Bonum Certa Men Certa

Quick Mentions: Xenocode and Microsoft, Yahoo and Microsoft, F/OSS Slandered by Microsoft Ecosystem

Novell and Microsoft



MICROSOFT and Novell are growing closer all the time. The more they struggle, the more they huddle. Novell has just shown signs of more collaboration with Xenocode, which according to this new report is a "six-year-old, Seattle-based, lightweight application virtualization player full of Microsoft veterans." The is not the first time that Novell collaborates with them [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and this leaves room for more Microsoft influence.

Microsoft's Poaching of Yahoo Executives



Yahoo! is still besieged by Microsoft [1, 2, 3], which wants to grab its market share and brains. It's a lot cheaper than acquiring the company. According to reports from Microsoft watchers, Microsoft has just snatched another Yahoo executive who was focused on search.

Microsoft has hired Larry Heck, a Yahoo search executive, to join its online services division.

[...]

Most recently, Heck was vice president, search and advertising sciences at Yahoo Labs.


In a somewhat sarcastic essay, Cringley argues that "Yahoo should buy Microsoft". Apart from an eye-catching headline, there is not much sustance, but Mark repeats his observation that Microsoft needs to lay off tens of thousands of employees.

My last column was all about the culture of Microsoft and how it makes real change difficult for the company. It’s not just at Microsoft that these things happen, by the way: nearly all mature organizations get into similar ruts. And if, like Microsoft, they are spectacularly profitable ruts, well then it isn’t surprising that things stay more or less permanently dysfunctional.

[...]

Next column we’ll deal with the rest of Microsoft, chopping those 20,000 to 50,000 heads.


Microsoft Ecosystem Smears Open Source



According to this from Slashdot, the Microsoft ecosystem is attacking Free/Open Source software behind closed doors. It's like a whisper campaign.

Lately there has been a huge push by Certified Microsoft Professionals and their companies to call (potential) clients and warn them of the dangers of open source. This week I received calls from four different customers saying that they were warned that they are dangerously insecure because they run open source operating systems or software, because 'anyone can read the code and hack you with ease.'


We have seen a lot of this recently. One just needs to follow the money in order to understand the credibility of the arguers.

In other related news, further to earlier reports, over 160 banks appear to have just been compromised due to "malware".

Heartland data breach hit 160 banks (and rising)



[...]

Malware planted on servers was used to steal card data. It didn't say how many records were exposed and how many financial institutions were affected by the breach. Heartland only said that it processed 100m transactions a month on behalf of 250,000 merchants, sparking concerns that the extent of the problem might rival that of the infamous TJX breach.


Was this "malware" installed on UNIX/Linux machines? Not likely.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The EFF Should Know Better, But It Is Promoting Mass Surveillance by Facebook (an Endorsement of Lies)
What is going on at the EFF?
Feedback Desired
Feedback can be sent by E-mail
A Message in Support of Richard Stallman, Condemning Those Who Misportray Him
message about Richard Stallman (RMS)
Links 09/12/2023: Many 'Open'AI Employees Strongly Dislike Microsoft, Many Impending Strikes
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 08, 2023
IRC logs for Friday, December 08, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Open Source Initiative (OSI) is Microsoft, It Presents Microsoft-Controlled Projects Like They're Everything That Exists in the World
They're not assessing the real data, they keep track only of projects foolish enough to choose slavery under Microsoft
Links 08/12/2023: Cyber Resilience Act in EU and Denmark Embracing 'Blasphemy Law'
Links for the day
Linus Torvalds Cannot Easily 'Offend' Companies Anymore, But Weeks Ago He Explained Why (Linux Support and Hardware Documentation Has Significantly Improved)
new clip
Links 08/12/2023: Tidal and Simplilearn Layoffs
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 07, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, December 07, 2023
[Video] The Media Facilitates Microsoft's Abuse, Bribes, and Growing Threats to National Security
The failure of the media to properly and independently explain what's happening will continue to doom the media
[Video] The Next Ten Years of Techrights in a World With Changing Threats and Technological Landscapes (or Trends That Are Buzzwords/Cargo Cults)
The video of today talks about the site's (and capsule's plan) for the future
Wikipedia is Vandalism, Brought to You by Microsoft and Bill Gates
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Lennart Poettering and Fellow Microsofters Turn GNU/Linux Into Windows, Expect Poor Reliability With systemd-bsod
turning Linux into Microsoft Windows
The Effort to Silence (Squash) GNU/Linux Advocates and Press Coverage
If nobody even mentions it anymore, does it still exist?
Links 07/12/2023: Climate Events Occupied by Their Enemy, Workers Going on Strike
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 06, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 06, 2023
A Googlebombing Campaign Targeting "Gemini" Takes on E-mail, Too
Google can do Googlebombing too (the term is even named after it)
[Video] Microsoft Without a So-called 'Common Carrier' (Windows Monoculture)
Windows Has Fallen
[Video] To Combat Efforts to Cancel or Kill the Career (and Reputation) of the People Who Made GNU/Linux We Must Rally the Community
nobody speaks better for projects and for licences than their own founders
Rumour: Major Finance Layoffs at Microsoft Next Week
If the rumour is true, we'll be hearing barely anything from the mainstream media next week
Links 07/12/2023: More EPO Patents Squashed, More Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine "Glitches" Found
Links for the day
Still Not 'Canceled'
Ted Ts'o, Jan Kara, Linus Torvalds last month
Google is Googlebombing the Term "Gemini"
Could Google not pick a name that's already "taken"?