be targets as well.
Remember some of Apple’s outrageous software patents, including the very recent so-called ‘anti-sexting’ patent (text filtering) [1, 2]. “Do you really want to teach kids not to be creative with language,” asked Pamela Jones in Groklaw. “Now they can’t type LOL, unless someone in authority puts it in a dictionary? Think there might be a creative lag? I understand the purpose, but have they thought through all the implications and perhaps unintended consequences?”
“Now they [Apple customers] can’t type LOL, unless someone in authority puts it in a dictionary?”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawApple and Microsoft are both patenting limitations, i.e. they want a monopoly on attacking people’s freedoms and basic rights. “Game console ‘rejects’ under-age players” says this new article about Microsoft and there are some other weird ideas thrown around at Microsoft, often to be patented sooner or later.
The good news is that Apple and Microsoft may gradually learn their lesson (Apple in Texas and Microsoft in Canada because of i4i for example). TechDirt asks, “Will The Supreme Court Review Patent Invalidation Standard In Microsoft vs. i4i Case?”
“Patent suit targets Apple, Microsoft, others over digital distribution” says this article from Apple Insider, so there is still some smacking going on. There is hope that patent trolling will increase so much that Apple and Microsoft too will decide to just abolish software patents [1, 2, 3, 4]. Check out the article “One Cheer for Patent Trolls”:
As the Stanford paper suggests, in the vast majority of cases the authors studied the asserted patents were in fact junk, at least as determined at trial (judge and jury may have their own biases, of course). The inventors shouldn’t have gotten anything for them, either from the defendants or from the patent troll, because the patent never should have been granted in the first place. Again, the trolls may know better than the study suggests the real value of their holdings, and may be betting that the transaction costs of litigation will encourage defendants to settle anyway.
That bet is a game of chicken, for if the defendant chooses to litigate then both sides must absorb heavy litigation costs no matter who wins—the troll bets that the defendant will simply pay them to go away.
Patent trolls may make most of their money, in other words, from arbitraging the inefficiencies and failings of the current patent system.
“But stupid patents in the first place is the issue, is it not,” Pamela Jones asked rhetorically in Groklaw. “He’s writing about a study that found that only 10% of such patents are found valid at trial. So since only 10% of these patents that trolls use end up valid, and 90% of them are not, what’s the real loss in this picture if no one will buy up these predominantly invalid patents?”
Dave Methvin writes about “Microsoft’s Two Minds on Patents” and in an alleged “Exclusive” article/report, Tom’s Hardware says that “Microsoft Patents The Search Engine”:
Microsoft has received a patent that covers a search engine platform that is based on a “bag-of-words” and “essential pages” ranking system to make searches more efficient.
Well, it does not guarantee that this will stand in court. “Microsoft seeks a patent for its Helios distributed operating system” according to another report and “Microsoft Attempts To Patent The Optimus Keyboard” claims this new report among several which led to a lot of debate because there is prior art and it’s trivial [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Are patents all that’s left in Microsoft’s vision?
Fortunately, software patents become increasingly controversial and Patently-O indicates that in the United States too these patents are on rocky grounds:
In Ex parte Venkata, App. No. 2009–007302 (BPAI, October 5, 2010), the Board held that “the claim’s body recites nothing more than software [and therefore] lacks statutory subject matter.”
Software patents are probably the #1 enemy of software freedom. Let’s end them once and for all. Companies that use Free software (IBM, Google, Red Hat, etc.) will take care of the rest because unlike Apple and Microsoft, they do not use software patents offensively. Of course it would be helpful if IBM and Google joined Red Hat’s motions against software patents, too. █
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Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 3:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: What PC World and Slashdot ‘forgot’ to tell you about the author of the latest attack piece on desktop GNU/Linux
ONCE in a few months comes the point where a Microsoft booster goes to the drawing board and reuses old talking points against GNU/Linux. Microsoft has internal and highly confidential presentations specifically dedicated to this. In them, Microsoft speaks of “insider friend, ‘the fox’” (people whom Microsoft uses to push its agenda) and “unix Bigots”. Well, it seems like it’s time for Microsoft to send another one of its “foxes” to attack those so-called ‘unix Bigots’ and PC World is a popular platform for this. PC World is one of many IDG publications (paid by Microsoft) and it occasionally publishes anti-GNU/Linux (desktop) pieces from Gartenberg without disclosing his relationship with Microsoft (former evangelist [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]).
“Windows Vista Magazine seems like a failed publication based on its very poor traffic ranking, so no wonder its editor turns to attacks on GNU/Linux.”Today we find a new article in the Web site and it comes from Robert Strohmeyer. I have never seen him writing for PC World before (I read all the headings in PC World for years until a month ago when I publicly said I dumped it for obvious and excessive provocation/trolling). We prefer not to feed the IDG FUD article by linking to it directly*, but it is fed by the founder of Slashdot, who put it in the front page of the site along with a terribly biased summary. I publicly dumped Slashdot for similar reasons because there was distinctly a period where it was pushing a lot of pro-Microsoft agenda [1, 2], including obvious marketing/trolls. The timing of this piece is interesting as argued by our reader and contributor FurnaceBoy [1, 2]. Well, it’s already being discussed in Twitter/Identi.ca and it is easily being refuted in our IRC channels too. It’s just the same old tired FUD, which has been debunked over and over again for years. We don’t need more of the same arguments again, so we’ll just cut to the chase.
Usefully enough someone in Twitter let me know about the source of this latest attack (the author Robert Strohmeyer):
@schestowitz Linux is Dead according to the editor of VISTA MAGAZINE http://www.blogger.com/profile/5530582
Yes, he says “I’m editor of Windows Vista Magazine and an Moleskine nut.” Guilty as charged, eh? Windows Vista Magazine seems like a failed publication based on its very poor traffic ranking, so no wonder its editor turns to attacks on GNU/Linux. █
____
* Watch what IDG’s IDC is doing for Microsoft at the moment. It’s appalling what money can do to coverage.
Update: Look who joins this FUD attack with almost identical talking points. As the comment from “Denis” says, “How interesting — Robert Strohmeyer over at PC World decided to write pretty much the same whiny nonsense on the same day. Did you guys coordinate or something?”
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Search, Servers at 2:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Where are we on this Jihad?”
–Bill Gates
Original cartoon
Summary: An analysis of Microsoft’s ongoing political and legal attacks on Google; a glimpse at Microsoft’s Fog Computing gameplay, which leads to unprecedented levels of lock-in and is a reactionary strategy amid Google’s rise to power
MICROSOFT AND GOOGLE are fighting over people’s data, including their communication (data going down the wires, not just data stored locally or in Fog Computing). Microsoft advocates the use of Windows, whereas Google advocates GNU/Linux with more Free software components inside the stack, e.g. Apache and Python. Neither company is “good” or “evil”; like in many wars, both sides can be “evil”, but it’s all very subjective. To us, what matters is that neither company promotes software freedom, but Google is a lot closer in the sense that some of its products and its funding go towards enabling software freedom (e.g. Summer of Code, Chromium, and maybe Wave to a certain extent).
It should be easy to see why we defend Google from AstroTurfers like LawMedia Group and ‘Consumer’ ‘Watchdog’ (Bill Gates too does his share of lobbying against Google). Microsoft has ongoing campaigns to destroy Google; the same can hardly be said about Google. Name just one AstroTurf action Google has run against Microsoft. It’s hard to think of any because it’s a one-way boxing match and it helps show why Microsoft is so widely detested in the IT industry.
“Microsoft Has Lobbied for Weaker Protection for Search Engines, ISPs,” argues Groklaw, which points to this page/file which says (the highlight in red is Groklaw’s): “Turning to the issue of limitations of liability, such provisions are important for the development of innovative Internet-based services. However, care is needed in drafting such provisions to ensure that exceptions are not so broad to include activity that is widely regarded as unlawful. Barry referred to this in his comments about Bill C-61. In Microsoft’s view the Internet and other digital network service providers who profit from providing services that enable or facilitate communication of infringing copies – so for example providers of software that help users locate infringing music, movies or software files – should not qualify for exemptions or limitations on remedies. Accordingly, provisions which seek to limit liability, ISPs or search engines should be carefully crafted.”
“I missed this at the time,” writes Pamela Jones (Groklaw) in News Picks, “but here [above] is part of what Microsoft’s Michael Hilliard, Corporate Counsel for Microsoft in Canada, said in the government’s Copyright Consultations round table discussion in Halifax about a year ago, in August of 2009, on the theme of desired changes to copyright law (MP3), and as you read it, have in mind the strategy that Viacom tried unsuccessfully to use against YouTube/Google, asking the court to rule that Google didn’t qualify for DMCA safe harbor protection…”
“[H]ere is part of what Microsoft’s Michael Hilliard, Corporate Counsel for Microsoft in Canada, said in the government’s Copyright Consultations round table discussion…”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawTo put things in context, we’ve looked at recent news and gathered information which shows that in the US market (and meters that are not sponsored by Microsoft) Google continues to gain market share (not by excluding but by offering a better service).
Henry Blodget has argued that “Yahoo And AOL Should Immediately Merge” and it's not going to happen (more and more people seem to agree). Yahoo! is already somewhat of a property of Microsoft (the search part at the very least). MediaPost Communications looks at this alliance in the article “Navigating The Microsoft And Yahoo Alliance”. For those who do not remember, Yahoo! was very close to signing a deal with Google, but Microsoft is then said to have hired AstroTurfers including LawMedia Group to shoot down the deal. It was utterly disgusting but very typical for Microsoft. Later on Microsoft took over Yahoo!
Anyway, there is more than just search at stake. Search is just a gateway through which a company can gain a lot of Web surfers and channel them towards particular pages, including their own proprietary services (Fog Computing and such). The Microsoft-friendly 1105 Media is promoting Fog Computing for children right now, including the Live@edu scam (there is a new press release about it and additional complaints about lack of encryption in it). The education systems are still being exploited by Microsoft in order to offer ‘free’ indoctrination that’s akin to American EDGI [1, 2, 3, 4], which is now extending into Washington [1, 2, 3] and gets promoted by Seattle’s Microsoft boosters [1, 2]. Had they been honest, they would state that it’s not free and Microsoft should pay people for the privilege of having them brainwashed at the expense of their own time. Since Governor Gregoire is well within Microsoft’s pocket [1, 2], nothing will be done to stop this. If anything, she is likely to encourage this abuse which is marketed using sheer spin.
Over at Minnesota there is already a surrender to Microsoft's Fog Computing, which is maddeningly irresponsible as it puts state E-mails under Microsoft’s control and it’s ripe to misuse [1, 2]. It’s bad enough that some universities make this terrible mistake and under some new banner called “Microsoft Innovation Alliance” (we never came across it before) Microsoft is taking over many more colleges right now. To quote one example: “Software major Microsoft has enrolled BV Raju Institute of Technology (BVRIT) as its member under the Microsoft Innovation Alliance programme.”
That’ll be regrettable.
Based on what we learned in IRC last night, MTS (Canadian ISP) is also throwing its communications at Microsoft’s servers. To quote:
Well, I guess there’s no worry of getting heck for mentioning this since MTS has a press release about it on their website (August 7th)
MTS is phasing out their in-house email service, and switching to Microsoft Windows Live.
http://www.mts.ca/portal/site/mts/me…001342a8c0RCRD
“New customers will be able to take advantage of this new service starting August 17, and existing customers will be contacted by email with directions on transitioning to Windows Live services starting in October. Once the customer completes the transition, their existing emails and content in the customer’s current MTS Webmail online account will be transferred to their new Windows Live account all within a few minutes.”
This too will be regrettable because Hotmail is a disaster, just like the rest of Microsoft’s services (e.g. BPOS [1, 2, 3]), which are very unreliable and now require a downtime dashboard (no kidding!) rather than a permanent solution to prevent future downtimes. To put downtime in perspective by quoting the ‘Microsoft press’:
Microsoft acknowledged BPOS service outages affecting customers in North America on Aug. 23, Sept. 3 and Sept. 7.
That’s terrible. These downtimes were long, too. Imagine Google being down so often. It just ain’t because it’s built on top of Free software, which is a lot more reliable (even Microsoft uses GNU/Linux internally [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], at least for the mission-critical stuff, like DNS).
“Microsoft looks into Hotfail bug” says this new headline:
WEBMAIL PROVIDER Microsoft is looking into a bug that is apparently affecting thousands of its Hotmail users.
We were first alerted to the problem by a reader, as, er, none of us use Hotmail. Ian, in South Africa has been unable to get into his account all week and, quite fairly, thought that there might have been a correlation between the Hotmail security updates we had reported and his being unable to access the service.
Nobody needs Microsoft for Fog Computing or for search. That’s why Microsoft is so desperately trying to destroy Google. It’s the only choice it has left. Microsoft is known for breaking stuff (like competition) and taking other people’s stuff; it rarely creates anything worth using (“Usually Microsoft doesn’t develop products, we buy products,” said Microsoft’s European business security product manager). Google has the thinkers, Microsoft has the bullies. █
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” –Albert Einstein
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Posted in Hardware, Microsoft, Windows at 12:25 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Kin7?
Summary: Microsoft Corporation is sinking and shrinking, but the threats move to other places and therefore we must keep track of them; on the bright side, the stack upon which Microsoft’s mobile development depends is in a state of crisis
THE GATES Foundation and other parts of the Microsoft movement (not just Microsoft the corporation) are the foundation which keeps this monocultural beast alive. The Gates Foundation is a subject we’ll leave aside for the time being and deal with separately because it’s more complicated and it’s also political, not just technological.
“Major Departures in Microsoft Leads to Promotions for Others” says this new headline, but the diaspora of executives also means that companies like Nokia, Yahoo! and many others get some Microsoft DNA in them. There goes some loyalty.
As Microsoft crumbles (which it undeniably does, based on several criteria/indicators), major departures will become a greater factor which shapes decision-making. Consider for example the recent resignation of Rosoff, the longtime Microsoft booster whose focus in CNET was often the Zune. He wrote about his departure in his blog and it made the news [1, 2, 3]. It doesn’t mean that Rosoff’s Microsoft boosting will end though. As one article puts it, “in a blog post on his personal blog, he announced he was leaving to join Silicon Alley Insider as West Coast Editor, continuing to focus on, and write about, Microsoft.”
“As Microsoft crumbles (which it undeniably does, based on several criteria/indicators), major departures will become a greater factor which shapes decision-making.”This means Microsoft boosters move somewhere else. To name these people for their biases and convictions is not really rude, we don’t insult them. It’s merely a way of identifying one’s financial/vested interests and sometimes it’s just known as disclosure (Mary Jo Foley, for example, does not provide a proper disclosure, just like many others who make a living from Microsoft literature).
Anyway, let us be aware that Adapx has just recruited a former Microsoft vice president who joined its board. We might come across Adapx in the future. Some of those startups in this area end up becoming complementary to Microsoft, e.g. Visible Technologies.
Another important migration is that of Knook, whom we saw in Microsoft's correspondence about DRM well before he moved from Microsoft to Vodafone. He worked for Microsoft for a long time and he finally left after he had served as the company’s head of the Windows Mobile unit. Now he leaves Vodafone and Microsoft folks wish to know where he goes (hopefully not Nokia for reasons we gave earlier this month).
Seventeen-year Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) veteran Pieter Knook joined in 2008 to direct a new internet services group in Vodafone.
The paper says his departure comes “after important aspects of the operation were scrapped” – namely, because Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) has stopped selling flagship Samsung handsets that bore the gubbins for its Vodafone 360 services suite and because Vodafone in March closed Wayfinder, the nav company it earlier bought for £22 million.
Knook left Microsoft when his unit was a disaster (it still is). As we stated last week, we prefer not to cover Windows Mobile/Phone/whatever_rebranding at this time (it would contribute to the $400 million marketing hype and it’s hard to resist sometimes), but we will only name this one article from which says “Zune is Dead” as it relates to Vista Phone 7 [sic]:
I think I know for whom the Windows Phone 7 ringtone tolls, and it is our old friend, the Zune player. My guess is that Microsoft won’t discontinue the Zune lineup (yet), but I do believe we have seen our last new Zune.
Zune is an example of the many products that fail to make money for Microsoft. At the moment there are also errors to be suffered by the few people who actually own a Zune. To quote: “A number of users — most of which seemed to be running 64-bit Windows 7 — began reporting memory-usage problems, via the Zune Forums, shortly after downloads of the client began.” Just another reminder of why using Vista 7 is risky.
“Zune is an example of the many products that fail to make money for Microsoft.”Vista Phone 7 [sic] is like Zune or KIN, only with a lot more marketing (the CEO’s career may truly depend on it). By the way, Microsoft is now using code which relates to Silverlight in its phones. This is not a good thing for the same reason that Zune overlap has been bad (see Kin for evidence). Microsoft won’t admit this formally, but Silverlight is a dying product [1, 2, 3, 4] and there is not a single headline (none found matching “Silverlight” in Google News) so far this month, or at least the 3 weeks prior to Sunday, based on the sample we have. If Zune and Silverlight both collapse, then there may be a chain effect collapsing Microsoft’s mobile business, whose market share is minuscule anyway and therefore does not justify an investment in its dependants. █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Site News at 11:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Techrights is in the December 2010 issue of Linux Format Magazine
FOR THOSE who want to know more about the history of Techrights, there is a new article in the December 2010 issue of Linux Format. The content is available only to subscribers. We thank Linux Format for generally being quite supportive over the years. There are some circles that are hostile towards us and upon closer inspection it usually turns out that they also oppose GNU/Linux and/or Free software, in which case this hostility may actually be indicative of the idea that we are effective. Techrights is still a group effort and achievements that are being made are communal, not personal. Thanks to all those who recommend the site to friends and colleagues, thus ensuring the continued growth of readership and input that accompanies it (recently we have been getting translations too). As for the somewhat controversial style, we explained it last month. █
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Posted in Antitrust, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 10:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Imagine being charged for a pension of any newly-born baby
Summary: Criticism of the actions of the European Commission, which did not go far enough when it comes to making competition fair in Europe
SO, now that we caught up with IRC logs and learned that there might be class action coming to battle against Windows bundling, it is worth recalling action from the European Commission. The officers should have taken the FSF's advice by ensuring that computers with GNU/Linux or no operating system at all are made available in Europe. Instead, a rather spineless attitude was taken and it was simply assumed that it’s okay for all computers to come with Windows as long as a second Web browser was at least offered as a choice (Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) would still be preinstalled and bundled with all new PCs). We wrote about this tirelessly in posts such as:
- Browser Ballot Critique
- Microsoft’s Fake “Choice” Campaign is Back
- Microsoft Claimed to be Cheating in Web Browsers Ballot
- Microsoft Loses Impact in the Web Despite Unfair Ballot Placements
- Given Choice, Customers Reject Microsoft
- Microsoft is Still Cheating in Browser Ballot — Claim
- Microsoft’s Browser Ballot is Broken Again and Internet Explorer 8 is Critically Flawed
- The Microsoft Who Cried “Wolf!”
“Browser Ballot Screen Early Feedback Shows Little Impact on Market Share” says this one report (well, IE is a mandatory option regardless of the ballot) and it says: “According to StatCounter reports, Microsoft’s European share has dropped from 44.9 percent in January to around 39.8 percent today, but it’s almost impossible to tell if the browser ballot screen is to blame. Experts argue that the decline curve seen in the EU matches losses in other markets, with much of the lost IE business moving over to Google Chrome. Google’s share of the European market has doubled to 11.9 percent over the past twelve months, and they even managed to pick up 5.8 percent during the same period in which IE shed 5.1 percent. Is this the result of the browser ballot screen? Or just Google making a more compelling product?”
The European Commission has not yet looked into the absurdity of Windows bundling with hardware. It probably ought to. It has become easier to contact Neelie Kroes now that she has a blog (powered by Free software) and a Twitter account, so people can raise the issue politely. She does read the feedback. “Microsoft Deal in Europe Barely Affects Browser Market,” says this headline from The New York Times. This too should be shown to the Commissioner. They did not go far enough, despite all of Microsoft’s whining (through lobbying groups like CompTIA and ACT).
Most of the decline has come amid gains by Google, which introduced Chrome in September 2008. Google’s share of the European market doubled this year, to 11.9 percent in October from 5.8 percent in January.
Many articles have been referencing Statcounter and claiming that Internet Explorer market share fell below 50%. We do not take these numbers seriously (as absolute values) because nothing is said about the distribution of the sampled population in the dataset. What matters here is the trend and it indicates that despite newer versions of IE coming out, erosion carries on. IE9 performance issues and the likes of that ought to ensure that it will change nothing for the better [1, 2, 3]. In fact, last night we posted a link to another set of benchmarks which puts IE9 almost last for its performance. The results are consistent, but truthfully it’s not a final version of IE9.
Microsoft’s booster Marius Oiaga is being a little amusing this month. Not only does he resort to IE9 raves (the product is not even out yet) but he also leaps ahead to Vista 8 vapourware in the context of “Antitrust Authorities” (damn! Those evil, evil regulators!) and he speaks about those non-existent products, making them look good based on mere promises which Microsoft is incapable of delivering on (IE9 performance being one example of false promises):
The information provided reveals that the Redmond company’s next iterations of IE and Windows are being evaluated.
“The State Plaintiffs and the TC (technical Committee) are currently testing beta versions of upcoming Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 releases for compliance with the Final Judgments,” the report indicates.
The technical committee should look at other operating systems (notably GNU/Linux and BSD) to learn how Microsoft impedes and restricts their availability. OEMs can do a wonderful job preparing those for almost any user, correcting market distortion by being given the leeway.
Here is another new example that we found of Vista 8 vapourware (almost purely speculative), which means that Microsoft is rather nervous and has no compelling products to show to OEMs at present (OEMs are Microsoft’s real clients as they buy about 80% of the licences). And no, Vista 7 ain’t it. It does not even sell well. █
“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
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