08.13.09

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: August 13th, 2009

Posted in IRC Logs at 6:43 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.

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Eye on Microsoft: Security Synopsis

Posted in Deception, FUD, Marketing, Microsoft, Security, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 6:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Failures and cover-ups (sponsored by Microsoft)

• Security is a process

I often point out that Windows is insecure. It’s so insecure, in fact, that I, in all seriousness, propose that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) should start forcing users to secure Windows-since neither users or Microsoft will do the job, Windows PCs should be banned from the Internet. That said, nothing, and I mean nothing is really secure.

[...]

It doesn’t work that way. Security is a process, it’s not a product. Some systems are more secure than others. Linux, as anyone who pays any attention to security news knows, is a lot more secure than Windows. If we were talking cars, Linux would be an Audi A4, the Mac, BMW 330 and Windows would be a mid-70s Ford “Hit here to blow up” Pinto.

• Microsoft: 2 year response to critical 0-day hole (Vista 7 too is suffering from the same symptoms)

It turns out Microsoft has known about the critical security vulnerability in its Office Web Components (OWC), which was fixed last patch day, for more than two years. Only since it has been actively exploited has the behemoth sprung into life and, within a month, released a patch.

• Microsoft IE 8 shines in Web browser security test (emphasis in red is ours)

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 rated tops among five browsers tested by NSS Labs for effectiveness in protecting against malware and phishing attacks—though NSS Labs acknowledges Microsoft paid for the tests.

• Virus arms race primes malware numbers surge

The amount of catalogued malware by Panda was 18 million in the 20 years from the firm’s foundation until the end of 2008. This figure increased 60 per cent in just seven months to reach 30 million by 31 July 2009.

• Twitter briefly knocked offline by hackers (again) (Microsoft Windows is a culprit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

Twitter suffered from yet more security jitters on Tuesday night, after another attack left the site briefly unavailable.

• Aussie arrested in botnet allegation (74,000 down, ~319,926,000 to go)

Inspector Blue Knacker of the Adelaide Yard claims that the 20 year old is also suspected of having developed software capable of launching virus attacks on 74,000 computers worldwide.

• [Microsoft Wordpad is Vulnerable, Exploit Available]

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Why Does Microsoft Treat Vendors and Customers Like ‘Thieves’?

Posted in DRM, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Office Suites, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 6:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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

–Bill Gates

Summary: The experience of vending or using Windows is still marginalising and demeaning

SEVERAL days ago we gave an example of a seller who was tricked by Microsoft to offer copies of its software under conditions which were not legal. As we pointed out at the time, this is part of a trend [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] because Microsoft is feeling the pinch. Here in the United Kingdom Microsoft is getting busy as well. From the news:

Microsoft catches 11 UK pirate retailers

[...]

Computer Clinic, Bolton ; Computer Port, Walsall; Eazy PC, Redcar; Goldcast Computers, Stockton-on-Tees; Matrix Computers, Stockton-on-Tees; PC Assist, Oldham; Personal Touch Computers Ltd, Portsmouth; Platinum Computers, Hartlepool; Spacebar Computers, Litherland, Liverpool, and The Little Computer Shop, Griffithstown, Pontypool.

Those retailers will not be huge fans of Microsoft after the crackdown, so GNU/Linux and Free software might be offered as an option on their PCs in the future. There is no revenge sweeter than this and as the quote at the top ought to remind people, for many years Microsoft has permitted shops to distribute Windows and Office against the rules. As long as Microsoft benefited from freely spreading its software and making it a de facto standard, it was all fine.

Another area where Microsoft is criminalising not retailers but actual customers is Vista and Vista 7. For those who remember what a DRM mess Vista was, it is worth reminding that Vista 7 is just the same.

Microsoft, Windows 7, cable television, and the so-called “PlayReady” DRM scam

[...]

What I’m about to show is Windows 7 artificially crippling an otherwise normal, uncrippled cable television channel. PlayReady DRM hooks into Windows Media Center and artificially degrades your standard cable TV service provided that the channel involved has paid Microsoft a lot of money.

Vista 7: limiting one’s experience artificially because everyone (including paying customers) is assumed to be a “criminal”. Very poor diplomatic skills from Microsoft and yet another reason to find permanent comfort in GNU/Linux. █

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Links 13/08/2009: GNOME 2.28 Beta, Oracle VM

Posted in News Roundup at 5:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Thomas Bartol, computational neuroscientist for the Salk Institute 02 (2005)

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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Vista 7 Vulnerable to Latest “Critical” Flaws

Posted in Deception, Marketing, Microsoft, Security, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 7:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Patches integrated quickly before RTM

Summary: Microsoft uses a familiar stunt to pretend that Vista 7 is more secure and then makes a lot of noise about it

NOTHING will change when it comes to computer security once Vista 7 is finally released. We wrote about the subject in:

• Cybercrime Rises and Vista 7 is Already Open to Hijackers
• Vista 7: Broken Apart Before Arrival
• Department of Homeland Security ‘Poisoned’ by Microsoft; Vista 7 is Open to Hijackers Again
• Vista 7 Security “Cannot be Fixed. It’s a Design Problem.”
• Why Vista 7 Could be the Least Secure Operating System Ever
• Journalists Suggest Banning Windows, Maybe Suing Microsoft Over DDoS Attacks

Using what Ryan has called a “sneaky” trick, Microsoft hid the fact that Vista 7 too was vulnerable to the latest bucket of "critical" patches.

In his own words: “There’s articles describing Windows 7 RTM as safe from the Patch Tuesday vulnerabilities that have been fixed in Vista and XP this month, but that’s why Microsoft made 7600.16385 the RTM, they integrated those patches right before they declared it final, then said it was safe from the bugs that affected XP and Vista. 7600.16384 was almost the RTM, but they made a new build just for these.”

“Microsoft hid the fact that Vista 7 too was vulnerable to the latest bucket of “critical” patches.”In short, he argues: “They applied all the patches, called that build the RTM, then said the RTM was unaffected. Then [they] released a press release patting Windows 7 on the back for being more secure, even though at least half those bugs affected it too. You wouldn’t notice this unless you had been following the Windows 7 build process pretty closely.

“Watch what happens on Patch Tuesday in September and October and see how many of those bugs affect Windows 7 cause they can’t declare RTM again.

“They’re still patching Windows XP after 8 years. What does that tell you? I fired it up on my other laptop yesterday and had 9 security updates waiting. Well, after 8 years and ~4,000 patches you’d expect them to have tied up most of the loose ends. They said Windows XP was secure when it launched and they are *still* patching it routinely.” █

“Great talker, great liar.”

–French Proverb

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Why Sqlite Sharp Can Harm GNU/Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Ubuntu, Windows at 7:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Sqlite Sharp/sqlite# causes damage to GNU/Linux in a variety of new ways

THE increased Mono dependency in GNU/Linux distributions could be exacerbated by new endeavours from the proponents of Mono, which mostly helps Windows [1, 2, 3]. It is a facilitator of embrace-and-extend tactics (using patents, developers’ skills, influence over APIs and so on). It’s about assimilating everyone to Microsoft rather than dragging Microsoft towards support of open standards.

The Mono/C# version of sqlite is a case of hypocrisy which was last mentioned yesterday. But another impact that is easily overlooked is that sqlite# — much like NDesk.DBus (ndesk-dbus or DBus#) — is a case of Mono going deeper into the guts of the Free desktop. As one reader warned us last night, “Mono people are trying to put even more dependency on Mono inside Ubuntu. For example, some dev is porting sqlite to C#. F-spot uses sqlite [so the] result = f-spot sharp + sqlite# = more Mono dependency in Ubuntu.”

“sqlite is used in billions of applications and instances and now someone wants to ignore all that bug testing.”
      –Fewa“Why the hell do they have to rewrite a gazillion bindings? C# is so close to C why can’t they just use the C bindings” asks Fewa, who adds that this “is slowing down ALL [of] sqlite simply for the purpose of encumbering it. It’s a classic example of bloat.” A point was then raised about many applications in Ubuntu using sqlite, so sooner or later proponents of Mono can try to make a transition to sqlite# in order to “save space” or something along those lines (maybe “best-of-breed” arguments).

“He is porting ALL [of] sqlite, not only a simple wrapper,” stresses a reader. “Mono people will probably try to put this version of sqlite in Ubuntu. And I have heard some comments about mono people trying to force Zeitgeist’s developer to use Mono, but thank God Zeitgeist’s dev is smart!”

Fewa later adds: “sqlite is used in billions of applications and instances and now someone wants to ignore all that bug testing.”

“Mono people love to attack gnote,” says another, “but Mono people do a lot of porting. Lucene itext [is one] example [because] Lucene is Java [and] itext is Java.” █

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Dell Defends GNU/Linux Sub-notebooks, Dismisses Microsoft’s FUD

Posted in Dell, FUD, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 6:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“We should whack them [Dell over GNU/Linux dealings], we should make sure they understand our value.”

–Paul Flessner, Microsoft

Summary: Dell shoots back at Microsoft’s false claims about GNU/Linux adoption and return rates

EARLIER THIS YEAR we wrote about Microsoft attacking GNU/Linux — especially in sub-notebooks — using lies. It was fueled by friendly 'analysts' and very friendly 'journalists' — those who always promote Microsoft’s business agenda. GNU/Linux-powered sub-notebooks are causing an enormous pain to Microsoft's business, so the equivalent of “Get the Facts” is all they have left at Microsoft’s headquarters.

Over at IDG’s OpenSource World, Dell’s Todd Finch is quoted as saying that much of Microsoft’s FUD is baseless (although not in these words).

Todd Finch, Dell senior product marketing manager, said the number of Linux returns are approximately the same as those for Windows netbooks. He categorized the matter of returns as a “non-issue”.

“They are making something of nothing,” he said of Microsoft’s claims. Finch appeared to be referring to Dell’s own netbook sales.

Here is some more commentary about the subject.

I realize Canonical is trying to be polite and stay to the moral high road, but the issue here is that there is a huge disinformation campaign on that Microsoft is “a changed company” or “finally gets Open Source”, and playing into that by …. generously …. stating Microsoft is “a great company” or “better than that”, is: 1. Just not true. 2. Supporting the lie that Microsoft has changed in some material manner.

So, while it is sad and no surprise Microsoft continues to lie and distort, it is nice to hear from a major player like Dell putting the smack down on FUD.

Here is a good new post from Jack Wallen where he advocates GNU/Linux on sub-notebooks, stressing that “Linux is not going anywhere but up in the netbook market.” ARM-powered devices are on their way to the market.

I’ve read countless Microsoft-funded “studies” trying to persuade me that Windows is already dominating the netbook space. According to these studies, Linux might as well just take a curtain call because its act is over in the world of netbooks. That is simply not true. If it were, Asus wouldn’t be selling netbooks with Linux preinstalled.

After Microsoft’s engagement in FUD and alleged kickbacks, the company is said to be colluding with Intel [1, 2], so Linux Magazine wrote some more about the subject.

When Windows 7 comes to market, the Starter Edition will be conceived especially for notebooks. As they did for Windows XP, Microsoft has come up with a list of technical limitations.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is already looking into Microsoft's abuse in this area. █

Related posts:

• ASUS Enters the Slog Business
• More Suspicious Moves from ASUS
• It’s Unofficial: Microsoft Pays ASUS (Kickbacks) to Block GNU/Linux. Will EU Commission Step in?
• ASUS: “Currently, We’re Closely Tied up With Microsoft”
• What is Going on with ASUS and GNU/Linux?
• ASUS Profits Fall 94% After Getting “Closely Tied Up with Microsoft” at the Expense of GNU/Linux
• Microsoft Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing Sub-notebooks
• Does Microsoft Blackmail Sub-notebooks Vendors?
• What Microsoft’s Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks
• GNU/Linux is Killing Microsoft Financially in Sub-notebooks
• Intel Allegedly Colludes with Microsoft (Again) to Elevate Profit, Promote Windows
• Microsoft Watch on Microsoft vs Google and Microsoft vs Sub-notebooks

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Microsoft and Friends Want to Add More Bugs to OOXML

Posted in ISO, Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, Patents, Standard at 6:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft’s leap year bug-as-a-standard is back; more thoughts on the Word ban, which is challenged by Microsoft

AS we noted last week, OOXML has already 800+ pages of documented bugs. Microsoft and the Microsoft-dominated working group/s seemingly want to have some more bugs. Norbert Bollow, the man behind OpenISO, has the details.

2009-08-12: The ISO/IEC Working Group on OOXML Wants to Unfix the Leap-Year Bug and Related Date-and-Time Problems.

[...]

What can be done?
Obviously, if you’re involved in your national mirror committee for ISO/IEC JTC1, you can seek to convince it or the relevant subcommittee that 29500-4 / DCOR 1 should be disapproved. The international deadline for this ballot is 2009-11-04; the national member bodies of ISO will generally have deadlines in October by when the concerned committees mus make their decisions. While you’re at it, you’ll also be able to argue for disapproval of 29500-4 / FPDAM 1 (for related but different reasons, I’ll explain about that in one of my next blog postings.)

If you’re working for a software company and it is not yet active in the appropriate national standardization organization, you should probably become active to make sure that the emerging body of international standards in the field of IT isn’t going to get in the way of your company’s business interests. This recommendation for getting involved applies even if your company is a small one, or if software development isn’t the firm’s main line of business.

Dana Blankenhorn wrote about Microsoft’s OOXML abuse just a couple of days ago, reminding readers that Microsoft is more ferocious than ever.

While putting it in the way of the weasel, Microsoft is still pushing what amounts to a tax on users of Internet standards. It’s doing this through a definition of “open standards” that would mandate standards bodies to consider patented, protected, proprietary technology on a par with truly open source offerings, and encourage companies to pack standards bodies with paid employees.

[...]

If we learned anything at all from the OOXML debate it should be that any Microsoft victory there was pyrrhic. ODF was able to deliver on its standard long before Microsoft could change its own proprietary scheme to match what the ISO approved.

If their idea was to bury ODF in the corporate user base, Microsoft failed, and at enormous cost, both to its own reputation and that of the ISO standards bodies.

At the same time, Microsoft is accumulating patents on XML. See for example:

• Signs That Microsoft Might Prepare for ‘Patent Terror’ Against Rival Office Suites
• Microsoft’s OOXML Patents, Apple’s Endorsement, and the Rise of OpenOffice.org
• Microsoft Keeps Trying to Inject Software Patents Into ODF and Other Standards
• Microsoft ‘Patents’ ODF Whilst Also Harming It
• Microsoft Hostility Towards XML Expands to Hostility Towards HTML
• Patents Roundup: OASIS Takes Stance Against Software Patents, Microsoft Loses Again
• XML Patents, Microsoft Aggression, and ODF Hostility
• Microsoft’s ‘ODF Patent’ as Vacuous as Its Promise of Interoperability
• Reader’s Article: The Microsoft Patent Threat to ODF
• On Microsoft’s Software Patents and ODF Fragmentation

Carrying on from yesterday's post covering the subject of a lawsuit, here are some more reports about Microsoft Word being banned in the US. As SJVN put it:

It sounds like a joke. But, it’s real and it’s anything but a joke for Microsoft. Judge Leonard Davis, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, has issued an injunction (PDF Link) that “prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.”

Here is the official press release. TechDirt correctly points out that it won’t stick and Microsoft has already appealed against the ruling. [hat tip: ZiggyFish]

MICROSOFT plans to appeal a ruling by a Texas judge that would ban the software giant from selling its popular Word program in the US.

Groklaw has the documents from the ruling and one reader has given us the following i4i vs. Microsoft opinion:

<http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/i4ivMS-412.pdf>. Some interesting and arrogant quotes from Microsoft emails about the XML editor market. Read from the last two lines of page 39 through the first line of page 41. Best quote is the one in parentheses that ends on page 41.

Can’t believe those guys actually thought they had a prayer of monopolizing the market for low to medium power XML editors, particularly with Word native file support XML read/write filters.

My prediction: Microsoft either wins a stay pending appeal in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or it settles promptly thereafter. Don’t think Microsoft can just remove the code for custom XML schemas embedded in the Microsoft flavor of OOXML overnight. OOXML also serves as the communications protocol between Office and Sharepoint Server, and from there via a conversion to XAML to a bunch of other Microsoft server side Office apps. To boot, Microsoft did the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack, a backport of the Office 2007 native file support APIs modularized with the old API’s replicated in the wrapper. That’s now running in Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2008 for the Mac. Interesting blog article here by a Softie describing what they did. Rick Shaut, Open XML Converters for Mac Office, Buggin’ My Life Away (7 December 2006), <http://blogs.msdn.com/rick_schaut/archive/2006/12/07/open-xml-converters-for-mac-office.aspx>.

So they’ve got this huge mass of apps that are interdependent and really can’t tweak just one of them. To boot, they’ve got institutional customers already dependent on custom XML schemas, not to mention a few developers who’ve created apps with custom XML
dependencies. See e.g., this article by Doug Mahugh describing the custom XML dependency of Mindjet’s round trip interop with MS Word. <http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2006/09/16/758090.aspx>.

Did I mention that Microsoft halting the sale of Word 2007 and 2003 in the U.S. is about as likely as the crack of dawn getting raped and thereby impregnated? Microsoft either wins that stay pending appeal or it settles.

When software patents cause so much trouble, it is made a lot easier to explain why they should be deprecated. █

MR. OLSON [For Microsoft]: The ’580 patent is a program, as I understand it, that’s married to a computer, has to be married to a computer in order to be patented.

JUSTICE SCALIA: You can’t patent, you know, on-off, on-off code in the abstract, can you?

MR. OLSON [For Microsoft]: That’s correct, Justice Scalia.

JUSTICE SCALIA: There needs to be a device.

MR. OLSON [For Microsoft]: An idea or a principle, two plus two equals four can’t be patented. It has to be put together with a machine and made into a usable device.

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