01.31.08
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell at 11:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Money and greed the weak spot of FOSS
Yes, Microsoft wants you to think that it loves GNU/Linux, so it tosses money at Linux events and then gives its own talks with its own philosophy at the events. This is far from new and we showed another example just weeks ago. Here is the latest:
Another episode of the LinuxAsia event is round the corner. Like the last year, Microsoft is there again. Is it appropriate of the most closed company to be there at the event?
Here is a previous story about this event (“Microsoft seems to have hijacked Linux Asia”):
Was the general feel amongst the attendees at Linux Asia 2007; MS however, just wanted to say ”let us walk hand-in-hand”
The same goes for open source programming conferences, including Python, Ruby (IIRC), LinuxChix and so. This “keep your enemies closer” strategy has gone on for years. It does more harm than good because it capitalises on greed and naivety. Just watch Novell taking Microsoft money to work around the GPL and betray so many. █
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Posted in Deception, GNOME, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Patents at 10:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
That whole Mono entanglement [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33] seems to be getting worse all the time, but almost nobody cares to notice. GNOME developers think we are harsh and try to shoot the messenger, but all we are trying to do is help by drawing attention to the problem. It won’t go away if you ignore it.
Inspired by something in BoycottNovell, Beranger.org (formerly Beranger on GNOME) summarises the latest issue fairly well:
Soon, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to “unMonofy” your GNOME, as once you will get rid of Tomboy, F-Spot, Beagle, Banshee, Muine, Telepathy, whatever, you won’t be able to remove Mono, as it will be required as a GNOME system library!
Yesterday, before the analysis from Beranger.org, we passed evidence on to a knowledgeable figure arguing that Jeff Waugh had promised this would not happen. We received the following response:
Can you send a link to a public page where Waugh makes that assurance? If so, I can try to make sure it gets some mileage.
It’s one thing I never learned as a kid and have no idea how to go about trying: how do deal with bull*****ers like Waugh, who even as they are speaking you know they are lying or have no intent of following through but courtesy and protocol otherwise require accepting the statements at face value.
One solution is to nip the mono and excise all MS tech from GNOME. A second, in parallel, is to low-key, calmly and quietly insist on KDE and Fluxbox, especially in popular distros like Ubuntu and Fedora.
For context, see this thread in the GNOME Foundation’s mailing list. This long discussion was started by Richard Stallman, who happened to be aware of our work. Therein you’ll find claims that GNOME does not depend on Mono. Jeff made that claim repeatedly in this site, but it would take some digging to find several individual examples because he left about a hundred comments.
“GNOME is apparently becoming Mono-dependent, which is a shame.”Our contact later added: “If you come across anything showing the discrepancy between word and deed, that would be very useful.”
It is, by this stage, becoming clearer that Jeff Waugh’s promise was not trustworthy. GNOME is apparently becoming Mono-dependent, which is a shame. We saw that coming.
Remember that Mono is a Novell project and only Novell customers receive so-called 'protection' for the use Mono (due to expire in January 2012). Need we even start to wonder again why the ‘Novell part’ part of the GNOME Foundation supports OOXML and even helps it? Remember that Microsoft pays Novell to support OOXML. So, Novell seems to have resorted to fear as a strategy for selling itself and it’s poisoning GNOME for everybody else who uses it. The image below is a depiction of Novell. Please address this problem before it becomes truly irreversible.
Unless our assertion is wrong, we deserve some apologies from various people, including Jeff, for smears claiming that we were wrong. █
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Posted in Europe, KDE, Patents at 10:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Be careful what you ask for…”
The Free software world is very fortunate. It is resistant to hostile takeovers thanks to choice and diversity, which remain a necessity despite some detrimental side-effects. We discussed the Nokia-Trolltech status quo very recently and, depending on how you look at this, it usually looks negative [1, 2, 3]. If there is anything positive about this, it is the news that Nokia, a lobbyist for software patents, is now chewing its own poison.
Twelve billion euros claimed from Nokia for use of patents
IPcom, an exploiter of patents based in Pullach, near Munich, is demanding 12 billion euros from the Finnish group Nokia for use of mobile telephony patents, reports Handelsblatt. IPCom is said to have lodged a complaint with the Land Court in Mannheim in early January, aimed at prohibiting Nokia’s use of eight patent families. That would mean a ban on sales in a large number of countries, though what particular patents are involved is not yet clear.
The hope here is that Nokia will learn its lessons and appreciate some economic problems with those patents which it craves for. The last thing one needs is to see Qt coming under software patent assaults. Apple, Microsoft, Xerox and shell companies that buy patents from them have gotten many GUI-related patents in the United States. Remember Acacia and virtual desktops? █
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Posted in Europe, Formats, Fraud, ISO, Microsoft, Novell, Open XML at 10:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“We’re giving away a pretty good browser as part of the operating system. How long can [Netscape] survive selling it?”
–Steve Ballmer
Later on this month, Microsoft partners will find themselves behind closed door in Geneva, far away from the press and the public. In this secretive (or private) meeting they will sit down for the purpose of making a proprietary, patent-encumbered, Windows-only format an international standards. Do you trust them? We spoke about the broken process in Geneva [1, 2, 3] and there are many reasons for mistrust.
While the shenanigans are behind closed door doing their thing we shall spend a week showing the reasons for mistrust. Think of it as a week-long, seven-day ‘chart’ which will take a glimpse at some of Microsoft’s past deeds which have it deserve little or no trust. Some of the examples will be criminal acts, for which the company was never punished (or paid to settle before a conviction was reached).
To be fair, Alex Brown does indeed make an attempt to ensure that the process is fair. Here is the latest from his blog:
So, NBs need to do their homework so that delegations arriving at the BRM in Geneva are fully briefed. The delegation should ideally know their national position on all 1,000 or so distinct comment/responses that could be discussed. It is the responsibility of the delegation to faithfully represent their national position (not individual divergent delegate views), and to be prepared to respond to any fresh issues that arise in line with guidance their NB has given them.
Sadly for Alex, the BRM will be flooded by many other people who are merely ‘puppets’, or agents working on behalf of a corporate interest. Examples include the fact that Microsoft itself will represent Ireland and Portugal. Microsoft will be among those who decided on Microsoft’s own cash cow. Others like Novell, including Novell, are paid (bribed) by Microsoft to support OOXML. Truthfully, that an insult to this whole process. It might be seen as a mockery and an injury that will hurt ISO for a long time to come. █
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Posted in Formats, IBM, Microsoft, Open XML, OpenDocument at 9:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Why settle for a rickshaw when you already have a car?
A couple of weeks ago we stated that Microsoft is apprently willing to embrace ODF. The company actually said something along those lines. To quote the article, “if individual governments mandate the use of ODF instead of Open XML, Microsoft would adapt.” Rob Weir has just invited Microsoft to consider harmonization.
So we’ve agreed that this approach is technically feasible. We’re also agreed that extending ODF outside of the standards process is not a good idea. So the obvious solution is to extend ODF within the standards process. So, let’s do it! What are we waiting for?
There is no reason why, by a harmonization process, all of the functionality of Microsoft Office cannot be represented on a base of ISO 26300 OpenDocument Format. I personally, as Co-Chair of the OASIS ODF TC, stand ready and willing to sponsor such a harmonization effort in OASIS. So let’s start harmonization now, and avoid further divergence.
Microsoft’s response will be interesting.
To address the recent accusation (from Microsoft, by proxy) that IBM plots to shoot down OOXML, Bob Sutor has posted a response in his blog. The response took the form of a pointer to Slashdot where it is said quite correctly that Microsoft calls the kettle black. What again was the main purpose of OOXML? That’s right, to harm ODF. It’s really that simple. We have already accused the writer who made this by-proxy accusation of carrying water for Microsoft. He did this after receiving a gift and some brainwash. █
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Posted in News Roundup at 7:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Posted in Site News at 11:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
To address the request of a reader, we have just applied some technical changes to the Web site. The most notable change is the inclusion of PDF versions for each post. It’s far from perfect, but at least one reader believes it may be handy. There are far more sophisticated things we could achieve with the PDF translator shall you require them (we take the KISS approach for now).
Please do speak out if you can think of things that would improve organisation of information. █
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Posted in Bill Gates, Europe, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Vista, Windows at 1:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
–Bill Gates
Yesterday we mentioned Microsoft getting children in Dubai 'addicted' to Windows [1, 2]. We also mentioned some mysterious deal that Bill Gates signed with a mayor of Paris. It’s a case of one rich man deciding with another ‘on behalf’ of the rest. Now it’s clear what this ‘special’ deal was all about.
Bill Gates took the opportunity to enslave sign an agreement with the mayor of Paris that will provide educational and social services of the city with “free” PCs running Windows Vista (oh, Joy!).
[...]
Call me envious, jealous, or simply evil, but it’s been a long time I don’t buy into Mr Gate’s social initiatives. I call them enlightened self-interest, especially when it’s about offering computers running Vista to the poor the very same day the French gendarmerie is announcing the migration of 70,000 desktops to Ubuntu Linux. Yes, you read that right. If there’s any news this week coming from France, this is it.
Do remember that this “free Vista” charade is an anti-Linux move. It’s another way of being anti-competitive and it’s also known as “dumping”. █
“[Microsoft] are willing to lose money for years and years just to make sure that you don’t make any money, either.”
–Bob Cringely
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