LAST WEEK we leaked information about Microsoft's Live@Edu, which offers gentle bribes to those who help 'infect' their academic institution with more Microsoft lock-in. Another document, regarding ELMS, was leaked quite recently and we finally have some example of MSDNAA [ODF]
, with a plain text version at the bottom. We possess 4 more large documents that are copyrighted. These too are interesting but cannot be safely shared.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) will migrate some 40,000 student user accounts to Microsoft's Live@edu hosted messaging and storage platform providing an alternative to the successful Google Apps education surge.
Indian PM Candidate Promises $200 'Microsoft-Free' Laptop
To secure votes, BJP leader LK Advani is pledging open source computers for 10 million students in his country.
The e-mail system of the Indian Prime Ministers Office was crippled by a virus that devoured nearly all of its incoming mail for three months last year, according to a recent report in the Times of India.
Apparently the virus affected the PMO's Microsoft Outlook Express program, and consequently the office received almost none of the e-mail it was sent from February to April. Which, really, is the kind of thing you think someone would have noticed, because presumably the PMO usually gets a fair bit of e-mail, here in the worlds biggest democracy.
"A lot of people are sick of Microsoft and Bill Gates," he said in an interview. "They hate that their computers crash once a week. They hate viruses. They hate paying so much for Microsoft software."
On Friday, Silverman announced that his Toronto-based store will begin an intense marketing campaign of its Sub300.com Ultralite Laptop for $799. The 2.9-pound laptop has the Linspire Linux operating system and OpenOffice software including word processor, spreadsheet and data base filer.
"We are avoiding the 'Microsoft tax,'" said Silverman, adding that Microsoft software can add from $200 to $400 to the cost of a PC or laptop. He said customers have been drawn to the store and its offerings for a variety of reasons, most of which are based in a dislike of Microsoft products.
An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a malicious software program called Conficker.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
[...]
ELMS for MSDNAA Software Center: This message has been generated automatically from your ELMS. Please do not reply to this message as you will not receive a response. Please click on the SUPPORT link in your MSDNAA Online Software System for support contact information on your campus.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Hello,
Welcome! You have been registered in your university/college ELMS for MSDNAA online software system. Here you can download and access a wide range of Microsoft developer tools, servers, and platforms. There is no charge to download the software as long as you are an eligible user in the System.€ € How Does it Work?
Your university/college is licensed under the MSDN Academic Alliance Program which enables eligible students and faculty members to access software available under the Program. e-academy Inc., a partner of Microsoft, is providing ELMS for MSDNAA to you. Simply log into the System using your username and password included below and start browsing/ordering the software available to you.€ € Your MSDNAA Online Software System can be found at: http://msdn70.e-academy.com/[...]
Your username is : xxxxx@xxx.com Your password is : xxxxxx
Technical Support
If you have any technical difficulties while downloading the software, please go to the support section in the website and click on Request Customer Support. Technical support is provided by your MSDNAA Program Administrator at your school.€
General Information
If you have general questions about the MSDNAA Program, who is eligible, general rules and regulations, etc., please go to the support section in the website for contact information.
Please keep this e-mail for future reference, as you will need your username and password in order access the online software system.
Remember, by accessing the Microsoft software through this system you are stating that you are authorized, and are agreeing to comply with all usage guidelines.€
Sincerely, ELMS for MSDNAA Staff e-academy Inc.
Comments
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-23 14:57:33
The highly respected Mr. Geer set his estimate at 25% several years ago.
Around 2007, Vint Cerf said that his estimate was 150 million. This was covered in many publications including the BBC.
The 40% figure was covered in several publications including USA Today.
Yggdrasil
2009-03-24 17:00:48
Vint Cerf's actual estimate was between 100 and 150 million. That's a pretty rough estimate, and it's safe to assume this was done without any real research.
The 40% figure was repeated by several news publications, but again, none of them questioned the reliability of this figure, nor did they compare it to other estimates.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-24 17:11:03
Dan Geer is well known to his peers.
Yggdrasil
2009-03-24 17:43:19
What I find cute, is his argument that windows is a security risk because of it's dominance. I actually agree with this, but it is in direct conflict with many Linux zealots who claim that Linux security does NOT come from it's obscurity. Maybe just sweep that one under the carpet.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-24 17:48:45
GNU/Linux is not obscure. It powers many servers for example.
“Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux...”
--Steve Ballmer (September 2008)
Yggdrasil
2009-03-24 18:49:29
Let's look at this CNET article from 2002 (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-940713.html)
1 billion PCs shipped worldwide since the mid 1970s: 81.5 % Desktops 16.4 % Laptops 2.1 % Servers
Of those 2.1% that were servers, 60% could be have been running Linux (or some other Unix variant). Impressive, but only when looking solely at servers and ignoring the rest.
This is why Linux can be called obscure, because like many, including Dan Geer, I was looking at the entire spectrum of computers when I used this adjective.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-24 20:08:10
Billions of devices were sold. Many run Linux.
According to one source that I came across, only 2% of the chips (processors) target desktops.
Yggdrasil
2009-03-23 14:33:16
Competitors like Damballa suggest 3% to 5% of enterprise assets are compromised by bot-driven targeted attack malware. Others like PandaLabs report an 11% infection rate across the board. These seem to be much more sensible figures. How do you account for these discrepancies? When a company is selling security, can you really trust them to tell you just how safe you are without their paid protection?
twitter
2009-03-23 17:21:39
There's really no excuse for this. As covered by the link above, M$ likes to blame the user. They also like to blame the "popularity" of their OS, but exploits peculiar to Vista and Windows 7 prove this a lie because both have low market share and prospects of gaining any. M$ has had all the money in the word for decades and they proclaim each new version of Windows to be safe for commerce. Their continued failure to make an OS that people can trust can be attributed to their tremendous arrogance and the non sustainable nature of non free software as a development model. For decades they have ripped off the software world and crammed the pieces into their ancient Windows framework. Others have done better with free software, even at creating DOS (Free DOS) and Windows (ReactOS). Shame on M$ for squandering their position and everyone else time and money.
Yggdrasil
2009-03-24 17:14:03
Also, as noted by another comment below, ReactOS is alpha software. I've used it myself. It's not stable enough, nor is it compatible enough to be used for anything serious, much less a full replacement for WindowsNT based systems. Your comments tend to suggest you have no practical experience using ReactOS, but since it's not made by Microsoft that automatically makes it superior.
David Gerard
2009-03-23 19:55:34
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-23 20:02:55
But Wine is more of a complement, not an environment to crucially rely on. ReactOS uses Wine too.
David Gerard
2009-03-23 22:12:44
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-23 22:21:09
twitter
2009-03-24 05:52:24
It is a shame to hear that ReactOS is not "ready". It looks good in Wikipedia. It will be nice when ReactOS is a reasonable substitute for W2K or XP for VM legacy program support.
jocaferro
2009-03-24 00:01:34
aBNreader
2009-03-24 00:11:39
Yeah sugar wants more Mono.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-24 00:16:24
Look no further than TomTom and FAT.
aBNreader
2009-03-24 00:23:30
Hey, Go-ooo is also in the list of summer of code-benefited projects.