07.23.12
Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents at 2:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Android is becoming an existential threat to Microsoft and a long-term risk to Steve Jobs’ mob
THE market share of Android is growing rapidly, with nearly one million new activations per day. At this current pace is might not be long before Android, which contains Linux and is Open Source, outpaces Windows in terms of overall usage. As new versions are released and Android evolves on increasingly powerful hardware (with more cores. battery life, and RAM) it might also not take long for Android to outpace Windows in terms of functionality. Microsoft recognises this, so it is trying to compete with Android on similar terms (Tiles Eight) but with dirty tricks too (entryism, FUD, UEFI, extortion and embargo). Windows is already devalued to the point where Microsoft announces losses and a Windows licence costs as little as $15 (standard), or as Pogson puts it:
[Microsoft] is finally recognizing that an OS is a commodity these days and $15 is a reasonable price to pay for a licence. The question remains how long they can continue to sell licences without a discount after 2013. The losses will mount if they have to discount everything.
Apple too is seeing the growth of Android is a major risk factor and its spiritual leader, Steve Jobs, called for a "thermonuclear" war on Android. Maybe Jobs’ beard was an attempt to emulate Iranian theocracy after all.
“Apple was recently ordered to apologise for its baseless limitation that had also involved doctored (fake) evidence.”In any event, is lucky to see Jobs’ nuke-happy remarks being rejected as court evidence against this cult, or as ZDNet put it: “Steve Jobs Android comments barred from Apple-Samsung trial”
Further quoting this post:”The late co-founder’s anti-Android sentiments have been deemed irrelevant by a U.S. District court judge.”
The seminal report came from another news agency: “Reuters reports that Apple wished to keep anti-Android statements made by the late co-founder out of the courtroom; arguing that the sentiments were not relevant to the patent case at hand.”
Maybe they should also hide Jobs’ evident megalomania and LSD addition, at the very least because it discredits the icon of the company and most likely the originator of the litigation war.
Apple was recently ordered to apologise for its baseless limitation that had also involved doctored (fake) evidence. Coverage of this is plentiful and the apology sure will embarrass Apple and weaken its position in future court cases. To quote the British press:
Apple must run a national ad campaign saying that Samsung did not copy them, a High Court judge ruled yesterday – according to this Bloomberg report and a draft court order seen by The Reg.
Judge Birss of the Patents Court instructed Apple to run ads displaying the notice in newspapers and magazines including the Daily Mail, Financial Times, Guardian Mobile magazine and T3 magazine.
At Apple, arrogance and propaganda will take a massive hit when Apple.com, the official site, posts a public apology and retraction. Apple fan sites in the mean time continue holding on to patents in their fight against Android, which is a fight for more Apple profit. To quote one such fan site:
Apple on Tuesday was granted 25 patents that encompass almost all user interface elements used by modern smartphones. Everything from e-mail, telephone, camera, video player, photos, search, and most importantly multi-touch (the system of using multiple finger gestures on a touch screen display) have all been granted to the Cupertino-based company.
There is prior art for multi-touch. Ask Michaelangelo. Or ask Picaso, whom people like Steve Jobs like to quote to rationalise “stealing”. To quote with context, Jobs said that “[i]t comes down to trying expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you’re doing. Picaso had a saying, good artists copy, great artists steal. We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas and i think part of what made the Macintosh great as that the people working on it were musicians, poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happen to be the best computer scientists in the world.” █
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07.19.12
Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents, Samsung at 10:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft uses software patents to ban Linux-powered devices whereas Apple fails to do so and moreover it is forced to publicly apologise
IN ITS fight against Motorola (Google-owned for this part), Microsoft has banned particular products because of Microsoft’s deviation from standards, although it's a little baffling. Let this teach us about the harms of OOXML for example:
In its own words: “In view of the ITC exclusion order which becomes effective Wednesday with respect to the single ActiveSync patent upheld in Microsoft’s ITC-744 proceeding, Motorola has taken proactive measures to ensure that our industry-leading smartphones remain available to consumers in the U.S. We respect the value of intellectual property and expect other companies to do the same.”
Apple is also trying to stop Android although its approach is slightly different. To quote a critic, “Apple is desperate to not let Samsung devices reach consumer’s hands. How far do you think Apple will go to ‘enforce’ a court order? Sky is the limit. Apple started sending out legal warning to retailers across the US to stop selling Samsung Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Nexus phones. Apple did this even when the same court issued a temporary suspension of the ban.”
Here is more criticism from the same critic:
Did Apple Call Galaxy Nexus A Stolen, Pirated And Counterfeit Product?
[...]
Apple is stooping to a whole new level. The company is evidently scared of competition in the mobile and is using every legal means to ‘kill’ Android.
The same company which stole UI from Xerox, whose founder shamelessly admitted that they had been shameless about stealing ideas from other companies is putting the Galaxy Nexus phone in the category of ‘stolen, pirated, counterfeit, or infringing products.’
News suggests that “Galaxy S3 bumps Samsung’s lead over Apple”, so no wonder Apple is nervous. Samsung itself is acquiring more patent ammunition and here is the latest:
The S-Wallet has opened and absorbed $310 million-worth of connectivity and location patents from British chip company CSR, which already supplies SiRF GPS chips to Galaxy devices. In addition to boosting its patent portfolio, Samsung also invested $34 million to buy a five percent stake in the firm itself, giving it access to a large development team working on audio, automotive, indoor location and other functions.
Sadly for Apple, it is “ordered to run Samsung ‘did not copy iPad’ adverts” to clarify that “Samsung Didn’t Copy Apple”:
A judge in Britain is forcing Apple to publicly acknowledge that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad, according to a report by Bloomberg.
A judge has ordered Apple to post a notice on its website and in “several” British newspapers and magazines highlighting a recent ruling that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad.
Samsung has unique devices and it gave society far more innovation (in hardware) than Apple. Nevertheless, we resent Samsung for paying Microsoft for Linux. █
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07.18.12
Posted in Google, Microsoft, Office Suites at 11:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The corporate press helps confirm that Microsoft’s technical failure takes its toll and the Office franchise is in jeopardy
THE folks from CBS say that “[a]ccording to a new report, the company [Microsoft] is doing everything from cutting prices to increasing commissions to resellers to stop enterprise customers from using Google Apps.”
The original report from Murdoch’s press basically helps confirm that Microsoft is hurt in the area that’s its biggest cash cows. Microsoft imitates the competition, but as we already saw, its downtime issues (caused perhaps by reliance on Windows) will continue to plague it [1, 2, 3]. Over the long run, Microsoft’s cash cow might take a massive hit, which considering Microsoft’s losses [1 2, 3] can put the company’s survival at peril. █
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07.15.12
Posted in Asia, Courtroom, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents at 2:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Monopoly (uniformity) versus openness and diversity
Summary: A mixed roundup of news and analysis affecting the growth of Linux
THE REALITY of “patent wars”, as a Microsoft-friendly site put it (especially in smartphones), is being realised by more and more people. “An infographic showing who is suing whom and who is selling patents to whom shows that patents are indeed a source of much friction and the only likely winners are the lawyers.” This is the description of this recent article which helps illustrate just how harmful patents have been, unless we take into account a patent lawyers’ perspective. In this post we’ll present some news with evidence-based material that can help support an appeal to authorities.
Over at Groklaw, the biggest lawsuit against Android is being covered only to say that: “The judge in the Oracle v. Google litigation has denied Oracle’s risible renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50(b), one day after Oracle filed its reply to Google’s opposition to it. No ruling in Oracle’s favor, therefore, will be forthcoming, and no new trial. Also, no hearing on the 26th. The judge didn’t need to hear them jabber on about all this in person, at further expense to both sides, before making his decision.”
“The judge in the Oracle v. Google litigation has denied Oracle’s risible renewed motion for judgment …”
–GroklawRecently, one writer questioned Larry Ellison’s motives for filing this whole bogus lawsuit. We have always suspected that his best friend Steve Jobs played some role in this decision. To quote the writer however: “IT SEEMS that Oracle’s lawsuit against Google over its use of Java in Android has fallen apart. Although the trial is still ongoing, and the judge has yet to hand down an important copyright ruling while the jury has yet to return its verdicts on patents and damages, if any – it’s already apparent that Oracle is unlikely to win billions or even millions of dollars from Google, and it’s possible that Oracle might lose entirely.
“This lawsuit is rather important, however, if only because it has raised the spectre that software APIs might be found subject to copyright. As many people have already noted, that would have dire consequences for interoperability and software freedom throughout the IT industry. It would put into play programming languages, the interfaces of software stacks and potentially even the internet itself.
“All kinds of APIs could suddenly become targets for the extraction of licensing fees and endless litigation. That could effectively destroy the entire software industry and stifle innovation for years, creating a terrible dystopia.
“While that depressing vision might not in fact develop if APIs are deemed copyrightable – and it seems unlikely that Judge Alsup will rule that they are, given that US copyright law has always considered them functional elements and not creative expression that’s deserving of copyright protection – that’s what Oracle has argued for in its lawsuit against Google.”
Oracle’s case is weak and meanwhile the main party benefiting from it is Apple. After the lawsuit against Google some said that software patents as a whole were discredited.
More recently, the judge in another case against Android explicitly questioned software patents (well done, Mr. Posner), noting in an actual column (rare for a judge) that “there are too many patents in America (that is his headline, see a printer-friendly version for future reference). “Recently,” says the judge, “while sitting as a trial judge, I dismissed a case in which Apple and Motorola had sued each other for alleged infringement of patents for components of smartphones. My decision undoubtedly will be appealed, and since the case is not yet over with it would be inappropriate for me to comment publicly on it.
“But what I am free to discuss are the general problems posed by the structure and administration of our current patent laws, a system that warrants reconsideration by our public officials.*
“U.S. patent law confers a monopoly (in the sense of a right to exclude competitors), generally for 20 years, on an invention that is patented, provided the patent is valid — that is, that it is genuinely novel, useful, and not obvious. Patents are granted by the Patent and Trademark Office and are presumed valid. But their validity can be challenged in court, normally by way of defense by a company sued by a patentee for patent infringement.
“With some exceptions, U.S. patent law does not discriminate among types of inventions or particular industries. This is, or should be, the most controversial feature of that law. The reason is that the need for patent protection in order to provide incentives for innovation varies greatly across industries.”
Over at Groklaw, another valuable reference was provided for the new work from Boston. To quote: “Jim Bessen and Mike Meurer have published their latest paper examining the impact of “patent trolls” (they politely refer to them as Non-Producing Entities or NPEs) on our national economy. Entitled The Direct Costs From NPE Disputes [PDF], the paper examines the direct costs of patent assertions by NPEs against operating companies, i.e., companies that actually make things to earn their revenues. More on the Bessen/Meurer paper in a bit.
“In the meantime, Prof. Colleen Chien of the Santa Clara University School of Law is conducting a survey on the economic impacts of patent litigation on the economy, and she could use your help. Prof. Chien is particularly interested in survey responses from start-ups and small companies. Respondents need not be patent holders or in the technology business. If you know of anyone who could provide a useful response, please encourage them to participate.
“Now, back to the Bessen/Meurer paper. Here are some of the highlights:
* The number of defendants in NPE patent suits doubled from 2009 (approximately 2,700) to 2011 (more than 5,800).
* Direct costs of patent assertions by NPEs are cost our national economy more than $29 billion dollars a year, and that tab also doubled from 2009 to 2011.
* Much of the burden of this NPE litigation falls on small and medium-sized companies. 82% of the defendants, accounting for 50% of the defenses, had median revenues of less than $12 million a year.
* They find little evidence to support the contention that NPEs promote invention. [Why am I not surprised?!]”
“They find little evidence to support the contention that NPEs promote invention.”
–GroklawSo now we have both judges (lawyers) and scholarly people (academics) telling us that the system is broken. In order to ensure this does not spread to Europe, please, our dear European readers, consider writing to politicians whom we named.
A month and a half ago we saw Kelora losing a patent for it being “obvious”, leading to the question, are “Software Patents In Danger?”. To quote: “As software patent litigation ramped up over the past few years, software patents have come under the microscope within the technical community. Many investors and technologists believe that software patents should be abolished all together, while others take the less extreme position that many software patents are obvious over known prior art (“prior art” being earlier publications that show a patent is obvious or not new). Courts are increasingly cognizant of these criticisms.
“Though it is unlikely that software patents are going away any time soon, as the recent summary judgment in eBay v PartsRiver (PartsRiver is now known as Kelora) demonstrates, courts are beginning to do a more thorough job of applying the obviousness standard to software patents.”
Right now we must work to squash software patents while at the same time ensuring we can compartmentalise and contain this virus, simply by preventing our politicians from being bamboozled. The evidence is overwhelmingly on our side. We need the voices though. As we’ll show in a later post, Microsoft lobbyists are paid to speak about patents on ‘our behalf’, at our expense, resulting in great disparity (or distortion) between public policy and public opinion. █
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07.12.12
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Security, Vista 7, Vista 8 at 6:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Form factors revolution
Summary: Bad news for Microsoft and its monopoly, which lies atop Windows with all its problems
Microsoft’s financial state was discussed recently in light of the losses. One former Microsoft executive calls for the company to be broken up, probably splitting it into the part which should be decommissioned and the one that can somehow live on, notably the Windows and Office franchises (illegally-obtained monopolies). To quote CNET: “Microsoft has lost its way, says Kirk Eichenwald, who talked about his Vanity Fair piece on “CBS This Morning.””
CNET also says that “PC shipments continue downward trend” based on Microsoft’s friends at IDC and Gartner. Christine Hall goes further by invoking the “end of the Windows era” (without Windows, Office too can fade away). “I thought about this the other day while reading an article somewhere online about Windows 8,” Hall writes. “The author wrote something about how at this stage of the game, Windows 8 with its Metro interface was facing the same uncertainty that Vista faced right before it was released. I almost found myself in agreement, until I remembered my friend Phillip in those last days before the release of Vista.
“There was a big difference between the pre-release days then and the current situation as we wait for Windows 8′s big official debut. Back then, all the Windows fans were actually looking forward to Vista. XP had been a big hit, and the Redmond fan boys thought Vista would be even a couple of notches better. After all, they’d been working on it for ages; all that work was bound to turn into the most super duper operating system ever.
“Windows 8 with its Metro interface was facing the same uncertainty that Vista faced right before it was released.”
–Christine Hall“The rest, of course, is history. Vista turned out to be an even bigger embarrassment to Microsoft than ME had been six years earlier. It wouldn’t run properly on anything but the latest NASCAR rated processors. It needed gazillabytes of RAM. Worse, a massive number of peripherals, from printers to scanners, were turned into toast because they couldn’t be installed due to a lack of drivers. Very quickly the Windows fanboys came to see that the new best-of-breed was basically a lame horse.
“Now, Microsoft is only a few months away from the official release of Windows 8. This time, all we hear from the Windows fans is that they don’t like it. They’re unsure of the Metro interface on the desktop and worry about the wisdom of offering the exact same OS to do duty on the desktop and on tablets. They’re wary, with many convinced they won’t like the new, improved and better than ever operating system. I don’t hear anybody at all anticipating this will be the Windows to beat all Windows, a trophy that still goes to XP. At this point, all I hear is some hopes from Ballmer and his friends that the new OS will keep them from entirely loosing in portable devices and whatever comes next in the new computing zeitgeist.”
There are some further comments in her site and outside the site. She has clearly struck a nerve. It’s usually proportional to the amount of pro-Microsoft trolling.
In other news, Microsoft is besieged by malware. It takes radical measures now: “Microsoft has revoked more than two dozen digital certificates used to prove its wares are genuine after discovering some of them could be subject to the same types of attacks orchestrated by the designers of the Flame espionage malware.
“Tuesday’s revocation of 28 certificates is part of a much larger overhaul of Microsoft’s cryptographic key management regimen that’s designed to make it more resistant to abuse. The housecleaning follows last month’s discovery that some of the company’s trusted digital signatures were being abused to certify the validity of the Flame malware that has infected computers in Iran and other Middle Eastern Countries. By forging the cryptographic imprimatur used to certify the legitimacy of Windows updates, Flame was able to spread from one computer to another inside an infected network.”
This is related to Stuxnet, based on some researchers. It’s a Windows-specific problem, and that’s all that matters. Incidentally, there is some story going around about alleged “malware” for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. The Microsoft booster at IDG spins it as merely a Linux story, spinning it as dishonestly as he typically does (link omitted). All this security FUD serves a broader agenda, such as the political agenda of the US versus Iran. Moreover, based on a new conference, Microsoft runs another campaign to promote online censorship, using the “child porn” excuse. This is how Microsoft’s poor security record ultimately leads to the erosion of human rights and civil liberties. For Microsoft, it is not even possible to implement GUI features without leaving massive holes. The outcome is severe: “Microsoft has advised Vista and Windows 7 users to put Gadgets and the Windows Sidebar to the sword, following the revelation of yet-to-be-detailed remote code execution vulnerabilities in the features.”
Ryan Naraine calls it “early death” and this is far from the first security menace in Vista 7. “Microsoft is pulling the plug on the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets platform ahead of news that security vulnerabilities will be disclosed at this year’s Black Hat conference,” notes the journalist. It sure looks like Microsoft is gradually being pushed to the sidebar in this age when Android/Linux grows rapidly. How come Android, despite its popularity, does not have so many security flaws?
Here is more from the news: “On its July Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released nine security updates to fix a total of 16 vulnerabilities in Windows (XP SP3 and later), Office, Internet Explorer, Visual Basic for Applications and Sharepoint Server. Three of the updates close critical holes, among them an XML Core Services vulnerability that has been actively exploited for over a month.” As The Register put it “Microsoft has patched an under-attack zero-day vulnerability in XML Core Services as part of the July edition of Patch Tuesday.” [via] █
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07.10.12
Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 5:17 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Apple aspires to be the next Microsoft (in the bad sense)
Summary: The apples are rotting after largely failed attempts by Apple to embargo the competition
WE OUGHTN’T lose sight of Apple’s attacks on Linux, however indirect or subtle they may be. Some reports say that even Apple followers are fed up with it. To quote: “A new movement has started on the social “networking sites it’s called BoycottApple. We noticed that even the hardcore Apple users have come out in protest of what Apple is doing against its competitors.”
“A new movement has started on the social “networking sites it’s called BoycottApple. We noticed that even the hardcore Apple users have come out in protest of what Apple is doing against its competitors.”
–MuktwareSJVN, who is not usually against Apple (his wife uses a Mac), writes about the Koh decision, calling Apple’s patent lawsuits “lousy”. He wrote: “U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, has granted Apple’s request to halt the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which runs Google’s Android operating system. The Galaxy Tab’s crime? It looks writes a tablet.
“No. I’m not making that up. Judge Koh claims that “Samsung appears to have created a design that is likely to deceive an ordinary observer.” True, from a distance of ten feet, it’s not easy to tell them apart. It’s not easy to tell any tablet apart from any other tablet at that range. Most people I know prefer to use tablets at arm’s reach, but that’s just me.
“Apple’s legal case rests on a single design patent, USD504889. In it, Apple claims “the ornamental design for an electronic device, substantially as shown and described.” You can see Apple’s patented design for yourself in this story. Looks pretty much like a tablet doesn’t it? Do you see anything about it what-so-ever that looks unique?”
The Nexus ban is temporarily lifted, so Apple’s strategy is hardly working at all. It’s just alienating journalists and/or clients. Oracle’s (or Ellison’s) attacks on Android failed to impress the now-dead Steve Jobs, who is Ellison’s best friend. Oracle lost all cases and Google is now demanding millions from Oracle. To quote Pamela Jones, “Google has filed its Bill of Costs [PDF] in the Oracle v. Google case — $4,030,669 is the whopping total it would like Oracle to have to pay.” This is also covered here.
Apple also failed in the UK, where “Colin Birss (sitting as a Judge of the High Court, UK) said that Galaxy Tab does not infringe upon the design of Apple’s iPad. The judge said that Galaxy Tab is not identical to the iPad even if there are some similarities but that doesn’t account to design infringement. The judge actually criticized Samsung’s design by stating that they “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design.””
“The company is being sued by patent trolls for the most part; contrariwise, Apple sues non-troll (i.e. producing) companies.”Apple continues to collect multitouch patents in vain. In fact, Apple itself is being sued for patent violations such as this. Back in June Apple got sued for other alleged violations, but do not cry for Apple. The company is being sued by patent trolls for the most part; contrariwise, Apple sues non-troll (i.e. producing) companies. As one writer put it, “When patents protect Apple, are they okay?”
Of course not.
Apple cannot sue troll, so when it sues it will usually be an aggressive display of power. The WSJ published an article titled “‘Silly’ Apple and Google”. To quote: “There were great expectations when technology giants Apple and Google squared off in court, each accusing the other of violating its patents in competing mobile phones. No one expected this case would end in a whimper, with one of the country’s most influential judges dismissing the claims as “silly.””
Yes, Apple is a silly company capitalising on some “silly” people who overpay for products that Apple merely brands. Android sites are growing angry at Apple, with headlines like “Judge Who Threw Out Motorola V. Apple Thinks We Don’t Even Need Software Patents”. To quote: “One of the best things about this ongoing patent war between every mobile phone company in the business, is that it’s finally starting to attract attention to how crazy it is all getting. Judge Richard Posner recently threw a case out of his court that involved Motorola and Apple and did so with a little bit of a flair. Luckily for us, Posner is one of the most respected Judges in the States right now, and he has started to put his mind behind this whole patent system.
“Posner recently sat down for an interview after being thrust into the spotlight after his decision on Moto v. Apple. Posner has been seen by many in his field as a visionary rather than following the rules as they state. This outlook is what causes him to think critically about cases and come up with thoughts like “most industries don’t need patents.” Posner said that in the smartphone industry, patents are “a problem. You just have this proliferation of patents.””
Similiar article with slant against software patents appeared in major news sites [1, 2, 3] and Motorola receives some good publicity. Here is a summary of “The Mobile Tech Patent War: A History Of Nokia vs. Apple vs. Android vs. Microsoft”
“The monopolist continues to amass patents, but it’s not just about Microsoft anymore. We must also track Apple.”To quote the part about Microsoft: “Microsoft Corp filed an International Trade Commission complaint against Motorola in October 2010 for infringing nine patents. Motorola responded the next month with its own ITC complaint against Microsoft for infringing 16 patents.
“In May, the U.S. trade panel ordered an import ban on 18 infringing Motorola devices, which has not yet taken effect.”
In May we saw Microsoft’s aggression paying off, leading to blockades like Apple’s. This went to trial and the ITC collaborated with Microsoft. In order to drive away Microsoft with its embargo-happy aggression Motorola did offer to settle, but Microsoft did not take it. Some corruptible members of congress took the side of the abusive aggressive monopolist in front of the ITC, showing just how deep Microsoft’s influence in the US government is running. It was about the fires-causing gaming box that the Microsoft-funded Obama infamously likes to name a lot (free advertising). The monopolist continues to amass patents, but it’s not just about Microsoft anymore. We must also track Apple. █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft at 4:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The FUD war of Microsoft against Linux is reaching new lows, bordering laws, and Microsoft quickly backtracks
THE FUD from Microsoft was noticed not just by us. Microsoft staff is trying to accuse Android of sending out SPAM, but there is soon a retreat. As the WSJ put it, “Internet security researchers said Thursday they may have been mistaken about claims that mobile devices powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system were hacked and used to send spam emails.
“The researchers from security company Sophos Ltd. and Google rival Microsoft Corp. each had written blog posts in recent days identifying what they said were incidents of Android devices being used to generate spam emails from Yahoo Mail’s app. A “spammer has control of a botnet that lives on Android devices,” Microsoft engineer Terry Zink wrote in a blog post Tuesday. A botnet is a cluster of computers taken over by hackers.”
So much for ‘researchers’. At Microsoft, “secure” means does not work with Linux — a claim that the FSF has been challenging and others played along with. As Christine Hall put it: “The FOSS community is understandably upset with both Red Hat and Ubuntu for their planned ways of implementing UEFI Secure Boot. Indeed, both companies plans are unacceptable for a variety of reasons. Free software isn’t free if it requires permission from an outside source before it can be loaded onto a new or used computer. This is true even if the permission comes from a well-meaning bureaucratic regulatory agency. It’s doubly true if that permission must come from a self-serving monopoly with an anti-FOSS history, like Microsoft.”
“Microsoft’s folks usually pretend that Microsoft used to truly create valuable stuff rather than a lot of dirty tricks.”Microsoft has turned to dirty tricks and FUD, just as it always does. It tried to daemonise those who complained about UEFI; one of Microsoft’s mouthpieces labelled them “fanatics”. Microsoft’s folks usually pretend that Microsoft used to truly create valuable stuff rather than a lot of dirty tricks.
Pogson notes that EU cyber security agency ENISA” now suggests that we “Assume all [Windows] PCs infected”. He adds: “If the banks cannot trust that other OS, why should users? I recommend Debian GNU/Linux, an operating system that works for you rather than for criminals.”
Debian supports the FSF's position on UEFI, whereas Canonical is aiding criminals at Microsoft, so that’s another way/context in which to phrase the above remark.
A former Microsoft executive has just spoken out against Microsoft. As one report put it, “Microsoft has fallen behind the times in several key industries; the company’s mobile position has deteriorated and left it with a low single-digit market share, and Microsoft won’t launch Windows RT, its response to Apple’s three-year-old iPad, until later this year. In a recent piece titled “Microsoft’s Lost Decade,” Vanity Fair contributor Kurt Eichenwald analyzes the company’s “astonishingly foolish management decisions” and picks apart moves made during the Steve Ballmer era.”
“So why does Microsoft bother trying to FUD Linux or Android on grounds of “security”?”The company is already publicly reporting losses and security is not improving. We gave examples of serious security flaws in Vista 7 and the new article “How Hackers Attack” shows that it’s continuing to affect large institutions. To quote: “The firm’s computers run on the Windows 7 operating system and the company uses an internal firewall to connect to the Internet, Mr. Keilson says.”
“”We see far more infections on Windows than we do Macs, Unix and Linux,” says Wade Baker, author of the Verizon 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report, a study based on cybercrime investigations conducted by Verizon’s team, which is comprised of data-breach reports from Verizon and various law-enforcement groups around the globe, including the U.S. Secret Service and the Australian Federal Police.”
So why does Microsoft bother trying to FUD Linux or Android on grounds of “security”? Maybe it’s just a sign of desperation. But using libellous remarks is no noble way. It’s also a path to legal entanglements. █
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Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft at 3:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The true weaknesses of a longtime abusive monopolist are shining bright and the sea of change in form factors leads to “desperate” acts
THE word about Microsoft’s financial woes is getting out there, with more reports about “[a]n ugly first week for Microsoft Corp’s new financial year” because it “has done little to inspire confidence that the software giant can jumpstart a stubbornly stagnant share price.”
“Microsoft is said to have hidden its losses using accounting tricks (hiding losses is made possible by borrowings too).”“It was not the news agenda Microsoft had in mind as it prepared to unveil fourth-quarter results on July 19. The writeoff is expected to hand the company its first quarterly loss – on paper – since going public in 1986.”
As noted recently, this is not true. Microsoft is said to have hidden its losses using accounting tricks (hiding losses is made possible by borrowings too).
Meanwhile, notes Cringely, the personal computer is changing. “Microsoft knows this on some level,” he stresses. “Their reptilian corporate brain is beginning to comprehend what could be the end. That’s why the company is becoming increasingly desperate for ways to maintain its central role in our digital lives. We see the first bet-the-company aspects of that in Redmond’s recent decision to run the Windows 8 kernel all the way down to ARM-powered phones and tablets even though it requires shedding features to do so.”
This is not working so far. Even UEFI is a case of too little, too late, not to mention that it is anti-competitive. █
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