04.24.08
Posted in Asia, Finance, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 9:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The beginning of the end of an era?
Following the great news from Brazil (reported only yesterday) we have a lot more positive news to share today.
On several occasions in the past we wrote about Microsoft hiding evidence of its real financial health. Well, this old paper-and-ink routine seems to have run out of stamina because Microsoft reported a significant drop in profits and its stock tanked. Here it is from Microsoft’s ‘back yard’ press, whose bias — if any — typically works in Microsoft’s favour.
Microsoft said today its fiscal third-quarter profit fell 11 percent compared with a year ago, when revenue from pre-sales of the new Windows Vista operating system pushed up results.
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Earnings were also depressed by 15 cents per share due to a legal fine from the European Commission.
[...]
Microsoft shares fell $1.25 in after-hours trading, after adding 35 cents to $31.80 during the regular session.
Found moments ago there are also the following links which seem to indicate that the Moscow region government is moving to GNU/Linux. Both stories are in Russian:
http://www.mandriva.ru/novosti/mosk_obl/
http://www.comnews.ru/index.cfm?id=36491
There is some background to this and Microsoft is clearly losing grip in Russia. Recent stories of interest include:
Linux being launched at schools
Besides the operating system the package is to comprise some freely distributed programs, close to MS Office by their functionality, which are to be used on computers with the following characteristics: 233 MHz and 128MB DDR.
Russian Postal Service Wears Red Hat
Russian Post and American company Red Hat signed the Protocol of intentions on IT development based on open freeware earlier this month. Andrey Pogodin, Deputy Director General of FSUE Russian Post and Jim Whitehurst, President of Red Hat signed the document within the framework of meeting. The parties agreed to join efforts to implement operating system Linux and other software products with open code in Russian Post’s IT-structure.
IBM to offer Linux machines
The machines, it was announced, will come with Red Hat’s Linux distro, and will come pre-loaded with software from IBM, including its Lotus Symphony suite.
OpenReferent – a New Open Source Challenge to Microsoft Desktop Software
Mr Pogodin, Deputy General Director of Post of Russia, said: “Post of Russia, which has 42,000 post offices through out the country, can significantly lower the cost of ownership of the Information System.” Post of Russia is one of the first customers that signed up to evaluate themove from Microsoft based desktops to OpenReferent solution.
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Open Referent is based on the recently announced IBM Lotus Open Collaboration Client Solution with Red Hat.
Business partners classified as Red Hat Advanced Business Partners and Lotus-authorized IBM Business Partners may sell the Red Hat and IBM Lotus products globally with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, and may additionally offer a six-month Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop trial.
Open Source Market: FOSS getting hot in Russia
Recent interest towards FOSS from the Russian government has boosted commercial activity in this field. No longer than a year ago there was no single large company that would say it is capable of doing FOSS system integration projects. Now there are three, and the number will probably grow.
Nobody is particularly sure about how to do business with FOSS, but it is already evident that it can be done somehow. That is why the larger ones are jumping on the bandwagon simply not to be late.
A bit older:
2010: Russia’s open software market to grow 4-fold
Analysts note that Linux vendors are traditionally present on the mobile device market. According to forecasts the OS might become the leader in the segment accounting for 40% of it by 2010. “Currently the share of mobile devices with Linux OS is not big in Russia as compared to other countries, such as China, for instance. However, the producer’s policy, Nokia in particular testifies to the fact the situation is changing for the better”, Ms. Karaeva concluded.
Mandriva Linux selected as “Product of the Year 2007″ at the Russian Softool event
Mandriva has been selected as ‘Product of the Year 2007′ in the Linux category at the Softool exhibition in Moscow. The ‘Product of the Year 2007′ competition was held by the department of information technologies and computing systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Federal Agency of Information Technologies, the publishing house SK Press, and IT-expo.
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Mandriva Linux will also soon be certified by the Federal Service of Export and Technical Control, allowing public sector agencies and organizations dealing with confidential information to use Mandriva Linux.
Russian public agencies choose Mandriva
Mandriva development is carried out jointly by Mandriva’s offices in Russia, France and Brazil. The Mandriva Linux OS is thus considered a national OS for Russia. The decision of FSTEC of the Russian Federation (RF) implied that Russian public agencies will be authorised to use the Mandriva Linux OS on PCs running confidential information.
Russian Government Will Migrate to OpenSource
Russia decided to follow after EU countries, where opensource solutions are more spread then in Russia. Currently, some Russian companies can offer their own Desktop Linux OS (the major companies are ASPLinux, ALTLinux, Linux-Online and LinuxCenter).
Russian schools abandon Windows after piracy scare
Microsoft says that the incident has nothing to do with them, but it appears that Russian schools in the area are so scared about being shipped off to a Siberian Gulag, that they are buying Linux gear instead.
[...]
According to Karpushin, schools would start using freely distributed software like the Linux OS, Russky office and Open office desktop apps, Ekho Moskvi reports.
Linux Education in America: Inspiration from Russia?
The reason that the Russian announcement is funny boils down to the perception over the years that Russia equates to totalitarianism, whilst here in America we’re all about Freedom and innovation. Yet our educational system — the very underpinnings of how we’re growing out future technological talent, is based upon the inversion of what one would expect given the respective reputations of both countries.
Russia is latest country to move towards OpenDocument format and open standards
The stated rationale for this legislation is that “open standards will contribute to an increased number of bidders for government contracts and will increase opportunities for Russian software developers… [and] the problem of interoperability will be addressed as will the ability to access information into the future.”
Russian Linux (ALTLinux) to be installed in every school in Russia
Russian OS is to be installed on every school computer in Russia by 2009. Furthermore, every pupil will get the opportunity to operate the applied software produced in Russia, Leonid Reiman, acting Minister of Communication stated at a press conference. According to Mr. Reiman, that might significantly reduce Russian dependence on foreign software.
Linux being launched at schools
Besides the operating system the package is to comprise some freely distributed programs, close to MS Office by their functionality, which are to be used on computers with the following characteristics: 233 MHz and 128MB DDR.
Here is a story from yesterday:
Linux Ubuntu PCs set for sale in Russia
Linux Ubuntu installation on PCs sold by Excimer and NT Computer is to be launched within the nearest month. Consequently, Ubuntu sales in Russia might reach 300 thousand units. Ubuntu 8.04 released on April 24, 2008 is more likely to be preinstalled.
There are very good times for GNU/Linux, but vigilance is still necessary because Microsoft has plans for Russia. It also tries to sell lock-ins. Spotted a week or so ago:
Microsoft tightens hold in regions
The Leningrad Regional administration and the Microsoft Company have signed an agreement ‘of intent in IT implementation’. Thus, the Leningrad Region confirms its commitment to set up e-government following the suit of St. Petersburg, where a similar Bill Gates Corporation’s project has been used for more than half a year.
Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty. █
“A prominent example of open source software is the Linux operating system… To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline. “
–Microsoft (in its latest SEC filing)
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Posted in Asia, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat at 8:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Novell happily considers itself and even describes itself as a Microsoft partner, which possibly makes it part of that self-serving channel or the Microsoft ecosystem. Just watch the recent story from China for enlightening examples [1, 2, 3, 4].
It’s interesting to have it confirmed that SuSE could have had a better destiny. It was purchased with IBM’s encouragement but by the wrong company. It could have been bought by Red Hat.
First in line to acquire SUSE back in the day was…Red Hat. Matthew Szulik decided to pass on the opportunity and, well, the rest is history. Ironic, isn’t it? With whom would Microsoft have done its patent deal had Novell not been around? Would Ubuntu have started sooner to fill the competitive Linux void?
We’ll never know….
It’s all retrospective. █
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Posted in America, GNU/Linux at 7:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Aaron has the details.
By the end of this year 29,000 labs serving some 32,000,000 students will be fully deployed and in active use.
By the end of next year (2009) those numbers will have swelled to 53,000 labs serving some 52,000,000 students.
Savour it. It doesn’t happen every day. Brazil recently decided to migrate half a million voting machines from Windows CE to GNU/Linux, but this one is two orders of magnitude (100 times) more exciting, assuming all goes as planned. Russian regions go through a similar phase and Japan considered moving all schools to GNU/Linux just over a year ago. █
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Posted in Africa, Bill Gates, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft, Open XML, OpenDocument, Patents, Standard at 6:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
A reader has just sent us a little valuable headsup about the recently-reported news of South Africa adopting ODF. His message is in italics below:
I am concerned about the recent wise movement by the South African government favouring truly open standards (ODF) and against software patents being sabotaged by Microsoft Corporation:
1 South Africa choses ODF/ISO26300 (and NOT MSOOXML) as National standards:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2365
http://www.oss.gov.za/MIOS_V4.1_final.pdf [PDF] (page 19)
By the way, this happens little after the MSOOXML at ISO fiasco battle and after the South African minister of Public Service and Administration slammed software patents and Microsoft for not adopting ODF:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2304
2 Jason Matusow (Microsoft’s Director of Corporate Standards) [whom we have many reasons not to trust, e.g. [1, 2]] flies to South Africa to do “external outreach”
(maybe “covert-ops” at policy level rather than just “outreach” are in the making? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_ops )
….is a reversal of the policy favouring ODF on the horizon? Microsoft no doubt sooner or later will attempt it, as we have witnessed in many other countries before. Let’s keep an eye on this to see if we are wrong or not…
Quick recap for background:
There are many more examples and interesting past incidents from South Africa too, due to some strong pro-FOSS sentiments over there. Microsoft was seen making visits to that country when there was a ‘crisis’ (in the Microsoft sense of the word). Remember Bill Gates’ recent visit to Paris when the police dealt a blow to Microsoft and moved to GNU/Linux? He got some children "addicted", as he himself calls it. That’s just the way it works, but it’s typically hush-hush. Let’s keep an eye open. █
Update: someone sort of suggested a couple of days ago that Microsoft’s lobbying arms might step us to do the ‘dirty work’ in South Africa
If Microsoft thinks it can now inject its immature OOXML as an alternative format in South Africa’s MIOS, they certainly are facing an uphill battle. SABS and DST will undoubtedly expect to hear a lot of whinging about “choice” and “market forces” lobbied at certain Ministerial Departments. Will CompTIA and ISC please step up?
This goes to show that certain Ministries of Science and Technology can stand up for the interests of their citizens, and not have to feel pressured by a single foreign multinational. If only this independence was more prevalent around the world.
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Posted in Courtroom, ECMA, Fraud, ISO, Microsoft, Patents, Standard at 1:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The heat is still on for ISO, ECMA, Microsoft and other shenanigans who are responsible for mockery of international standards. Noooxml.org has a good summary of posts. It is showing the contrast between the side of the self-serving deniers and realists who merely quote those who admit their own faults, notably Alex Brown.
Alex Brown’s little test report was must read for me but I did not found it really newsworthy. Alex Brown, convener of the BRM, validated existing Microsoft 2007 files against the OOXML schema and generated 200 000(hu!) invalidity messages. His objective, despite curiosity, may have been to show how much the ISO process changed the format.
Why did I ignore the story? Because it was known to us that ECMA OOXML was not identical with the Microsoft 2007 format which comprises “tags not found in the spec”, a viral phrase. Or OOXML burnout? Or because you lose respect for an impartial BRM chairman who consults the British Library and supports OOXML?
This is not the only case of abuse in standards at the moment because another one involves Rambus (last mentioned a couple of days ago), which is reportedly lying just like Microsoft did.
DC Circuit Ct of Appeals: Deceit Doesn’t in Itself Constitute Monopolization
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I hope this gets appealed. To hear a court uphold deceit as a concept is… disturbing. And I’m sure you can imagine the damage that will ensue if this stands. There are sufficient threats to the integrity of the standards process already, without endorsing deceit by monopolists. The damage that flows from allowing software patents to issue continues to mount. And then there is the idea of patents on a standard.
The above might sound like it talks about Microsoft, but it doesn’t. Based on one case, however, one can learn valuable lessons and apply them to another similar case. Rambus is already at the stage of directly abusing rivals, just just the standards-setting process. As such, abuse must be end early on, at ISO-level. Don’t let Microsoft get away with the finely-documented corruptions that revolved around OOXML. █
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Posted in Antitrust, Asia, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Virtualisation, Windows at 1:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Copyrights infringement and Novell as Microsoft’s ‘selling point’ strategy
Novell’s recent news about China [1, 2, 3] is pretty significant because this shows what tricks Microsoft and Novell hope to make more widespread and prevalent around the world, not just in Asia. It’s a symbolic start that illustrates just why Novell has become dangerous to GNU/Linux adoption (contrary to common belief). Remember that SUSE adoption (Novell profit) and GNU/Linux adoption are not the same thing. What we present here is intended to raise awareness and not to incite fear or anger however.
“Freedom values aside, it’s all just a question of price and any cost that gets assigned to Linux makes a tremendous difference.”Previously we warned that this was bound to become more serious an issue as the companies grow closer and closer. Bill Gates said last year that it’s easier to compete against Linux in China when there is ‘piracy’ [sic], referring to copyrights infringement of Windows, which Microsoft is happy with, by its own low-key admissions.
Freedom values aside, it’s all just a question of price and any cost that gets assigned to Linux makes a tremendous difference. This was said by Mark Shuttleworth last year and was also explained in the African press some months ago. In developing countries it’s more expensive to buy GNU/Linux because it comes burned on several CDs and harder to obtain/find, whereas Windows comes as a single CD-ROM you can get for a buck out on the street. You can find out how Microsoft’s former OEM chief perceived copyrights infringement in the following antitrust exhibit, which is a leaked document written by him [PDF].
PLAINTIFF’S
EXHIBIT
FY98 – A Foundation Year
Joachim Kempin
Sr. Vice President, OEM Channel
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4. Increase bootable OS penetration in key development countries
[...]
The scan is too challenging for OCR (it’s tilted as well), but you can read and see it for yourself, or ideally extract the text and send it over for sharing in the public domain. This includes the mentioning of “Creating a grass roots movement” (think along the lines of astroturfing) and “We must continue to build competitive immunity” (think of chokehold on OEMs).
There are other recent stories that come to mind, such as Microsoft’s intent to use the same tactics that were used in China but applying them to Russia amid FOSS growth (this one was posted just hours ago and comes in addition to a massive defection of schools across the country to GNU/Linux). But returning to Novell again, here is the snag.
As you may recall, Dell sells laptops with SLED 10 in China. Microsoft gets paid for these. On the other hand, most computers that run Windows in this large nation do not have it licensed. Where does that leave Linux in terms of relative cost? This question is rhetorical of course.
Now they try a similar stunt on the server side. Watch what Microsoft fan Paul Thurrott had to say about the latest announcement from Novell.
Changing deep-set behavior and habits is difficult. I was reminded of that fact this week while writing a news story about a joint Microsoft/Novell effort to convince businesses in China to switch from free versions of Linux to paid, supported copies of Novell’s SUSE Enterprise Linux. At first blush, you might think that Microsoft’s cooperation in promoting Linux is central to that particular story. And certainly, that’s the tact I took in my own article (http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/98922/microsoft-novell-ply-paid-software-in-china.html ) about the event. But looking at it more deeply, what this is really about is changing behavior.
More specifically, Microsoft’s efforts in China aren’t really about promoting Linux, paid or otherwise. It’s about getting the fastest growing market on the planet to start doing something it’s never done–actually pay for software.
So, they rarely pay for Windows (and Microsoft is fine with that), but now Microsoft wants many of them to pay Microsoft… for GNU/Linux, not for Windows. How convenient — making Linux ‘more expensive’ than Windows (mostly gratis in China). Can you see the plot or at least the possibilities? They choose to crack down on GNU/Linux. They put the heat up not on unlicensed use of Windows, but on what they call “unlicensed” users of GNU/Linux.
Head over to this other article which suggests that virtualisation is a major component of these recent moves in China.
The collaboration in China will focus on two emerging areas of interoperability: high-performance computing and virtualization. The cross-platform virtualization offerings include Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with Xen technology.
Remember who practically owns Xen and also remind yourself of the fact that Hyper-V excludes every GNU/Linux distribution but Novell. Microsoft plans to preinstall Hyper-V on Windows and shut some doors this way.
The following article about Novell’s affairs in China is equally unhelpful and it quotes Microsoft shill Al Gillen quite extensively (he speaks in favours of whoever pays him). It also states:
Microsoft has spent the past year and a half inking deals with a handful of Linux OS providers, promising not to sue them. Novell was the first company to sign such a deal, which was announced in November of 2006. Other Linux OS providers that joined Microsoft’s licensing initiative include South Korea’s LG Electronics and Xandros Inc.
Yesterday we wrote about rPath, which appears to have gotten cozy with Microsoft and Novell. Now comes the short post from CNET with the headline “rPath plays the sucker for Novell and Microsoft,” which is probably right.
While I am not shocked that rPath is working with Novell instead of continuing with their own Linux flavor, I am completely shocked that Billy Marshall, rPath CEO and former Red Hat bigshot sales guy is citing the Microsoft patent protection as the reason why. Nothing is said about Suse being better in any way. Instead its about this unproven patent protection.
Novell needs to be stopped because Microsoft’s ambition is to have Novell replace free GNU/Linux distributions — not replace Windows — and then charge, as in extract money from them. This not only makes another revenue stream for Microsoft, but it also gives the impression that GNU/Linux becomes expensive. If it’s bad for Free software, which it is, Novell cannot care much less because it receives a form of compensation from Microsoft. They work together… for their shareholders, regardless of public opinion. █
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