Summary: A notorious Microsoft partner called Fortify is once again smearing Linux using invalid arguments and other Microsoft trolls do their thing in Linux sites

E-book readers (or E-readers) are typically just DRM-infected devices, which are doing little more than display of text. They are not Internet/Web surfing gadgets. Linux already dominates E-book readers and Microsoft is not happy about this because it too wanted to enter such a fast-growing market but did not have the guts to compete with Linux. It goes back to remarks made by Steve Ballmer a few months ago.

Microsoft's anti-Free software friend, Fortify, is doing it again [1, 2, 3]. It mocks Linux/Android as an operating system on E-readers, which are increasingly adopting it. Fortify's little soldiers are using as fuel the fact that owners of these devices are able to gain full control of their device. This FUD comes around the same time that Google makes a big Android announcement (Nexus One).

Modified portable devices have the potential to create a real security headache for businesses, according to Fortify Software.

[...]

Barnes and Noble’s eReader, the Nook, was recently cracked to enable it to use the full functionality of the Android mobile operating system.

“Although the Nook uses a customised version of the Android operating system, it also supports Wi-Fi and 3G cellular, which means it has connectivity with all manner of systems via the Internet,” he said. “This is why the eReader, which has already been cracked to load the Pandora Web-based music service, the Twitter application and a number of Facebook applications, has now been fully cracked to run most Android applications.”

Android is becoming very big also as a mobile platform and it seems like the Microsoft ecosystem grows nervous. Who would ever choose Windows CE/Mobile for an E-reader? Probably those who think of loyalty to Microsoft rather than adherence to good engineering. Check out what happens to Windows phones at the moment. The really buggy software from Microsoft cannot even handle the new year properly:

2016 bug hits Windows phones

The date bug which is interfering with Aussie point of sale transactions has spread to some Windows mobile phones.

The glitch means that text messages received since New Year's Eve will appear with a 2016 date. Card scanners in thousands of Australian shops have also been hit, as we reported yesterday. Bank of Queensland systems, believing it was 2016, rejected most payment cards because they'd passed their expiry date.

By all stretch of imagination, Microsoft will carry on throwing shills at the "Linux problem". Here for example is "darryl", who is a known Microsoft troll (already banned from some major Linux sites) posting from Bigpond/Hotmail.

Discussing the fate of Microsoft been so much fun, one commenter we only know as darryl wants in on the action. My hesitation is not about the money I will not bet you, darryl, 1000 United States dollars because I do not know you. Moreover, your IP address suggests you are from Australia so I don’t know how we could set up such an arrangement. By the way, you never answered my question regarding if you are a Microsoft employee.

We have just heard from other readers of ours who have blogs that this troll is flooding them with anti-Linux rhetoric when they criticise Microsoft. We already know for a fact that Microsoft has people on the payroll doing that type of stuff. ⬆

"It could be argued that Microsoft’s unethical Technology Evangelism (TE) practices are “old news”—i.e., that Microsoft stopped using these questionable TE practices long ago. This is very unlikely to be the case, for at least three reasons."

--James Plamondon, former Microsoft "Technology Evangelist", 2008