Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft and Novell Pull Another Netscape Using Silverlight, OOXML

Novell and Microsoft piss on GNU/Linux codebase
Two partners make Windows, IE and Office stronger



Background Story



While we're concerned about Microsoft's Silverlight and Novell's Moonlight, there's another burning trouble on the horizon. Microsoft is bound to unleash Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) some time in the near future and further integration with the operating system is to be expected. Only yesterday we mentioned the forcefeeding of IE7. A month ago we pondered the tricks that IE8 might have in store [1, 2] and some answers are now beginning to arrive.

First of all, Microsoft's claim that IE8 passed the Acid2 test isn't much of a noteworthy claim. Many people called it vapourware at the time, particularly because it came just days after Opera had filed for antitrust action (more recent articles on Europe are here). Web standards being ignored were among the allegations. Opera's top gun has just published his perspective on the latest development:

What will happen when you type http://webstandards.org/acid2 in your freshly installed IE 8? Will Acid2 be displayed correctly when you hit the test button?

Microsoft has been asked that question, but it has not given an answer. I think that the company is considering three possible scenarios.

One scenario could be that IE 8 will require users or authors to "opt in" to support standards. For example, in order to render Acid2 correctly, users could be required to modify IE 8's default settings. This breaks with the guidelines of the test, and IE 8 will therefore not pass in this scenario.


Consequences of a Broken Web



As Heise Online puts things, on the face it, developers will need to embed Microsoft Internet Explorer-specific tags inside their pages.

Internet Explorer 8 introduces new meta tag



The developers of Internet Explorer 8 around Chris Wilson have joined forces with the Web Standards Project (WaSP) to develop a new HTML header.


Great. Memories of {if {browser==containsSubString("Internet Explorer") then ...}} blocks (consider this pseudo-code) return to mind. What makes this more outrageous is the fact that we already know how Microsoft messed up Web standards (deliberately!). Proprietary 'litter' remains standing to this date. According to another long article on this matter, there is another way to look at the situation. The way it puts it, Microsoft's programmers could actually be punishing themselves at the moment.

Microsoft have got themselves into this mess by their own misguided strategy. By promising backwards compatibility, they've compromised the future direction of the browser. They've compromised Internet Explorer's capability of challenging Firefox in any meaningful way.


It Happens All Over Again



Two strings of questions to ask ourselves are these:

  1. Can OOXML be trusted? Will it preserve backward compatibility? Although it cannot be implemented by anyone but Microsoft, will it at least honour competition?
  2. Can Silverlight be trusted? How will be it be extended? Will there be an implementation other than the one/s from Microsoft and Novell? Will Microsoft be interested in making Moonlight incompatible if desktop Linux became as widespread as Firefox (or even Netscape in its early days)?


If we refuse to ask the questions about and address the issue, then we're entering the very same trap that some of us managed to escape when Mozilla Firefox gained traction.

As a side note, it's worth adding that Sun is currently collaborating with Adobe to ensure better Flash compatibility. The Register wrote about this yesterday.

James Gosling, Sun vice president and fellow, told Register Developer that Sun is working to ensure interoperability - rather than provide its own design tools.

"We are putting a lot of effort into interoperability with the Adobe tools - a lot of the Adobe tools are wired into the neurons of the artists of the world," he said. "We are not trying to be a completely isolated island that has all the tools for everybody."


Take-home Message



Microsoft may be trying to address the trouble which it introduced about a decade ago. At the same time, Microsoft introduces new problems using its '(X)HTML replacement' called Silverlight. It also pretends to be standardising its document formats, but nothing truly changed. Corrupted voters, some of whom are paid puppets (including Novell) are used to put an "Open" label on proprietary formats. Silverlight and OOXML are tomorrow's ActiveX and DirectX. There are also things like Sharepoint and XPS to consider here, but that's worthy of a separate post.

Related articles:

Recent Techrights' Posts

BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
 
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Means of Production and Rusting Out
Links for the day
Links 04/09/2025: Science, Hardware, and Eyes on China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Digital Minimalism and Social Control Media
Links for the day
IBM's GNU/Linux Divestment, Based on Hard But Anecdotal Evidence (IBM Fails to Recognise How Much Money It Made and Can Still Make From "Linux")
Love us or hate us, a lot of what we've been saying about Red Hat under IBM turns out to be rather accurate
Links 04/09/2025: Massive Microsoft Staff Cuts (Barely Reported), "Strange Conspiracy Theory Is Reportedly Spreading Inside OpenAI"
Links for the day
Activists Can Win, But Keep an Eye on the Ball and on the Trophy
GitHub is dying, it was a loss-making trap, not free hosting
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Katrina Remembered, Distracted Driving, and Virtual Economics
Links for the day
At This Point It's No Longer Matthew Garrett But People Who Fund Matthew Garrett (or Companies That Fund His SLAPPs Against My Wife and I)
The only thing worse than misogynists are misogynists who fail to respect other people's right to go on holiday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 03, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 03, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VI - This Serious Harm Was Planned for Over a Decade, Not an Accident or Merely Some Misfortune
The term "Serious Harm" is legally meaningful here
GNOME Unfit for Diversity and Inclusion
GNOME's leadership is using "bad words"
Brodie Robertson Addressing the Recently-Discovered Comments
Most people probably knew nothing about this until he wrote a response
Red Hat QA Team "Had Shrunk by Half Over the Past Year." (After IBM Divestment)
If Red Hat's workforce is being moved to the East, then RHEL can become a national security problem
Slopwatch: "Open Source" and "Linux" News Faked, Made by Bots and Entered Into Google News
Spam combined with slop about "Linux" has entered Google News
Links 03/09/2025: Microsoft Causes Mass Layoffs Outside Microsoft Also, "Google Can Keep Paying for Firefox Search Deal"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/09/2025: calendar.txt, Alhena 5.3.1, and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
The Theory That the Man From McKinsey, Whom Red Hat Took From Microsoft a Month Ago as Executive, Wants 'Efficiency' (Lower Salaries)
So far... no "official" word
When Your Site's Articles Are Being 'Cheapened' by Slop as Feature Images
Dr. Farnell should become an advisor to The Register MS
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops to Only Half a Dozen Capsules and 0.2% of the Whole in Geminispace, Self-Signed is the Way to Go
It used to have hundreds, according to Lupa
Doing to Red Hat What They Already Did (and Still Do) to IBM
there seems to be a drive to hire cheaper staff, and it may be led by somebody Red Hat hired from Microsoft
Links 03/09/2025: Salesforce's Latest Mass Layoffs, 93% in Large Poll at The Register MS Say UK Government Should Dump Microsoft
Links for the day
Preparations for Our 19th Anniversary Have Already Begun
When we get back we'll probably sort out some balloons and venue for the next party
Pleased After 2 Years With team.blue
Moving from a Content Management System (CMS, dynamic) to a Static Site Generator (SSG) was a wise decision that made life so much easier
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is Being Attacked by Organisations Jealous of Its Principled Stance and Longevity
Nobody is perfect, but imperfection does not instantaneously imply sinister intent
If You Reject the Google Verdict in the US, Then You Should Also Reject the "Modern" Web (Do Something About It)
Gemini Protocol is still open; it cannot be hijacked or subverted because it's frozen by design and by intention
Open Source Initiative IRS Filing: Almost All the Money is Corporate, Stefano Maffuli (Executive Director) Takes About a Quarter of That Money for Openwashing of "AI" Ponzi Scheme
OSI is currently little but a PR/marketing agency of Microsoft
Many People Are "Leaving" Red Hat, Even High-Level Managers
Something is definitely going on at Red Hat
Techrights Has Been Subjected to Calls of Violence (and Death Threats), It Never Condoned Violence
I have no sympathy for people who call violence "free speech" and then get in trouble
Condoning Violent Behaviour and "Free Speech"
perhaps Microsoft Lunduke lost touch with what constitutes violence
Takeaway From the Google Verdict: GAFAM Has Too Much Control (Even Over the US Government and Courts With Government Appointees)
Many people feel disappointed but hardly surprised by the verdict
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 in One Month
As noted a few days ago, several times in fact, many people now recognise the importance of the FSF's mission, even if most people don't know what the FSF is
Many Microsoft "Assets" Are Fabricated Baloney (to Game the Numbers)
At times it seems like what we deal with are many weak patents (on algorithms), valuations or speculations based on hype ("hey hi"), and stocks held by Microsoft and its own staff
"Voluntary" Layoffs at Microsoft (to Game the Numbers, Sugar-Coating a Crisis)
"Employees interested have until the end of October to volunteer."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 02, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 02, 2025