09.08.10
Posted in Bill Gates, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 2:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The libraries which Bill Gates has been giving ‘free’ Windows can no longer access crucial software that Microsoft has just announced it is killing, which “leaves users in limbo”
EARLIER THIS year we wrote about SteadyState [1, 2] in the context of the Gates Foundation attacking GNU/Linux in libraries. It’s an appalling attack on people’s liberty, but it is marketed to the public a a “charity” (libraries should not become indoctrination facilities for private companies). We gave an example from Greece not so long ago. Watch how Gates and his group are injecting their own (self-serving) ‘studies’ into coverage of these library matters. There are more new examples of that, which include ‘donation’ of Windows computers to libraries (exposure to many users in one fell swoop).
But anyway, the main news today is about yet another dead Microsoft product among many. “Windows® SteadyState™ To Be Phased Out,” announces Microsoft and press coverage has begun coming in:
Windows SteadyState is a handy tool for managing stand-alone PCs in public venues that cater to a motley crew of guest users. In a recent, terse announcement, Microsoft pulled the plug: “SteadyState will be phased out effective December 31, 2010. Microsoft will no longer support Windows SteadyState after June 30, 2011.”
“So because they will not sell XP anymore (in theory) they want to try and force libraries and others to buy Vista7,” explains Chips B. Malroy. He quotes: “With scores of organizations dependent on SteadyState, it has left a segment in a quandary or could be that a paid version is coming along.”
Quoting Gates from memory, Malroy types: “We will sort of get them hooked first, and collect later”
Here is the article Malroy cites:
Microsoft announces SteadyState dead, leaves users in limbo
Microsoft phased out its SteadyState tool that allowed sharing of a single desktop by multiple users at public avenues like libraries.
We have found two more articles about that.
SteadyState was originally published as the “Shared Computer Toolkit”.
What happens to libraries that became victim of Gates? A few months ago we explained the limbo they were already in. █
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Posted in Hardware, Microsoft at 1:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Andre Vrignaud quits Microsoft and Kinect is still malfunctioning, jeopardising the whole future of Xbox
THE Xbox management exodus carries on. Over the past few years we have shown just how many executives abandoned the team/project and abandoned Microsoft too (this includes the division’s president). Another thing we have shown however is that Amazon management keeps getting filled with those executives who leave Microsoft (nontheless, Amazon dumped Xbox Live Arcade games last week). That’s just what’s happening again, this time with Andre Vrignaud. Here is what the Microsoft booster had to say:
Director of games platform strategy Andre Vrignaud has left Microsoft for Amazon after eight years, having helped turn Microsoft into a top-ranking games brand.
More coverage can be found in:
Xbox 360 is a lost cause and this departure helps support this claim. Given the shoddy hardware (now downgraded) and bad demos of Kinect, there is no imminent turnaround. One reader showed us last night that Microsoft is rushing a defective product out the door. No lessons learned from poor Xbox 360 design which cost Microsoft billions in repairs?
For those of you who are still on the fence on whether or not to pick up Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect kit, we have an article for you to read now, which suggests that the Kinect camera is still suffering from problems.
The article comes from Gamer.Blorge and they have stated that the real question is whether the Kinect software is reliable or not. They have mentioned various issues that have happened during Kinect showings, such as failing to recognise a person in view and still having problems tracking movements by the user.
The longer Xbox 360 is out there, the better. Losing products harm Microsoft more while they are still alive. █
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Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 1:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Companies that are selling proprietary software present their products and themselves publicly as “open source”; some are actually linked closely to Microsoft
LAST WEEK we wrote about Likewise getting sued for patent violation. We had no sympathy because Likewise is a proprietary software company masquerading as “open source” and exploiting the work of Free software developers [1, 2, 3, 4]. Not surprisingly, Likewise is connected closely to Microsoft and it endorses software patents too. Here is Likewise getting chummy with former Microsoft executives who now run VMware and here it is announcing that it will promote working the Windows way at the Ohio LinuxFest. The audience there will hopefully know what it’s up against.
“Even the bad guys are using the term “open source” right now.”Likewise is not the only faker of “open source” (it’s really 'open' core, i.e. proprietary the way Microsoft loves it).
To give some new examples of fake “open source”, here is a company which markets its ASP.Net-based project as “open source” even though it clearly says: “Source code price is just US$ 700.”
Another new example of a faker comes from India. “The source code is available in three different licensing versions,” says the press release. It goes as follows: “Single site License, Enterprise License and OEM License. The pricing for these licenses are $5K and $10K accordingly. The OEM License is open for negotiation.” Even the bad guys are using the term “open source” right now. Will OSI step in and police the term? It’s a hard rope to walk. █
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09.07.10
Posted in GNU/Linux, Oracle, Patents, Red Hat, SUN at 8:01 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: In order to prevent software patents which are owned by Red Hat from falling into the wrong hands (e.g. in an acquisition like Oracle’s), something should be done to diffuse them
Red Hat’s patents are a subject we previously wrote about in posts such as:
Over a week after those scary SAP rumours we checked to see if Red Hat has done something to ensure that its patents will self-explode if they reach the wrong hands (like Oracle getting Sun’s Java patents). “I discussed that with @webmaven a few weeks ago,” Richard Fontana (Red Hat) told me today. It does not seem like progress has been made since then. Red Hat really needs to ensure that its portfolio does not get used against the Free software community in the same sense that Sun’s portfolio is being misused right now [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13].
“Red Hat really needs to ensure that its portfolio does not get used against the Free software community in the same sense that Sun’s portfolio is being misused right now.”Does Red Hat really need patents? I had a discussion about it with Red Hat earlier today and I was left overwhelmingly unconvinced. Hugo Roy, a software freedom activist whom we mentioned in the previous post, writes that “In 1985, someone filed a patent for a brilliant invention: the “Tool””
“I haven’t looked at the patent itself,” he told me, “so I don’t know if we can really say that. But sure, the title is not credible”
Patents have become so controversial that major newspapers occasionally call for an overhaul and maybe even abolition. We saw some examples last week.
Here is a new CERN article from the New Scientist. It helps show patents versus science, not for science:
You might imagine that vast patent royalties flow into the organisation that invented the touchscreen and the World Wide Web. But the atom-smashing outfit CERN, cradle of both these technologies, doesn’t make a bean from either.
The particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, has been reluctant to patent the inventions it creates in pursuit of exotic subatomic entities. But it hopes that will soon change: last week, it struck a deal with the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ensure that it profits better from its engineers’ innovations in fields like imaging, computing, particle detection and superconducting magnets, says international relations adviser Maurizio Bona.
If Red Hat still sidles with science and not with patents (or the USPTO which legitimises software patents), then it will take care of those potentially-destructive weapons it has in its hands/arsenal. It’s too late to do this if/when a takeover is imminent. Red Hat has just announced the hiring of a lobbyist (“Mark Bohannon to Lead Red Hat Governmental Affairs and Public Policy” as pasted here) and together with the practice of software patents, Red Hat is at risk of being called a hypocrite; it doesn’t need to be.
Red Hat is not the only GNU/Linux proponent which claims to be collecting “defensive” software patents. Red Hat is unique though. IBM and Google, for example, are somewhat different in this case because they are not in a position where they can practically be sold along with their patents (not any time soon). █
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Posted in Apple, BSD, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Marketing at 7:24 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Apple’s marketing technique is similar to L’Oréal’s, whose famous advertising slogan is “because I’m worth it”; Apple continues to serve as a barrier to GNU/Linux adoption
The FSFE’s Hugo Roy, who was in touch with Steve Jobs regarding Ogg and patents, says that “Steve Jobs’ business secret is pricing, not design.” He has just found the following two articles:
Steve Jobs “never had any designs. He has not designed a single project”
[...]
In short, Jobs’ only contribution to the Macintosh project was to try unsuccessfully to cancel it.
How Apple plays the pricing game
Next time you’re sitting at an airport bar and hear two businesspeople debate whether Apple is a technology or design company, chime in: “Nope. What Steve Jobs sells is pricing.”
Pricing? You bet.
Jobs is a master of using pricing decoys, reference prices, bundling and obscurity to make you think his shiny aluminum toys are a good deal. Apple’s Sept. 1 announcement of new products was a classic
The popular iPod Touch media player has been revamped at three price points – $229, $299, and $399 – all costing more than the iPhone, which does everything the Touch can plus make phone calls.
Apple has this new thing going on and it’s called “Ping”, which GigaOM claims to be stuck inside “Walled Garden” (once again this whole exclusivity factor):
As I discuss in a post at GigaOM Pro, Ping’s lack of integration with other social networks, or even with the web itself, is now its most compelling feature, at least from a strategic perspective.
Here is the effect on GNU/Linux users:
Users have to upgrade their iTunes installation to access Ping. Something that you cannot do on Linux.
Apple probably hates Linux so much that they intentionally integrated Ping in iTunes to block Linux users. Just kidding of course.
Apple hardly ever cares about supporting free platforms like BSD and GNU/Linux. That’s just why Apple is far from a friend of “Open Source” and merely an exploiter. It also makes defective products in the same factories as all of its rivals (the branding is different and there is retaliation). But some go too far by blaming hypePod for what’s generally just the fault of any portable media player (PMP). From The Age:
Pedestrian death rise blamed on iPods
The ”iPod zombie trance” people get into when walking, driving or pedalling around listening to their mobile devices is being blamed for an increase in collisions and even deaths in Europe and the US.
The issue has been highlighted in Sydney by the death of a 46-year-old Glebe woman reportedly wearing headphones when she was knocked down and killed by an ambulance on Saturday night.
Well, that’s just like blaming particular console makers for violent games and what these games may cause. In any case, Apple has many reasons to be distrusted and ignorant customers is not one of them. It’s them who pay a premium only to feel better than fellow human beings (Apple sells them this arrogance) and exclude others. █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, GPL, LG, Microsoft, Patents, Samsung at 6:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: More new televisions run Linux, but not the type which is free because Microsoft unjustifiably gets paid
THE KOREAN televisions industry is still at it. Both LG and Samsung pay Microsoft for Linux, also in their televisions. LG claims to be running “open source” right now (“Open source Plex media center to run on LG TVs”) and Samsung uses Android in HDTVs, based on this news article which says nothing about the Microsoft tax.
HDTVs are the next consumer electronic battlefield and Samsung is apparently testing out Android on its sets in order to step up their offering in response to the latest from Sony, Apple and others. Currently, Samsung is the world’s leader in HDTVs sold but there’s a shake-up looming and Samsung no doubt wants to retain its title. Android may or may not be the answer.
Many television sets of Sony runs Linux, but these do not pay Microsoft for ‘permission’ to do so. Samsung is only starting to learn about complying with Free software licences (new code release [1, 2, 3]), but it never learned about Free software being incompatible with patents, simply based on practices. Pressuring Samsung regarding GPL violations proved fruitful (they formally published code because a Techrights member pressed them), so Samsung ought to be pressured to also stop paying Microsoft for Linux (Microsoft presented no evidence to justify it). This cause and this goal can be achieved, but customers need to pressure them. █
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Posted in Humour, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Ubuntu at 5:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: SparkleShare is Mono (and proud of it), Ubuntu still under threat of having Banshee spread throughout the project, putting in it code which Microsoft explicitly stated is a patent problem
Yesterday we linked to this post about a “Slick FOSS Alternative to Dropbox”. What we did not know at the time is that it’s Mono based. One reader told us: “[I] Was about to install it, so I first opened the readme file.” The text shown above (in the title) was in it, probably as just a tongue-in-cheek gesture.
Why is it that Mono proponents use humour to escape criticism? Novell’s Jeffrey Stedfast (of the Mono team) is currently linking to humourous viral marketing from Microsoft and the OMG!Mono! folks advertise/promote Banshee in the sense that they call for help testing it. Ubuntu Netbook Edition is intended to have Banshee by default [1, 2, 3] and it would be worrying if the desktop edition followed suit because it’s a lawsuit threat:
Given that Ubuntu aims to replace the default mediaplayer on the Ubuntu Netbook Edition with Banshee, Didier Roche has requested that the proud OMG army unleash their unspeakable powers of mass breakage on the newly promoted Banshee 1.7.5 package in Maverick.
Those who do not understand the legal ramifications (that would be the majority) may need the advice of others. █
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