Microsoft just cannot help ruining the word "open". Microsoft used this word in order to describe a NASA platform that it built to exclude "open source" platforms. A few months ago Microsoft also snatched NASA data which was owned by US taxpayers and it is currently blocking GNU/Linux users [1, 2] from a new service that NASA contracted Microsoft to build. It is amazing that all these projects are described as "open", even though they serve just proprietary platforms and also fill the pockets of a multiple-times convicted monopolist.
Microsoft Taps Into Open Government Market
With the open government movement in full swing and the Obama administration's Open Government Directive finally in federal agency hands, vendors such as Microsoft are looking to offer up their help.
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For example, Microsoft recently worked with NASA to develop a Website called Be A Martian...
Microsoft has decided that it is better to disable a 17-year-old video codec in older versions of Windows rather than patch the thing.
According to Andrew Brandt, a security researcher with the IT security vendor, the fake Microsoft security certificates appear in the properties sheets of both the installer and two of the three executable payloads dropped by the installer.
That spigot of revenue may be short-lived due to the state’s stance on data center tax incentives. Microsoft announced in August that it was migrating its Windows Azure cloud computing infrastructure from its data center in Quincy to another Microsoft facility in San Antonio. The reason: Microsoft’s unhappiness with tax policies in Washington state.
More companies are disclosing their political activity
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Monday, the Center for Political Accountability will announce that software giant Microsoft, Time Warner, Campbell Soup and Wisconsin Energy have agreed to detail their trade-association donations, along with other political spending.
Dan Bross, Microsoft's senior director of corporate citizenship, said the company wanted "to lead by example." Microsoft has posted its political-related dues online for the first time. The largest payment: $2.1 million in fiscal year 2009 to the Computing Technology Industry Association, a high-tech trade group.
Comments
Needs Sunlight
2009-12-21 16:28:30
What's the grand total for all the M$ lobbying, broken down by country? What's the timeline for getting M$ reflagged for what it is, a political movement?
Roy Schestowitz
2009-12-21 18:11:33
Yuhong Bao
2009-12-22 00:10:26
williami
2009-12-22 05:50:04
"Also, (in my words) the new Micro$oft is just the old Micro$oft but with a false claim of "we're open source!!!!" And M$ dosen't know what free is. I rember "Lest Codeplex Preplex", which means even when M$ joins the free software world, I'm not trusting Microsoft."
RMS' response:
"Microsoft talks about "open source" to distract attention from the issue of freedom."
I pretty much know that, being a FSF member myself, and reading RMS' essay on why "open source" misses the mark.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-12-22 09:26:53