Bonum Certa Men Certa

Yes, “Microsoft [is] Turning Into a Toothless Tiger” (Sort of)

Face paint - tiger



Summary: Legal action is all that Microsoft has left now, just like SCO less than a decade ago (SCO is now bankrupt and today's bankruptcy hearing is cancelled)

MICROSOFT'S INTERNET EXPLORER is floundering and Microsoft is next, starting with cash cows like Windows and Office, which Google is suffocating as we showed this morning (the previous post was about Windows Mobile being starved mostly by Android now that it's selling over 2 million Linux phones per month).



In his latest headline, Locutus has just asked, is "Microsoft turning into a toothless tiger?" The answer is yes, but with a caveat.

What do you think? Is microsoft heading towards the gentle river of retirement? Does this tiger still have teeth in it? Or is it being squeezed in a vice of an apple with a suspected rotten core on one side and a fishy breathed penguin on the other? Lets not forget that the devil is, as always, lurking in the background waiting its turn in the limelight.


A couple of hours ago, Wildeboer (from Red Hat) told us that "the tide is turning on MSFT. From self-perceived innovator to litigator." (to which I replied with, "SCO went through the same phase"). Microsoft is currently suing and threatening many companies that sell Linux, going as far as racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] (exactly like SCO). This makes Microsoft a tiger, but it's afraid of opening its mouth and showing no teeth (infringements).

Groklaw has just said that today's SCO bankruptcy hearing (intended to start shortly) was cancelled.

The bankruptcy hearing set for May 17 is cancelled, and this time they are giving us some advance notice...


SCO is essentially dead. It's a sordid mess and a sign of things to come for those who follow similar footsteps, including SCO's paymaster, Microsoft.

A few days ago we wrote about Microsoft's EULA losing its 'teeth' in the UK (the GNU GPL relies on copyright law for its 'teeth') and TechDirt has just caught this too:

UK Court Says Software Company Can Be Liable For Buggy Software



[...]

That said, software liability has been a hot topic in Europe lately, and now Slashdot points us to the news that the UK High Court has ruled that a software company can be liable for buggy software. More specifically, the court found that a clause in the license agreement, which said it would not be liable for defects was found to be an unfair contract term.


Big problem there for Microsoft (see the Slashdot debate). This is not the first time that the fundamentals of Microsoft's EULA are challenged in the UK, as we noted some days ago (with links). But anyway, Microsoft doesn't care about the law. Its EULA too is an intimidation tactic which was never thoroughly tested in a British court of law.

"On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO's strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO's financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital."

--Bruce Perens

Recent Techrights' Posts

Deja vu: Hitler's Birthday, Andreas Tille elected Debian Project Leader again
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Microsoft's 'Lawsuit Diplomacy' (SLAPPs Riding UK Libel Law and Piggybacking UK GDPR, Inapplicable!) Will Only Give a Worse Image to Microsofters (and Microsoft), Give Exposure to Even More Suppressed Facts and Scandals
Microsoft came to dominate some sectors because of (or owing to) crimes; Microsoft won't just go away without some more crimes.
Five (or Three) Years Without Social Control Media
Glyn Moody quit X (Twitter)
 
Richard Stallman in the UK This Week, Scheduled to Give Two Public Talks (London and Oxford)
Those talks do not cover the same topics
Gemini Links 21/04/2025: April, Autism, and ASN
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 20, 2025
Links 20/04/2025: Partly Assorted Scientific and Political Leftovers
Links for the day
Links 20/04/2025: Many Data Breaches and Growing Censorship Wave
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/04/2025: Canadian Elections and "Use the Best Tools You Have for the Current Environment"
Links for the day
Links 20/04/2025: Bleeding Constitution and ChatGPT Infuriates Users Some More
Links for the day
Chinese OEMs (and World's Largest) Pave a Path Out of Microsoft Windows
So Microsoft now values (or prices) Vista 11 at just $140?
Gemini Links 20/04/2025: Contradictions of Mark Carney and Blog Questions Challenge
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 19, 2025
Electronics in People's Bedrooms
Modern technology not only blurred the gap between "functions" of rooms
Why GNU/Linux is Growing
There's growing interest in GNU/Linux right now because people do not fancy buying a new PC just to 'upgrade' (more spying) Windows
Gemini Links 19/04/2025: Contingencies, GTD, and Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 19/04/2025: Economic Races, Charm Offensives, and USB-C Rants
Links for the day
Links 19/04/2025: "Infantilization at Big Tech" and LLM Slop Abused in Defiance of Workplace Rules/Policies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/04/2025: Palm Addiction and Real Experts
Links for the day
Egypt is Controlled by Google, Not Microsoft
Moving from Microsoft to Google is not the answer
Microsofters Say They Cannot Find a Job (That They Want) Because of Techrights, But Techrights Merely Reported on Their Behaviour
Quit pointing the finger at people who are recipients of abuse or merely mention the abuse
Free Software and Standards - Not Marketing Blitz - Needed Amid Growing Severity of Dependency on Hostile Suppliers (or Another Country's Sovereignty)
ZenDiS can be described as the "Center for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration"
When It Comes to the Web, Google is Evil and It Destroys the Web's Integrity With LLM Slop
Even academia, which is meant to keep standards high, is being lured into LLM slop
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 18, 2025