Summary: Microsoft’s Linux internment and Microsoft Linux (SUSE) in the news; a little bit about GroupWise too

MICROSOFT has been creating its own internment pen for GNU/Linux users and it is looking to hire a mole to handle operations and lure some innocent sheep in.

As Microsoft boosters put it, Microsoft has Red Hat customers in sight. Microsoft already taxes Red Hat Linux (servers) at Amazon and now on its own turf it is trying to take this extortion further. Aiding Microsoft’s efforts we have had SUSE for a while, but fortunately Dell is moving away from that (although not to the right system, feeding Oracle instead). From a new page:

How Dell Migrated from SUSE Linux to Oracle Linux

Switching the underlying operating system on a single server is not trivial. Neither is dealing with the related conversion and compatibility issues. Imagine what’s involved in switching the operating system on thousands of servers spread globally across an enterprise, like Dell just did.

The good news here is that Dell itself won’t pay Microsoft tax (for its own systems), but at the same time Dell is actively promoting Microsoft-taxed Linux for OEMs solution, which troubles us a bit. It’s a signed deal which has the VAR Guy arguing about SUSE Studio:

Dell Servers Embrace SUSE Linux, But SUSE Studio Is Real Story

[...]

No doubt, Dell has relationships with multiple Linux distributions — including SUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Canonical Ubuntu. But SUSE apparently is the “first Linux vendor” in the Dell OEM Technology Partner program.

Sort of makes you wonder: Is something deeper brewing between Dell and SUSE? Hmmm…

This is just another reason to actually avoid Dell, but Joe Brockmeier, the former Novell employee, is promoting this. VAR Guy, who has also been close to Novell over the years, goes ahead and promotes GroupWise, which sane Web sites say nobody cares about anymore (and they are right). To quote:

No One Cares That Novell Has A New Version of GroupWise

Today Novell released its 2012 version of its email software GroupWise, and the announcement was greeted by most with a big yawn. GroupWise? Seems so last century. (Actually, the last updates to the software were for version 8 back in 2008-2010.) According to one analyst, “GroupWise has 10,000 customers and is used by 47 of the 50 US state governments.” It has been a distant third to Exchange and Lotus Notes for a while, and many GroupWise customers have switched over to Google Apps in the past several years.

GroupWise is proprietary and it distracts from Free/Open Source options that work equally well or better. GroupWise — like SUSE — is a solution in search of a problem, much like OpenSUSE when it looks for other people’s work again (trying to ape Linux Mint in this case). SUSE over the past 5+ years has been just a product for Microsoft to tax GNU/Linux through. It lacks technical merit/advantage and the latest release of OpenSUSE — as put in this new review — “was released too early. Period.” Boycott Novell and boycott SUSE. █

Summary: How Dell is promoting Microsoft patent tax on GNU/Linux and how Tuxera makes Linux more Windows-like (with Microsoft’s limitations and patent tax, too)

DELL is said to be taking it up a notch with Microsoft Linux, shortly after another Dell and VMware announcement. This is troubling because Dell is promoting Microsoft tax on GNU/Linux by doing this.

Meanwhile, another taxer of Linux, Tuxera, brings out more Trojan horses:

Most distributions use the Tuxera community program for NTFS support; the driver in the Linux kernel has not been actively worked on for some time now. NTFS-3G and Ntfsprogs, originally separate projects, were combined last year.

Well, Tuxera in the kernel would be a problem for the same reason Novell was. What Novell did was put Microsoft hooks inside Linux, thus promoting the dependence of Linux on Microsoft (e.g. Hyper-V). Surely enough, the work of Novell will then be propagated to other vendors of Linux, so Microsoft uses companies like Novell and Tuxera to carry out Microsoft’s dirty work, in exchange for money. It’s about bringing Linux closer to the Microsoft environment, not Linux environments. █

IT has been shown here for years that Novell promotes Microsoft Windows and it is still helping Windows in all sorts of new ways. Maybe it’s just because of Novell’s legacy, however there are cases where Novell promotes Windows even when it need not do so. One must bear in mind that Microsoft paid Novell a lot of money to bend over. This money had many strings attached to it.

According to this new press release and its various copies or derivative articles, SUSE-Windows duality persists partly because Novell — now paid by Microsoft — helps Windows in HPC.

Penguin Computing, experts in high-performance computing (HPC), today announced the immediate availability of Penguin Computing’s Cluster Management suite Scyld ClusterWare with support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell.

Novell is also sharing space with Windows in the POS market (press release more properly covered by Jonathan Angel) and following Dell's joining the Novell/Microsoft deal (applicable since 2007) there is also a new press release about addition of Ballnux appliances (taxed by Microsoft):

Novell today announced Dell has joined the SUSE® Appliance Program to build, deploy and maintain a wide range of Dell-branded software appliances. This agreement will enable Dell to deliver applications as ready-to-deploy virtual or hardware appliances powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Opsview says it is adding “native SUSE Linux support”, but who needs Ballnux when there are already so many GNU/Linux distributions (which are not taxed by Microsoft)?

Opsview has announced that the latest open source version of the network and application monitoring application, Opsview Community 3.11, now has native support for SUSE Linux. Opsview consider that SUSE Linux’ future has been assured by the acquisition of Novell by Attachmate and believes demand for SUSE Linux support in 2011 “will be stronger than ever before”. Opsview’s Product Manager, James Peel, said “SUSE Linux has significant share in the enterprise and its support was increasingly requested by our customers and community so we are delighted to respond to this demand”.

The bottom line is, Novell helps Microsoft and Windows. Even when someone buys SUSE it ought to be apparent that Novell pays Microsoft for it, so no matter which operating system one chooses, Microsoft gets paid. That’s Novell’s vision after being paid hundreds of millions of dollars by Microsoft. Novell is now passing about half of all its patents to a Microsoft-organised cartel named CPTN.

Those who care about GNU/Linux won’t buy from Novell. █

Vista Phony 7 is a poor product. One British review says that “Windows Phone 7 can’t yet hold a candle to iOS or Android for polish or content.” In response to this, a reader of ours wrote in Identi.ca: “Good, at least one Microsoft product doesn’t hold a candle. Tired to hear Linux doesn’t hold candles…”

Here are some more reviews of the platform, bearing headlines like “Early Reviews Peg Windows Phone 7 As Still Lagging Behind iOS”; “Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Is OK, but Has Holes, Reviews Say”; “Top 5 things I dislike about Windows Phone 7″; “Windows Phone 7: Microsoft’s Disaster”; “Microsoft Windows 7 phone: Poor cousin of iPhone for the money conscious Indian market?” and “Confessions of an iPhone User: Why I Don’t Like Windows Phone 7″,. Watch the MSNBC spin and mind Dell’s delays [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], which we interpret as Dell putting this under a low priority amidst other problems it has given Microsoft:

A batch of court documents The New York Times pressed to unseal has more details about a flood of faulty computers the company sold in 2003 to 2005.

Dell also develops some devices with Android, preinstalls GNU/Linux on servers, and sells PCs with Ubuntu on them.

For those who believe that only Dell is a Microsoft partner that gets cold feet, well… how about LG? As Microsoft’s Bright booster puts it, based on this new report, “LG [is] disappointed by Windows Phone 7 launch” (more reasons for Dell to call the whole thing off).

LG has gone on record saying that Windows Phone 7 hasn’t performed as well as it thought it would, following the launch of the mobile OS in October.

“From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected”, James Choi, marketing strategy and planning team director of LG Electronics global told Pocket-lint in a one-to-one interview.

In light of many problems that may or may not have culminated in Vista Phony 7′s failure, more and more people call for Steve Ballmer’s resignation/ousting and the latest such call comes from ZDNet’s main blog:

At the time, I wrote that it may be time to yank Microsoft off of the keynote stage. But maybe it’s not Microsoft that needs to go. Maybe it’s Ballmer.

Times are getting interesting now that Windows becomes rather extinct in the mobile arena, which is one of the fastest-growing markets. █

Summary: The headache which is software patents continues to ruin US-based businesses; the FSF has another opportunity to ask IBM to end software patents rather than promote them

ANOTHER day, another attack on innovation. Rather than hear about a new (“innovative”) product we learn about legal action against Dell and LogMeIn, which achieves the very opposite of innovation. The press release from Toronto may remind outside observers of the i4i case because, just like i4i, 01 Communique uses a US patent to attack American commerce from Canada. This helps show how software patents put the United States in a position of disadvantage, just as Richard Stallman warned more than half a decade ago.

Here is some more coverage about this new case [1, 2, 3].

Already a headache for Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS), 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (OCQLF, ONE.T) could soon be a full-blown migraine for numerous other companies that provide remote access to personal computers.

[...]

While no royalty has been set, average royalty rates for software patents are among the highest in the technology industry at about 11.5%, according to data compiled by AUS Consulting Inc., a financial consulting firm based in Mount Laurel, N.J.

That latter part helps explains the harms of software patents in particular.

The USPTO, now run by a former IBM employee (IBM is in favour of software patents), continues to look like more of a joke thanks to IBM’s patent/monopoly obsession. “IBM Patents Guessing How Many Kids Are On A School Bus,” says this headlines from TechDirt which explains the details in simple term:

theodp writes “Self-described patent reformer IBM was awarded a patent Tuesday for Utilizing Gross Vehicle Weight to Determine Passenger Numbers. And yes, the ‘invention’ of five IBMers is what you think it is – from the Abstract: ‘A total weight of passengers on the vehicle is divided by an estimated weight of each of the passengers to estimate how many passengers are on the vehicle.’ First-graders everywhere will no doubt rejoice to learn that the elusive how-many-kids-are-on-the-school-bus problem has finally been solved!”

What is IBM thinking? It previously withdrew an outrageous patent, but only after it had received a lot of public backlash in Slashdot and elsewhere. Right now it’s Oracle that gets a lot of backlash, fueled by a new statement from the FSF. Many other sources are backing that official statement of the FSF or parsing it a little further [1, 2, 3, 4]. Oracle and IBM are the two major funding sources of the FSF and maybe it’s time for the FSF to also denounce IBM for its lobbying for software patents. Oracle actually has a history of opposing software patents. Neither IBM not Oracle is exactly helpful to the FSF when it comes to patent policy. █

Summary: IBM is buying the news, this time in India

The Economic Times publishes a lot of Microsoft PR and earlier this week we caught it publishing a “sponsored story” for IBM. Yes, it even says that it’s a “sponsored story”, so there is no question about it. Is this the future of journalism? Even in the Economic Times, which is considered a mainstream publication and “official” source? What is the role of journalists then? Are they becoming just another tier in PR operations, like Microsoft's Peter Galli for instance? It seems like Dell has begun something similar with journalists (see screenshot above with former Noveller Zonker).

Either way, see for yourselves one paragraph which IBM paid for. To the authors’ credit (probably IBM), at least they are honest about it over at the Economic Times. Some others would probably omit the evidence of sellout altogether:

Not only IBM, but there are other companies too that provide collaborative tools. Novell GroupWise gives a wide range of collaborative tools to create a “plugged in” work environment. Novell Pulse enables real-time communication, authoring and social messaging for the enterprise. Microsoft offers Live and NetMeeting. But IBM’s Sametime is a class apart.

Says who? IBM? The Economic Times? It doesn’t matter. It’s all just PR masquerading as journalism [1, 2], even in a major paper. █

“[A]fter analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Herald gets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.”

–“Over half your news is spin”

Summary: Microsoft loses its power struggle in the Free/open source community and the OEM channel; One of our readers opines that Microsoft may have been responsible for Hurd’s departure from HP

MICROSOFT is going through some tough times (unless one minds the PR). Fortunately, Microsoft is collapsing as even attempts to “embrace and extend” the free/libre competition bite the dust [1, 2, 3] and Microsoft Gavin spins it too weakly for Microsoft. “Microsoft has reportedly refused to comment officially on the changes,” he writes and “[r]eading between the lines, it would seem that Microsoft’s push for Microsoft-versions of dynamic languages has fallen victim to overall budget cuts and changing priorities.”

Jason Perlow suggests breaking up the company and famous columnist Robert X. Cringley is having a go at Microsoft as well (he “seems to sort of use Mac, not sure that’s true,” says a reader of ours. “But the same points could be used for switching to Linux as well.”):

It’s kind of pathetic, really. Most of these arguments are premised on the notion that if you’ve already wasted most of your adult life using Windows, you’ll be more familiar with it than the Mac, so you might as well waste the rest of your adult life. Which is really the only reason why Microsoft continues to dominate desktop market share: It’s harder to switch than to stick with what you got, even if what you got sucks eggs.

Cringely (over at IDG/InfoWorld, so maybe not the original pseudonym’s owner, Mark Stephens) also says that “Microsoft needs more than a new slogan” and in IRC we’ve been having an interesting discussion with an employee of HP. We have already mentioned that at least one possible replacement for Hurd is from Microsoft. Two articles pointed this out and someone who claims to be from HP (nadege) told us: “Hurd was not a Microsoft Monkey. We should know the new CEO within 2 weeks”

HP's new software head was hired from Microsoft a few months ago, which means that he sits on the desk in executive meetings of HP. gnufreex writes: “I have theory about canning Hurd

“Yahoo was too independent company and they put Bartz. And SGI too. And HP of 90′.”
      –gnufreexnadege says: “Not sure Hurd was fired due to Microsoft Retaliation : HP & Microsoft are partners, and HP promote a lot the Microsoft products”

“HP does promote Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn’t forgive competition,” gnufreex tells nadege. “Palm is competition”

nadege responds with: “HP promotes Microsoft due to a special relationship. However, HP is still an independent company. So I don’t think Microsoft will put its own CEO at HP”

“Yahoo was too independent company,” gnufreex tells nadege, “and they put Bartz. And SGI too. And HP of 90′. Read this http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=belluzzo&defid=3861632”

Someone seems to have coined the term “belluzzo” for Microsoft mole. To quote from Urban Dictionary:

Someone who acts against the interests of the organization he’s with, often in favor of some other organization he may be secretly working for instead – a mole.

[...]

Those acts – along with the reward from Microsfot – got him the nickname “the microsoft mole” (google “microsoft mole Belluzzo”) in those companies, and occaionally the term “a belluzzo” is used to describe someone who seems to be acting in the interest of a different company than the one he works for.

For details about Yahoo! entryism, see our Wiki. Earlier today we showed that Newsweek‘s outgoing Managing Editor now works for Microsoft (MSN). Bartz could be just another Belluzzo.

“Also note what they did to IBM’s OS/2, IBM was special partner too,” gnufreex adds. “When you are Microsoft competitor, you are on their hit list [...] That is exactly why they are firing him [...] I mean, not they are not firing him, they are setting the harassment case”

“HP has to be close to Microsoft,” nadege confesses, “otherwise Microsoft will favour Acer or Dell, and HP will lose its leadership. It’s tough to be a Microsoft Partner [...] And believe me : Customers (Companies and end users) want Microsoft products. They won’t accept any huge replacement of Windows.”

Chips B Malroy says: “they will on tablets [...] just look at the iPad”

nadege responds with: “Tablets, OK. Android will perform well” and gnufreex adds: “Yeah, and that is why Microsoft’s want Palm dead, and they need CEO who will kill it. [...] When I said they need CEO to kill Palm, I mean new HP CEO. Hurd didn’t want to kill his product just to please Microsoft, and now has to go. But then again, he is maybe just a rapist and deserves to be fired, and Microsoft has nothing to do with it”

IDG has a new article titled “Did HP Board Have Hidden Agenda in Removing Hurd?”

“New theories on why HP’s Mark Hurd was forced out,” says another headline.

HP has just been sued by a shareholder [1, 2] (shades of Yahoo!) and an aide is leaving along with Hurd. Well, guess who else is leaving? “Palm Prē design lead ejects from HP,” says this report from The Register.

Demi-disgraced HP chief exec Mark Hurd may have been the most-recent high-level exec to exit that company’s Palo Alto headquarters, but he’s not alone in his good-bye drive down US Highway 101.

Thanks to TechCrunch, we now learn that Peter Skillman, Palm’s now-former vice president of design — and the man who shepherded the design of the Palm Prē — has also bailed. An HP spokeswoman tells The Reg that his resignation came “about a month ago.”

Skillman’s departure is no small loss to HP. As the company expands beyond the security of the staid PC ‘n’ server ‘n’ printer markets and dips its toe into the turbulent ‘n’ trendy consumer products free-for-all, it’s going to need all the vision and design expertise it can get.

That cannot be good, can it? Hurd’s ‘Delilah’ says she is sorry and gnufreex writes: “I think Microsoft set him up [...] Because of his Linux related acquisitions [...] I think Microsoft want HP to kill Palm [...] some new Beluzzo might replace him [...] HP Enterpirse Software division (HP-UX and VMS) already got Microsoftie at helm”

The full IRC logs are available to see these claims in sequence. This theory says that they ‘pull a Bartz’ on HP, but evidence is not sufficient.

It was only weeks ago (before Hurd left, followed by the Palm Prē design lead) that HP had filed for a WebOS tablet trademark. It has real potential, but after Hurd officially dumped Vista 7 in favour of WebOS we now learn that Vista 7 is back, almost at the same time that HP put a Microsoft executive (Veghte) in charge of software at HP. Could HP be putting back Windows after dumping Vista 7 from “Slate”? How come?

Last week we showed that there was crime at HP and additional coverage includes:

i. HP settles kickback complaint

ii. HP Takes Charge to Settle DOJ Kickbacks Case

HP allegedly paid more than $3 million to systems integrators between 2001 and 2006 in exchange for favorable treatment on government contracts, according to DOJ filings.

iii. HP pays to end kickback probe

HP is taking a two cents per share charge to end a Department of Justice investigation into bribery allegations.

Here’s more (not about the fraud/kickbacks):

• Next to exit HP: Top aide to Hurd

  As the many questions around Mark Hurd’s departure continue to go unanswered, a key aide to the former CEO has also abruptly resigned this week.

  The mystery deepens. Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine, formerly head of internal communications at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and a top aide to ex-CEO Mark Hurd, has left the company, following her boss out the door three days after his departure. Her exit is significant because, according to two people with knowledge of her former role, McIlvaine was the key conduit in hiring Jodie Fisher, the actress-turned-corporate hostess/”marketing contractor” who later filed a sexual harassment suit against Hurd, setting in motion the chain of events that resulted in the CEO’s resignation on Aug. 6. McIlvaine resigned effective Aug. 9, HP confirmed Wednesday.

• Andreessen: Valley statesman, HP’s front man

  Why HP was wise to put director Marc Andreessen forward as the board’s spokesman on the Mark Hurd crisis.

  The delightfully jarring aspect to Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) bombshell news and investor conference calls last Friday was the board member the venerable company put forward as its public face: Marc Andreessen, not so very long ago the enfant terrible of Silicon Valley.

• Mark Hurd is Irrelevant – The Challenge Ahead for HP

  Mark Hurd’s silly exit has little to do with HP’s real problems. As an executive there about a decade ago, I saw a company that was giving up its differentiating value in the name of operational savings, not realizing that by now the Golden Goose of creativity would find greener pastures. But surprisingly, the classic HP tradition of building a great place to do engineering that results in a flood of excellent creative products is being followed…

Back we go to Cringely (the original one) who wrote about “Stupid CEO Tricks” — a post wherein he mentioned Intel for showing that “to a certain extent crime does pay. ”

This week brought two other news events worthy of comment — Intel’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and Mark Hurd’s sudden departure as CEO from giant Hewlett-Packard.

The Intel story is almost as it is being presented in the trade and general press. Yes, Intel has promised in very specific ways to no longer be evil. No, Intel isn’t being made to give back the money it made as a result of being evil, so to a certain extent crime does pay. Of course some will say the money damages were in part covered by Intel’s recent $1.25 billion settlement with AMD, but the FTC also doesn’t generally impose fines. So if you happen to be guilty of anti-trust I guess it is better to be sued by the FTC than by the DoJ, which does impose fines.

Either way, Intel got away with something and the graphics chip makers in particular should be pissed.

We have already explained how Intel and Dell are teaching our kids that crime pays off. Here is more coverage about that, starting with older articles:

i. FTC gives itself an anti-trust extension as Intel deal eludes it

AN APPARENT FAILURE TO FIND agreement has led to the US Federal Trade Commission extending by two weeks the time it has to find a settlement with Intel.

ii. Red faced Dell fined for cooking the books

iii. Dell Settles with SEC for $100 Million

iv. Dell pays $100m to settle accounting fraud charges

v. Dell to Pay $100 Million to Settle SEC Case

vi. Dell proposes settlement in SEC investigation

vii. AMD gets an order from Dell

The relationship between Dell and AMD has been getting closer lately. Certainly in the days when Dell was an Intel-only shop this sort of deal would have been unthinkable.

viii. Chipmaker Intel settles FTC antitrust lawsuit

ix. FTC Settles Antitrust Complaint Against Intel

x. FTC settles anti-competition case with Intel

xi. FTC settles Intel lawsuit to ‘help consumers’

What is this case teaching our children? That a slap on the wrist is all one gets for abusing the market? Earlier today we showed that Apple too had been caught using kickbacks, so an Apple manager goes to jail (which is rare, they are usually just fined).

The original Cringely has one last post on the subject. “Too Big to Fail” is the title.

Everything about the Intel/FTC settlement screams of one thing — Microsoft. Redmond’s multi-year nightmare with the FTC, DoJ, and the attorneys-general of several dozen states wasn’t lost on Intel, which is a more rational company and doesn’t want a Microsoft-like anti-trust experience. Both companies are guilty and both are paying something for that guilt, but Intel clearly wants to avoid the decade of pain and distraction suffered by Microsoft.

[...]

Microsoft was paralyzed with the FTC breathing down its neck. Intel is not paralyzed.

Roughly $2 billion in payouts and Intel is a free bird — a rich free bird at that — having proved that crime does pay.

These settlements will effectively pay for themselves in two months at current Intel profit levels.

Had Microsoft been “paralyzed”, then its abuses would not carry on; but they do. █

“Fuck! It took you a year to figure that out!”

–Bill Gates

“That’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve heard since I’ve been at Microsoft.”

–Bill Gates

–Bill Gates

Summary: “Red Hat’s Adam Williamson discusses the troubling epidemic of Vista 7 Crippleware Edition taking hold of netbooks,” as our reader Ryan put it last night

LAST night we had a long discussion (warning: 1 MB page) about this new post written by Adam from Fedora. As he put it, “Only Dell of the major-tier manufacturers has shipped netbooks with Ubuntu pre-installed; the other major tier vendor we’ve discussed, HP, ships/shipped SUSE). But really, what I’m interested in with this post is the question of how Linux is doing.”

In order to understand what Microsoft has done in the area of sub-notebooks, people must first look at confirmed stories where Microsoft was coercing OEMs, dumping, and allegedly sometimes bribing and using Intel-type tactics to exclude GNU/Linux. We covered the subject in posts such as:

• Russia’s Antimonopoly Service Targets ASUS, Toshiba, H-P, Samsung and Dell for Potentially Colluding with Microsoft
• ASUS Enters the Slog Business
• More Suspicious Moves from ASUS
• It’s Unofficial: Microsoft Pays ASUS (Kickbacks) to Block GNU/Linux. Will EU Commission Step in?
• ASUS: “Currently, We’re Closely Tied up With Microsoft”
• What is Going on with ASUS and GNU/Linux?
• ASUS Profits Fall 94% After Getting “Closely Tied Up with Microsoft” at the Expense of GNU/Linux
• Microsoft Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing Sub-notebooks
• Does Microsoft Blackmail Sub-notebooks Vendors?
• What Microsoft’s Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks

Those who ignore the history of sub-notebooks will fail to understand the present. Microsoft still abuses its position (a monopoly). █

–Professor Deepak Phatak

India Gate

Summary: Microsoft’s internal IT services are to be run by Infosys in India; Indian call centres used for scam calls that exploit and abuse Microsoft customers

Microsoft is gradually outsourcing staff and particular business tasks to India. We wrote about this many times before and referenced dozens of articles. It’s not just engineers and support staff that Microsoft moves to India; parts of Microsoft’s legal team are also being shifted to India. Sometimes it is not Microsoft which directly deals with its tasks; one prominent example of this is the PR agencies of Microsoft. Microsoft can conveniently distance itself from AstroTurfing this way.

In India, Microsoft has de facto subsidiaries like Infosys [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17], which carries out some of Microsoft’s very own (internal) operations after changes that Microsoft announced earlier this year. Infosys also played Microsoft’s part in the software patents and OOXML debates, offering cheaper labour and local lobby for the software giant from Redmond. There are all sorts of words that describe Infosys’ behaviour and disservice to India. British colonialism relied on the likes of Infosys.

We have just found the following item in the news (again bumped up by Google News):

Microsoft and Infosys Joins Each Other | IT Services Out Sourcing

Two big companies of IT sector MICROSOFT and INFOSYS have signed a contract for next three years, according to this deal now INFOSYS and MICROSOFT will work together rand INFOSYS will organize the internal IT services of the Microsoft Company.

What can possibly go wrong? Well, Indian workers are skilled but they are also underpaid and Microsoft is allowed to get away with it (same for IBM and other multinationals). In other unrelated news:

Microsoft Scam Run From Indian call Centres

Cold callers pretending to be Microsoft’s support service have targeted Britons with a new scam.

According to an investigation conducted by The Guardian, people receive a call on their home phone line from someone with an Indian accent, are quoted their name and address before being told that their PC is infested with viruses that could irreparably damage their files.

Microsoft considers legal action against cold call cons

Microsoft is considering legal action against companies in its Microsoft Partner Network that claim to be calling on its behalf to tell people their PCs have been infected with malicious software.

This would be a defensible lawsuit. Yesterday we posted a warning about incidents of this kind at Dell (relying on Windows though). █

“In Ballmer’s naively managerial mind-set, if Wood said it would take two months, then in reality it could be done in one—if only people would get fired up.”

–Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, a book composed
by the daughter of Microsoft’s PR mogul

Summary: A look at some of Microsoft’s latest bribes which are not a legal offence and some of the criminal acts of Microsoft and Bill Gates’ Corbis

WHEN IT COMES to Microsoft, there ought to be a distinction between “bribery” in the legal sense and “bribery” in the more metaphorical sense. Microsoft does both. Many mainstream publications accused Microsoft of “bribery” or attempted bribery when it decided to simply buy some customers rather than earn any [1, 2, 3]. Having failed to achieve much with this strategy (billions are being lost in the process), Microsoft is rebranding the same efforts and marketing them differently, this time characterising them as “charitable”. Yes, it’s like charitable bribery. George Orwell would love it!

Well, there’s a catch. In order to enable the $3 donation, users must set Bing as their default search engine.

It’s self evident. Microsoft is becoming rather scummy. But it’s marketed as a “charitable” endeavour, so how dare we criticise it? There are other miserable new attempts to crush Google’s cash cow (because Google also competes against Windows and Office, which are Microsoft’s cash cows).

“Rather sad when a company has to buy users of Bing and developers for Phone 7, don’t you think?”
      –Pamela Jones, GroklawAccording to Microsoft Nick, Microsoft is now offering another type of bribe for potential Windows phones developers. We gave several other examples last month. Groklaw says: “Rather sad when a company has to buy users of Bing and developers for Phone 7, don’t you think?” Groklaw also gives this example where Microsoft uses its employees to artificially inflate numbers.

Why can’t Microsoft attempt to earn customers and developers without bribing them? It’s a rhetorical question actually. How can Microsoft justify laying off more employees this month [1, 2]? Must it give their wages to people whom it tries to lure in?

Now we move on to some more serious charges where “bribery” means bribery in the legal sense. That’s where prosecution and jail sentence happen to those who are not affluent enough to bail themselves out (or bribe officials). Last week we wrote about the Bill Gates-owned Corbis scandal [1, 2], which came to light [1, 2] at a time when corruption in Intel and Dell also came to light. Yesterday we wrote about it again [1, 2] (also the day before that), owing to the fact that Dell fraud teaches us something about its attitude towards GNU/Linux. As the SEC put it in its press release:

Christopher Conte, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, added, “Dell manipulated its accounting over an extended period to project financial results that the company wished it had achieved, but could not. Dell was only able to meet Wall Street targets consistently during this period by breaking the rules. The financial results that public companies communicate to the investing public must reflect reality.”

It seems likely that Microsoft is doing the same thing and a few months ago we wrote about the Pequot case. Coverage about this can be found in:

• Wishy-Washy ‘Open Source’ Microsoft
• Tax-Free Financial Gain at Microsoft Assisted by Governor Gregoire
• Pequot Capital, Microsoft, and SCO
• More Microsoft Staff Quits, Microsoft Shares Fall, Pequot Fraud Revisited (Whistleblower Compensated)
• Corruption Around Microsoft Shares Settled
• When a Convicted Criminal Accuses Others of Crime
• More Misconduct Connected to Microsoft
• Microsoft is Still Massively Evading Tax, Insider Trading Revisited

According to this new report, the SEC does one thing right by giving “$1 million reward for information in Pequot insider trading case”:

The money goes to Glen Kaiser and Karen Kaiser of Southbury, Conn. She’s the ex-wife of David Zilkha, a former Microsoft Corp. employee who had accepted a job at Pequot.

The SEC in general has decided to reward whistleblowers, which is the right thing to do.

The soon-to-be-signed financial reform package creates a new whistleblower program with potentially huge cash rewards for individuals who provide information about securities law violations to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a reminder, $4 million went to the Microsoft employee who exposed financial fraud inside the company and produced/shared documents as evidence. With the SEC’s new rules in place, how long will it take for another person who works for Microsoft to report Microsoft fraud? Microsoft paid its former CFO millions of dollars to keep quiet. █

“One strategy that Microsoft has employed in the past is paying for the silence of people and companies. Charles Pancerzewski, formerly Microsoft’s chief auditor, became aware of Microsoft’s practice of carrying earnings from one accounting period into another, known as “managing earnings”. This practice smoothes reported revenue streams, increases share value, and misleads employees and shareholders. In addition to being unethical, it’s also illegal under U.S. Securities Law and violates Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (Fink).

–2002 story about Charles Pancerzewski, Microsoft

Summary: Power struggles which sometimes involve bribes are still taking their toll on the computer industry, but Microsoft remains an outcast in the mobile space

Dell was the subject of long debates yesterday and a few days before that for two reasons. Reason one is the crimes it committed with Intel and reason two is the abolishment of GNU/Linux (Ubuntu to be more specific). The people at Linux Today debated the latter issue but also the former one, which probably makes a very compelling case against Dell. Like it or hate it, Dell engages in illegal (criminal) activities.

“Both Michael Dell and [whoever's in charge of Intel nowadays] need to be removed from their positions and thrown in prison.”
      –Tony O’BryanAs Tony O’Bryan put it in the Linux Today discussion: “Both Michael Dell and [whoever's in charge of Intel nowadays] need to be removed from their positions and thrown in prison. They are both economic criminals who have no business being in business.

“As someone pointed out on Slashdot, our justice system is hopelessly corrupt since the rich can buy their way out of prison sentences that the rest of us would have to serve for lack of ability to pay off prosecutors, judges, and Congress.

“It’s despicable.”

We tend to agree on that.

Dell is said to be recommending Internet Explorer in its Ubuntu pages (maybe this endorsement too is paid for) and there are screenshots to prove it over at Ghabuntu.

Following the recent brouhaha about Dell’s public claims that Ubuntu is safer than Windows and its subsequent change of stance, I hopped onto the Dell Ubuntu site this morning just to see what has changed since and to my amusement, the site tells me it recommends IE8.

There’s nothing wrong with that until you realize I am on the Ubuntu site, which invariably means I want to use Linux! Now you are recommending IE8 for me when I am shopping for a Linux machine? Oh and I visited the site via Google Chrome, is that not a good browser too?

Ghabuntu also recommends replacements for Dell.

Dell has all but bowed to pressure from Microsoft to torpedo its Ubuntu line of computers. Add that to the relative success of Windows 7 among Redmond’s user base and you get a clearer picture of what is going on.

HP — unlike Dell in this case — seems to be increasing its use of Linux (in the form of webOS, which it very recently acquired). From this weekend’s news:

• HP Turns Its Back on Windows Phone 7

• HP Windows Phone 7 Wont Happen

• HP not making Windows Phone 7 devices, focusing on webOS instead

No big surprise here, but HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just flat-out confirmed to CNBC that HP will not be making any Windows Phone 7 devices, preferring instead to focus on the newly-acquired webOS for its line of smartphones.

We shall see if Linux proponents at HP can fight the enemy within. Dell seems to have surrendered to Microsoft (and to Intel) far too often, as we demonstrated in the past. █

“The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference”

–Bess Myerson

–Paul Flessner, Microsoft

Summary: The commonalities between GNU/Linux and AMD are explained in the context of Dell

DELL received a lot of flak and public backlash recently, mostly because of its fair/unfair description of Ubuntu GNU/Linux, especially when it comes to security. Pressure from Microsoft was a possibility [1, 2] and Dell became the focus of attention for reasons it did not crave. More recently, Dell was again accused of a “Confusing Take” (regarding Windows vs. Ubuntu) over at Tom’s Hardware and yesterday a storm started/volcano erupted in Slashdot, which linked to this British article. The headline says “Dell drops Ubuntu PCs from [UK] website… for now” and Glyn Moody wrote: “you mean *again*? can’t they make their mind up?”

We only alluded to this news yesterday when we wrote about Intel's crimes with Dell. We did not mention this immediately because we waited for more clarifications and commentary. Here is how GreyGeek put it (he gave us permission to quote in full):

DELL stops listing Ubuntu computers in the UK

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/359740/dell-drops-ubuntu-pcs-from-website-for-now

Dell has stopped selling consumer PCs preloaded with Ubuntu from its website, and doesn’t know when they’re coming back.

A search for Ubuntu on the Dell UK website returns only one laptop – the Dell Latitude 2100 from the company’s business range.
…

The Dell spokesperson also suggested Ubuntu is failing to win over the public. “The reason why they’re not on our main pages is because Ubuntu systems are primarily targeted towards advanced users and enthusiasts, and the vast majority of consumers purchase PCs with Microsoft Windows pre-installed,” the Dell spokesperson claimed.

One reason why consumers might not be snapping up Linux-based systems is that Dell’s own advice page warns anyone other than open-source developers to stick with Windows.
…

In checking perhaps I’ve found a web page that Dell missed?
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/business/4x_latit_2100/fs.aspx?refid=4x_latit_2100&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1
Clicking on the “Customize” button I find that the Ubuntu 9.04 offering is surrounded with a graphic PUSHING Windows 7.   It doesn’t matter.  The other DELL Ubuntu offerings are:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml
Mini 10n
Inspiron 15n  (no webcam!)
Vostro V13 (no webcam!)
Latitude 2100 (no webcam!)

What a measly selection.    With “friends” like DELL Linux needs no enemies.

DELL’s entire Linux effort for the last three years has been, IMO, one big gigantic FRAUD, with the intent to offer Ubuntu pre-installed on a few marginal boxes without significant customization available and for only one reason: so that Microsoft can avoid charges that it holds an illegal monopoly on the PC OEM desktop.  Which it does.

The only question remaining is: “What are the advantages to DELL for allowing itself to be controlled as if it were a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft?

Well, we have one answer to that question already.  Just yesterday (7/23) we learned that DELL corporate has agreed to pay a $100 Million fine, and Dell personally has agreed to pay $4 Million.  Two of his lieutenants have agreed to pay $4M and $3M each.   And what did the SEC fine them for?  

They failed to disclose material information to investors and used fraudulent accounting to make it falsely appear that the company was consistently meeting Wall Street earnings targets.

If THAT is a crime then Microsoft is guilty as well. That’s how they got to the top of the pile they are setting on today.    What DELL actually did was take payoffs from Intel to not use AMD chips.

The SEC charged that Dell did not disclose to investors large “exclusivity payments” the company received from Intel Corporation to not use central processing units (CPUs) manufactured by Intel’s main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).

“It was these payments rather than the company’s management and operations that allowed Dell to meet its earnings targets,” the SEC said.  “After Intel cut these payments, Dell again misled investors by not disclosing the true reason behind the company’s decreased profitability.”
…
The SEC’s complaint charged that the exclusivity payments made by Intel to Dell for not using CPUs made by AMD grew from 10 percent of Dell’s operating income in fiscal year 2003 to 38 percent in fiscal year 2006.  It peaked at 76 percent in the first quarter of FY 2007.

In fiscal year 2007, after Dell announced its intention to begin using CPUs made by AMD, the company and the individuals charged failed to disclose the basis for the company’s sharp drop in its operating results.  “In dollar terms, the reduction in Intel exclusivity payments was equivalent to 75 percent of the decline in Dell’s operating income” the SEC said, and Messrs. Dell, Rollins, and Schneider told investors in an earnings call “that the sharp drop in the company’s operating results was attributable to Dell pricing too aggressively in the face of slowing demand and to component costs declining less than expected.”

Intel is the subject of antitrust lawsuits brought by the Federal Trade Commission and several states.  In November 2009, Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion as part of a settlement in a private antitrust suit brought by AMD.

This reveals the injustice in prosecuting corporate white collar crime: that Dell and the other people involved at both companies did not face CRIMINAL prosecution and didn’t even have to admit guilt, even though there was enough evidence to force them to pay hundreds of millions in fines, which amounted to about 10% of their annual net profit.  Perhaps if Dell and the Intel management and major share holders had to spend some hard time in jail they wouldn’t be so willing to flaunt the law for obscene profits.  It’s like a hand-slap and defacto approval of their behavior.

DELL’s behavior with Intel suggests that DELL is staying afloat, despite the poor quality of their machines and their high return rates, because Microsoft is paying them to NOT include Ubuntu on their desktops in a significant way, including not giving Ubuntu front page representation.  It also raises questions about the other PC OEMs who won’t free up their desktop for competition against Microsoft.

How Microsoft got to the top of their pile of cash is shown specifically here:
 http://www.billparish.com/msftfraudfacts.html

Financial Pyramid Building Techniques Being Used by Microsoft:

Stock option programs are an excellent benefit and many companies use them responsibly. At Microsoft, however, stock option accounting is only one of its many pyramid building techniques, what could be called a cash generating component. Additional pyramid building techniques include the following.  It is important to note that the genius of the pyramid scheme is to leverage share growth from investors using a passive investment approach based upon indexing to the S&P 500.  Most smaller and mid size technology firms are not in the S&P 500 and therefore are locked out of this key aspect of the pyramid from the beginning.

1) Earnings Management: The first and most important tool Microsoft uses is the manipulation of earnings to ensure analysts’ expectations are met.  According to an ABC News 1/22/99 article by Michael Martinez, Microsoft’s own internal auditor, a respected 30 year veteran and former partner of Deloitte and Touche, was fired in 1996 after informing management that their earnings manipulations were illegal and violations of the SEC and FASB laws.  He was given the option to resign or be fired and later settled for $4 million after suing under the Federal Whistle Blowers Act.
2) Speculating on Their Own Stock:
3) Convincing Employees to Take Less Real Wages:
4) Publicly touting the stock
5) Controlling the media.
6)  Stock Option Accounting: (You really have to read this one.  It explains how Microsoft used YOUR tax money to pay for developing Win95!
7) Purchasing future sales via equity investments:
8 ) Managing the financial analyst community.
9)  Trying to Discredit Those Seeking to Expose the Scheme:
10)  Money Laundering:
11)  Corruption of Higher Education:
12)  Manipulating Investors Who Use a Passive Approach Relying on Indexes Such as the S&P 500.

Several Impacts from Microsoft’s Financial Pyramid Scheme Include the Following:

This scheme led by Microsoft is having many unexpected impacts, a few of which are noted here.  The upcoming book will  detail additional impacts and also explain how this situation affects a variety of people in different occupations.

1)  Government Will Be Defunded.
2)  The Retirement System Is Being Plundered.
3)  Business Owners Are Exposing Their Personal Assets By Not Paying Enough Attention To Their 401K
4)  The Dollar Is Being Devalued In Relation to the Yen.
5)  False Inflation is Emerging.
6)  The Integrity Of The Markets Is Being Destroyed
7)  The Fraud Is Accelerating
8 )  Microsoft auditor, Deloitte and Touche, issued a “clean” audit opinion. (The auditor for  Deloitte and Touche who originally did the work reported several of the problems mentioned above and was fired and his character impuned publically.  He sued and won almost $5M in damages.
10) Significant one day stock value declines at major corporations that pay more in cash wages than stock options are accelerating.
11)  Microsoft organized a lobbying effort to defund the Department of Justice, using supposedly non-partisan groups like the Citizens for a Sound Economy.
12)  Conversions to cash balance pension plans are increasing.  

>The State Gov agency where I worked switched to “Cash Balance” a couple years before I retired.  I had the option to not switch.  

This is another pyramid impact. What IBM employees still don’t seem to realize is that their lost pension benefits are resulting from fraud at Microsoft.  Microsoft is pilfering these cash balance plans into its pyramid scheme by overstating its earnings, thereby drawing a larger percent of the index based investment on the S&P 500 and correspondingly making it more difficult for companies like IBM to compete.  This forces these companies to cut back on real benefits in an effort to keep its earnings and stock price up.  This was also clearly identified in the original study.

These are some interesting thoughts on Dell, GNU/Linux, Intel, and Microsoft. Connected to this news (via Slashdot) we have reports from The Economist and from the Financial Times.

Intel seems close to putting behind it a decade of market abuse complaints from round the world in a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission this week.

The deal will include concessions on the US chipmaker’s business practices, according to a person familiar with the settlement, but will not include fines because the FTC does not have the authority to issue civil penalties.

[...]

It also alleged Intel secretly redesigned key software to stunt the performance of rivals’ chips that were licensing its “x86” microprocessor design.

But, in addition, the FTC alleged that Intel was repeating in GPUs its tactic of slowing down competitors, such as graphics chipmaker Nvidia, so that it could catch up.

As we summarised this yesterday, Microsoft, Intel, and Dell are exceptionally corrupt and it pays off for them. █

–Paul Flessner, Microsoft

Nice Guys Finish Last

Summary: Microsoft, Intel, and Dell too are exceptionally corrupt and it pays off for them

A FEW days ago we wrote about Corbis fraud [1, 2]. Corbis is Bill Gates’ company and the scandal was covered in some major publications. And yet, Bill Gates is considered the richest person in the world. Is fraud followed by reputation laundering what it takes to be a winner? That’s the impression an outside observer might get.

Also in the news this week we found this update on the Intel-Dell crimes/fraud. We wrote about this years ago when these bribes were first reported. Guess what happens? The SEC settles, as usual.

Dell and some of its top executives face penalties to close an SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) investigation into the company’s accounting disclosures and alleged financial omissions regarding its relationship with Intel.

What does this teach us? It shows once again that crime pays off. Intel reports what it claims to be the “best quarter” ever. It is hard to be sure about these numbers because of accounting tricks which Microsoft apparently uses again.

“The company that allegedly received kickbacks from Microsoft to block GNU/Linux is climbing. ”The SEC almost always settles, even when Microsoft got caught with financial fraud charges and more recently with Goldman Sachs (we covered this a lot in our daily links), to whom the settlement money was almost slush funds given the obscene profits extracted illegally from taxpayers and betrayed customers.

Speaking of bribes, watch who is climbing. The company that allegedly received kickbacks from Microsoft to block GNU/Linux is climbing.

Despite that fluff about “best quarter” (we put that in quotes due to accounting tricks), Steve Ballmer is still wanted out of the company.

Are the knives out for Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer

Here’s how tough the public relations environment is for Microsoft right now. On Thursday morning, The Daily Beast’s Peter Lauria speculated, with the help of a bunch of unnamed sources, about a “Brewing Coup Against Microsoft CEO.” Steve Ballmer is in trouble, suggested Lauria, because Microsoft’s stock price has been stagnant for a year and senior executives are getting restless.

Later that day, Microsoft reported its quarterly earnings — $16.04 billion in revenue and $4.52 billion in profit — handily beating the numbers reported earlier this week by Apple (and remember, that was the best quarter ever for Steve Jobs and Co.)

Here are some more fake numbers from Microsoft, this time regarding Vista 7.

In case of Microsoft something is missing. Microsoft’s operating system comes pre-installed on branded PCs. Every PC sold means another copy of Windows 7 is sold. The picture would become clearer if Microsoft shares the numbers of copies the company directly sold to end customers as compared to the number of mass-licences sold through OEM partners.

Many anti-trust advocates see this pre-installation as an anti-competitive practice. There are many competing operating systems including Gnu/Linux, BSD and OpenSolaris. PC vendors should offer Windows pre-installed as well as no pre-installed OS on their machines for fair competition.

We have already explained how Microsoft twists and warps Vista 7 sales figures. In business, Vista 7 is used by less than 10% of people, according to Dell, which received billions in kickbacks from Intel.

Speaking of these corrupt hardware companies (price-fixing/cartel is very prevalent there), Microsoft may be trying to become a hardware company and finally giving Intel a reason to walk away to GNU/Linux.

Microsoft & ARM Partnership Means End Of Wintel?

[...]

Intel has already publicly declared that Meego was launched because the company was frustrated by the lack of support from Microsoft for the Atom platform and it remains a mystery as to why Microsoft did not adapt Windows 7 to suit Intel’s requirements.

We wrote about the Microsoft-ARM deal yesterday and a reader told us earlier today: “I guess Intel isn’t Microsoft’s best buddy anymore. Never mind, they were useful in stifling Microsoft’s competitors.” For details about Intel, Microsoft, and Linux, see the Comes vs Microsoft antitrust exhibits outlined below. █

1. Bill Gates: “Where Are We on This Jihad?” (Against Linux at Intel)
2. Microsoft on Intel’s Anti-Linux: “Please Keep Confidential. This is a Nightmare”
3. Bill Gates on Linux@Intel: “This Huge Driver Group Scares Me.”
4. Steve Ballmer: “We cannot let intel do chip design on Linux ever”
5. Bill Gates et al Lean on Other Companies to Derail GNU/Linux as “Main Stream Operating System”
6. Microsoft: Intel Ain’t Done Until Windows Can Run?
7. Bill Gates: “Intel should not just treat us as one of many”
8. Microsoft, Intel, and White-collar Crime

“Where are we on this Jihad?”

–Bill Gates

Summary: The lack of impact of Vista 7 on businesses, as told by one of the world’s largest OEMs

THE reality behind Vista 7 is not what Microsoft’s marketing department keeps talking about (for the press to echo). On many occasions in the past we’ve explained why Microsoft claims of ‘sales’ of Vista 7 are lies. We won’t repeat the arguments today but instead refer to this article and the following commentary:

“Dell estimated the percentage of commercial PC users who have updated to Microsoft’s Windows 7 as still in single digits.”

That says it all. The most successful version of that other OS ever, is not being adopted by business who have no need of feature bloat and eye-candy that consumers lap up having few choices in retail.

So much for unprecedented success, eh? The marketing people always find ways to ‘massage’ the numbers, even if Windows profit declines. █

“Windows 98 should have been released for free on Jan. 1, 1996 and titled Windows 95.1. If this were Hollywood, then Windows 98 would be the equivalent of ‘Heaven’s Gate’, ‘Waterworld’ and ‘Godzilla’ rolled into one. A huge, overhyped, bloated, embarrassment.”

–Jesse Berst, ZDNet editor & columnist IEzilla

Summary: The problems associated with Windows are explained by another longtime professional in this area; Dell’s reversal regarding GNU/Linux security agitates GNU/Linux users who suspect that Microsoft is at least partly responsible for the change

MR. Richard A. Clarke is no person to be ignored. As Ars Technica recently revealed, Clarke blames Microsoft for many security problems that jeopardise national security and the Huffington Post has just written about this as well:

As Clarke reports, prior to the 1990s, the Pentagon made extensive use of specialized software designed by in-house programmers and a few defense contractors. But under pressure from libertarian ideologues and business lobbyists, the Pentagon began to use commercial software instead — in particular, Microsoft software. However, it turned out that Microsoft had built a low cost brand based on a principle of “one format for all” — rather than software that was tailored to special security needs. Problems soon arose, including, as Clarke recounts, a 1997 incident when the USS Yorktown, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser whose ship operations were administered on computers running Windows NT, was rendered inoperable after Windows crashed. “When the Windows system crashed, as Windows often does,” Clarke writes, “the cruiser became a floating i-brick, dead in the water.” After this and a “legion of other failures of Windows-based systems,” the Pentagon considered a shift to free, open-source operating systems like Linux. The code of open-source software can be altered by the user, and so the government would be free to change the software without interference from companies jealously guarding their design. It is also free.

Such a switch, though, would have been disastrous for Microsoft’s lucrative dealings with the government. The company was already fiercely opposed to regulation of its products’ security; it did not want the added delay and cost of improving its software in order to decrease its vulnerability. If the government switched to open-source software, it could make the improvements itself — but doing so would deal a major blow to Microsoft’s profits. So Microsoft moved to prevent the government from exploring any alternatives. It “went on the warpath,” writes Clarke, threatening to “stop cooperating” with the government if it adopted an open-source platform. It made major campaign contributions and hired a small army of lobbyists. Clarke outlines their purpose as: “don’t regulate security in the software industry, don’t let the Pentagon stop using our software no matter how many security flaws it has, and don’t say anything about software production overseas or deals with China.” (China, security experts feared, could plant logic bombs and malware into the software.)

Clarke reports that Microsoft insiders admitted that the company “really did not take security seriously,” because “there was no real alternative to its software, and they were swimming in money from their profits.”

For those who have not noticed, we updated twice each post about the Dell incident (it says “Updatedx2″) in order to show the response to what Dell had done [1, 2]. People alleged that Microsoft was responsible for changes in security advice and here is another new example of a rant:

Gosh, I wonder how many lawyers, and how many threats, it took to get that changed, and whose payroll the lawyers were on, and who was making the threats?

I think I’ll go over in the corner and hurl now. The whole situation, and the disgusting company behind it all, makes me ill.

We already possess undeniable evidence of Microsoft's retaliation threats against Dell. Microsoft will continue to produce fake security reports, bribe journalists, and harass those who expose Microsoft's security problems. Coercion is what Microsoft does best and if even giants like Dell are so spineless, shouldn’t there be room for an investigation? It’s an obstruction of truth. █

Now you don’t.

Summary: Dell repeats the mistakes of history by harbouring censorship and fearing to pass judgment about Microsoft

YESTERDAY I had a face-to-face conversation with a friend who thought that Bill Gates had invented computers. This was a reminder of the fact that PR agencies are in the awesome position of subconsciously programming people’s minds, lying to them even without making explicit lies (just insinuations and illusions).

“Microsoft didn’t even accept the Internet (thinking it was a passing fad) until long after others had embraced it.”One mythology that Microsoft has been trying to spread for a long time is that Windows is secure (note omissions) and that Windows was designed with security in mind, despite clear evidence that this was not the case (Microsoft edits Wikipedia). Microsoft didn’t even accept the Internet (thinking it was a passing fad) until long after others had embraced it.

Yesterday we posted a second update on a post about Dell. Several people who decided to insult the messengers (myself included) refused to believe that Dell changed its pitch about GNU/Linux security. There is more evidence and corroboration now. Here is the before/after screenshot:

Revisionism is what the VAR Guy calls it. It is him who originally brought up the subject that ended up in hundreds if not thousands of blogs.

The VAR Guy saw this coming. On June 10, The VAR Guy was first to report Dell considered Ubuntu Linux safer than Windows. But now, Dell has apparently updated its web site to remove/alter that statement. Linux conspiracy theorists think Microsoft pressured Dell to make the change. Is that really the case?

Frankly, The VAR Guy doesn’t know for sure. Our resident blogger has requests for comment out to Dell, Microsoft and Canonical — promoter of Ubuntu Linux.

Dell pretends that it no longer knows what is more secure and the company says: “it is not Dell’s intention to recommend one OS over another”.

That’s a funny thing to say because Dell accepts a form of bribe from Microsoft to pretend that it recommends Vista 7 . Dell puts this fake endorsement is loads of pages in order to hypnotise the public and receive kickbacks.

Speaking of Windows security, a Google engineer revealed a serious flaw in Windows shortly after Google had dumped Windows for security reasons. Google apparently knows better than Dell, which actually stated the same thing before Microsoft may have implicitly threatened to retaliate again. The flaw which was found by this Google engineer has just put Windows XP users under digital artillery.

Five days after being disclosed publicly by a Google engineer, a zero-day security vulnerability affecting Microsoft Windows XP has come under attack. The controversial bug, which remains unpatched, gave rise to a new round of debate about responsible disclosure.

If Dell maintains its spineless approach and refuses to speak out its mind because it depends on Microsoft’s bribes/incentives, what does that say about Dell? And what does that say about truth? █

Update: Here is another take on the reversal from Dell. The company ought to be challenged.

Update #2: And another.

[Update #2 (18/Jun, 0:10 GMT): Dell has indeed changed this page (permanently), as the cached page clearly reveals. We have just grabbed screenshots to compare:]

Summary: After public embarrassment for Microsoft, Dell ‘censors’ its own Web pages that say GNU/Linux is more secure than Windows

SEVERAL years ago Microsoft threatened to "whack" Dell for supporting GNU/Linux. Microsoft may be doing something similar with Dell right about now.

We wish to begin by stating the fact that Microsoft produces fake security reports based on the hiding of known flaws that it silently patches. Microsoft has reluctantly admitted this last month. We believe this to be fraudulent although Microsoft’s definition of “fraudulent” is probably different from ours.

Anyway, Dell is being a coward because after publishing a “top 10″ list of reasons to buy a PC with Ubuntu GNU/Linux Dell is stepping back. A British news site says:

Dell appears to be back-tracking on a claim made on its website that Ubuntu is safer than Windows.

[...]

Dell’s proclamation was immediately picked up on by bloggers and news aggregators such as Digg.com, no doubt attracting the attention of Microsoft’s PR machine.

This morning, Dell appears to have taken down the Ubuntu page, although a copy of the original site (PDF) was saved by The VAR Guy website, in case Dell decided to pull it.

When PC Pro asked Dell what it’s official position on the relative merits of Ubuntu and Windows were, a company spokesperson replied: “With regards to the information cited on the Ubuntu page on Dell’s website, it is not Dell’s intention to recommend one OS over another, but instead to offer some educational facts that may be of interest to customers considering a system with Ubuntu pre-installed.”

Is Dell insecure about its own judgment? Is it afraid of Microsoft’s wrath? We may never find out until another lump of E-mail gets unsealed (like in Comes vs Microsoft).

For an idea of how much damage was caused to Microsoft’s reputation (maybe on par with Google’s abandonment of Windows), see some of the latest posts on the subject. There are many more and below we have just a new sample:

1. Dell Says Ubuntu Is Safer Than Windows
2. Dell Says: ‘Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows’
3. Ubuntu ‘more secure’ than Windows, says Dell
4. Ubuntu is safer than Windows, it’s official
5. Dell claims that Ubuntu is better than Windows
6. Dell says Ubuntu is safer than Windows
7. Dell Recommends Ubuntu

The page compares that other OS on a number of features and it looks pretty fair. I like that they actually tell people “Ubuntu is safer than Windows“.

That last one from Pogson is already being trolled by a known, longtime Microsoft booster (who has multiple identities), whose alleged friend once mailed me claiming that he knew him in person, as an AstroTurfer with pride. We already know that Microsoft employs AstroTurfers, but that’s a story for another type of discussion.

Pogson has another new post about Dell and about GNU/Linux malware — a subject which we wrote about earlier today and in previous posts with a lot of links in them.

In other news, according to IDG, “Hackers exploit Windows XP zero-day, Microsoft confirms”:

Hackers are now exploiting the zero-day Windows vulnerability that a Google engineer took public last week, Microsoft confirmed today.

Although Microsoft did not share details of the attack, other researchers filled in the blanks.

A compromised Web site is serving an exploit of the bug in Windows’ Help and Support Center to hijack PCs running Windows XP, said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at antivirus vendor Sophos. Cluley declined to identify the site, saying only that it was dedicated to open-source software.

After almost 9 years of patches Windows XP remains insecure. Some known flaws will never be fixed, either. Vista 7 is not the solution. █

A few weeks ago Mozilla's CEO was quoted as saying that WebM is safe to use and it finally comes to Firefox 4 (trunk):

• WebM video lands in Firefox trunk
• WebM support confirmed in Firefox 4
• Firefox 4 to feature WebM
• Download Firefox 4.0 Alpha Developer Preview with WebM/VP8 Support
• Mozilla integrates WebM support into Firefox nightlies

Opera is getting it too and optimisations are being reported by the developers at Google:

Since WebM launched in May, the team has been working hard to make the VP8 video codec faster. Our community members have contributed improvements, but there’s more work to be done in some interesting areas related to performance (more on those below).

The elephant in the room is still MPEG-LA, which is a patent aggressor that agitates Google. We wrote about the subject in posts such as:

• Canonical Needs to Tell Ubuntu Users How Much It Paid MPEG-LA for Patent ‘Protection’
• Microsoft and MPEG-LA Called “Patent Trolls”, Antitrust Complaint Filed
• Patent Troll (MPEG-LA) May Own Your Personal/Family Videos
• Alexandre Oliva Explains Why the Patent Troll Larry Horn (MPEG Cartel) is Bluffing
• “We’re in the Era of Digital Video, and It’s a Mess,” –Steve Jobs, MPEG-LA Proponent/Lobbyist
• Simon Phipps: “MPEG-LA is a Parasite Using Standards Bodies as Its Host, Whether They Want it or Not.” (and a Rant About Banshee/Mono)

The patent issue continues to come up in some articles about WebM:

In other words, if Google doesn’t address patent indemnification-or at least release information about its findings on the patents efficacy-a new licensing pool will be created to capitalize on fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Yet Google seems more concerned with modifying its WebM FAQ than it is with helping the online video world understand the practical and financial benefits of an open-source competitor to H.264.

So the patent issue and Google’s existing plan matter a lot here. Fortunately, we have received some valuable information over the past few days. It helps us understand how Google views MPEG-LA. Florian Müller has had a scoop and he finally gave us the needed permission to shoot off the following:

“[S]omeone told me something that raises doubt about MPEG LA’s $5 million license fee cap but that same source has now substantially weakened its claims to the extent that the cap actually seems to be the case at least for most companies,” Müller told us.

Prior to this there was a stronger claim. “Concerning video codecs I heard something that raises doubt about the $5 million license fee cap, but I’ll try to obtain authorization from someone so I can attribute a quote to a person rather than just saying it’s a good source,” he expounded.

“The source originally claimed that contrary to the related claim made on MPEG LA’s website, the source has information that some licensees do indeed have to pay much more for such reasons as the $5 million per-company per-year royalty cap not including all categories of products.”
      –Florian MüllerLater he wrote: “The source does not want to be named. The conversation took place at this event in Brussels on Wednesday. The house rules allow quoting from what was said at the event, but it’s not allowed to say WHO said something (without permission, of course). The source originally claimed that contrary to the related claim made on MPEG LA’s website, the source has information that some licensees do indeed have to pay much more for such reasons as the $5 million per-company per-year royalty cap not including all categories of products. With a view to the house rules of the event, I asked the source, which was present at the event and may have information I don’t, whether I could provide its name when quoting. The source asked not to be named. Meanwhile (yesterday) the source also added this clarification: “For most companies, they probably don’t see much more than one overall fee.” I will mention this on my blog next time I report on codecs [...] The thing is that philosophically I’m against those codec royalties, but economically, if big companies pay a maximum of $5 million per year, it’s not a fundamental problem to the industry and those who end up paying are largely in favor of software patents anyway, so I’m not much more sympathetic to them than to MPEG LA. I’m most sympathetic to those who want to get rid of software patents but are attacked nevertheless.”

Finally, Müller said: “I don’t know when to put it out because it was no longer the “gem” I thought it was once I received that additional clarification about most companies just seeing one item on the bill. You know, I would really have liked to call into question the truthfulness of the representations they make about the cap, but with the clarification the same source provided, it doesn’t really have a lot of teeth anymore.”

Google is often criticised for secrecy, so we found it neither surprising nor curious that “there are some confidentiality-related sensitivities there: at the start of the event in Brussels, the chairman announced the “house rules” which related to quoting…”

This matter is extremely important because codecs like Theora and VP8 help eliminate the patent problem often associated with codecs in GNU/Linux. To platforms like Windows and Mac OS X it matters a lot less, for sure (they already ship the codecs on the computer/CD). A couple of years ago Red Hat cited codecs as a key reason for abandoning plans to release a desktop product.

Some days ago we learned that software patents may affect the motivation of Free software developers — a subject that Glyn Moody has just elaborated on:

What this might mean is that although hackers’ views and motivations are relatively unaffected by the existence of software patents, they might in fact find themselves hugely affected if major software companies or patent trolls start trying to assert their software patent portfolios – something that many fear might happen. True, this is only speculation, but at the very least, it might provide an interesting topic for further research….

Here in Europe, codec patents can be more or less ignored, at least in theory^*, but as multinational companies like Dell are selling computers here, it is hard to avoid the MPEG ‘codec tax’ which even a Ubuntu machine from Dell comes with [1, 2] (yes, also in Europe). This issue ought to be resolved in order to make GNU/Linux free (which it’s not, at least not from major, multinational OEMs). █
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^* Nevertheless, as Müller points out, “you can find links to stories on the rigid enforcement of MP3/MP4 patents in Europe, particularly at the CeBIT trade show. So much for the exclusion of patents on software in Article 52 of the European Patent Convention…”

Summary: How Hewlett-Packard, which is currently under investigation for corruption, charges a premium on GNU/Linux after acquiring Neoware

SUFFICE TO say, based on evidence we have provided over the years, Microsoft and HP share a bedroom. To name just a few examples, start here or consider many of the other posts on the subject [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

As readers may be aware by now, HP is getting a big load of bad PR because of an alleged bribery case. The gist:

U.S. officials have joined Russian and German authorities in looking into allegations that Hewlett-Packard may have paid millions in bribes to win a computer equipment contract.

Here is what the Wall Street Journal had to say.

Pogson has just found out that HP “charge[s] a premium” on GNU/Linux after buying a company that distributed GNU/Linux.

A few years ago, HP bought Neoware which produced several thin clients running GNU/Linux.

[...]

HP is willing to satisfy customers who demand GNU/Linux but they charge a premium. They are partners in crime with M$ in spite of all the harm M$ has done them. HP is still the #1 OEM in the world but they will not be for long selling $1000 thin clients. The Chinese are selling thin clients for less than $100 in bulk.

It is important to remember that we have reasons to suspect that HP pays Microsoft for GNU/Linux (they both signed a deal just before SCO attacked Linux). Russia’s Antimonopoly Service targeted HP in a probe into collusion with Microsoft (against GNU/Linux). The latest bribe case involves the Russian authorities too. █

Summary: What Amazon does not want to tell us about software patents in its recent deal with Microsoft; more reasons to suspect that Dell pays Microsoft for Ubuntu GNU/Linux

ONE of our readers, who goes by the name of “Mad Hatter”, has just explained why he will not link to Amazon anymore. As some people may recall, we called for an Amazon boycott^* [1, 2, 3] not just because what Amazon does to the patent system but also because it joined Microsoft’s anti-GNU/Linux racket after hiring many executives from Microsoft (entryism). Here is the explanation about reasons to avoid Amazon:

By signing a deal with Microsoft, for technology that the Free and Open Source Community developed, Amazon has shown a lack of respect for the ‘Intellectual Property’ of the Free and Open Source Software Community. Amazon’s action is an attack on the community. It can also be considered an attack on the Constitution of the United States of America, which states

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

The wording above makes mention only of the Authors and Inventors. The drafters of the U.S. Constitution clearly meant that only the Author or Inventor of a work or invention can speak for that work or invention. Therefore if there are issues with a work or invention, the party who has the issues must approach the Author or Inventor, not a third party such as Amazon. In simple terms, Amazon has no right to admit that the Linux Kernel infringes on Microsoft’s patents, only the Authors or Inventors of the Kernel have that right. By making an admission that they have no right to make, Amazon has engaged in what is known as ‘Slander of Title.’

As he put it in a previous post:

So if you are considering a lawsuit against a competitor who uses Free and Open Source Software in the product you claim infringes on your patents or copyrights, don’t expect the community to like what you are doing, and do expect them to do something about it.

In other news, Dell appears to be lying about GNU/Linux, Vista 7, and maybe software patents (Dell announced in 2007 that it had joined the Microsoft/Novell deal).

On many occasions before we explained and showed why we suspect that Dell pays Microsoft for so-called “Linux patents”. The potential evidence comes from many places, including videos from Dell. And now we find this disappointing report showing up in the news, shortly after it turned out that Dell sells machines with Ubuntu at a higher price than equivalent machines with Vista 7.

Dell bars Win 7 refunds from Linux lovers

Dell has told a Linux-loving Reg reader that he can’t receive a refund on the copy of Windows 7 that shipped with his new Dell netbook because it was bundled with the machine for “free”.

In October, another Reg reader succeeded in gaining a $115 (£70.34) refund from the computer maker after he rejected the licence for Microsoft’s OS and installed Linux instead. Microsoft’s EULA, you see, provides for such a refund.

One of our readers asks, “If it’s ‘free’ then how does MS factor in the revenue into its accounts? If it’s not ‘free’ then who enthused DELL to not pay the refund?” █

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^* Boycott as an action to correct a corporation’s behaviour, not to ostracise.