01.21.11
Richard Stallman: “The danger is that Microsoft is probably planning to force all free C# implementations underground some day using software patents”
…So spread the word about Monofree and Mononono. Impede entryism by Mono and Moonlight.
09.10.10
Quote of the Day: “Microsoft-sponsored Lobbyists and Lawyers Forming Groups to Initiate a Variety of Cases Against Google”
Summary: Words of value from someone who was relatively close to regulators and a word about SCO against Linux
Simon Phipps, formerly an executive of Sun Microsystems, has this to say about the seemingly Microsoft-funded legal attacks on Google [1, 2, 3, 4]:
The conspiracy theories Pamela espouses are well-based. At the start of last year as I was working on other technology policy issues with colleagues in Brussels, there were constant stories of indirectly-but-identifiably Microsoft-sponsored lobbyists and lawyers forming groups to initiate a variety of cases against Google over there, on the premise that “anti-trust has changed us and now Google are the new monopoly”. I heard the same from colleagues in DC too. So, as Pamela says: “Is this perhaps more abuse of the legal and administrative systems for anticompetitive purposes? If so, could somebody investigate *that*?”
Microsoft has already admitted being behind legal complaints against Google in Europe.
In other news from Groklaw, the Microsoft-funded lawsuit against Linux still refuses to die.
A new trial. Of course. There can never be too many trials for SCO, as it would like to actually win one and would prefer to keep trying until it does so. Apparently money is no object to a company that is in bankruptcy, has paid none of its creditors, and is now trying to sell off essentially all its assets but the litigation on which it long ago set all its hopes and dreams. And you can’t say it’s impossible to get an empathetic hearing from this court of appeals. It bent over backwards for SCO last time, granting it this 2nd trial that SCO then lost. So who knows? My grandchildren may someday be writing about the next SCO v. Novell retrial, as this crazed monomania seems to have no closing chapter.
Where/who does SCO continue to get money from? █
“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”
–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, key investor in SCO approached by Microsoft
08.17.10
Quote of the Day: “Children Are Often Taught “Computer Skills” That Are Really “Microsoft Windows Skills””
Summary: BECTA had British children indoctrinated for Microsoft’s benefit and The Guardian explains why it’s morally wrong (c.f. EDGI)
“Children are often taught “computer skills” that are really “Microsoft Windows skills” – how to use Microsoft’s operating system and its Office suite (its two monopolies) – rather than the possibilities of making computers do what you want. As such, children are being equipped to be uncreative office workers, just as those at the end of the 19th century were equipped for the routine of adding up huge lists of numbers in the accounts departments of big companies.”
07.23.10
Quote of the Day: Peer To Patent is a “Colossal Waste of Time When [It] Examines Software Patents”
Summary: Carlo Piana is also among the critics of Peer To Patent
Earlier today we explained yet again why Peer To Patent is not the best solution to the problem Free software is having. Carlo Piana, the Samba lawyer who says that “the *only* solution is abolition NOW” has also just said: “#peerpatent, however deserving high praise, is a colossal waste of time when examines #swpats, which shouldn’t exist”
Even Florian Müller echoed his remarks. “Sadly,” I explained to the messenger, “what Peer To Patent seems to be doing is in some ways making software patents stronger.” OIN is not an optimal solution, either; far from it, but that debate is different. If companies like Oracle, IBM and Google could align with the pushers to end software patents, this goal would be achievable. █
07.02.10
Quote of the Day: “Gates Foundation Still Giving Windows Away for Free”
Protests in India used Boycott Novell banners
Summary: The leaked story of how Bill Gates fought GNU/Linux migrations in India evokes accusations against the Gates Foundation
WE occasionally point out that the Gates Foundation helps make Microsoft stronger, sometimes by blatantly blocking GNU/Linux adoption in libraries and schools. This meddling by the Gates Foundation in education has made this foundation some prominent foes/critics [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and in reference to leaked memos regarding EDGI (where Gates on behalf of his foundation steps in to interrupt GNU/Linux migrations across India), Barney wrote this comment titled “Gates Foundation still giving Windows away for free”:
How interesting it is that Gates was all for giving Microsoft software away for free in 2002 and they set up programs inside of Microsoft to help do this. We’ve heard that Bill will be giving his billions away and we learned he created a foundation for his family to run and act as a place for him to….wait for it….give his money away. Guess what he also has done there? Yup, he’s given out Microsoft software to educational institutions.
It is actually self promoting. You see, if Microsoft gets knocked from their lofty perch, the name Bill Gates and Microsoft end up quite faded. But, by Bill heading off Open Source Software and software freedom in the educational sector, he looks like a hero, slowly spends his monopoly money, and he keeps Microsoft brand value high. He also hooks children into the Microsoft software cycle of renting bad software and paying for the next fix which is advertised as being better.
I wonder if he wrote about this in his book, “The Road Ahead” since it seems he’s been thinking about this for a very long time. It is a rather convenient plan since he’s to way more than anyone could spend on his own needs. By spending that money on Microsoft software then giving that away, he preserves the market value of Microsoft software and heads off the open source software from gaining in the education sector and growing from there. And his name still seems important in the world of computers.
To which another person replied with:
I think it’s worse than that. I seem to recall that a condition of dealing with the Bill and Melinda Foundation was that you couldn’t use Linux.
And this
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/terms-o f-use.aspx#system
seems to confirm it. (Though I seem to remember it was for computers they donated as well)And that doesn’t even get involved in some of the other things that the Foundation’s been up to.
Seems the foundation was investing in companies that were doing bad things. And in a rather bizarre turn of events, some of the foundation’s efforts were to try to ameliorate the conditions caused by the companies they had invested in.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la- na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story
And when this was found out, their effective response was that it was too much work to try to stop investing in such companies.
The term philanthrocapitalism contains the word “capital” in it; it’s about making good things happen while earning money (or power). As we wrote last week, Bill Gates still works for Microsoft. █
06.18.10
Who Are the Communists?
“Bill Gates cites copyright enforcement to justify Chinese censorship. Microsoft executives used to call us communists, but they are now clearly revealed as the ones who support communist-style dictatorship.”
06.16.10
Quote of the Day: “All Novell Are Offering Here is a Chance to be a Slave to a New Master”
Summary: Microsoft-Novell slave trade in the words of Simon Phipps
TODAY’s words of wisdom come from Simon Phipps (formerly of Sun). Simon says:
While this is slick (if predictable) marketing there’s a smarter solution than switching away from the software in which you’ve already invested to something else from Novell (or anyone else) and becoming the slave of proprietary software.
Since most of the software Sun produced is open source, current users can just stick with it and buy the service they need from a new supplier, such as ForgeRock. That’s investment protection and technology continuity both provided by the liberties open source unlocks.
All Novell are offering here is a chance to be a slave to a new master, and they are offering it to customers who have already broken free – if they choose to be.
We don’t recommend the Sun/Oracle stack, but the point worth making is that Novell is not a Free software company. It’s a proprietary/Fog Computing company which maintains lock-in. █
05.28.10
How to Kill a Software Company (Picture)
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
–George Santayana
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