07.21.10

Apple Patents That Retard GNU/Linux/X Font Rendering Finally Expire, Microsoft Still a Barrier (ClearType Patents)

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents at 4:02 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: As Apple’s monopoly on a certain font rendering method expires, FreeType enables BCI by default, but Microsoft still has patents in this area of subpixel rendering

Jan Wildeboer, Rui Seabra, and Carlo Piana pass the message that “MSFT has ClearType patents for subpixel rendering on LCD screens” (details in this page).

This was said in reference to the news that “FreeType 2.4 [is] now free from patent restrictions”:

The FreeType development team has released version 2.4 of the rendering library for TrueType and PostScript fonts. FreeType is used in almost all Linux and open source Unix systems. The latest version is also much more stabile when dealing with broken or damaged font files.

“Now that is good news,” Oiaohm wrote in IRC. “Font rendering on Linux will come up to everything else.”

Jan Wildeboer wrote: “Truetype hinting #swpat (Apple owns them) have expired. So now the BCI is enabled by default in FreeType” (see this page)

Florian Müller wrote about it too, but the news was mostly covered in short messages. This fine example of the harms of software patents (making products poorer than they ought to be) did not receive the attention it truly deserved. We previously covered the ill effects of software patents on font rendering and mentioned Apple in this context. Below we add some older articles for background and future reference. █

______
2006

• Optimal Use of Fonts on Linux

The font subsystem on Linux evolved a lot in the last years, from an old naming, handling and option of fonts, to the support of True Type, Bistream Vera, etc. As of release time of Fedora Core 2, components like Xft, FreeType and FontConfig, and higher level software usage of them has stabilized and is now considered mature.

• Perspective: Microsoft’s forgotten monopoly

The story of how Microsoft used its monopoly in operating systems to acquire a dominant position in office applications and browsers has often been told. But there’s another Microsoft monopoly that’s rarely mentioned, even though most of us see it every day.

Microsoft’s fonts are used to display most Web pages on the planet. Even Linux and Mac users, who often have fled Windows to avoid dependence on Microsoft, read most of their content using Microsoft fonts.

• Linux Libertine Open Fonts offers free Times Roman alternative

Currently, Linux Libertine consists of more than 1,750 glyphs for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets and their derivatives, including ligatures and kerning tables. Some work remains to be done on the italics, but the roman or ordinary weight is complete, as well as the bold and underlined weights. A set of small caps is in development, and a grotesque or sans serif font (one without serifs) is planned, but not yet available.

2007

• Finding Software That Slows Down Your Computer

The PC Spy is trying to make people aware of the worst software that is out there, and to no surprise Norton Internet Security 2006 is at the top.
 
[...]
 
It is pretty obvious that having a large number of fonts degrades performance in Windows. I think that I’ll be going through and deleting some of the ones that came with Vista because I really don’t need 400+ fonts.

• Visual comparison of major OS’s font rendering

Personally I don’t like ClearType at all. And looking at it gives me headaches. Also, Linux’s myth of bad font rendering is finally over.

• Checking out the new Open Font Library

Up until the last few years, typefaces were a neglected aspect in FOSS. However, the increased popularity of the GNU/Linux desktop and the emergence of software for designers is changing that. “The whole vectorization of the desktop with Inkscape is really doing a beautification of the desktop,” Phillips says. In such an atmosphere, the OFL looks like an idea whose time has come.

• Clearing up the Novell ClearType controversy

So, although this story illustrates just how software patent issues can wind their way into open-source software, it doesn’t appear to have any direct link to the Microsoft/Novell partnership or the issues, such as the GPLv3 revision, that surround it.

• Liberation Fonts

The first release is a set of fully usable fonts, but they will lack the fully hinting capability (hinting adjusts font pixelization so that the fonts render with high quality at large and small sizes) provided by TrueType/FreeType technology. That release is now ready. The second release will provide full hinting of the fonts, and that release will be available by the end of the calendar year.

• Interview with David Turner of Freetype

If the patent owner of hinting gives the Freetype project a free license, would you accept it?
 
David Turner: It really depends on the terms of this “free license”. Basically if it means the patent can not be freely re-licensed to other people, I really don’t see why I would find that useful. If you absolutely need the bytecode interpreter, you can be patient and wait for October 9, 2009, when the patents expire.
 
[...]
 
There is no clear answer as to what is best. Personally, I can’t stand native TrueType hinted fonts anymore, they look too distorted to me, even if their contrast is better. My favorite Linux distribution is Ubuntu at the moment, and the first thing I do after installing it is to wipe the version of FreeType provided with it to get rid of the bytecode interpreter :o)
 
Also, I still don’t understand why Debian and Ubuntu keep distributing patent-infringing code in FreeType, while they keep MP3 and DVD playback out of their normal installs. I’m not even sure it’s DFSG compliant… 

• Improving Linux font rasterization?

While the discussion continues it looks like that in the long term the major toolkits have to get together to talk about implementing the mentioned techniques. Or, as suggested by David, a initiative dedicated to bringing patches upstream is launched. It could try to work with upstream on the one hand, but with the distributors on the other hand – if the users see the results because the distributions include the patches it might help influencing the decision of upstream.      
But there is no way of reaching perfect font rasterization with changes in FreeType only. 

• 3 Examples of Bad Microsoft Word Typography

From the makers of Arial, here are three examples of bad typography in Microsoft Word. Bad typesetting in Word finds its way into résumés, business plans, research papers, government documents, even published books. These small inconsistencies and imperfections may be un-noticible in small doses, but paragraph-after-paragraph they stack up—resulting in ugly, visually-incohesive documents. Word isn’t for professional typography work, but that’s no excuse for these typography sins.     

• Microsoft, Apple extend font licensing agreement

Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.said Thursday they have renewed their font licensing agreement. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Under the agreement, Apple users will have ongoing use of the latest versions of Microsoft Windows core fonts, the companies said.

• Open source fonts

If you’ve ever gone looking for legitimately free fonts, you’ve probably found that there are a lot of really bad ones. But there’s also a lot of discussion out there about “open source fonts.”  
 
Some who post about open source fonts are really just talking about free-as-in-beer typefaces. Some, however, have embraced the open source philosophy as applied to typography.   

2008

• Ubuntu and Fonts

In this short tutorial i discuss some handy fonts related tips that could improve user’s desktop experience . The tips include installing Microsoft True type fonts enabling one to render documents and web pages created in Microsoft Windows properly in Ubuntu Linux, Installing a set of cool looking fonts released by RedHat – Liberation fonts package , making fonts look good on your LCD Display by turning on subpixel smoothing , installing some cool and free fonts on your Ubuntu Desktop and finally how to install any font if  you have it’s ttf file .        

• Ubuntu Hardy – Liberation Fonts now Fully Hinted?

A recent update came through for liberation fonts. It wasn’t clear, but it looks as if there is now full hinting available. Looks very nice! Might have  to add this to my Win XP work laptop as well.  

• Liberation Fonts Increase Interoperability For Linux Users

Most problems when opening Word documents under GNU/Linux are due to missing fonts. Therefore, Red Hat published a set of fonts metric-compatible with the Windows core fonts last year.

• 100+ Beautiful Free Fonts for Ubuntu

If you are a graphic and web designer, the default fonts that came with Ubuntu will surely be not enough for your needs. However, if you know where to look, you can find plenty of additional fonts that can help get the job done.

• Ubuntu Basics – Appearance

Like it or not, the Arial font looks good on Windows just as Helvetica looks good on a Mac (unless you’re some typography nerd that insists on arguing which looks better/worse/etc.)

Arial looks even better when used in Ubuntu.

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Winamp Brainchild: “You Have People Patenting Things that Are Essentially Math”

Posted in Patents at 3:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: “I could write a 100,000 lines of code and for all I know, 50,000 of them infringe on various things,” argues Justin Frankel

THE LEGENDARY developer Justin Frankel spoke about software patents some days ago and here is a portion of what he said:

Frankel also talked about software patents, asserting that they were essentially just tools for people seeking money in lawsuits. He says the biggest problem is that “you have people patenting things that are essentially math, which is what patents are not supposed to be even about at all. … They are a big problem largely because you can infringe on them without knowing that you do and as a small company you have like very little—you don’t have resources to go and research whether or not you do. I could write a 100,000 lines of code and for all I know, 50,000 of them infringe on various things. And I wouldn’t know that.”

Shazam ought to get this memo [1, 2, 3]. █

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Help Extend the Ban on Software Patents in New Zealand to Australia

Posted in Australia, Free/Libre Software, Law, Patents at 3:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Summary: Head of Microsoft New Zealand steps down, New Zealand permits software patenting only with the “device” trick, and Ben Sturmfels is working to marginalise software patents also in Australia

Last night we caught up with the latest news from IPONZ, the Intellectual Monopoly Office of New Zealand. Basically, software patents are not entirely dead in New Zealand, but the saga ended up a lot better than it initially appeared. And now an Australian petition has been created to replicate the achievement of software developers in New Zealand. As ITWire puts it, “FOSS dev launches petition against software patents”:

Close on the heels of New Zealand declaring that software would not be patentable, a Melbourne free software advocate and developer has drafted a petition to press for the same to happen in Australia.

Melbourne developer Ben Sturmfels (below) is soliciting signatures for the petition which, he says, will be personally delivered to Senator Kim Carr, the minister for innovation, Industry, science and research in the current Labor government.

The petition has been launched at a time when the federal government is reviewing the scope of patent law and Sturmfels says it is the right time to push for abolition of software patents. It also comes at the start of a federal election campaign, with Australia going to the polls on August 21.

Last week, New Zealand announced that it would not be making any changes to its Patents Bill which is moving through parliament. Wellington has decided that inventions which have embedded software can be patented, a stance which was welcomed by the New Zealand Computer Society.

The New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS) did a fantastic job against foreign lobbyists (NZICT for example [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]). News items that we have not yet referenced in our coverage are:

i. Software patent about-face gets the thumbs-up

Commerce select committee chairwoman Lianne Dalziel has welcomed a Government change of heart on a controversial amendment to the Patents Bill.

But she warns guidelines that will be developed to accompany the bill could still frustrate the committee’s recommendation on software patents.

Commerce Minister Simon Power says the bill, which says that computer programs are not a patentable invention, will proceed through Parliament unamended. The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ), part of the Economic Development Ministry, will develop guidelines to allow inventions that contain “embedded software” to be patented, in consultation with parties.

ii. Minister Announces No Software Patents

Minister of Commerce Simon Power today announced that further amendment to the Patent Bill is neither necessary nor desirable, and that the insertion of an exception for software would prevail. He has also asked IPONZ to formulate draft guidelines and seek the views of interested parties regarding patents involving embedded software.

The response to this news has been immediate. Paul Matthews of the New Zealand Computer Society writes “Despite what appears to be a big-budget lobbying effort by the pro-patent fraternity, Hon Simon Power announced today that he wouldn’t be modifying the proposed Patents Bill hence software will be unpatentable once the Bill passes into law.”

iii. Software Patents Bill clause will not be altered

iv. Minister announces way forward for software patent

v. Software patent guidelines on IPONZ agenda

Guidelines rather than a law change will be used to allow inventions that contain embedded software to be patented, Commerce Minister Simon Power says.

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) would develop the guidelines once the Patents Bill passed.

Mr Power said a further amendment to that bill was not needed.

When the commerce committee reported the bill back to Parliament in March it recommended that computer programs not be a patentable invention after submitters raised concerns that would stifle innovation and restrict competition.

vi. New Zealand sticks to anti-software patent guns

vii. New Zealand says no to software patents

New Zealand has decided not to make any modifications to its patents bill and this means that software will not be patentable in the country.

viii. New Zealand law to render software ‘unpatentable’

ix. New Zealand Kills Software Patents

x. New Zealand to make software unpatentable

xi. New Zealand bans software patents

New Zealand is passing a law which makes most software unpatentable. The only exception, added yesterday in an amendment, is to allow patents on inventions that contain embedded software.

xii. NZ government makes software ‘unpatentable’ (for now)

While mulling the bill the committee was inundated with submissions from people opposing the granting of patents for computer programs. They complained that such a move could “stifle innovation and restrict competition,” said the NZ government.

xiii. New Zealand To Dump Software Patents Afterall (But Will Allow ‘Embedded Software’ Patents)

It looks like those reports of NZ politicians backing down may have been a bit premature. Chirag Mehta points us to the news that, despite the lobbying effort, it’s been announced that the patent bill will not be changed, thus basic software will remain unpatentable. However, the details suggest that embeddable software can be patented, and there are some concerns that the “guidelines” (yet to be developed) for such embeddable software will be used by some to sneak in standard software patents.

Still, it’s good to see New Zealand realizing that basic software patents can be harmful. It sounds like a big help was the fact that the two biggest New Zealand software companies both came out against software patents certainly helped. Orion Health noted that patents generally are “counter-productive” and “are often used obstructively.” The company also noted that the ” best protection is to innovate and innovate fast.” Exactly. Meanwhile, Jade said: “We believe the patent process is onerous, not suited to the software industry, and challenges our investment in innovation.”

xiv . Official: Software will be unpatentable in NZ

Yesterday Minister of Commerce Simon Power instructed the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) to develop guidelines to allow inventions that contain embedded software to be patented.

xv. Software patent ban moves closer in New Zealand

It’s not been a happy time for anti-software patent campaigners recently – with bad news coming in from both the United States, in the form of the Bilski…

xvi. The software patent controversy explained

New Zealand’s parliamentary Commerce Committee had recommended that software not be patentable. Last week the country’s Commerce Minister Simon Power announced that he’d make no further changes to the Patents Bill. That means no software patents, although inventions that contain software would still be patentable.

One can reasonably suspect that the Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand is leaving the place partly due to backlash relating to software patents. Microsoft was part of the push for software patents in New Zealand. According to this report, there is agreement that Microsoft had issues locally (many of which we covered).

Ackhurst relinquishes from the shores following a three year period in the top position, which has witnessed some reverses for Microsoft and unsettled times for the local ICT industry as a whole.

Here is where he is heading:

Kevin Ackhurst, Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand, will be moving to Singapore to take up the position of VP Sales and Marketing for Microsoft.

Sales and marketing. It figures. Nothing technical whatsoever, just like most software patents proponents. █

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More Criminal Activity in Bill Gates’ Past (Corbis Fraud), Russian Spies at Microsoft

Posted in Bill Gates, Fraud, Microsoft at 1:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Corbis fraud is now a fact (Bill Gates is the sole owner of Corbis); Alexey Karetnikov from Microsoft is allegedly a Russian spy

THIS bit of news is not about the Gates Foundation, which is a patents-loving/hoarding operation and image/reputation laundering disguised as a tax-exempt charity. This quick post is actually about this new report from Forbes. “Start-Up Goes Public On Corbis Fraud, Starring Bill Gates,” says the headline.

It’s a case of David vs. Goliath and, pebble in hand, now David is talking to the press. The David in this case is Infoflows, a six-person company in the Seattle area that successfully sued stock photography company Corbis and won a $20 million judgment against Corbis early this year. Now, Infoflows has decided to go public with its side of the story.

Bill Gates has a starring role in Infoflow’s story. The company, made up mostly of former Microsoft ( MSFT – news – people ) employees, was launched to form a technology that would identify digital objects. Corbis first entered into an agreement with Infoflows around 2005, feeding information it gleaned from that relationship to an outside patent counsel, according to court documents. Corbis terminated the agreement in 2006, days after receiving key software designs from Infoflows.
Article Controls

A King County, Wash., superior court jury found in January 2010 that Corbis, which is solely owned by Bill Gates, fraudulently entered into a business relationship with Infoflows and then developed the company’s ideas into a service for identifying objects in its digital photo collection.

This is coming from the same guy who, according to OpenBytes, is now busy getting people “addicted”, just like those pharmaceutical giants he invests billions of dollars in and publicly promotes.

Lets begin by reminding ourselves of two comments made by Bill Gates – you might have heard of him, he is/was? quite influential at Microsoft.

It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.

As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

Read those sentences a few times, take a deep breath and then consider the companies mentioned in the last article. hypocrisy? or maybe underhanded tactics to allow the spread of Microsoft wares until such time as they decide to collect? – I hope everyone can forgive me for thinking this sounds very much like the drug dealer who gives the first few “hits” for free, safe in the knowledge that an addict will keep coming back.

I digress (as is my want) and this article is about the contact I have had from some of the companies/individuals who were named on the Microsoft hit list. It certainly makes interesting reading and certainly (in the cases Ive seen) not a case of selling cracked copies of Windows 7, its more a licensing agreement issue when selling refurbed PC’s as a business. Lets make something clear here, the hit list that has been published (although some sources would suggest otherwise) is not a list of people caught selling copies of Windows 7. As the links that follow will show, this is Microsoft cashing in on alleged licensing issues, in particular (in the example) a business selling on a refurbished PC. This is no “Knock off Nigel”.

There was one company in particular who contacted me from the hit list linked in the previous article. For arguments sake we will call them Company X, as you will see, from theirs (and other supporting comments from others) there is a genuine fear of retaliation for speaking out against the “Mighty Microsoft”. I however have no such fear in regards to my comments and if Microsoft feel the need to ever take legal action over my words, I would welcome it.

It all fits together. Poor ethics and dishonesty about counterfeiting make up the attitudinal issue we witness to this date.

Jokingly, Jan Wildeboer from Red Hat suggests a “conspiracy”. A few days ago he wrote: “One of the russian spies worked at MSFT and now Russia gets the sources of Win7 – coincidence? ”

Russia has access to the source code and Alexey Karetnikov is now deported. It probably is just a coincidence though.

Immigration deports Alexey Karetnikov: Microsoft engineer, alleged Russian spy, loyal Facebook user

[...]

The curious case of the Russian spies grows, well, curiouser, as the Washington Post reports that a Microsoft Software Design Engineer named Alexey Karetnikov has recently been ordered out of the country for “immigration violations.” According to a government source, Karetnikov had “just set up shop,” (spy shop, that is) and the immigration charges were technicalities used to get him out of the country quickly (and without an annoying trial).

We will probably return to this at a later stage (still catching up with news that was missed during absence). █

“In honor of the event, Pam Edstrom, who had since left Microsoft to cofound her own agency, Waggener Edstrom, and handle Microsoft’s PR from the outside, sponsored a “Windows Roast.” Gathered at the Alexis Park Resort in Las Vegas, Gates and Ballmer made fun of themselves and not so subtly apologized for the Windows delays. “To Dream the Impossible Dream” was the theme song playing in the background. With three hundred analysts and members of the press invited to these festivities where Gates and Ballmer let it all hang out, it was another coup for “Gates’s Keeper.” Gates joked that Ballmer had insisted, ” ‘We just gotta cut features.’ He came up with this idea that we could rename this thing Microsoft Window—and we would have shipped that thing a long time ago.”

–Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, a book composed
by Pam’s daughter

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07.20.10

Novell Comes to New Zealand

Posted in Microsoft, Novell, Virtualisation at 6:44 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: News from Novell in New Zealand and some general Novell news too

EARLIER on we wrote about New Zealand, which wants to resolve the software patents situation once and for all. Novell is on the side favouring software patents, in general at least. To Novell, patents on software are a big business.

Novell picks up some pieces in New Zealand and attempts to “rebuild [its] local business,” according to this report:

At the time of writing, the vendor had only one staff member locally, based in Wellington, focused on consulting services.

It wants to add a country lead based in Wellington, along with a corporate salesperson there to manage existing accounts. It also wants to recruit a pre and post-sales technical specialist in Auckland.

From the same publication on the same week:

The Novell partner had hoped to be appointed as a third party, or franchisee, to build the vendor’s local brand and sales. However, Novell has decided against this model and is reinvesting in its own business in New Zealand.

Novell does a great deal of proprietary software business. It mustn’t be assumed that SUSE is Novell’s main product. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (SJVN) has defended SUSE all these years, even when he wrote for eWEEK that SLED was considered acceptable to him. He continues to defend the Microsoft-taxed SLE* and OpenSUSE, even this month. eWEEK promotes Microsoft software along with SLES, as the summary alone shows:

I kicked off my tests with Hyper-V. Owing to the infamous Linux collaboration arrangement that Novell and Microsoft began back in 2006, I expected the path to running SLES under Hyper-V to be particularly smooth. Right off the bat, I was pleased to find that the so-called enlightened drivers required to use full-speed virtual components under Hyper-V were automatically installed on my test instance.

Why can’t Novell emphasise more of VMware, Xen, and KVM? The first two are somewhat beneficial to Microsoft and Novell chooses to collaborate with these (while mostly ignoring the Red Hat-owned KVM). Novell still has PlateSpin, which was criticised last week:

Nelson used PlateSpin’s PowerConvert tool for physical-to-virtual machine migrations and workload management, and he said he received excellent service and support.

“We could order and activate our licenses without so much as a hiccup, and whenever we called for support, we always got directly to an engineer,” Nelson said. “During one support incident, the engineer conferenced in one of the actual developers because he wanted them to be aware first-hand of the issue we were dealing with.”

After Novell bought them, things changed, he said. Allocating and managing licenses now requires multiple sites, and support involves “a triad of never-ending, nonhuman phone prompts, scripted questions from a nontechnical person, and the feeling of pulling teeth to get to a real, knowledgeable engineer,” Nelson said.

“I miss the old days,” He added.

In other Novell news, it’s all Fog Computing and proprietary software, e.g.:

i. 14 BSM Service Providers to Watch (see this recent post about Novell’s BSM business)

Novell – Novell’s portfolio includes versatile role-aware dashboards, solid correlation and analytics, a CMDB, social networking capabilities, as well as more than 70 fully supported adapters designed to optimized data inputs from other monitoring tools. Novell therefore excels in enabling a unified approach to service management across many diverse investments. It earned a Value Leader position and the Best BSM SI Integration award.

ii. Arrow ECS Receives EMEA Distributor of the Year Award from Novell (press release, also covered here)

iiii. Server OSes need to evolve to stay relevant

He cited the recent announcement made by VMware to partner Novell to complement its existing virtualization software with server OS technology as example of the “growing demand” for options that incorporate both server OS and virtualization platforms.

iv. WEM: Innovation in Customer Experience

“Feature / function innovation has long been the mainstay of technology companies and the primary sort key of competition for many of us,” John Dragoon, Chief Marketing Officer for Novell, wrote as 2009 drew to a close. “And while many technology companies continue to innovate in this area at astounding rates, customers aren’t demanding the type of innovation they can’t consume, use or integrate into their business.

OK, so Novell says that “feature / function innovation” is its strength. Does that incorporate Novell’s obsession with software patents for example (the “innovation” part)? █

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UK Government Gets More Serious About GNU/Linux Migration

Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 6:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft gradually loses control of the British public sector

AS PROMISED last night, here is a status update about the UK government and Microsoft. With BECTA out of the way, things improve rapidly. First of all, Richard Steel, the "Everything Microsoft" CIO from London, decided to retire early (having been exposed and publicly humiliated [1, 2]) and now comes this similar story from the London Stock Exchange. “London Stock Exchange CTO leaves during move to Linux,” reports IDG.

It is unclear whether Paine’s departure is connected to the change of operating system – Paine was notably instrumental in bringing a major Microsoft-based platform to the LSE. That platform, called TradElect, experienced a number of serious glitches.

In a 2007 interview, Paine said: “We looked at their (Microsoft’s) whole suite of technology from their development environment through to their databases and operating systems, and we decided that their technology was best aligned to achieving this range of design principles”

The TradElect platform was abandoned after the series of outages, one of which lasted all day and led to traders storming out of the building in protest. The LSE is moving to a Linux and Sun Solaris-based Unix platform, which uses an Oracle database.

Last July, the London Stock Exchange indicated that it was moving to the new platform and bought the IT services and software company, MillenniumIT, to help it achieve its aim. Earlier this month, the LSE announced that the rollout of the new system had been delayed by two months for further testing.

We wrote about LSE in [1, 2, 3, 4].

Brian Proffitt, formerly the managing editor of Linux Today, goes further and explores the situation with regards to calls for the UK government to move to GNU/Linux. Microsoft UK has responded to this:

Microsoft UK: Don’t Cave to UK Survey’s Linux ‘Suggestions’

[...]

Well, you know what? Don’t do it. Let the UK government convert to Linux and open source software. Call their bluff, and let them deploy software that is cheaper, faster, and more secure. Don’t cave to those tricky politicians’ sneaky attempts to shake you down. Stand firm on your bottom line, and reap the profit margin you so clearly feel you deserve.

That’ll fix ‘em.

After all, what do you have to lose? You and your bosses in Redmond have repeatedly said Microsoft products are superior to open source applications and operating systems in every way, so you’d teach those government paper-pushers a thing or two when they actually deployed Linux. I mean, you’re not worried that they might find out something different, are you?

As a follow-up, Proffitt writes about the UK National Open Centre:

After taking the opportunity to tease Microsoft’s UK division last week, I found myself wondering, whatever happened to the UK’s National Open Centre?

It was a bit of a circuitous path to get to this question, and a little bit of a winding path to get to the answer.

What started all this was the release of a survey from the Spending Challenge, an austere budget program from Her Majesty’s Treasury. The first-phase results of the survey was public-sector workers asked for ways to save money in the UK budget.

The survey results were a sampling of the nearly 60,000 ideas that were turned into the HM Treasury office… 31 suggestions that were, according to the post, “… not ideas that have been shortlisted for further work or implementation but they will all be considered individually alongside the other 60,000 ideas that have been put forward.”

[...]

Much ado was made about NOC, which held a Feb. 2007 launch event at the Houses of Parliament, where Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh caused a stir with his comments regarding open source’s tenuous status in government.

“Open source has enemies, and its enemies are very, very close to government,” Pugh said at the time.

Here is John Pugh grilling the MSBBC over the Microsoft deal. He did a fine job.

This whole thing just happens to come at a time when Microsoft’s relationship with the NHS is on the rocks and The Register explains why:

Software licensing in the National Health Service is about to get a lot more complicated, and a lot more expensive.

Back in 2004 the Office of Government Commerce signed a massive deal with Microsoft to provide all desktop software within the NHS. This followed some very high-level lobbying from both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer when it looked like the health service might ditch Microsoft from desktop PCs.

But the NHS enterprise agreement has now been scrapped. A message on the relevant page of the Microsoft website says: “We are currently updating these pages to reflect new licensing information as of May 2010. Please check back shortly.”

“Excellent news: couldn’t come at a better time,” says Glyn Moody regarding this news and adds that “Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust chooses Koha supported by PTFS Europe”

The library at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust has chosen the Koha open source library management system to replace its existing Unicorn system. PTFS Europe are carrying out the initial implementation and providing ongoing support. The system is hosted at the PTFS Europe data centre in Maidenhead.

Koha Library Management System

With Koha, library staff access to the system is completely web-based; acquisitions, circulation, cataloguing, serials and reports are all done through a web browser. As well as an excellent search engine the OPAC offers a range of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 facilities such as tagging, commenting and public and private lists. Koha can also integrate with the ArchivalWare digital library as well as other link resolution services.

The Register posted this update regarding the NHS just the following day:

End of Microsoft NHS deal means mass deletions

[...]

Microsoft has warned any NHS worker who took advantage of the huge discounts available for installing MS Office at home that they must now delete the software.

The NHS used to buy its software from Microsoft as part of an Enterprise Agreement. One of the advantages of this purchasing procedure, apart from costing less, was that NHS nurses and doctors or other staff could buy a copy of Microsoft Office to use at home for the not-so-princely sum of £8.95.

[...]

Virtual Desktop Access and Office Roaming must also be switched off.

Great news. Go for it. Before Ballmer packs up his suitcase. █

“Nobody makes any decisions without checking with me first. If you’re going to change any of the interfaces or anything for that matter, you have to talk to me in order to get them approved. We’ll improve communications this way.”

–Steve Ballmer

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Microsoft’s CodePlex Foundation Expresses Views on Free Software

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 5:51 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft’s CodePlex Foundation calls software freedom not capitalist

MICROSOFT is up to old tunes and propaganda, courtesy of the new hire which has a history at Microsoft. Stephen Walli again makes it known that software freedom to him is not capitalist. The Source has already responded to this propaganda:

Now, I’m not opposed to companies trying to get their spin out there, but that doesn’t mean I pretend that it’s anything other than what it is: PR spin with only the most tenuous connection to “truth”.

For example, when Novell spreads around that good old-fashioned “IP peace of mind” FUD in ad campaign after ad campaign, I understand it’s “just business” for Novell (and Microsoft). Being understandable doesn’t make something acceptable, though. I understand why SirsiDynix feels the need to lie about Open Source, doesn’t mean I accept it.

Another post comments on a Venn (ish) diagram and says:

But I thought Free Software == Communism?

Yes, to Microsoft it is. Microsoft is hypocritical and dishonest. While the OSI tries to bridge the gap between Open Source and software Freedom, Microsoft/CodePlex does the exact opposite in order to marginalise freedom. █

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New Zealand’s Intellectual Monopoly Office Wants Software Patents, With Caveats

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Patents at 5:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) is still supporting a back door to software patents, despite premature celebrations that software patents were rendered dead in New Zealand

ACCORDING to some renowned economists, software patents would not be of value to a country like New Zealand, where software patents have been entered through the back door. There is this update on the NZOSS mailing list and the president of the FFII says that “it looks likely that the IPONZ guidelines will define embedded software and allow for embedded software to be patented”

Later he points out that an “NZ Minister [argues] inventions involving “embedded” computer programs should be able patentable“:

Commerce Minister Simon Power has instructed the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) to develop guidelines to allow inventions that contain embedded software to be patented.

“IPONZ will formulate draft guidelines and seek the views of interested parties,” Mr Power says.

The process will begin once the Patents Bill has passed its final stages in Parliament.

NZCS seems to be missing the EU-style trick as it goes with the headline “It’s official: Software will be unpatentable in NZ”

Despite what appears to be a big-budget lobbying effort by the pro-patent fraternity, Hon Simon Power announced today that he wouldn’t be modifying the proposed Patents Bill hence software will be unpatentable once the Bill passes into law.

This is significant. As we’ve previously pointed out software patents aren’t black and white, and there are certainly pros and cons. However on balance, we believe they represent a far greater risk to smaller NZ-based software providers than opportunity, and there are many cases where they have significantly stifled innovation.

Tectonic says that “South Africa must take lead from NZ on software patents,” but what really was achieved over there? It’s not as bad as it could possibly be, but it seems like software patenting loopholes may remain. This won’t be the last time we heard from New Zealand about this subject. █

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