05.31.10
Gemini version available ♊︎University of Arizona Enters Microsoft Fog; Steve Ballmer Lobbies Malaysian Prime Minister to Enter Microsoft’s Proprietary Fog Computing Too
Summary: Arizona University descends into Microsoft’s Fog Computing trap (‘cloud’) and Ballmer travels to Malaysia, hoping to derail this government’s migration to Free software by offering Fog Computing
Students in Australia and Arizona will both be receiving similar type of treatment:
The University of Arizona in Tucson will be moving 18,000 staff members to cloud-based e-mail and calendar applications from Microsoft that will include a larger inbox quota, instant messaging, and tools for holding online meetings. This will be the first major change to employee e-mail in about seven years, the university said.
Microsoft boosters are cheering and posts that are sponsored by Microsoft seemingly just add to the newly-issued a press release, titled “University Of Arizona Selects Microsoft Corp.’s Business Productivity Online Suite For E-Mail, Calendaring and Collaboration Tools” (other Windows sites are spreading spin/lies for a wage, not caring about the consequences).
“Microsoft seems to have just made another trip to fight their adoption of Free software in the government and replace that with so-called ‘clouds’ from Microsoft.”This is not about Google versus Microsoft in mail, never mind the fact that it’s wrong to let a company which is abusive spy on everyone’s activities. So-called ‘clouds’ are plainly wrong and are a big mistake for public services. The “private” cloud lie which Microsoft is using is merely a decoy. It’s not private because it’s proprietary. It’s private to Microsoft, not to the user.
This whole ‘cloud’ charade is going overseas.
We recently wrote about what Microsoft was doing in Malaysia. Microsoft seems to have just made another trip to fight their adoption of Free software in the government and replace that with so-called ‘clouds’ from Microsoft. Watch Steve Ballmer lobbying the prime minister some days ago:
This was relayed during a meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation at the Prime Minister’s Office here Tuesday.
The prime minister is not a technology person. They try to politicise this.
There is some other coverage from Malaysia which we’ll remark on later today. Choosing those ‘clouds’ is even worse than relying on proprietary software on one’s own machine because there’s increased helplessness and lock-in when it’s on someone else’s machine.
“The prime minister is not a technology person. They try to politicise this.”In a recent private summit, Microsoft marketed those ‘clouds’ which it uses to control the users’ data, not just application code [1, 2]. They will hopefully not entice people to become prisoners rather than deploy Free software (to run everything possible locally for control, which is especially important for business autonomy).
No business deserves to put its financial operation at a company with a history of financial fraud [1, 2], but that never bothers financial sites that emit more deception and spin while masquerading as “news”. Richard Stallman wrote an essay about those so-called ‘clouds’. Why would anyone be naïve enough to still go for these options? It’s clear why Microsoft lobbies for it. █
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