01.08.09
Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft, Vista 7 at 11:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Get ready for Windows 7apourware”
MANY PEOPLE still remember the Blender blunder. Microsoft wants to turn the Free software world into Just Another™ Microsoft/Windows ISV.
Jill Brecheisen from Microsoft is trying to convince (i.e. lobby) Free software projects to prepare themselves for vapourware, such as Vista 7. Here is an E-mail that has just landed in the VLC mailing list:
I am on the Windows 7 PC Ecosystem team and would like to invite your company to participate in Windows 7 Application Readiness & Compatibility Labs. Can you please let me know who the appropriate contact would be to send an invitation to?
Thank you,
Jill Brecheisen
PC Ecosystem ISV Engagement
v-jibrec at microsoft.com
Here’s how the thinking goes at Microsoft: Why fight Free software if it cannot be killed? Instead, let’s try to make people abandon GNU/Linux. Let’s make Free software work better on Windows and have developers overworked because of their Windows ports, which address yet non-existent operating systems. █
“The purpose of announcing early like this is to freeze the market at the OEM and ISV level. In this respect it is JUST like the original Windows announcement…
“One might worry that this will help Sun because we will just have vaporware, that people will stop buying 486 machines, that we will have endorsed RISC but not delivered… So, Scott, do you really think you can fight that avalanche?”
–Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft
“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
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Posted in Microsoft, Security, Windows at 11:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Windows Vista is not a secure operating system and Vista 7 is the same. The ramifications can be very serious and no level of censorship can hide it. According to this report from the Identity Theft Resource Center, the leaking of sensitive data is rising sharply due to inappropriate means of securing it.
More than 35 million data records were breached in 2008 in the U.S., a figure that underscores continuing difficulties in securing information, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).
Each and every one of us pays for the damage, as costs are collective and our data is centralised not only on our personal computers*. Even our medical records can be compromised.
“Each and every one of us pays for the damage, as costs are collective and our data is centralised not only on our personal computers.”What is responsible for this and who is to blame? Well, based on empirical evidence, it’s Microsoft that has failed. It failed not because it’s an impossible task to secure software but because, as the manager of Windows said a few years ago, “our products just aren’t engineered for security.”
Let’s consider GNU/Linux for a second. The platform runs in an environment that’s highly connected; it runs on a very large number of boxes endlessly. In September 2008, said Steve Ballmer: “Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux…”**
If GNU/Linux was not secure, wouldn’t many of the Web servers out there be compromised? Evidently, they rarely do. Software that’s installed on them with uploaders is a vector of weakness, but that too has not caused much harm.
On the other hand we have Windows, which is once again under a worm attack, according to this new report.
Business systems are being attacked by a worm exploiting a known Microsoft vulnerability, IT security experts have warned.
Sam Varghese, a GNU/Linux user, wrote about “worms, worms, worms” a few days ago. Security troubles under Windows have more of his computers migrated to GNU/Linux right now.
It would have been good to have some equivalent of Delilah on Windows to negate the role of this browser, but, sadly there is none. There are some third-party applications like XPlite , developed by Australian Shane Brooks, which do remove most of IE but then which browser do you use to update Windows? Only IE supports ActiveX.
You can, of course, move from XP to Vista where the updates are done through the control panel but that would be the equivalent of offering a man a choice between arsenic and cyanide for breakfast.
Sam mentions ActiveX, which was probably designed and implemented for anti-competitive reasons (making Web sites operating system-dependent), despite it’s obvious dangers. As Bill Gates put it on numerous occasions, they needed to leverage standards-hostile extensions. In this one E-mail [PDF] he wrote: “Another suggestion In this mail was that we can’t make our own unilateral extensions to HTML I was going to say this was wrong and correct this also.”
Where do Windows users end up because of this? Well, merely visiting a Web site can be dangerous because it gives the site great control over the entire operating system (access to local files even). At the moment, there are reports about Windows-only features in LinkedIn… malicious ‘features’
[T]he sort of social media trouble quotient appears to have risen a bit as fake LinkedIn profiles are trying to send users towards malware.
We all reap what they sow. █
“In one piece of mail people were suggesting that Office had to work equally well with all browsers and that we shouldn’t force Office users to use our browser. This Is wrong and I wanted to correct this.”
–Bill Gates [PDF]
Hostility towards (X)HTML came from the top
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* Where else are they centralised? Well, a lot of people don’t know where or how their medical records are kept or how susceptible those records might be to data theft. Are medical records kept only on private networks? or are they reachable by the outside world (Chinese or Russian crackers, for example). Ordinary people pay more attention once they realise exactly how this situation can cause them harm in a very personal way.
** This is an important point, and it should probably be made even stronger. If GNU/Linux was not more secure, wouldn’t its 60 percent of the Web servers be compromised at least as often as Windows 40 percent? Yet evidence shows that they rarely are.
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Posted in Antitrust, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 9:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Antitrust exhibit unleashed
According to Microsoft’s own intelligence, almost 20% of the organisations in Brazil intended to move to GNU/Linux in 2003. Is that why Microsoft sends lackeys over there [1, 2]?
Microsoft calls this “Linux Heat Map.” It pretty much contradicts claims that Microsoft is not bothered by desktop GNU/Linux.
View large image
View the original PDF
That’s Microsoft own estimation and that’s just for desktops in 2003. GNU/Linux has gained a lot since. █
“[If I ask you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?] Open…Linux. I don’t want to say open source. Linux, certainly have to go with that.”
–Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO), February 28th, 2008
Update: Here it is in ODF format, thanks to a reader who transcribed it by hand. Some of the numbers were hard to make out, so the reader would not claim 100% accuracy.
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Posted in Deception, Fork, Microsoft, Novell, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, Patents at 9:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
We already wrote about this subject a couple of weeks ago [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Coming a little late to the party is Bruce Byfield, who still has a vendetta against us [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
We haven’t the time (nor the desire) to do a full rebuttal right now, but a few points are worth making:
- Byfield repeatedly uses the term “anti-Novell lobby” to daemonise critics, but he never bothers to name them or to link to these critics. He wants to present his own version (or rendition) of their voice without giving readers the opportunity to interpret or judge for themselves. Over at OStatic, Sam Dean went on and deleted (censored) a polite and informative comment from me, which was about 30-40 lines in length. It explained what Novell was doing with Go-OO[XML].
- Regarding patents, Byfield writes: “And considering that OOXML is now an ISO standard — no matter what dirty tricks might have made it one — the idea that it, at least, could now be used in patent violation cases seems logically inconsistent.” Byfield may not understand patents and the OSP from Microsoft, which does not elude RAND. Being an ISO standard does not prevent patents from being an issue. As always, there is also disregard for more idealogical considerations, which passively endorses corruption.
There are many more points worth making, but we lack the time to address them.
The author has a long track record of defending Novell and that, by association, means badmouthing “Boycott Novell”. Frustration is probably not a factor here, but let’s remember that Byfield mostly writes for Linux.com, which is no longer publishing articles (for now). That can’t be good news to him because that’s how he makes a living. █
“There is nothing more that can be done. Everything we do is now available to licensees as well.”
–Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s Imaginary Property Officer
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Posted in Africa, Asia, Europe, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Office Suites, OpenOffice, Windows at 7:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Some days ago we wrote about Kerala and about EDGI. The issue is being covered by the Indian press now (“Proponent of Free Software gets marching orders”).
Click image for a large-sized version
Those who want to process their taxes must purchase Microsoft Excel and its prerequisites. On top of this, the forced resignation sure makes it seem like Microsoft may be 'pulling a Quinn' using overseas collaborators with joint interests. It’s a familiar recipe.
Another country where Microsoft appears to be pulling such tricks is South Africa (it was offered StarOffice for virtually nothing). That’s where Microsoft wants to capture users while they are young and similar tactics are being applied to Malta. Several days ago we wrote about so-called 'donations' in Malta and now these ‘donations’ (addictionware) are reaching Maltese schools and higher education.
University students are enjoying more and more the benefits of Microsoft specialised training courses. Microsoft Malta teamed up with the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta and is offering a course in Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Development. This is currently being delivered to undergraduates over a period of nine months under the IT Academy Programme.
The university needs to offer education, not to become a taxpayers-funded Microsoft workshop [1, 2, 3]. Last night, Richard Stallman sent out this alert about the possible privatisation of US education.
Did Barack Obama Just Appoint An Under-qualified Stooge and Privatizer Secretary of Education?
The short answer seems to be “yes.” Before being appointed CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan never saw the inside of a classroom as a teacher. This is probably a good thing, since Duncan does not possess the academic qualifications to be even a substitute teacher. Worse still, Duncan’s idea of improving inner-city schools in Chicago is handing them over to corporate-run charter schools or converting them to military academies. This, says longtime Chicago educator and activist George Schmidt, is not the change we voted for.
Going back to Malta, the country has been speaking about GNU/Linux and Free software for quite some time [1, 2, 3] and it was even close to choosing StarOffice [4], which Microsoft is committing a ‘targeted assassination’ against, according to the leaked EDGI memos. Is Microsoft ‘pulling an EDGI’ on this country? More importantly, will Malta’s authorities permit this kind of digital colonialism to carry on? Will citizens speak out? Justice rarely comes as a gift from above; it comes through struggles from the bottom. █
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[1] IBM Linux education programme [in Malta]
One of the ICT education initiatives is the Linux Education Programme, through which 60 persons who already work in the ICT industry ambit will certify themselves as Linux Entry Level Administrators.
[2] Leo Brincat’s missionary zeal – Malta and Open Source
While Labour “studies” what its weekly half-hour trip on the internet gives it, we are developing areas where we think the benefits of open-source technology can really make a difference.
[...]
Moreover, should he have researched even further he would have also realised that we are taking our open standards policy even a step further and extending it to cut across different technological platforms such as we recently did with the eGovernment Web Framework when we extended it to cover also Oracle technologies and are currently preparing for its final extension into Linux.
[3] Maltese Government and IBM sign strategic alliance
The strategic programmes and initiatives offered by IBM include educational initiatives such as the setting up of a Linux education programme to certify Maltese students, selected by the Government, as Linux Entry Level Administrators.
[4] € 2 scheme for teachers and students for StarOffice
Maltese students and teachers can purchase StarOffice applications software for a once-only payment of €2.
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Posted in Antitrust, DRM, Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, Windows at 5:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
NLnet has already funded ODF support in KOffice [1, 2, 3]. After all, Holland had adopted ODF as a national standard and many implementations of the standard were required. Now they are funding further ODF improvements in AbiWord.
The AbiWord project has announced that NLnet is providing funding to facilitate the development of improved OpenDocument (ODF) filters in AbiWord. This will increase the program’s compatibility with the format and boost its interoperability with OpenOffice.org (OOo).
Why not OOXML? Well, apart from the fact that OOXML is associated with Microsoft corruption, it is a format that only Microsoft can implement (but won't) and it’s a Windows-only format. Here for example is a new discussion about OOXML DRM:
Here is a plea to the OO.o developers who work on OOXML compatibility:
1. Please speak clearly whether the publicly available information about the ISO-approved OOXML format is sufficient for you to implement its DRM-related features.
2. Please speak clearly whether you are sure of your legal safety in implementing OOXML’s DRM-related features.
Please say it loudly in your blogs or emails, in as non-technical terms as possible. Then we will turn around and show your opinions to the confused governments and journalists who still believe Microsoft’s claim that OOXML is an open format, and put an end to that lie.
DRM is a disabler of competition. That’s why companies like Microsoft love it; it’s not just a fetish of the media moguls.
A scarcely-known fact is that in many E-mails inside Microsoft, the competitive threat of online office suites was realised over a decade ago, and it could potentially be suppressed using proprietary document formats and control of Web browsers (with subjugation of users and Web standards).
There is a famous joke which says that “80% of Office users only use 20% of the features.” Well, here is an interesting bit from the latest antitrust trial [PDF]. Microsoft writes:
The Competition
It is both rewarding and scary to look at the current competitive landscape. We can all feel some sense of vindication in the fact that the internet did not cause the immediate death of Office and that so far no one is running Java applets that do the “right 20%” of Office-yet. We can take a moment to gloat, though only a moment as we still have traditional competitors and competition at the LORG level is still there though not as directly…
We must not lose sight of the fact that our biggest competitor continues to be our existing products and the inertia they have. The cost and pain of upgrading still overwhelms any sense of benefit we seem to be able to communicate to customers…
Of course, these days we have office suites which capitalise on JavaScript and do neat things that satisfy the needs of those legendary 80% of users. Microsoft fights this with FUD (perception), just like it says in its manual. █
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Posted in Finance, Microsoft at 4:07 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
It’s no secret that Microsoft individuals with vested interests are passing a lot of money to governments. This hardly accounts for influence through lobbyists and corporate sponsorships too.
Nevertheless, it’s always suspicious when one person invests in another, as opposed to a company supporting a company, a person, or vice versa. Associated Press has this report.
The inaugural committee received a total of $150,500 from six Microsoft employees, including the maximum $50,000 from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
They neglected to account for contributions from family members of Microsoft employees, as well as others. This is similar to this article.
The inauguration has raised a total of $150,500 from six Microsoft employees, including the maximum $50,000 from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
There are actually bigger numbers at play.
The 2008 elections may be over, but it’s still interesting to look back and see who supported whom. As a company, Microsoft didn’t stick to just the Democrats or just the Republicans, but according to data from OpenSecrets.org, the software giant did have a clear winner in mind. Out of the $2,973,322 in contributions Microsoft made, $2,124,186 went to the Democrats, while only $844,586 was given to the Republicans. This comes out to about 71.4 percent and 28.4 percent, respectively. The rest of the contributions went to individuals and political action committees.
That is just the tip of the iceberg and it shows rather clearly how the United States government is run and funded. Whose interests will it serve? █
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