01.16.12

IRC Proceedings: January 16th, 2012

Posted in IRC Logs at 8:35 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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#techrights log

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Enter the IRC channels now

Links 16/1/2012: Mandriva Deadline, Bada OS-Tizen Fusion

Posted in News Roundup at 12:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux Kernel Grows Past 15 Million Lines of Code
    • LessFS Pairs De-Duplication With Snappy Compression

      Btrfs isn’t the only file-system to take advantage of Google’s Snappy compression as a speedy means of transparent file compression, but the LessFS file-system has also supported Snappy for the past few months. This open-source file-system also has de-duplication support.

    • Graphics Stack

      • VMware’s New Graphics Architecture Is Shaping Up

        VMware’s overhauled Linux graphics driver stack is shaping up and coming together nicely in time for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which will allow for 2D/3D guest acceleration within virtualized guest machines.

        VMware’s graphics stack for use on their virtualization platform has been a long time coming. Back in 2009 they introduced their Gallium3D driver and the adjoining Linux kernel DRM, but up until now both have been considered experimental / staging and not built by default. With Mesa 8.0 and the Linux 3.2 kernel that has changed with both being considered stable and good enough for default use by its customers. Their mainline DRM driver also does kernel mode-setting for its virtual “SVGA II” graphics adapter.

      • DirectFB 1.6 Release Is Imminent With New Features

        DirectFB 1.6 is about to be released this month and it will bring new features to the Direct Frame-Buffer project.

        The DirectFB road-map for a while has long cited “The release of 1.6.0 is planned for end of January 2012.” Earlier this month on the mailing list it was then confirmed by Denis Oliver Kropp that the release is coming this month. “Correct, we’ve been too busy with other things, but this month we should see 1.6.0 :)”

      • Closer To Radeon H.264 VDPAU In Gallium3D

        On Sunday morning there were a number of video-related commits to Mesa for H.264 Gallium3D by AMD’s Christian König.

        While not yet a complete implementation, Christian König did land the H.264 infrastructure inside the VDPAU Gallium3D state tracker. This was only about 100 lines of code (commit) while several other commits pushed this morning also furthered the video support (commits by König).

      • Closer To Radeon H.264 VDPAU In Gallium3D

        On Sunday morning there were a number of video-related commits to Mesa for H.264 Gallium3D by AMD’s Christian König.

        While not yet a complete implementation, Christian König did land the H.264 infrastructure inside the VDPAU Gallium3D state tracker. This was only about 100 lines of code (commit) while several other commits pushed this morning also furthered the video support (commits by König).

      • Nouveau For Open-Source NVIDIA In Mesa 8.0 Is Mixed

        After looking last week at the ATI/AMD Radeon Gallium3D performance under Mesa 8.0 and comparing its performance to Mesa 7.11 and the closed-source AMD Catalyst driver, along with the LLVMpipe driver performance, we’re now focusing upon the Nouveau Gallium3D implementation that seeks to provide open-source NVIDIA hardware support. This comparison is pitting Nouveau in Mesa 8.0 against Mesa 7.11 and the official NVIDIA Linux driver.

      • In OpenCL Push, AMD Makes Progress With LLVM For Gallium3D

        On Sunday there was a new RFC patch-set by Tom Stellard of AMD with a new TGSI to LLVM conversion interface. The AMD R600 Gallium3D driver with its LLVM shader back-end was also updated, which is a prerequisite to OpenCL support.

        Sunday began by Christian König making progress with H.264 VDPAU support in Gallium3D, which is one of AMD’s top three priorities for their open-source Linux driver. Tom Stellard meanwhile has been working on one of the other priority projects: enabling OpenCL in the open-source driver.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

  • Distributions

    • Three Spins You May Not Have Heard Of

      Always on the lookout for something interesting I found three more esoteric spins of major distributions and set out to give them a quick test run.
      This was helped by a streak of bad luck recently which resulted in me suddenly having two partitions available.

      To give you a quick run down on the string of events, I set out to upgrade my Fedora 14 LXDE (i686) install I intended to use for gaming. There’s a well documented but unsupported procedure for Fedora called Preupgrade which allows to skip one release, in my part straight to F16. The software will then inspect your system, determine the packages that need to be upgraded, and download them into an archive that is installed at next reboot. You are warned that you need a wired connection if you just download the installer (Method 2), but that it’s ok to interrupt package download to resume at a later time. I did just that half way through to attend some business, but found out later that somehow even initiating the download of updates without installing them had already corrupted or removed wireless drivers.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mandriva: The ides of January are come

        So, today is January 15. Tomorrow, we will know if Mandriva Linux, a distro that has been around since 1998, is gone. One can but find a resemblance between this date and the prophecy that the soothsayer gave to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

    • Debian Family

      • Raphael Hertzog’s Debian Squeeze discs are well worth the money

        I’ve burned hundreds of Linux and BSD discs since I figured out what to do with an ISO sometime in late 2006/early 2007. I’ve saved many and gotten rid of many as well.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Interview with Quackers
          • My Unity 5.0 Experience

            Unity has improved a lot recently. I feel that I can continue using it if it’s memory consumption stays under control. I’m testing it on Ubuntu 12.04 which is currently in an early pre-release state. Unity crashed twice while writing this blog entry so I hope it’s just some underlying bugs that will be solved by the time Ubuntu 12.04 hits release.

            As for deploying it at client sites, I don’t think I could recommend that until it’s memory issues are resolved. Losing 1GB of RAM is a lot. Simple day to day tasks should be more intuitive (finding recent docs, accessing menus, accessing what used to be known as ‘Places’, etc), and it would help a lot if the Dash home were customisable (I couldn’t find a way to do it from within Unity or anything about it in the documentation). The Gnome 3 Fallback session is very solid and very familiar and I think I’ll continue to recommend it for the typical user desktop. At the rate that Unity is improving though, that might soon change.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Peppermint OS Two Review

              Peppermint OS is a distribution that is based on LUbuntu 11.04 (LXDE Desktop) and is geared to use more cloud applications. It’s sleek and simple desktop reminds us that a desktop doesn’t have to be cluttered to be useful.

              Peppermint can still allows you to add applications like any other distribution and note that it can easily be used on older machines.

              The software that is found on Peppermint OS has been carefully selected to make sure that resources are not over-utilized causing your system to slow down. Granted that this distribution is geared more towards cloud use, broadband internet would be of the utmost importance.

            • Following the unique way of Trisquel

              Trisquel is a GNU/Linux distribution with geographical roots in Spain. The project started off as localization of Linux for the Galician language, and later became more than just a local Linux distribution.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-Based EverSense, A Smart Thermostat

      Allure Energy has been turning the temperature up at CES 2012, with it’s new Linux-based EverSense, a tablet/ thermostat. Or as the company like to call it, “A home environment and energy management product.”

    • Phones

      • Samsung Sacrifices Bada To Make Linux OS Great

        Samsung has announced it plans on fusing its home-grown Bada operating system into the Linux based Tizen.

      • Samsung Planning To Merge Bada OS With Tizen
      • Samsung merging bada with Tizen for smartphone push

        Samsung has announced plans to merge its homegrown bada smartphone platform with open-source Tizen, a collaborative OS integrating Nokia-reject MeeGo, with the first Samsung Tizen devices tipped for release this year. ”We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen” Tae-Jin Kang, Senior Vice President of Samsung’s Contents Planning Team told Forbes at CES 2012 last week. Tizen will show up on “at least one to two” Samsung phones in 2012, Kang confirmed; earlier this month, details leaked on the Samsung I9500, believed to run the new platform.

      • Android

        • A Final Goodbye to Nokia and a Hello to Android

          Just a little over a year ago, I detailed why I opted for Nokia’s Maemo powered N900 instead of an Android device. To be precise, I purchased my Nokia N900 on the 4th of Jan 2011, and wow, what an excitement it was to hold such an incredible device. A full blown, Debian based GNU/Linux OS in my pocket.

          However, it was not long to be before the groundbreaking, expertly leaked burning platform memo to Engadget and the subsequent Elopcalypse of Feb 11 2011. For long time Nokia loyalists like yours truly, it was like a dream shattered. We’d always dreamed of having MeeGo as the third force in a fiercely competitive arena dominated by the two tech giants of North America: Google with their Android offering and Apple with iOS.

          But the all knowing Nokia board knew better. To salvage Nokia from its not so desperate situation, they had to bring in a former Microsoft employee to head a company that was at the forefront of pushing GNU/Linux to millions of people around the world. And as was expected, the inevitable happened: the bringing to its knees of one of the most powerful and recognized technology companies on Earth.

        • My favourite Android applications: Part 2
        • Intel’s Medfield series processor debuts on the Lenovo K800

          Intel has been trying to get into the smartphone segment for a long time now but they have finally managed to do it with the Lenovo K800, which will be the first smartphone to hit the market running on Intel’s 32nm Medfield platform.

        • HTC Explorer budget smartphone

          The latest from startlingly prolific smart phone manufacturer HTC won’t be top of the list for mobile aficionados. It’s a basic entry-level Android with middling specs though these are still probably a cut above its bog-standard price. But for smartphone newbies, what it offers may prove to be more than enough.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Indian Government May Ditch Aakash Tablet

        The foot in the mouth minister Kapil Sibal who bear the credit of launching half baked products and call for Internet censorship may pull plugs off yet another of his projects — this time its Android based Aakash Tablet.

        According to reports India’s Union human resource development (HRD) ministry may not extend the letter of credit (LC) to DataWind, the maker of Aakash.

      • USB 3.0 Is Coming to Smartphones and Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open source writing tools

    There has been an impressive change in tools and techniques which writers can use for the good. It is easy to locate one (or more) for individual needs. Whether it is writing a novel, graphics applications or tutorials, these writing tools can serve multipurpose. Writing skills can gain unmatched dimensions on integrating with these advanced techniques. Your love for writing can potentially experience a boost by adapting with the modern applications. You can search one and get many on the internet.

  • AURA Launches Alternative PHP Server Stack for IBM i

    AURA Equipments today launched iAMP Server, a free collection of software for running PHP workloads on the IBM i server. iAMP is composed of binaries for several products, including PHP, the standard Apache Web server, and the MySQL database. AURA says it developed iAMP, which runs primarily in the PASE AIX runtime, to provide IBM i shops with a standards-based alternative to Zend Technologies’ PHP solutions for the platform.

  • MathJax for mathematics, an open source that works in all modern browsers

    “MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers. No more setup for readers. No more browser plugins. No more font installations… It just works.”

  • Events

    • FOSDEM 2012, Hardware Security and Cryptography, Call for Papers

      This is a call for talks and presentations that will take place in the Security devroom at FOSDEM 2012. Do you develop software that can do HTTPS queries? Can it use keys and certificates on a smart card? Does your service use RSA keys for signing? Can it work with hardware keys? Are you interested in protecting your private keys like Three Letter Organizations or do you want to roll your own proper PKI with a smaller than five or six digit budget? How can we make cryptographic hardware Just Work with any application that uses crypto? The devroom is the place to share experiences and learn.

  • SaaS

  • Semi-Open Source

    • Jaspersoft drives open source analytics

      Jaspersoft says it is working closely with Red Hat to leverage its cloud application life cycle management tools. Jaspersoft’s reporting capabilities can be deployed on-premises, as well as public, private, or in a hybrid cloud environment.

  • BSD

  • Project Releases

    • Skrooge 1.2.0 gains new features

      Version 1.2.0 of the open source Skrooge personal finance manager has been released. The new version includes updates to the Search & Process plugin and adds the ability to Import & Export of non-local files.

Leftovers

  • Has Microsoft Word affected the way we work?

    But has word processing changed the way we write? There have been lots of inconclusive or unconvincing studies of how the technology has affected, say, the quality of student essays – how it facilitates plagiarism. The most interesting academic study I looked at found that writers using computers “spent more time on a first draft and less on finalising a text, pursued a more fragmentary writing process, tended to revise more extensively at the beginning of the writing process, attended more to lower linguistic levels [letter, word] and formal properties of the text, and did not normally undertake any systematic revision of their work before finishing”.

    My hunch is that using a word processor makes writing more like sculpting in clay. Because it’s so easy to revise, one begins by hacking out a rough draft which is then iteratively reshaped – cutting bits out here, adding bits there, gradually licking the thing into some kind of shape.

  • ISC seeks wider input for BIND 10

    The Internet Systems Consortium is looking for a few more good programmers to bring the next generation of its open source BIND DNS server software to fruition.

    “The goal is to move away from having BIND a heavily sponsored corporate product,” said Shane Kerr, ISC’s BIND 10 engineering manager. “ISC will always maintain ownership of the code, but we would like there to be more of a community around it.”

  • Security

    • Malicious Software Attacks Security Cards Used by Pentagon

      Chinese hackers have deployed a new cyber weapon that is aimed at the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and potentially a number of other United States government agencies and businesses, security researchers say.

  • Finance

    • Greenspan’s Laissez Fairy Tale

      We continue to witness remarkable developments in the intersection of the related fields of economics, finance, ethics, law, and regulation. Each of these five fields ignores a sixth related field – white-collar criminology. The six fields share a renewed interest in trust. The key questions are why we trust (some) others, when that trust is well-placed, and when that trust is harmful. Only white-collar criminologists study and write extensively about the last question. The primary answer that the five fields give to the first question is reputation. The five fields almost invariably see reputation as positive and singular. This is dangerously naïve. Criminals often find it desirable to develop multiple, complex reputations and the best way for many CEOs to develop a sterling reputation is to lead a control fraud. Those are subjects for future columns.

    • Farewell, lost AAA

      It is official. Two months and a half after I claimed all these “last chance” european summits would amount to nothing really important and would not change the course of the present events, France lost its “sacred” triple A ratings. Given that many people explained how unreliable these rating agencies are -after all the very same agencies did claim Greece had solid finances and Goldman Sachs was doing things right four years ago- it should not be a serious thing. Yet, the consequences of the loss of the AAA rating will be real, and will probably have a snowballing effect in Europe (another one).

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Scott Walker’s Texas Rangers

      It has been a tough holiday season for Scott Walker. The state lost 14,600 jobs in November and a new government report indicates that Wisconsin leads the nation in killing public sector jobs. A November poll has support for the recall of the governor at 58 percent, up from 47 percent in the spring, and next week Wisconsin residents are preparing to file over 500,000 recall petitions to trigger a gubernatorial recall. Is it any wonder that Wisconsin’s governor decided to fly to Texas to find a friendlier crowd?

    • Emotional news framing affects public response to crises

      When organizational crises occur, such as plane crashes or automobile recalls, public relations practitioners develop strategies for substantive action and effective communication. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that the way in which news coverage of a crisis is framed affects the public’s emotional response toward the company involved.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Canadian content doing just fine without regulator — on the Internet

      Even without a leg-up from regulators, Canadian content is just as likely to be watched as American programming — online, anyway.

      Despite not being held to the same “Cancon” carriage rules as traditional broadcasters, YouTube reports that Canadian videos are being sought-out and viewed at a rate roughly on par with those originating in the U.S. And the sheer amount of content is staggering.

      Analysts say there are so many uploads from this country, it would take half a lifetime to watch just one year’s worth — and that’s if you never left the computer to sleep. Annually, in fact, they calculate that the site features more original Canadian content than has ever been broadcast during prime time on CBC (English and French) and CTV combined.

    • Complaints about online traffic delays accelerating, says CRTC

      Complaints against Internet providers deliberately slowing down online traffic are way up in Canada, according to the telecommunications regulator.

      Fifty-two complaints have been filed since last fall, when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission issued a public reminder to Internet service providers about the rules on controlling the flow of traffic on their networks.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • White House To Oppose SOPA

        The White House has responded to the petition agains ant-freedom bills SOPA, PIPA and OPEN (Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act).

      • SOPA Will Ultimately Be Our Fault

        As was the DMCA

        As was The Patriot Act

        As was The NDAA.

        And so it will be for SOPA/PIPA.

      • Copyright Wars escalate: Britain to extradite student to US over link site

        Richard O’Dwyer, the 23-year-old British college student who operated the TVShack link site, can be extradited to the United States, ruled Judge Quentin Purdy of the Westminster Magistrates Court today. O’Dwyer’s attorney says he will appeal the ruling.

      • Big Content: the frenemy of consumer electronics makers

        A trip to CES is a combination of candy store window shopping and a trip to some nightmarish, dystopian future with thirteen-dollar-an-hour WiFi. Beneath all of the shiny gadgets, desperate marketing pitches, bizarre keynotes and sleep deprivation, there were a number of themes emerging at CES as the manufacturers of all these shiny toys tried to latch onto something to pull themselves out of the doldrums that hung over the last year. One was the lengths device-makers will go to for content; another was the anointment of “cloud” as a critical feature check-box.

      • Libraries are the best counter to piracy

CPTN (Microsoft, Apple, Oracle) Attack on Android Faces New Setbacks

Posted in Apple, Courtroom, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents at 11:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Crocodile attack

Summary: Microsoft’s extortion of Android leads to passage of patents to Google, Apple loses its cases against Android, and Oracle too is gradually losing the argument against Dalvik

WE recently addressed the transfer of patents from OIN member IBM to OIN member Google (it is reported on as though it’s a sale) and we continue to see this sort of arms trade being done under a cloak of secrecy. One conspiracy against another, eh? To quote this new example:

Cryptography Research, Inc. (CRI), a division of Rambus, Inc., and CPU Technology, Inc. have signed a patent license agreement regarding the use of CRI’s patented innovations in CPU Tech products. This agreement covers the use of CRI’s patented countermeasures to differential power analysis (DPA) attacks for CPU Tech’s tamper-resistant products, including the Acalis® family of secure processors. This license also covers software developed by CPU Tech customers when executing on licensed CPU Tech chips.

These are software-related deals that involve submarine patents. Rambus, the company behind all this, is an atrocious aggressor [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. In many ways, years ago we compared the practices of Rambus to those of Microsoft, which no longer makes stuff that can sell; instead, Microsoft wants to compel people to pay up for something they do not want and never chose. Right now Microsoft is trying to force buyers of Android phones to pay Microsoft for a “licence” and LG signed the latest deal of this kind. Here are some interesting observations or theories from Muktware:

Is Android Part Of Microsoft’ Windows Phone License?

[...]

Let’s see what Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez has to say, “We are pleased to have built upon our longstanding relationship with LG to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.”

This statement is very important: “built upon our longstanding relationship”. If we look at Microsoft’s Android deals you will notice a pattern. Microsoft has succeeded in cracking deals with those players who are already Microsoft customers. Samsung, LG, HTC are all Microsoft partners as they use Microsoft OS in their devices. Why is Microsoft not excited about telling the world that their ‘longtime partners’ Samsung, LG or HTC will be putting Windows on their phones? Because, the Android deals could very well be the Windows deals painted as Android deals.

Here is a hypothetical scenario:
Microsoft Executives to LG: “We want you to commit to putting Windows Phone OS on x number of your devices. If you do commit that we won’t raise any Linux patent issues. In fact with Windows Phone License you will also get Android protection.”

What will LG do? Its a win win situation for them. They are getting Android protection for free with Windows phone license. Why will they even consider raising issues about patents.

Now how to hide the fact that it was a Windows phone deal, ‘sign an NDA’ so that the rest of the world won’t know the reality.

Ghabuntu explains why Microsoft’s WP7 is failing and notes that:

5. The OEMs just love Android: Why? Because it gives them the power to differentiate themselves completely from their competitors. Given its open nature, it is always easy and safe to model Android into anything one can think of, an example being what Amazon did with it on its Kindle Fire tablets. Which company would not love such an offering? It’s little wonder that even the home pages of almost all the device makers readily feature Android phones, with WP7 a few clicks down the menu. I don’t know the extent of customization Microsoft allows the OEMs, but it sure will not be on the scale Google gives them with Android.

Dr. Moody explains why on tablets too it is Android which is likely to win:

You don’t have to be a marketing genius or industry pundit to foresee that tablets will be an extremely hot sector in 2012. The launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010 largely defined the category, just as the launch of the iPhone defined a new kind of smartphone in 2007; in 2012 we will probably begin to see Android tablets start to gain major market share just as Android smartphones have done this year.

Currently, the tablet is something of a cross between the hipster tech toy of choice and a trivially easy-to-use computing device for couch potatoes. But those early sectors are incidental to the tablet’s real potential to revolutionize education, particularly in emerging economies.

The devices are perfect: they are compact, connect to the Net wirelessly, run off battery power for hours and can be used by children and adults alike with little or no training. There’s just one problem, of course: the typical tablet’s high-end pricing – hundreds of dollars – places it so far out of reach for most of the world’s population that it might as well not exist for them. That is what makes India’s Aakash tablet – basic cost around $50, but only $37 for Indian students thanks to a government subsidy – so remarkable, and so important.

For those who think that Apple can just sue Android out of existence, here is some news [1, 2, 3] that should worry Apple because “[t]he US International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled against Apple in its patent suit against rival mobile vendor Motorola.”

The CPTN members (Novell patents) just cannot seem to keep Android away, no matter the number of lawsuits they launch along with predictions (FUD) of doom and gloom. As Mr. Pogson shows:

It’s always fun to see the school-yard bully take his lumps:

* ITC: Motorola does not violate Apple patents
* Oracle v. Google – Rock, Meet Hard Place
* Barnes & Noble Opposes Microsoft’s Motion for SJ on Patent Misuse Defense ~pj

Here is the latest from Groklaw: [via]

Judge Alsup is also not buying Oracle’s minimalist argument on how long the trial will take. He says it will be a two-month trial. And a possible date for the trial is a moving target because the rest of Judge Alsup’s docket continues to fill up, i.e., other trials continue to be calendared, further delaying the scheduling of this trial.

Of course, a further delay has the added impact of allowing the reexaminations before the USPTO to run their course, and the last we looked those reexaminations were not favoring Oracle.

Rock, meet hard place. In the other filing of the day we see Google’s (final) supplemental brief [PDF; Text] in support of its Motion in Limine No. 3 – the motion to exclude portions of the Cockburn report. Although this brief is not particularly timely (for us as readers) given that Judge Alsup has already ruled on the matter, it is noteworthy with respect to the main thrust of Google’s argument, i.e., challenging Oracle for continuing to ignore the actual Google arguments and trekking off on unrelated and irrelevant matters. No doubt we have seen this behavior before by Oracle counsel, but what reinforces it in this instance is the fact that Judge Alsup recognizes the Oracle behavior himself. Thus, the ruling against Oracle on the Cockburn report.

However, Google goes even further in this brief. Google argues that Cockburn never investigated or understood the real deal on the table between Sun and Google back in 2006. In a supplemental filing Google provides a Sun slide presentation [PDF] on the discussions, and it is fascinating. It would appear from the presentation that Sun wanted the deal with Google badly. It is also clear that the deal on the table would have been Java compatible, thus undercutting the fragmentation argument that Oracle keeps making to support a higher damages claim.

Oracle has other ongoing patent cases based on this new report:

JDA Software powered its way through 2011 to post decent financial numbers despite the legal battles it fought with Oracle over patent infringements and a lawsuit it inherited with the acquisition of i2 in August 2010.

We keep insisting that Oracle may have attacked Android because Steve Jobs is Larry Ellison’s best friend. Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft are all CPTN members, which ties it all together with Novell and its sellout again. We were right all along about those patents. █

Microsoft is Finished on Devices, Tries Cheating and Perhaps Should be Sued

Posted in Antitrust, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Windows at 10:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Strong-arming the ARM world

CPU

Summary: Experts insinuate that Windows won’t make it in portable devices and Microsoft tries using legal (or illegal) instruments to distort the market instead

MICROSOFT is desperate to make a dent in the phones and tablets market, seeing damn well and also acknowledging that the desktops/laptops business is not growing anymore. The x86 monopoly is having a quiet crisis and Intel is still scrambling to find ways to evolve (Atom wasn’t it).

Windows applications are typically compiled only for 32-bit Intel-conformant architectures (and sometimes 64-bit too). As soon as Microsoft steps out of x86 world, it has almost no applications, so the inertia is gone. Analysts realise that Windows on ARM is a non-starter and to quote this latest example from the news (there are several new ones):

Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS was shown on a handful of prototype ARM-based tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, but almost no one was allowed to try it out.

There is nothing impressive about it and certainly a lot less applications than Android/Linux has got. Microsoft is suddenly the underdog, whereas Linux is among the market leaders. This is why Microsoft thinks it can afford to distort the market, being the corrupt company Microsoft has always been. First it tried to force ARM devices to be crippled and thus made unattractive for Linux and then it got worse.

A few days ago we wrote about UEFI fears being confirmed. Microsoft cannot use the ‘security’ excuse for a platform that has about 0% in ARM devices. It’s just about blocking the real dominant platform on new devices, notably Android. Microsoft managers cheat because they command no share there and Mr. Pogson, among several news sites, was quick to respond.

It’s been a few years since Microsoft really shot itself in the foot by making itself look really unfriendly, and someone at the company must’ve been missing the pain. A careful read of the company’s “Windows 8 Hardware Certification Requirements” document has revealed draconian policies that require vendors to block the installation of other operating systems on ARM devices.

First, a bit of history. Earlier this fall, Microsoft briefly made waves when it announced that Windows 8 would require that UEFI (the successor to BIOS) Secure Boot be enabled on all systems that ship with Windows 8 installed. Secure Boot uses vendor-provided signed keys to ensure that the OS in question has been properly validated. The concern was that this process could be used to effectively prevent the installation of Linux on ARM products.

Helios has his own take too:

From recent news, it seems that Microsoft banned booting of Linux or any other operating system on ARM based Windows 8 devices. From this decision of Microsoft, it seems that they are ready to war with GNU/Linux operating system. Due to the UEFI secure boot protocol, any other OS rather than Windows 8 can not run on ARM based devices.

Here is the good take of Muktware:

When Microsoft published The Certification Requirements for Windows 8 it was evident that the company wanted to use the secure boot to lock Linux out of such hardware, thus creating a Windows only hardware. The discovery lead to a strong protest from the FLOSS community. Microsoft allowed the non-ARM hardware to be able to run Linux if the hardware vendors chooses to allow that. But as we saw the arrival of ARM on desktop Microsoft “wasted no time in revising its Windows Hardware Certification Requirements to effectively ban most alternative operating systems on ARM-based devices that ship with Windows 8.”

The illegality of this is also being debated in the news:

Microsoft has been discovered to have changed its requirements for the upcoming ARM version of Windows 8. The change essentially will prohibit ARM devices, including PCs, from running operating systems other than Windows 8 after they ship to customers.

Specifically, Microsoft recently amended its requirements for ARM Windows 8 System Builders. Unlike Windows 8 for Intel-compatible (x86 & x64) machines, the ARM version of Windows 8 will not be sold to the public. To purchase an ARM version of Windows 8, you will have to purchase a device with it pre-loaded (similar to Windows CE devices today, such as Windows Phone). The new requirement calls for utilizing UEFI Secure Boot, a technology that forces manufacturers to instruct devices to boot code certified by the manufacturer for the device.

If the hardware is to be digitally signed for Windows only, how does that benefit anyone except Microsoft? Even Microsoft boosters are not trying to defend or provide coverup for what Microsoft is doing here. Yes, even those who are like PR agents for the company find themselves disagreeing with Microsoft. Varghese notes that antitrust might not be a possibility here:

For one, the PC world is dominated by Intel, which is a founding member of the UEFI. Hence, in the case of Intel-based devices, Microsoft’s requirements are close to those required by this body.

Secondly, ARM devices could be locked down without any fear of customer backlash as there was no support for older versions of Windows; on the PC platform, this was not the case. Customers who did not like Windows 8 might like to load Windows 7 or XP and would be angered if they could not.

And finally, the SFLC pointed out, there was no chance of anti-trust concerns being raised with regard to mobile devices as Microsoft had a very small share of the market. The reverse was the case with the PC and Windows.

How about a lawsuit then? Why should Microsoft be allowed to get away with it after numerous convictions for monopoly abuse? This is how Microsoft distorted the market in the past — by cheating time after time whilst everyone was too passive, trusting an “invisible hand” perhaps. █

OpenSUSE: Out of Stock. SUSE: Good for Microsoft’s Stock

Posted in Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Patents, VMware at 10:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Peace of mind

Summary: OpenSUSE is still being neglected, whereas the product it is used to promote (Microsoft Linux/Ballnux) gets promoted by former Microsoft executives who run VMware

THE OPENSUSE project is a PR sidekick of Microsoft Linux, which is one of the few distributions that Microsoft endorses (for they pay Microsoft a patent fee).

According to numerous reports, the download servers are down and the OpenSUSE site itself acknowledges this:

The SAN array of the backend server server seems to have lost 3 hard disk at once now.

That means the array with the built RPMs is broken atm. We are currently checking and replacing from backups – but since not all binary parts of the projects are in backup it means that we will need to rebuild some of them afterwards. This will take time until Monday, 2012-01-16.

That’s today. Well, previously when OpenSUSE had server issues it sought help from volunteers or donations/sponsors rather than Novell. This just comes to show how much the company cares about this PR front; letting it be down for such a long duration of time is truly a sign. Had it been SUSE (Microsoft Linux), things would be brought back up promptly (and also properly backed up with redundancy). Here we find another new article about the Microsoft Linux push that we mentioned the other day.

One news article says:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Now On Dell Cloud With VMware vCloud DC Service

SUSE has announced that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the first Linux distribution for Dell’s new VMware software-based cloud offering, Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service. SUSE Linux Enterprise offers the broadest application portfolio, as well as optimisation with the VMware cloud infrastructure suite. Now, Dell customers can efficiently run a wide range of ISV applications, on demand with maximum performance, while receiving streamlined support from Dell and SUSE across the Dell public and private cloud offerings.

Here is another take which goes like this: “The new Dell Cloud Datacenter Service has embraced SUSE as its first Linux platform. The hidden twist: The Dell-SUSE announcement is likely built on the SUSE-VMware relationship, which seeks to counter Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.”

As we showed in previous posts, Microsoft veterans run VMware and the monopolist seeks to hijack the competition wherever it may be, knowing that the days of Windows may be numbered. As one person put it the other day:

Not that this means Microsoft is going away. It just means they will become steadily less relevant, and steadily less required. Because people will want to work, and play, with handhelds and tablets, and they won’t put up with applications that require a desktop-with-Windows. And that’s good news.

Microsoft is busy trying to hijack or tax those who win in today’s market. The solution is to boycott those who serve as proxies of Microsoft. █

FOSDEM Talk on Software Patenting in Europe

Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Benjamin Henrion and Andre of FFII

Summary: The president of the FFII to appear in FOSDEM 2012

THE past week has been relatively quiet on the parents front, but this does not mean that behind closed doors there are no attempts to legalise software patents in Europe, for instance.

The president of the FFII will explain the patent situation in Europe, so those who attend FOSDEM might want to go to this talk. In his own words:

Will talk about the EU software patents via a central patent court at FOSDEM 2012, Saturday 6pm ur1.ca/7h5j8

Slides (if any) will hopefully be put online.

Based on some other new tweets of interest:

Costa Rica does not accept software patents as valid bit.ly/xrvob9 via @oscarretana

New Zealand is currently grappling with this question as well, quite notably in fact. The problem is that loopholes often exists for patenting software where it is not legal to do so. █

When Microsoft Windows Aids Violation of the Law

Posted in Microsoft, Security, Windows at 10:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Binary security is no security

Dotted world

Summary: Personal and financial damage incurred due to security flaws in Windows

WE NO longer cover stories about the inherent insecurity of Microsoft Windows (it’s a repetitive issue), but sometimes we make the exception. According to this report which Slashdot has highlighted:

Personal banking information and other data from perhaps tens of thousands of students, faculty and administrators at City College of San Francisco have been stolen in what is being called “an infestation” of computer viruses with origins in criminal networks in Russia, China and other countries, The Chronicle has learned.

At work for more than a decade, the viruses were detected a few days after Thanksgiving, when the college’s data security monitoring service detected an unusual pattern of computer traffic, flagging trouble.

Guess what? Microsoft is unlikely to be held liable. Thus, the best solution is to just avoid its products. █

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