Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Last Years: A Troll and the Software Patents Mafia

"First They Ignore You, Then They Ridicule You, Then They Fight You."

--Mahatma Gandhi



Portrait of Gandhi



Summary: How Microsoft is fighting GNU/Linux in the last battle phase and how to avert this fight until Microsoft dries up

MICROSOFT NEVER WON much glory. Since its very early days, when Bill Gates (by his own admission) pulled code out of garbage cans to make what we now know as Microsoft Corporation, Micro-soft was known as a bully, an unethical thug, a backstabber, a ripoff artist, and an merciless abuser. Gary Clow, one of the early victims of Microsoft's despicable business practices, said that "a lot of people make that analogy that competing with Bill Gates is like playing hardball. I'd say it's more like a knife fight."



Not much has changed since then. Less than a year ago Sun's CEO told the world that Gates personally extorted him using software patents (while outwardly pretending to do charity, which is controversial for other reasons). Let's face it; Microsoft's culture never put emphasis on ethics. Disregard for the law (and government entryism) is arguably Microsoft's 'secret sauce'. For PR purposes they put out some "principles" or "pillars" or whatever, but when it comes to practice, Microsoft still perceives itself as a "chosen one" whose domination of desktop computing is a God-given right that it can maintain using whatever new law (or illegal deal) it can get. Its aggressive lobbying for software patents shows this, its rigging of ballots shows this (e.g. OOXML), and even its illegal government deals (which Google now sues over) show this. Microsoft is not just a company, it is a malicious movement that systematically attacks critics and competitors with the eternal objective of world domination in mind.

“Disregard for the law (and government entryism) is arguably Microsoft's 'secret sauce'.”For many years Microsoft simply ignored GNU/Linux, just not internally. That was in the 90s. In the previous decade Microsoft launched disinformation campaigns, famously the "Get the Facts" series and the SCO lawsuit it funded (which since 2003 allowed Microsoft to falsely and hypocritically claim Linux was a ripoff). A few years ago Microsoft started to popularise the belief that GNU/Linux was infringing Microsoft software patents (without ever naming any) and last year Microsoft started suing companies for shipping Linux. That's the third stage of the attack on Linux, which comprises an actual "fight", not just a snub or a slur. It is important to recognise this because since 2006 Techrights has been solely or at least primarily focused on the subject of software patents, which Apple and Oracle only recently started to use like Microsoft does (offensively, against Linux-based platforms). Everyone is suing everyone else (new chart) in lucrative and fast-growing market segments where GNU and Linux fit exceptionally well and cannot be beaten on price.

Microsoft has little or no dignity left. With increasing debt, Microsoft has little money left, as well (things do not add up). What Microsoft has left in terms of budget (losing projects get axed to decease the bleeding) it spends on patent lawyers who help the company amass more software patents. Perhaps Microsoft is thinking that it can become a licensing company (patent troll) rather than a software company. Here is this week's news about Microsoft patenting the "record" button. Yes, it's unbelievable:

You have to appreciate that Microsoft pays attention to what may be rather trivial products and slaps a patent on them. In this latest wave of approved patents – the U.S. Patent and Trademark office granted 35 Microsoft patents to Microsoft today – is the right to claim the ‘record’ button.

In case you have no idea what a record button really is, Microsoft tells us that “a record button [is a device] that facilitates audiovisual input into a computer system without requiring manual interaction (direct manipulation interaction) with software. Additionally, “the record button may be grouped with transport controls, a standalone button, or grouped with other controls. The record button may be actuated with different types of actuation techniques, each of which may correspond to a different audio and/or video operating mode, which may be user configurable. A record light may be provided to notify the user of the current recording mode via variable colors and/or flash patterns. The record button can work in conjunction with a camera button and with manual software switching of recording modes.”


Microsoft is not stockpiling such nonsense patents just to put them on the shelves for vanity. A week or so ago, the press in Taiwan reported that Microsoft used such patents for extortion, demanding that companies in Taiwan and elsewhere pay Microsoft for Android (based on Linux) and Chrome OS (based on Linux and GNU). It's patent extortion and based on this new report, one has to wonder if Microsoft is also extorting Dell:

A Google-branded Chrome OS notebook will be launched by Inventec, with Acer and Hewlett-Packard following suit thereafter, according to a report.

The DigiTimes report puts the launch date of the Inventec notebook in November, with Acer and HP launching theirs a month later, in December.

Interestingly, the report did not cite Dell, which has said it would explore a Chrome OS device alongside Windows.


DigiTimes reported that Microsoft goes after companies which plan to preinstall Chrome OS. Microsoft demands payments for programs it wrote not a single line of code for. As "samlinux" put it some minutes ago in our IRC channels, "[M]icrosoft getting very aggressive with the oems too, ship our products or we will sue you. asus, acer, htc.. i wonder what things those chinese say behind microsofts back?"

Yes, tell that to Mono and Moonlight enthusiasts who appear not to comprehend what they are doing. They help create programs such as Pinta (from a Novell employee [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]), which are obviously a patent problem because Microsoft defined limitations in its "Community Promise" and Mono has not yet delivered an (strictly) ECMA-compliant version of Mono. Pinta 0.5 is out and it's trying to compete with the likes of the GIMP. Susan reviewed this release and she was shrewd enough to inform the readers about the Mono dependency (many other writers neglect to do so):

Pinta exists for that group of casual users. It's modeled after Paint.net, built with GTK#, and depends upon Mono. Pinta loses some user interest with that last ingredient, but for many it's not an issue.


Now that Microsoft is suing, extorting and limiting GNU/Linux bundles using software patents, why would anyone want to promote Microsoft's APIs that are clearly a patent problem? Just because Microsoft MVP de Icaza says it's the right thing to do (he is still spewing Java FUD in Twitter this week) does not mean he is right. Look how wrong he was about Silverlight. He tries to help Microsoft.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

How We Process Screenshots of Slop to Suitably Tag Them as Slop
everything is a single command
 
Gemini Links 11/08/2025: Upgrading Debian Bookworm and Better Quality PDFs From Gemini Pages
Links for the day
Currys PCWorld Lied a Decade Ago, 10 Years Later It Still Effectively Voids Your Warranty for Installing GNU/Linux Despite It Being Increasingly Mainstream
Microsoft gatekeepers
Team GNOME Has Libeled Me for Nearly 20 Years
we are not dealing with sane people
Experience With Airlines in 'Web Sites' and in 'Apps'
In a lot of ways, Stallman Was Right about what JavaScript would turn out to be
Open Does Not Mean Free
wiser to ask if some program is freedom-respecting
The Register MS Takes Money From Companies Banned by the Biden and Trump Administrations (National Security Risk)
today's sponsor
Sabotaging GNU/Linux PCs (and Users) is Not a 'Joke'
maybe cruelty is the very objective
Links 11/08/2025: Data Breaches, Politics, and Climate
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 10, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 10, 2025
Gemini Links 11/08/2025: Tea Caffeine Hot and Super ZZ Zero
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Other Serial Sloppers
Maybe Microsoft wants to dub this "Web5"
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Residents Management Company, Automation, and Politics
Links for the day
Links 10/08/2025: AOL Ending Dial-up
Links for the day
Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
Software is a lot like those things
Links 10/08/2025: Webrings, “AI Sunglasses” and “AI Eyeglasses”, US Administration Intensifies Attacks on Science and Research
Links for the day
Sometimes Newer is Worse
We generally need to reject this dumb notion that "old" means bad
The Code Used to Make Techrights Fits on a Seventh of a Floppy Disk (or 100KB When Compressed)
For the sake of comparison I've just downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The ZIP file is 27.2MB in size, or ~27,200KB.
What They Tell Young Programmers
Coding in 2025
Simpler is Better When Simple is Enough
Over-complicating things to "sell" new versions is so 1990s
Links 10/08/2025: From Social Control Media to Prison, New Examples of Windows TCO
Links for the day
Sloppy Reporting About Slop, or How The Register MS Lowers Its Standards
Maybe the management isn't even aware of this
IBM's Strategy: Cull 'Expensive' Workers, Replace Them With Cheaper Ones
So far we saw not even one rebuttal or challenge to the claim of Red Hat layoffs scheduled for tomorrow
If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody
at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status
The Man Who Helped Microsoft Kill Linux is Trying to Delay Our Lawsuits Against Him
By conservative estimates, and based on court documents submitted by them, they're prepared to spend over a million dollars on lawyers, fighting against me and my wife
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Gen Con 2025 and Framework Laptop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 09, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 09, 2025
The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?
What a slopfest!
Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
It was always a dumb idea to play along with Microsoft's hardware mischief
Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
Microsoft has a big problem in its hands
The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
Microsoft is, to put it bluntly, pure evil
The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
it will never work with Microsoft
Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
SEO spam, made with LLMs
Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
paid to promote slop
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
Links for the day
After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
we expect OEMs will just listen to users
The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
Call out the culprits
Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day