Strapping NSA back doors onto Munich oughtn't be an option
Summary: A look at a strange suggestion, signed by Sabine Pfeiler (above) and Otto Seidl, who suggest going back to Microsoft which is basically a spyware company now
THE enormous long-term cost of Microsoft Windows, deferred and inevitably incurred due to blackmail and espionage (possibly more expensive then dealing with script kiddies/crackers alone), was detailed in the previous post. No nation other than the US (not even other Five Eyes nations) should procure proprietary software from the United States. Britain has just repeated this error [1] and some Microsoft fans in Germany apparently want to revert back to making this error, having already undone this error (dumping proprietary software, including Microsoft, in Munich).
We wish to start with some rather exciting news. Thankfully enough, Russia is now following China's footsteps and may ban Vista 10 (China also banned Office in government, not just Vista 8, recognising that it's a
collective Trojan horse from the NSA). Last year or the year before that Russia had already taken first steps towards banning Windows by banning x86 in government (Wintel) and days ago it went further.
Citing Russian media,
Linux Veda writes: "The vice speaker of Russia’s State Duma, Nikolai Levichev, has written to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev asking for the Russian government to ban the use of Windows 10 amongst Russian civil servants. Levichev is concerned that Microsoft may allow US agencies to access data collected from Russian officials."
Based on countless leaks from the NSA (many mention Russia by name), the above is undoubtedly being done. To think otherwise would be willful ignorance. Germany too is a target (political and industrial espionage), as recently demonstrated by Wikileaks, not just Snowden's leaks and subsequent unattributed leaks.
It then leads us to our main topic, which is
bogus stories from Microsoft propaganda sites, distorting the stories that were originally published in Germany about a week ago. We have a misleading headline about just two people, making them sound like the whole city of Munich. These people are Sabine Pfeiler and Otto Seidl.
Microsoft propaganda sites will latch onto anything and anyone, as they have been doing for years, never leaving Munich alone because it has become an embarrassment to Microsoft and a winning example/trophy for GNU/Linux on the desktop. What Microsoft does in Munich right now is definitely not sitting on its hands and accepting defeat. There is lobbying that is difficult for outsiders to see, but evidence occasionally comes out, as we have shown here over the years (we wrote dozens of articles about this). Partner companies, not just moles or lobbyists, are involved in this. Munich is constantly under attack.
A European reader of ours helped us understand what is happening in Munich right now. "Two 'softers," he said, is what it boils down to. "Annoying that they get any press at all. [...] it does look like only two 'softers and not two independent people. More can be done to bring up the games that Microsoft
continues to play against competitors, especially FOSS. Too many are falling for that "another chance" tactic, one that's been used every few years for decades."
We tried to find out more, for instance anything suspicious in the professional background of the troublemakers. Microsoft recently blackmailed members of the British Parliament, as it had previously done in Norway and other places (if you do what we say, we'll do this thing for your area, but if you don't, we'll punish you). There are plenty of bribes and blackmail examples; Microsoft is full of those.
Our reader
tracked down the original PDF. It is signed by these two people:
Sabine Pfeiler, Stadtrat
Otto Seidl, Stadtrat
"Your German is certainly better than mine," said the reader, "but there are probably
these two. They're both in office through 2020. The main argument that the laptops have no programs for text editing, Skype, Office etc does not hold water. LibreOffice and even nasty ol' unsafe Skype are available for GNU/Linux on x86, though the latter has not been approved by the IT dept there. But the
Tech Republic article does say they are using Intel processors and that LibreOffice is on them.
"Seidl had in 2014 defended LiMux against mayor Dieter Reiter and Josef Schmid. However, I think that something is fishy, but cannot find anything with just a cursory search."
"Microsoft just remotely modifies Vista 10 and won’t explain how, why, and when."Vista 10 is an unacceptable risk, especially for government, and German has been more strict than most nations about digital control over its computing (even UEFI 'secure boot' is verboten). Vista 10 can add back doors, bug doors, delete files, add files etc. and it won't even tell the user. We covered this the other day, noting that RMS (Richard Stallman) was right all along. This is why Microsoft will consider doing almost anything (even blackmail and bribes) to get its way here, enabling the Trojan horse to slip inside the whole of Germany. The NSA would certainly like for this to happen.
According to Manish Singh, "[i]f you're having trouble deciphering what exactly Microsoft is bundling in Windows 10 updates, it is not your fault. Moreover, it is about to get worse. Microsoft has confirmed that it might choose to not offer a detailed changelog with new Windows 10 updates."
Microsoft just remotely modifies Vista 10 and won't explain how, why, and when. It is virtually as though one's own computer is rented or leased. Even the British media took note. Simon Sharwood spoke to Microsoft and then reported that "Microsoft has explained its policy about how much information it will offer on the content of Cumulative Updates to Windows 10."
Remember that for most users it will be impossible to even deny automatic updates. Microsoft Peter, not only Microsoft sceptics, reminds us right now that Microsoft has no plans to tell us what’s in Windows patches. Vista 10 already has back doors (and worse, it turns networks into botnets), but the point is, additional ones can be added at any time, silently. What would happen at times of war? Germany simply mustn't consider going back to Windows and more cities should now follow Munich's lead, maybe adopting much of the same Free software that Munich developed over the years.
Have politicians actually been following what's happening right now? BND collusion with the NSA makes it simpler to blackmail German politicians, this we know for sure... ⬆
Related/contextual items from the news:
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The UK’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) yesterday revealed that it would be teaming up with software giant Oracle, in a three-year partnership which will see the two collaborate to deliver services to public sector bodies including the National Health Service (NHS).
Just weeks after the government announced that it would be cutting back on its use of Oracle software, the new deal instead extends the existing agreement signed in 2012 and aims to bring new cost-saving solutions. The CCS has promised the that the signing of the Oracle memorandum of understanding (MoU) will “deliver additional savings for the taxpayer.”
