ONE MUST be deluded or seriously misinformed to actually believe that Microsoft is doing well, having just laid off many employees, admitted billions in losses, permanently ended many of its products, and then revealed a widely-loathed version of Windows which many people are simply unwilling to adopt. They won't 'upgrade' to it, not even for 'free' (a false promise even for those who 'upgrade'). Our confidential sources inside Microsoft say that even Microsoft staff doesn't like Vista 10.
"Remember that Microsoft already instructed Nokia to pass its patents to trolls such as MOSAID, i.e. trolls with a Linux-hostile track record."Müller, incidentally, also wrote about Corel suing Microsoft using patents, perpetuating an unverified myth that "Microsoft has numerous patent cross-license agreements in place (including with dozens of smartphone, tablet and netbook manufacturers who pay Microsoft considerable amounts of royalties on devices powered by Google's Android and Chrome operating systems)" (we do not know if Microsoft gets anything from these, except FUD and leverage). Remember that Microsoft's goal is not to make Android its own cash cow but to make it uneconomic (not competitive in terms of price) because of many small royalties, aggregated/combined from many non-producing directions/vectors, to ultimately become huge numbers (patent stacking with help from Microsoft-leaning trolls, of which there can be thousands). Consider Intellectual Ventures, which was pretty much the creation of Microsoft and Bill Gates. It already has thousands of proxies (to litigate from) and 2 days ago this bizarre piece was grooming it ("Built By Industry Leading Companies" even though it is undeniably Microsoft connected). This revisionism and grooming of the world's largest patent troll ought to worry everyone because in recent months Intellectual Ventures repeatedly used software patents to attack Android (we covered this at the time).
Putting aside the unverified claims from Müller (he has pro-Microsoft history and paychecks from Microsoft too), it is interesting to see Corel, which Microsoft destroyed like it later destroyed Novell and Nokia, taking Microsoft to court after all this time.
Another legal battle that made the news last week was to do with Motorola, a steward of Android (under Google) which Microsoft was extorting using patents. Google bought part of Motorola after Microsoft and other Android foes created CPTN and Rockstar, using patents from large companies that they bought. Those same Android foes wanted to buy Motorola's patents (based on credible reports), so Google had to act fast and prevent that by bidding defensively, even overpaying by a huge margin. If Android foes tried to buy Motorola's patents to weaponise them as well, having already used patents from companies like Novell and Nortel offensively, who can blame Google for buying Motorola's patents? And watch what Microsoft is already doing with Nokia's patents.
"Don't think that a dying company like Microsoft will just drop dead without a last fight."The Microsoft-Motorola situation quickly become a Microsoft-Google feud and some days ago Google lost this battle. To quote corporate media (Fortune): "The patent-fueled litigation frenzy among tech companies has finally subsided but, even as firms make nice with each other, there’s a lot of mopping up to do from the earlier fights that peaked around 2012. Take, for example, that time when Google GOOG bought Motorola and its patents in order to fight rivals, including Microsoft MSFT and Apple AAPL , who had ganged up to attack its Android devices."
There is a lot more coverage in legal sites, legal chronicles, and legal blogs, not to mention Microsoft-friendly sites, pro-Microsoft sites (by design) [1, 2], and much of the corporate media [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], even some smaller news sites [1, 2, 3], some of which focus on law [1, 2]. These all serve to remind us that Microsoft is still attacking Android (and by extension Linux) using software patents. Don't think that a dying company like Microsoft will just drop dead without a last fight. Secrecy has been Microsoft's strongest weapon here; it's a shame that many Linux-leaning sites have been ignoring or overlooking this. ⬆
Comments
boris
2015-08-06 04:26:10
It's also pretty hard to take your article seriously when 90% of the references cited throughout it are links to your own site.
Sorry but this is probably the most piss poor article I have read in quite a while. It is simply the author slagging off MS. And no I am not an 'MS fanboi', if anything I am an 'OpenBSD fanboi'.
Your article is so pathetic, one could be forgiven for thinking it came straight from the tabloid media.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2015-08-06 10:06:18
RavenNull
2015-08-06 10:56:05
boris
2015-08-06 15:58:19
You obviously only read the first sentence of my comment and missed this part:
It’s also pretty hard to take your article seriously when 90% of the references cited throughout it are links to your own site.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2015-08-06 16:02:15
Defamatory insults show you are not here for an adults' debate.
boris
2015-08-06 16:00:14
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2015-08-06 16:03:09
antiriad
2015-08-06 17:14:38
Michael_S
2015-08-06 16:35:42
1. Microsoft Windows 10 has the same digital rights management as Windows Vista, arguably more. But using the term "Vista 10" is silly. It's especially bad because it carries the implicit assumption that Windows XP or other pre-Vista products were good for consumers, digital rights management, freedom, or privacy. They were not. All Microsoft Windows is bad, just use the real name.
2. Windows 10 is a free upgrade for the same hardware you had for a previous version. It's not a free upgrade for hardware changes. That's not a surprise, that's been Microsoft policy since at least 2001.
3. The Windows 10 adoption rate has, if you believe the numbers, already hit 67 million machines. I would love to see Free, Libre, GNU/Linux installations take the world by storm but we don't have anywhere near that number. Calling Windows 10 a flop is dishonest.
4. The adoption rate for the start menu replacement software is in the less than 50,000 persons per day. If there are millions of people using Windows 10 already, that's still a lower than 1% adoption rate. Sad to say, my kids use Windows for video games and they're fine with the Windows 8 -style start screen interface.
5. Bill Gates has been gradually pulling money out of his Microsoft stock for years. It's not because he's lost faith in the company, it's because he's funding other ventures and his charity organization. He just announced another billion dollar investment in renewable energy. That money had to come from somewhere.
6. I've reviewed the links you provided and I don't see any credible evidence the company is in trouble. Their total debt level is still far less than cash on hand, and their annual net profit is enough to make their acquisition and destruction of Nokia a 7 billion dollar game. In fact, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella probably think killing Nokia for 7 billion was worthwhile simply because it stopped them from switching to Android (or some other alternative).
I can't prove that they are not deceiving the SEC and Wall Street. But I don't think you can prove that they are.
Now again, I agree with you that Microsoft is funding patent trolls across the board, waging completely dishonest publicity campaigns against competitors at every level, and fundamentally can't protect user privacy and rights while selling a proprietary operating system.
But I think your article was more harm than help for anyone that didn't already believe everything you wrote.
jbonline1010
2015-08-06 04:10:56
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2015-08-06 10:04:27
Can you please provide examples?
Can you please provide examples?
That's just the classic "irrational hatred" ad hominem tactic. Care to point out factual errors?
You have not said anything about the article itself.
RavenNull
2015-08-06 03:25:15
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2015-08-06 10:01:04
dbmuse
2015-08-07 01:37:17