Videos:

@schestowitz pic.twitter.com/dcchuBffx4

— Haxis of Evil (@petrakramer) November 24, 2016

@schestowitz pic.twitter.com/UZVonNktVz

— Haxis of Evil (@petrakramer) November 24, 2016

Summary: An outline and translations of press coverage regarding today’s protest, which ended four hours ago

As expected, people who work for the EPO marched in protest at midday. This action was, notably, supported by FNV. “Strong Solidarity Message From FNV,” SUEPO wrote today/yesterday, “The Biggest Dutch Union (1 million members!).”

“The FNV published on 23 November 2016 an article entitled “Medewerkers European Patent Office in actie tegen angstcultuur” [and] Translation is available in English” (local copy)

“Omroep West feedback about EPO demo 24-11-2016,” one reader told us about early coverage from today’s protest, as early as a few hours after it (there is certainly more on the way). Petra Kramer has translated this for us and noted that “[t]he video is the only newsworthy part imo [in my opinion], the rest is yesterday’s press statement again.” (regarding FNV, as posted here yesterday in English along with other coverage)

Here is Kramer’s translation:

Hundreds of European Patent Office workers take action against ‘tyranny’ director

THE HAGUE – More than four hundred employees of the European Patent Office (EPO) in Rijswijk demonstrated against their director Benoît Battistelli at Square 1813 in The Hague on Thursday. The reason for the demonstration is the poor relationship between the staff and the director.

According to the employees the have been suffering under “the yoke” of their director. ““Battistelli rules with an iron fist and tolerates no participation or contradiction. He dismisses people at will, demotes them, and unilaterally implements changes to working conditions and demotivates if the entire organization,” said union FNV.

The demonstration on Square 1813 call employees Secretary Martijn van Dam (Economic Affairs) to take action against Battistelli.

Source: Honderden werknemers Europees Octrooibureau in actie tegen ‘tirannie’ directeur

Video: Honderden werknemers Europees Octrooibureau in actie tegen ‘tirannie’ directeur

WIPR, which is based in the UK, wrote about this as well and it gave background as follows:

Staff members at the European Patent Office (EPO) are holding a demonstration today in the centre of The Hague in support of dismissed workers.

According to a statement from the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), the demonstration is being held to show solidarity with “dismissed, downgraded and targeted staff representatives and SUEPO officials”.

A source close to SUEPO said that they would “truly prefer not to have to hit the streets again to publicly complain” about the EPO management.

Earlier this month, Laurent Prunier, elected member of the central staff committee and secretary of SUEPO in The Hague, was sacked.

No coverage from IAM (as usual) and only a mere tweet from MIP about it.

We intend to monitor press coverage about this. The Dutch Parliament too is increasingly interested in the subject, so there is an opportunity for reprieve. █

Summary: The infamous Investigation Unit (I.U.), which secretly bullies staff of the EPO with notorious interrogation techniques under virtually no oversight, is described on Dutch radio

NPO Radio 1 covered the EPO scandals 12 days ago. Several people who are aware of what is happening spoke about the subject and several days later SUEPO covered it, as its lawyer too was on the show. To quote SUEPO, “Ms Liesbeth Zegveld, SUEPO lawyer and Mr John Kerstens, Member of the Dutch House of Parliament (Tweede Kamer PvdA) were interviewed on 10 September 2015 on the Dutch channel Radio 1 over the “unhealthy working environment” in the European Patent Office.

“The audio interview is hosted here (archive).”

To quote the English part of the transcript (local copy just in case of yet another censorship induced by threats):

English translation

NPO Radio 1

“Unhealthy working environment in the European Patent Office in Rijswijk”

Eric Corton:

But first: the European Patent Office in Rijswijk.

Jingle: De Nieuws BV

Willemijn Veenhoven: Once again, an employee of the European Patent Office has committed suicide. The 42-year-old man ended
his life on the last day of his summer holidays. The EPO staff union, SUEPO, blames the “unhealthy working environment” for contributing to the fifth EPO employee suicide in three years.

EC:

Liesbeth Zegveld, good afternoon. You are SUEPO’s lawyer.

Liesbeth Zegveld:

Good afternoon.

EC:

You represent the union’s members. Can you tell me about the EPO and what is happening in Rijswijk?

LZ:

EPO is an international organisation with offices in five countries, the largest of which are located in Munich, Germany and Rijswijk, The Netherlands. In total, EPO employs about 7,000 people, 50 percent of whom are represented by the staff union. Their job is to approve patent applications, which is a rather specific line of work. They have found themselves under the regime of Mr Battistelli, a Frenchman. The working conditions and the atmosphere at EPO have been extremely unpleasant for years now. Even after a considerable amount of legal action, they have not improved. What I am seeing, and what the union is seeing, is that things are actually getting worse.

EC:

So this is not a Dutch organisation. It is a European organisation, located in The Netherlands. Could you give me an example of the working conditions?

LZ:

One of the most important problems is that the staff is not involved in the making of changes that affect them directly. Take for instance decisions regarding pensions or sick leave: these are things that affect them personally. These people are bypassed, and that is a big problem. Another problem is the extremely heavy workload. As a result of cutbacks, the pressure caused by the daily amount of work to be done is only increasing. The staff suffer from this, and they do not have a way to speak up about it or discuss it with one another. Obviously, this is detrimental to the working environment.

EC:

SUEPO sees a direct correlation between the workload and the five staff suicides over the last three years. Is there any way this conclusion could be proved?

LZ:

So far, there have been two suicides at Rijswijk. One of these people committed suicide during working hours. I don’t know if there have been inquiries into whether these suicides were related to the working climate, including the latter one. The point the staff union is trying to make is that the atmosphere at work is so hostile and the number of suicides among staff so high that it’s time for EPO to find out whether there is a correlation. That is what the management has been repeatedly urged to do, which they have declined.

EC:

They aren’t about to do that. So the president… I’m sorry, go on.

LZ:

“So far, there have been two suicides at Rijswijk. One of these people committed suicide during working hours.”
      –Liesbeth ZegveldThe Labour Inspectorate will try to visit the office to have a look at the working environment, but they are kept out because the EPO is a European organisation. This way, any and all questions to the EPO are met with silence. Meanwhile, the question remains: Are the suicides and the working conditions related? I do stress that this relationship has not been proved.

WV:

What I am thinking right now is that people’s working conditions have to be dreadfully, but dreadfully hostile for them to resort to suicide. You are very familiar with this case: Can you imagine that the working environment really is that toxic?

EC:

For people to take such measures?

LZ:

I don’t know the case of the man who recently committed suicide. What I do know is that the atmosphere is unbearably hostile. I can confirm that. As lawyers, we try to aid and assist the staff and the workers in legal matters. This is the first time I am confronted with the limits of legal proceedings. Something has to happen right now, because the situation at these offices is getting out of hand. I’ve gotten an extremely clear sense of that. An example of this is that the EPO created an internal Investigative Unit to interrogate and investigate individual workers’ behaviour. This Unit was initially created in 2013 to have only five members and carry out investigations into severe cases of sexual harassment and fraud. So far, there have been 71 investigations in 2015. A considerable number of those were aimed at staff union members. People are put under investigation, which they are not allowed to discuss. A rather bizarre fact, as this type of confidentiality is mostly meant to protect the person under investigation, but they can’t even talk about it themselves. They cannot go public about this. These proceedings make people feel extremely intimidated. They run the risk of being fired, or if they have already retired, of getting a one-third cut off their pension. There are a lot of these investigations going on right now, a few of which I am involved in. They are baseless investigations that involve employees being asked for an interview without being told what they are being accused of and without being given any documents relevant to the investigation. These employees are confronted with all of this, a report is drawn up, and that report goes straight to Mr. Battistelli. The employee is left to await their fate, which may well be termination.

EC:

So the President, Mr. Battistelli, is deaf to any criticism. He considers complaints about the workload as nothing more than propaganda. But we have staff unions, we have the Labour Inspectorate, we have great lawyers like you. How does this organisation manage to keep you all locked out?

LZ:

Again, the EPO is an international organisation. Their offices are not just in Rijswijk, but also in Munich, Vienna and two other countries. This type of organisation’s physical premises are not part of the country they are in. The Netherlands office, for instance, is in Rijswijk, but is outside Dutch jurisdiction.

EC:

They’re not part of The Netherlands.

LZ:

“But wouldn’t that mean that a company from India or wherever could have an office in The Netherlands, abuse their employees and be exempt from Dutch law? Why are they immune?”
      –Eric CortonRight. That means Dutch law, Dutch judges and the Dutch Labour Inspectorate have no authority over this office.

EC:

But wouldn’t that mean that a company from India or wherever could have an office in The Netherlands, abuse their employees and be exempt from Dutch law? Why are they immune?

LZ:

These aren’t national organisations that were started in a different country but have foreign offices in several countries. These organisations are intergovernmental and have been founded by several states. So if The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Belgium decide to found such an organisation, there is no judge that can have authority over it – only the organisation itself, or an international court of law. Of course, a self-governing organisation must govern itself correctly. And this is what we keep telling The Netherlands: every country washes its hands of it, and Battistelli is free to do as he pleases. But it’s an international organisation, so they have to take care of it themselves. Then when it gets out of hand, the International Court in The Hague, after a case that we won gloriously, rules on February 17 of this year: ‘Battistelli does
not have the right to monitor email communication, he does not have the right to decide on the duration of strikes, he does not have the right to exclude the union from negotiations with employees. Things have to change.’ At which The Netherlands as well as the organisation itself turned a deaf ear to the Court’s ruling and continued as normal. Sadly, that is the way the judicial system works.

WV:

I’m sorry to interrupt, but I would like to hear from Member of the Dutch House of Parliament John Kerstens
of the PvdA party. Good afternoon.

John Kerstens:

Good afternoon.

WV:

“The English term Investigative Unit has been put in German by the staff themselves as ‘the Gestapo’.”
      –John KerstensYou have previously voiced your concerns about this organisation’s working conditions to State Secretary Sharon Dijksma. What did she promise you at that point?

JK:

Really, we’ve knocked on the doors of everyone in the Cabinet by now, including Minister van der Steur and Minister Asscher. Things have been less than ideal for a while now at EPO, and that is just about the greatest understatement I could make. As Ms Zegveld said, people feel intimidated and unsafe. The English term Investigative Unit has been put in German by the staff themselves as ‘the Gestapo’.

EC:

Incidentally, we have tried to talk to people at the organisation, but no one wanted to talk to us.

JK:

That’s as I would have expected. We have contacts at the European Trade Union Confederation and we are in touch with the workers themselves: It’s not that they don’t want to talk, but they don’t dare open up for fear of investigations or suspension. The Cabinet’s reaction has been twofold: They are worried about this situation, but as Ms Zegveld noted, these international organisations enjoy certain kinds of judicial immunity. Which, by the way, multinational companies do not. Earlier, the impression was given…

EC:

“So could this be related to financial gain, perhaps?”
      –Willemijn VeenhovenNo, you’re right.

WV:

So could this be related to financial gain, perhaps? It’s been estimated that the Dutch government profits greatly from the EPO. The Office being in the Netherlands, the country apparently makes 855 million Euros off it each year. Could that be a reason they are left to do as they want?

JK:
The Netherlands has the ambition to be a haven for international organisations, such as international courts and organisations like the EPO. But the law dictates the premises of organisations are inviolable without permission from the President. In this case, that means the Labour Inspectorate cannot enter the premises, for instance to carry out an investigation.

WV:

But do you think money might be the issue here?

JK:

No, I don’t think it is. But the problem in this situation is that these external parties have to be given permission by Battistelli, who is himself a part of the conflict and as such not at all interested in cooperating with them. The Dutch Cabinet has made a number of attempts: they have discussed the issue with the governing body of the EPO, the Administrative Council, made up of representatives of all the states who founded the EPO. The Netherlands have also attempted to start a dialogue on social issues inside the organisation itself. One of the participants involved is in fact a representative of the Administrative Council. But not much is happening. We have to…

EC:

Yes, what is going to be the next step? If you’ve already spoken with Mr. van der Steur and asked Parliamentary questions of Ms. Dijksma, what’s next?

JK:

“Personally, I don’t think it’s Mr. Battistelli’s prerogative to allow or disallow the Labour Inspectorate entry into the EPO. It is the Administrative Council’s decision.”
      –John KerstensI’ve asked three sets of Parliamentary questions about this issue, and we get a small step further every time. Yet, there’s no solution in sight, so we’re going to have to put on a little bit more pressure. Personally, I don’t think it’s Mr. Battistelli’s prerogative to allow or disallow the Labour Inspectorate entry into the EPO. It is the Administrative Council’s decision. If The Netherlands is liaising with the Council to solve these issues, then for my next question to the Cabinet I will be asking them to get permission from the Council to enter the EPO and at least clear some things up.

EC:

Member of the Dutch House of Parliament John Kerstens of the PvdA party and Liesbeth Zegveld, SUEPO’s lawyer. Thank you both very much.

JK:

You’re welcome.

“Transcripts in English, French and German are available by scrolling through the document,” SUEPO notes, so just about everyone in Europe can read it. It’s imperative that everyone in any field of technology, which is inevitably impacted by European patents, reads this.

For those who have not been keeping abreast of this long series of articles, our Wiki is a good place to start. The EPO may, unless proven otherwise, be Europe’s most corrupt institution right now. █

The (formerly) SFLC folks have published this ogg file which takes us back to the FOSDEM panel:

TOMORROW the blogging will resume at full steam, but today we took a quick look at the past 6 day’s retention for non-cached, i.e not Varnish-served, pages (logs older than 4 weeks are deleted). These suggest a record high of 9462 .ogg files, 15613 .ogv files, and 1498 .mp3 files downloaded in the past 6 days without the proxy/cache. This is roughly twice the usual number and today we also noticed a PageRank surge. In terms of PageRank, we are one of the highest ranked Linux-oriented sites right now (PageRank 7 front page) and the server has been slow due to heavy bandwidth usage. This was like an unintended experiment. █

Summary: The World Wide Web is getting freer, so we are finally going to embrace both Ogg and WebM for multimedia

Microsoft Silverlight is nearly dead and Windows Phone 7 is never going to save it because it just isn’t selling. Flash, in the mean time, is under attack by Google from two fronts; one is WebM and the other is a Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool.

For those who have not heard yet:

• Google offers Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool

  Google announced an online tool allowing developers to convert Flash animations to HTML5. Thanks to “Swiffy,” those animations can then be run on Apple’s iPad and other devices that do not support Adobe Flash.

  As HTML5 appears to be moving ahead of technologies such as Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft Silverlight with some developers, Google has moved in with Swiffy, a new Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool.

• Swiffy- Convert Flash files to HTML5

  Swiffy is a small tool from Google that converts Flash files to HTML5 for use on non Flash player devices.You can upload SWF file and Swiffy will convert it to HTML5 file which can be displayed on all modern browsers “with a high level of SVG support such as Chrome and Safari.”

People sometimes ask why TechBytes makes content available as YouTube videos in additional to the original Ogg files; well, the answer is always the same. YouTube won’t require Flash for much longer. it will be webM-based, without the dependence on the MPEG cartel , either, Google deserves credit for doing the right thing in that regard. We will soon have the option to choose between WebM and Ogg.

Remember what makes Google different from Apple and Microsoft (which actively support the MPEG cartel). █

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: Después de los ataques de MPEG-LA en contra de codecs libres, Xiph.org presenta un recurso de apelación ante la FTC.

“Xiph.org pide a la FTC para hacer la práctica de patentes submarinas contrarias a la competencia”, señala esta persona[http://twitter.com/ActivelogicEU/statuses/82343583239245824] que nos enlaza a una página aparentemente nueva[http://xiph.org/press/2011/ftc/] de los creadores de Ogg. Techrights publica Ogg Theora videos en una base diaria y TechBytes hace Ogg Vorbis por lo menos una vez por semana. Estos son buenos algoritmos de compresión que han sido objeto de ataques de la Microsoft y Apple-promotores del cartel mafioso conocido como MPEG-LA. Hemos escrito sobre él en este sitio muchas veces antes y también hemos creado una página wiki[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/MPEG-LA].

“Esto le da al titular de dicha patente la capacidad de impedir o eliminar de los mercados todo el que pudiera competir con sus propias ofertas.”
      –Xiph.Org

Para citar la introducción a esta queja: “Xiph.Org presentó las siguientes observaciones en respuesta a la solicitud de la Comisión Federal de Comercio de comentarios y anuncio de un taller sobre las actividades normativas cuestiones, Proyecto Público No. P111204. El objetivo del documento es la ley y expertos en políticas. Como tal, se utiliza un lenguaje técnico-jurídico que no puede ser inmediatamente accesible a un público más amplio. En caso de duda, consulte a un abogado de patentes antes de publicar diatribas tiempo a Reddit o Slashdot.

“Las patentes afectan a las normas de una manera fundamentalmente diferente de cualquier otro contexto. La competencia normalmente limita el valor de una patente, con el valor determinado por la ventaja de la técnica patentada por la siguiente mejor opción. Sin embargo, las patentes esenciales para la aplicación de una norma de ganar su valor a partir de los efectos de red. La innovación a menudo no juega ningún papel. Esto le da al titular de dicha patente la capacidad de impedir o eliminar de los mercados todo el que pudiera competir con sus propias ofertas.”

Como hemos señalado a principios de este año, la mafiosa MPEG-LA[http://techrights.org/2010/05/26/mpeg-cartel-and-microsoft-backlash/]ha sido objeto de investigación. Se reconoce que algo perjudicial para el público que está sucediendo allí. █

Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

Summary: Following the attacks from MPEG-LA against free codecs, Xiph.org submits an appeal to the FTC

“Xiph.org asks FTC to make the practice of submarine patents anti-competitive,” notes this person who links to a seemingly new page from the creators of Ogg. Techrights publishes in Ogg Theora on a daily basis and TechBytes makes Ogg Vorbis files at least once a week. These are good compression algorithms that have come under attack from the Microsoft- and Apple-back cartel known as MPEG-LA. We wrote about it in this site many times before and we have also just created a wiki page.

“This gives the holder of such a patent the ability to hinder or eliminate entire markets which would compete with their own offerings.”
      –Xiph.OrgTo quote the introduction to this complaint: “Xiph.Org submitted the following comments in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s Request for Comments and Announcement of Workshop on Standard-Setting Issues, Project No. P111204. The document’s intended audience is law and policy wonks. As such it uses technical legal language that may not be immediately accessible to a wide audience. If in doubt, please consult a patent attorney before posting long rants to Reddit or Slashdot.

“Patents affect standards in a fundamentally different way from any other context. Competition normally limits the value of a patent, with that value determined by the advantage of the patented technique over the next best option. However, patents essential to the implementation of a standard gain their value from network effects. The innovation often plays no role. This gives the holder of such a patent the ability to hinder or eliminate entire markets which would compete with their own offerings.”

As we noted earlier this year, MPEG-LA has already come under investigation. It is recognised that something detrimental to the public is going on there. █

Summary: Grouping of the latest news about Mono at Novell and developments at Canonical, some of which require more attention

NOVELL continues to pollute GNU/Linux. Sadly enough, it has managed to spread Mono and Moonlight further than it ought to have managed, despite the obvious problems and warning from the FSF. Novell’s interests are Novell’s own interests and the interests of partners like Microsoft. Novell views Red Hat — not Microsoft — as a top competitor. Novell has just bumped up or pushed again into a technology site its whitepapers against Red Hat [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and it is serving Microsoft with Moonlight at the Winter Olympics. Mono is not about GNU/Linux, it’s about .NET. Moonlight is not about GNU/Linux, it’s about Silverlight. Derived from these we have Mac-only software that uses Microsoft’s APIs (and software patents that Novell is happy to acknowledge). From a new interview with Ed Burnette:

Ed: So you still need a Mac to do iPhone development?

Joseph [product manager for Mono at Novell]: MonoTouch does require a Mac. Some of our users prefer to use Visual Studio for editing their code; however, the tools to build with MonoTouch only run on the Mac.

Yes, Novell is now excluding GNU/Linux, but that’s not exactly unusual. The Mono team serves as a complementary software division for Microsoft based on the latest developments that are disappointing. Novell is trying to add .NET support even to MeeGo. What would Nokia say? What would Google say about MonoDroid? Would Windows/Microsoft assimilation be beneficial?

Meanwhile we find that Zonker is still promoting Novell’s Banshee, just as he did last week. The developers from Novell try to get more coders involved in Banshee (developers from the outside). It’s typically just Novell employees (and former Microsoft employees) who seem interested in Mono.

Ubuntu

Moving on to developments around Ubuntu, it is worth noting that Canonical hired from Microsoft and Novell. This has proven to be unhelpful so far and now that OpenOffice.org is put back into Ubuntu Netbook Edition (after backlash from users), Groklaw’s Pamela Jones says “Great. Now can you get rid of that mono stuff and put GIMP back in? Thanks.”

“Now can you get rid of that mono stuff and put GIMP back in? Thanks.”
      –Pamela Jones, GroklawAs we pointed out a few weeks ago, Canonical is removing the GIMP despite the fact that most people who participate in polls are opposing this decision. It’s the same with Mono. In the case of OpenOffice.org, Ubuntu did actually listen to the community, which is an encouraging sign. Pamela Jones also writes: “I see Matt, newly hired by Canonical, is already pushing proprietary software for Linux. The mystery meat fusion at Ubuntu is clearly the direction. Note also the use of the description “savvy”, implying that those who don’t fuse FOSS and proprietary software are not savvy. We’ll see. And not to be unkindly logical, but if it were apples-to-apples equivalent already, why does he think Linux needs proprietary solutions? And speaking for myself, I don’t use Skype, and I never need to.”

The decision to adopt Yahoo! (Microsoft) for search involved no public consultation with the Ubuntu community [1, 2, 3] and now that it's irreversible, complaints do carry on. Here is a nice new way of putting it:

WTF : Ubuntu Linux to use Bing for Search

[...]

Yes, you read that right. Ubuntu selects Yahoo, Yahoo Selects Bing, Google Selects Ubuntu.

Go figure.

This is more confusing than driving in Boston.

Here is a portion from one of Asay’s latest posts, which he titled “Is Microsoft a four-letter word?”

Wall Street, for its part, doesn’t much care for Microsoft, either, judging by the cold shoulder it has given Microsoft’s stock over the past 10 years.

Perhaps getting the hint, a slew of Microsoft executives have jumped ship in the past few years.

Won’t someone give Microsoft a break?

Probably not, and, ironically, this industry indifference may be just what Microsoft needs, as it offers the company freedom to take bigger risks and shields nascent product efforts from criticism.

“Giv[ing] Microsoft a break” would be a very bad idea because Microsoft is constantly attacking GNU/Linux (as we show here every day) and that includes Ubuntu. There is another new request from the Ubuntu community and we would like to ask readers to take part in it. “As you may know,” told us one person, “Ubuntu is integrating the 7Digital Music service into Rhythmbox in their upcoming Lucid Lynx release. Currently, this music service offers some tracks in FLAC, all tracks in MP3, and none in OGG. I started a petition to make them possibly consider using OGG on all their tracks.” Give it a look and sign if you agree. The petition says:

To: 7Digital Inc.

One of the main concerns of the inclusion of the 7Digital music store into Canonical Ltd’s offerings is the fact that it offers only two formats: MP3 and FLAC. FLAC is an incredibly large format and is not heavily supported across music players. Ogg, conversely, is supported on numerous mobile media players and devices and is comparable in size to MP3′s. The Undersigned request that 7Digital offer their entire music collection in a second Free Software format, the abovementioned Ogg Vorbis. Is has no patents attached to it, and requires no proprietary codecs for playback. This would help spread acceptance of the Ogg Vorbis format, and would be heavily beneficial to Ubuntu users.

In short, we the Undersigned request that 7Digial Inc include all of their music in the Ogg Vorbis format alongside the other two formats.

Go sign it please. █

Summary: The product known as “SYNC” is fraudulently described as “open source” in some more gullible circles

THIS is an unimportant subject that was mentioned a couple of years ago. Basically, Ford and Microsoft have this project called “SYNC”, which they wrongly describe as “open source” or “open-source” even though it’s proprietary and it comes from companies with a vicious, predatory history. They are faking and thus cheapening the term “open source”, which harms Open Source as a whole (Novell is doing that too).

Let is be stated that “SYNC” — like Zune — is Microsoft project for DRM-laden PMPs. There is no reason, for example, why Dana Blankenhorn (last mentioned a couple of days ago) should write about it under the headline “Open source in your car or an open source car”

Is the following the sole characteristic of “open source”?

The folks at Ford, which alone among America’s automakers avoided the hand of government during the Great Recession, are out with a release describing what has happened since they began the process of opening the Application Program Interface (API) of their SYNC program to outside developers last year.

Back in 2008 we published the post titled: “Microsoft Tries Casting “Open Source” as “Open APIs””

We addressed this subject again 2 months ago, under: “O’Reilly Does Not Know What Open Means (Let Alone Free)”

We realise that “SYNC” sponsors FLOSS Weekly at the moment^* — it’s a product which the host promotes to keep the show going, always without saying the “M” word (Microsoft). To his credit, he never really describes the thing as “open source” (because it’s not). █
___
^* Yes, it’s rather ironic that a show on FLOSS accepts sponsorship from proprietary software vendors that vilify FLOSS and promotes those proprietary software products. But still, it’s a good show.

Direct link

Summary: An excellent new audiocast covers lesser known facts about Novell’s deal with Microsoft

JEREMY Allison, whom we interviewed shortly after he had left Novell in protest, has just done a session with the SFLC where he talks about events predating the Microsoft deal. According to the audio (playable below), Allison was sent an early copy of Novell’s deal with Microsoft, which he said was like passing a crayon over section 7 of the GPL (v2). Allison resisted it, but the lawyers ignored his feedback anyway and requested deletion of the trail.

Here is the original page, which includes in its index:

* Jeremy discussed that he resigned from Novell in protest over the Microsoft/Novell deal. (19:33)

The main new item there is Novell’s treatment of antagonism. The legal team patronised an expert advice, so what was it sharing a draft for? A pursuit for endorsement and “yes men”? Based on the bogus survey, that is a possibility. █

Summary: Microsoft’s illegal strategy now in audio

A Boycott Novell regular, Marti van Lin, has created the following track whose lyrics are Microsoft evangelism documents, as he describes in his blog. The track is playable below (requires browser support for the <audio> element). █

Summary: A show called “OpenMic” has literally nothing but Novell employees in it, even members of the board of Microsoft CodePlex (Novell’s de Icaza)

TO Novell, Zonker was a wage well invested. As we pointed out before, he uses IDG to boost SUSE. He exclusively invites Novell employees (i.e. colleagues) to be guests there, essentially talking to one another under the “Open” banner. We showed this in two prior posts, namely:

1. IDG Gives Novell a Podium, Zonker Denouncements Come
2. Novell Uses IDG to Promote Mono

Here is the latest example^* where Zonker describes his guest as “openSUSE booster and GNOME board member” but not as a Novell employee. According to this, he joined Novell last year.

Still, I’m excited because a whole new era opens for me. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be working at Novell with some heroes like Federico, Rodrigo or JP. The reason I’m excited is that this job is about GNOME (upstream and in openSUSE) and this will allow me to stay involved in the project instead of disappearing in some black hole. Pretty good stuff, if you ask me. And it will be quite a big change from the academic life I had before!

This is yet another great example of Novell boosters in the press, including GNU/Linux news sites. Zonker serves his role as a PR rep, pushing Novell and SUSE into publications and giving them visibility. He does not even make it hard to see. That’s his job. Here is a guest post by Novell’s Zonker (Joe Brockmeier) from just a few days ago; it’s all about boosting in social media. In the case above, Novell employees are treated as representatives of Free/open source software, which they are not.

Speaking of misrepresentations, Our reader Goblin says that he is “[f]ed up with sites claiming one person represents the views of everyone. Check out my reply to this article that suggests I speak for the open source community in respect of Codeplex.”

Just like you to make a correct to this article of yours.

I do not represent the FOSS community, I represent my own views/opinions.

Please do not also suggest that just because its Microsoft, the open source community will be against it. (although who can blame people for being dubious when Ballmer makes comments about cancer in respect of it)

I am not critical of Apple or Google and they are both large firms (since its also suggested FOSS supporters hate large business) The reason why Im critical of Microsoft products is because I was burned by them AND FOR ME they are not fit for purpose. I cannot say the same about Apple or Google.

Just like I wouldn’t say this site represents those who support proprietary “expeditions” into the world of FOSS, please do not seek to generalize me or anyone else merely because our choices in software differ from yours.

NOTE: Incase you decide not to print this a screengrab has been taken.

Regards
Goblin.

Is it not funny that IDG lets Novell become a spokesman for the “open source” community and also allows the host to bring only people from Novell (conflict of interests), including Mono boosters? █
____
^* Third time in a row that he brings over Novell employees, three out of three overall.

Direct link (MP4) (or MP3)

For perspective, also see this feedback. I was very uncomfortable on this show, and it probably shows. I knew it would be rather hostile.

Summary: Zune and Windows Mobile are both still failing, as indicated by reports

THE CNN carries this report in its wires, under the headline “Microsoft’s Zune HD Could Be Too Little, Too Late”

As we pointed out before, the Zune may not survive.

The company will be hoping to jump-start lackluster entertainment sales through Zune HD, among other things. Revenue from the company’s entertainment and devices unit, which makes Zune and Xbox, fell by 25% in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, ending June 30.

Roughly Drafted offers this explanation of the tough situation Zune is in because it is so closed and scarce.

The bottom line: Microsoft knows there’s no real money in Zune software and doesn’t want to invest its resources (the company has plenty of cash) in developing low value software. The problem: mobile developers have no incentive to leave the iPhone App Store in order to support the Zune HD, and consumers have little reason to buy the Zune HD without any software.

According to some new numbers — even from a source favourable to Microsoft — Microsoft carries on falling in mobile phones too.

Onwards and upwards for smartphones and their apps

[...]

As for the latter, Gartner notes that Microsoft’s share continued to drop year-on-year to account for 9 percent of the market.

Microsoft is now leaning on Nokia/Symbian (a market leader) for some morsels of impact in this highly strategic area.

Microsoft And Nokia Need Deal To Remain Relevant To Mobile Business Market

[...]

Microsoft, whose Windows Mobile is currently in third or fourth place and slipping in the mobile market, knows it needs to expand that share in order to increase the revenue of its Office and Exchange products. And that can only be done by offering complete functionality of its applications on multiple platforms to remain relevant in the mobile world in the face of the popularity of BlackBerry devices, Gold wrote.

Linux was built to fit computers large and small alike (granularity indifference), so its future in this area looks very promising. Windows, on the other hand, was branched or even forked to facilitate mobile devices. Lack of modularity doomed Microsoft and not even familiarity with the Windows metaphors enabled the monopolist to gain significant share. Microsoft is now relying on other parts of the ‘stack’ such as Office. █

FOR NOVELL’S SUSE Linux side, the past week has been a quiet one if the trade press is any indication. Among the little that existed there was this eWeek article (LinuxDevices) about the H-P Mini 2140 with SLED 10.

HP announced a netbook targeting “business applications” and “instructional use,” and available with SUSE Linux. The HP Mini 2140 features a 10.1 screen up to 1366 x 768 pixels, Atom N270 processor, 160GB hard disk drive or 80GB SSD (solid state drive), plus an ExpressCard/54 slot.

This miniature notebook received a score of 8.6 out of 10 from a Web site which rarely covers GNU/Linux.

The HP Mini 2140 keeps everything we loved about the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC—the sturdy aluminum shell, the comfortable keyboard, the compact dimensions—and fixes its shortcomings (SuSe Linux OS, smallish screen). The result is as near a perfect netbook as current technology will allow, at a $499 price that’s right in line with lesser rivals in the class.

Joe the “Var Guy” had a conversation with John Dragoon from Novell.

In this episode, Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon responds to five key questions about the company’s SUSE Linux strategies, broader software efforts and partner initiatives.

There is a copy of it here. At one point during this chat/interview, Joe diverts the discussion towards SUSE only to discover that IDC estimates GNU/Linux growth at 20%, compared to SUSE at 33%. It puts things in perspective, assuming IDC’s figures mean much (they most certainly don’t because the people at IDC intentionally avoid measuring the right things).

Dragoon declines to comment upon the request for him to break down — individually — the Microsoft-granted revenue, thus separating it from the rest.

On a technical level, SUSE (the SLE* series) was hardly mentioned except for in some press releases about LinMin, which supports SUSE. Here is some of the latest publicity about it:

• LinMin™ Introduces Bare Metal Provisioning 5.3 with One-Click Provisioning Role Creation and Support for the latest Linux Releases from Red Hat, Novell, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE and CentOS
• LinMin™ Introduces Bare Metal Provisioning 5.3 for Latest Linux Releases
• LinMin™ Introduces Bare Metal Provisioning 5.3

Turbolinux

Cloudmark puts in place a new director with some background or history at Turbolinux. From their press release.

Prior to Sendmail, he served as president of several leading technology companies, including Turbolinux and Object Design.

That’s about all there was to see. Turbolinux still appears in articles, but they are not in English; it’s just far-eastern languages about 80% of the time. █

According to this new audiocast [OGG] from Dave Rosenberg, Matt Asay, and an unnamed guest, Microsoft is allegedly giving Windows for just $5 to be put on sub-notebooks where/if they are assembled in China (listen to it starting at the 20^th minute). We previously heard about no-cost Windows and also suspected a $19-29 price tag. The pricing of ASUS products raised suspicions yesterday, but finally we receive some answers through the grapevine. Microsoft’s margins are shrinking very fast thanks to competition and it is not quite so sustainable.

Also mentioned in this audio (17^th minute onwards) is something that wasn’t exactly intended to be published, much like those financial games. Novell’s marketing director does not like BrainShare and cost-saving is a factor that effected his decision to cancel it, not just the poor demand. █

The real value of Microsoft Windows: $5, not $500

Direct link