07.19.08
Posted in Boycott Novell, News Roundup at 4:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GNU/Linux
New versions of Gibraltar, Vixta, Slitaz, TFM, xPUD, CentOS (Live), Absolute, and Webconverger GNU/Linux have been released.
F/OSS
Microsoft
- The suspicious death of XP support
As Microsoft slowly kills off Windows XP itself — over the protest of many users — it’s still unclear exactly when Redmond will formally cut off all support for its old OS. But one reader’s experience in dealing with a series of update fiascos over the last few months suggests that XP support may actually have expired already, and under suspicious circumstances.
“I lost my XP system near the middle of May, and it took me until the end of June to get it back,” the reader wrote. “What happened was that, suddenly, all of my hardware disappeared from the Windows device manager as did my administrator privileges. I had a lot of licensed apps on my system, and the prospect of starting with a fresh install was too daunting, so I decided to recover instead. During this time, I spent over eight cumulative hours talking to Microsoft’s Indian ‘support technicians.’ I was at least six hours into that ordeal before I finally spoke with one that had a small clue what he was talking about.”
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Posted in GNU/Linux, HP, Mandriva, Novell, OpenSUSE, SLES/SLED, Ubuntu, Virtualisation at 7:41 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Following the release of OpenSUSE 11.0, quite a few people decided to explore the distribution. Novell has begun studying OpenSUSE 11.0 users. It’s doing it at the moment using a survey that was launched last week. In addition, the OpenSUSE community pays its respect to Bryen Yunashko and Frank Sundermeyer, both of whom seem like veterans.
Listed below are articles and blog posts that shed some light on opinions and assessments of the latest distribution and its surrounding system.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Deception, ECMA, Europe, ISO, Microsoft, Open XML, Standard at 4:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Buying the elections because the world stays asleep
You would not believe this unless you have already seen the hundreds — if not thousands — of documented cases where the OOXML process had been abused.
Watch this new observation:
Next week on Monday and Tuesday there will be an SC34 meeting, where the maintenance of the inexistant DIS29500 specification will be discussed. Surprise, half of the seats will be occupied by Microsoft and ECMA:
Adam Farquhar (Ecma)
Alex Brown (UK)
Benjamin Henrion (BE)
Brett Roberts (NZ)
Dave Welsh (US)
Doug Mahugh (Ecma)
Francis Cave (GB)
Isabelle Valet-Harper (Ecma)
Istvan Sebestyen (Ecma)
Jasper Hedegaard Bojsen (DK)
Jean Paoli (Ecma)
Jean Stride (GB)
Jesper Lund Stocholm (DK)
Jirka Kosek (CZ)
Keld Simonsen (NO)
Ken Holman (CA)
Kimmo Bergius (FI)
Manu Setälä (FI)
Michiel Leenaars (NL)
Murata Makoto (JP)
Patrick Durusau (US)
Pia Elleby Lange (DK)
Rex Jaeschke (Ecma)
Shahzad Rana (NO)
Wemba Opota (CI)
Some of them, Jesper Lund Stocholm for instance, are Microsoft partners and fans [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This is a joke, right? And Alex Brown [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21]? Should they also bring Fidel Castro in to cast a vote on democracy?
Additionally, be sure to learn who Adam Farquhar is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. Isn’t he also with Microsoft and the British Library? This is ridiculous; it’s a syndicate of money and influence taking over shell establishments like ISO. Some of these people trade Microsoft products for a living!
“Microsoft (and its ecosystem) is set to decide on Microsoft (and its ecosystem).”Let’s pick some other examples. It’s most amazing how Microsoft employees are ‘dressed up’ as ECMA employees. Doug Mahugh at ECMA? He works for Microsoft. Is he swapping hats for cover-up? Again? What is ECMA doing there anyway? ECMA is being paid handsomely by Microsoft. Remember Jan van den Beld, who changed directives especially for Microsoft and then left ECMA to join a Microsoft lobbying arm and behave even more aggressively?
How about Rex Jaeschke? Follow the links at will. It’s all too clear to see what is happening here.
At the moment, Rick Jelliffe [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] accuses concerned people of being “afraid of openness”. He refers to OOXML, which is definitely not open. In fact, the word “Open” in the acronym should be forbidden given all the binary components which are undocumented, not to mention allergy to open source software (Microsoft reserves the right to sue open source implementations over OOXML-related patents it applies for).
One could go on and on analyzing one person at the time, or at least those who attend to serve Microsoft. The motives say it all. Microsoft (and its ecosystem) is set to decide on Microsoft (and its ecosystem).
Remember how Bryan complained and prematurely left ISO after a long career there, having witnessed how his committee got stuffed by Microsoft? He even spoke out about it.
Be sure to view this list of the attendants at the OOXML BRM. It’s equally appalling, just like the BRM itself [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. it was controlled by ECMA, Microsoft and some other OOXML-sympathetic figures.
ISO should be utterly ashamed of itself. Ashamed. And humiliated. Tim Bray, who attended the BRM, had this to say:
“This was horrible, egregious, process abuse and ISO should hang their heads in shame for allowing it to happen. Their reputation, in my eyes, is in tatters. My opinion of ECMA was already very negative; this hasn’t improved it, and if ISO doesn’t figure out away to detach this toxic leech, this kind of abuse is going to happen again and again.”
–Tim Bray
ISO is being abused by Microsoft and its affiliates that exploit ISO for their wallets. To make matters worse, ISO chose to try and bury all of this under the rug. This makes it an accomplice in a sense.
You could take a rich crook and put him in a suit. But it’s still a crook in a suit, who probably made a fortune ‘thanks’ to bad behaviour. This must not be tolerated.
Despite all of these dirty tricks, ODF is going strong. Yesterday we wrote about NATO and ODF without sufficient certainty. It’s finally more official, based on Andy Updegrove’s Web site and even Heise.
NATO has included the International Standardization Organization’s (ISO) certified Open Document Format (ODF) in its list of mandatory standards to promote interoperability. NATO’s standards list includes Rich Text Format (RTF), extensible markup language (XML) and Office XP formats as requirements for the sharing of data.
Don’t ever let dirty tricks and misconduct of biblical proportions take over your precious personal documents. Stand up for justice and digital preservation. █
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Posted in Deception, FUD, GNU/Linux, IBM, Microsoft at 4:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Microsoft’s poisoning of the literature, the press, and the World Wide Web continues to fascinate. it’s not a secret. It’s all very real and overwhelming heaps of evidence exist to support it.
This subject was dealt with several times in the past. Microsoft dubbed those involved in it “Munchkins” and none of this has ever stopped [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Today’s gem from Microsoft is about newsgroups and how Microsoft expressed its plan to subvert and incline them to its advantage.
Right from the horse’s mouth (Microsoft). [PDF]
Channel of Information, On-line Forums
- Monitor the relevant Usenet groups at all times
- Write well
- Be exceedingly formal and polite
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- It is very easy to give offense
- Always assume that you are wrong; ask others to explain it to you
- Developers are impressed by clear, precise, polite communication
- Don’t sound like a prig
This was worth bringing up in light of the personal abuse directed at several people in Linux newsgroups. Some of these discussion groups are occupied by former Microsoft employees (you have to squeeze out of them to finally admit this). In the Linux advocacy newsgroup, for example, you could find regular posters Greg Cox, Larry Qualig and John Bailo. All are former Microsoft employees who bother to pay a visit to Linux newsgroups in order to praise a former employer. Why? Might the answer lie above in Microsoft’s own literature, which leaked our to the courtroom?
At the moment, there is another class of Munchkins there and they admit extending and branching out to Slashdot and Digg (you can see their comments, but they admittedly use pseudonyms). Some are extremely rude Internet trolls that try to drive away readers using insults, libel, xenophobia, homophobia, ugly imagery and personal threats. According to one member of Groklaw, he disengaged from OS/2 advocacy after he had received death threats.
Yes, going back to OS/2 days, there are some fairly well-documented testimonies. To this date, Microsoft marketing people exist not just in fictitious blogs but also in newsgroups and in government. It is not just unethical but also illegal in the European Union. Microsoft’s political power is immense though, so it’s unlikely to be punished.
There is a lot more to be explored on this subject. Going back to the document at the top, be sure to read some of the things around page 45, including this from Microsoft:
During the mopping-up phase, ensure that the enemy technology is routed. Use the press, the Internet, etc. to heighten the impression that the enemy is desperate, demoralized, defeated, deceased.
Remember how people complained about the press taking things out of proportion when Wal-Mart said it would continue selling GNU/Linux on-line but not on store shelves? Microsoft has a lot of power over the press, some of which it owns. Literally. Big Lies are no exception here. █
“Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
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