12.23.10

Links 23/12/2010: Linux/Android Gains in ARM, Nautilus 3.0 Mockups Debated

Posted in News Roundup at 4:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • 2010 Was a Big Linux Year

    The omission of Android from the mainline Linux kernel sparked heated debate through much of 2010.

  • What if the whole world ran Linux?

    Certainly the biggest effect of widespread Linux adoption would be that today’s Windows-dominated monoculture would disappear, replaced instead by a diversity of Linux distributions.

    That, in turn, would make life very difficult for malware creators. Sure, they may begin focusing their efforts on Linux rather than Windows, but instead of having one, huge, slow-moving easy target, it would be a matter of trying to kill 100 birds with one stone.

  • Price and Performance

    Beside necessity, people are also seeing that smart-phones and other mobile PCs are quite useful. That means older PCs which have similar capability are also useful. The facts that XP is deprecated and “7″ won’t run on old PCs means that GNU/Linux will be seen as a way to extend the life of PCs. I see that every day getting better performance from old PCs with GNU/Linux than with XP.

  • Intel, Microsoft may face strong challenge from ARM/Android

    With rumors that Microsoft will announce a Windows operating system designed specifically for ARM-based platforms at CES 2011, plus the fact that Intel has been working aggressively on its Linux-based MeeGo system, sources from notebook players believe that the issues are an indication that the two giants’ influence on PC vendors and makers will become weaker in 2011 as the two do not have strong control over the tablet PC market, while they are having difficulty entering the smartphone industry and may face declining market share in the PC market.s

  • Digitimes Sees Diversification Ahead for PCs. I see GNU/Linux on Retail Shelves.

    Wintel may be able to hold a few niches like business and USA but the rest of the world will dramatically change in 2011, limited only by production capacity and not monopoly.

  • Desktop

    • Making Ordinary Laptops Into Ubuntu Laptops

      Systems get into the “Certified” list (once they pass the test criteria) for different reasons. One of them is because at Canonical we work with manufacturers to make sure that Ubuntu is pre-install with their hardware. Hence, you can go to a shop and buy a laptop with Ubuntu in it. But, what happens when you want to upgrade you laptop to the latest Ubuntu version?

  • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Linux Outlaws 181 – BeardCash

      In this chock-full holiday episode: Lots of WikiLeaks updates, OpenBSD backdoored by the FBI, news on Novell’s patent sale, Matt Asay leaves Canonical, Fedora Design Team trouble, some Microsoft and Oracle watch and much more…

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Ten Linux Distros that use Enlightenment

      In case you haven’t noticed I’ve had a bit of an obsession with the Enlightenment desktop of the late. Even though this desktop is fantastic there are currently not very many distributions that utilize it. Today I would like to take the time to mention those that offer a version with my favorite desktop.

    • It’s too hard is no excuse.

      Linux is too hard. Linux is too different. Linux doesn’t have this or that program. Linux is not compatible with x or y or z. Linux is blah blah blah….

      People come up with all of these reasons to explain why they don’t use Linux. But really they are not reasons at all but simply excuses for laziness. You might even think that with all the tripe that is trotted out that most people don’t have the intelligence to be able to use Linux.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • [Amarak] Code-In a Big Success for Documentation

        Last week the students continued to work on our Handbook, and the tasks are progressing very nicely. Now that the Handbook tasks are almost finished, they are lending a hand for our next “Amarok Insider” (past issues available at http://amarok.kde.org/Insider). It’s inspiring to work with these students, some of whom are very young, and yet are so smart, and work so hard. They have started hanging out in the #amarok and #rokymotion channel more, and getting to know some of our developers and helpful testers and users. I’ve set 39 tasks so far, and 25 are already completed! And most of my open tasks are claimed, so we’re doing very well.

    • GNOME Desktop

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Rumor: Red Hat could move HQ to Durham

        Rumors about the possibility of Raleigh-based Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) moving its headquarters have persisted throughout 2010 and may be resolved next year, if talk on the street is correct.

        Talk of moving the Linux software developer to the West Coast has been one rumor that former executives confirmed earlier this year never ceased to be discussed within the company.

    • Debian Family

      • Four years with Debian Testing

        I would really like to see a Desktop oriented branch of Debian, and please do not tell me that I can use Ubuntu, because that is not Debian, maybe we can think about Linux Mint Debian Edition, but if Debian does not offer a real Desktop oriented release, all those based on Debian, have two options, in my option:

        1. Patch the packages like Ubuntu, to offer an up to date and stable release (Ubuntu is based on Sid)
        2. Offer an almost vanilla Debian more or less like Mint Debian Edition, but this approach will have the problem that when testing is frozen, the distribution based on Testing will be frozen too.

      • People behind Debian: Mehdi Dogguy, release assistant

        I’m 27 years old. I grew up in Ariana in northern Tunisia, but have been living in Paris, France, since 2002.

        I’m a PhD Student at the PPS laboratory where I study synchronous concurrent process calculi.

        I became interested in Debian when I saw one of my colleagues, Samuel Mimram (first sponsor and advocate) trying to resolve #440469, which is a bug reported against a program I wrote. We have never been able to resolve it but my intent to contribute was born there. Since then, I started to maintain some packages and help where I can.

      • “What’s this ‘DEEE-bee-en’ you write about?” Or will Linux ever (ever?) make its move on the desktop?

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu Wayland: Shuttleworth’s post-Mac makeover

          Don’t expect Unity and Wayland to be the last of what looks to be a year of massive overhaul for Ubuntu.

        • Tunisian LoCo meeting with Mark Shuttleworth

          During the the 6th edition of the National Conference on Open Source Software in Tunisia our LoCo team scheduled a meeting with Mark. This meeting was an occasion for Tunisian LoCo members and Tunisian FOSS community members to meet Mark and discuss, during one hour, about the LoCo team activity, Ubuntu development, Unity, etc…

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Sergey Kolesnikov’s tale of palatial corruption, Russian style

    You can see the sprawling, Italian-style palace on the Black Sea in satellite photos. There’s a fitness spa, a hideaway “tea house,” a concert amphitheater and a pad for three helicopters. It’s still under construction, but already the cost is said to total more than $1 billion.

    And most amazing of all, according to a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov, it was predominantly paid for with money donated by Russian businessmen for the use of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The funds have come “mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft,” charges Kolesnikov, a businessman who until November 2009 worked for one of the companies he alleges was investing money for Putin.

  • Security

    • Spamhaus DDoS blamed on shady Russian hosts, not Anonymous

      Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus has recovered from a denial of service attack over the weekend.

      Initially though, Spamhaus may have been attacked in response to its warning that a WikiLeaks mirror called WikiLeaks.info was being hosted by a Russian bullet-proof hosting outfit, called Webalta, that also played home to phishing, carding and malware sites. Spamhaus advised users to use a safer mirror, WikilLeaks.ch, instead. Trend Micro harboured similar concerns over WikiLeaks.info’s association with Webalta and its reseller Heihachi.net, described by Trend as a “safe haven for criminals and fraudsters”.

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • sAttorney General Warns of ‘Constant’ Terror Threats — Are We Any Safer?
    • How to Record the Cops

      Cameras without wireless networking capabilities are the least attractive option. If they are destroyed or confiscated in the field, you probably have lost the damning video you just recorded, including any footage documenting how your camera was confiscated or destroyed. But provided you can hold on to your machine, digital video recorders today are inexpensive, small, and practical. The most popular easy-to-use brand right now is the Flip Video line of cameras, which start at $149. Even the cheapest Flips fit in your pocket, power up in about three seconds, and feature one-button recording. They include a built-in USB port and instant formatting for hosting sites such as LiveLeak and YouTube.

  • Cablegate

    • Wikileaks: Bradley Manning speaks about his conditions

      At Firedoglake, David House writes a lengthy and detailed report from visits with Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been in military detention for months for being the presumed source of Wikileaks’ most damning US government leaks. He has not yet been convicted of a crime. Manning’s lawyer and others have written about his detention conditions as “extreme” and amounting to cruel and inhumane treatment. The sleep deprivation, movement deprivation, solitary confinement, and other elements of his current condition amount to torture, by widely accepted definitions.

    • Bradley Manning and the Convenient Memories of Adrian Lamo

      So far every piece of evidence against Bradley Manning comes from one source, Adrian Lamo, a hacker who was institutionalized by the police three weeks before he alleges Manning contacted him and confessed he turned over materials to Wikileaks.

    • Bradley Manning Speaks About His Conditions

      Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army private accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks, has been held in the brig at Quantico Marine Corp Base for five months in inhumane conditions, with severe restrictions on his ability to exercise, communicate, or even sleep. Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Nor is there a date certain for any court hearing.

      The conditions of Bradley Manning’s confinement became a top issue in the press last week as bloggers traded blows with US officials over allegations that Manning endures inhumane treatment at the Quantico, VA detainment facility. In the midst of this rush by the Defense Department to contextualize Manning’s confinement, I traveled to see the man himself at the Marine Corps detainment facility in Quantico, VA.

    • What We Learn From WikiLeaks

      In U.S. elite media, the main revelation of the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables is that the U.S. government conducts its foreign policy in a largely admirable fashion.

    • US Army: Atheists Unfit To Serve

      The purpose of this survey is to measure an individual soldier’s competency in four areas, Emotional, Social, Family and Spiritual. Justin is an atheist, as well as a highly dedicated soldier, but according to the SFT, he is “unfit” to serve specifically because he is a non-believer.

  • Finance

    • Four More on the GOP Primer for the FCIC.

      Sorry, have been out of the loop for a few days, and missed the last round about that Republican primer on how to read the upcoming FCIC report. Four things.

    • New Jersey Courts May Order Foreclosure Freeze

      There needs to be a regulatory response to this, for both the integrity of our courts as well as for the economy. If you’d like to express yourself on this issue, please check out this petition at Stop Servicer Scams.

    • More people fell out of Obama mortgage-aid program

      More troubled homeowners are dropping out of the Obama administration’s main foreclosure-relief program, which has been widely criticized for failing to help more people keep their homes.

    • Buy vs. Rent: An Update

      It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. The country has suffered through a terrible crash in home prices, yet buying a house remains an iffy proposition in many markets.

    • In a Sign of Foreclosure Flaws, Suits Claim Break-Ins by Banks

      When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.

    • Stocks flat as GDP growth falls below forecasts

      Major stock indexes were flat Wednesday after a report showed that the U.S. economy did not grow as fast as previously thought in the three months ending in September.

    • More Illegal Foreclosure Bank Break-Ins

      I wonder if you could go to a Bank CEO’s home, break into his house, and throw out all of his personal possessions — family heirlooms, photos, awards — then claim a paperwork error.

  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • Porn, cash and the slippery slope to the National Security State

      One of the most unsettling experiences of the last decade has been watching Western democracies sleepwalking into a national security nightmare. Each incremental step towards total surveillance follows the same script. It goes like this: first, a new security ‘threat’ is uncovered, revealed or hypothesised; then a technical ’solution’ to the new threat is proposed, trialled (sometimes) and then implemented — usually at formidable cost to the public; finally, the new ’solution’ proves inadequate. But instead of investigating whether it might have been misguided in the first place, a new, even more intrusive, ’solution’ is proposed and implemented.

    • nternational Symposium on Freedom of Expression, Paris, 26 January 2011

      UNESCO is holding an ‘International Symposium on Freedom of Expression‘ on 26 January 2011, with the support of the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO. One panel session will focus on freedom of expression on the Internet, and we also expect that our UNESCO publication, entitled ‘Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression‘, will be launched. A penultimate draft of the manuscript is online at SSRN, but a print version will be available by the date of the symposium.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • FCC launches Open Internet Apps Challenge

      In the fallout of the controversial net neutrality order approved by the FCC today, they extend what at least on the surface appears to be an olive branch towards openness: the Open Internet Apps Challenge on challenge.gov.

    • As Expected, FCC Approving Net Neutrality Rules That AT&T Wants

      For years, we’ve been pointing out that while the concept of net neutrality is important, any attempt by the government to put it into law would inevitably involve lobbyists twisting it to be quite favorable to the telcos and others.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • DHS relied on bizarre legal reasoning and crappy evidence to seize “pirate” domains

      • ACTA

        • The Final Acts of ACTA

          Although the current excitement over the gradual release of the Wikileaks documents is justified in that it concerns what is undoubtedly an important development for the future of the Internet, it has rather overshadowed another area where crucial decisions are being made: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In fact, ACTA finally seems to be nearing the end of its slow and painful crawl through the secret negotiation process that only recently we have been allowed glimpses of. And the more we learn, the more troublesome it is.

Clip of the Day

WikiRebels – The Documentary (2/4)


WikiRebels – The Documentary (3/4)


WikiRebels – The Documentary (4/4)


Credit: TinyOgg

ES: Mientras los Comentarios Acerca el EIFv2 (Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad) Se Vuelve Más Negativos, Microsoft esta Feliz

Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft, Patents, RAND at 2:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Credit: Вени Марковски & Eduardo Landaveri

Neelie Kroes

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: La reacción de Microsoft para EIFv2 (Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad version 2) es casi abrumadoramente positiva, mientras que nuevos comentarios de los defensores de la libertad (alrededor de RAND (“Razonable y No-Discriminatorias” licencias)en EIFv2) sugieren que es realmente beneficioso para Microsoft, que EIFv2 se descarriló.

En nuestros posts anteriores que tratan sobre la segunda versión de la EFI [1[http://techrights.org/2010/12/20/red-hat-oracle-response/], 2[http://techrights.org/2010/12/19/assessments-of-eifv2/], 3[http://techrights.org/2010/12/20/interpretations-of-eifv2/], 4[http://techrights.org/2010/12/21/novell-is-slammed-by-groklaw/]] que han demostrado una mezcla de opiniones, algunas más positivas que otros y algunos negativos por completo. El criterio para este tipo de cosas es a veces la reacción de Microsoft y sus aliados. La FFII (Fundación para una Infraestructura de Información Libre) escribe[https://twitter.com/FFII/status/17728576103120896]: “Un monje se adhiere al celibato. #BSA (Alianza Empresarial de Software) haría lobby a los franciscanos a cambiar sus reglas que todos los católicos califican como monjes.”

En cuanto a la reacción de Microsoft acerca el EIFv2 la FFII escribe[http://twitter.com/FFII/statuses/16851199688970241]:

“Microsoft está contento con el plan de la UE interoperabilidad administración electrónica”

Aquí está la respuesta de Microsoft[http://microsoft.eu/Posts/Viewer/tabid/120/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/835/Making-e-Government-work-better.aspx]. Si Microsoft está feliz, entonces EIFv2 no es bueno para la libertad del software.

Aquí hay otro análisis de EIFv2[http://gotze.eu/2010/12/19/european-interoperability-framework-2-0/] que dice: “Por desgracia, parece como si la gente que escribió el FEI no recibieron el memo de EIS, nos queda adivinar cómo ven la arquitectura en el juego. Con v2, EFI señala cuatro niveles de interoperabilidad – jurídicos, organizativos, semánticos y técnicos. El nivel de organización incluye la alineación de procesos de negocio, las relaciones de organización y gestión del cambio. En consecuencia, las administraciones deben utilizar un enfoque arquitectónico que abarca a todos los niveles; que, por supuesto, arquitectura de la empresa, yo diría. Por desgracia, en lugar de ir esa dirección, el EFI acaba de dar recomendaciones vagas y no comprometidas en este y oeste “.

Lo qué está sucediendo aquí es triste porque los grupos de presión de Microsoft y SAP han logrado subvertir el EIFv2, que se suponía era BENEFICIOSO para las personas, no las GRANDES EMPRESAS del EXTRANJERO. Hay una lección para Europa de La India [http://techrights.org/2010/11/16/india-swpats-and-rand/](también en español [1[http://techrights.org/2010/11/27/es-swpats-india/], 2[http://techrights.org/2010/11/21/india-rand-es/]), que rechazó RAND como deberían haberlo hecho y el manifiesto de prensa de la FFII astutamente señala que “los intentos de aplicación de la interoperabilidad de la UE van ponerse al día con los países asiáticos[http://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/EU%20interoperability%20enforcement%20attempts%20to%20catch%20up%20with%20Asia]”. Desde los primeros párrafos:

La Comisión Europea adoptó una Comunicación titulada “Hacia la interoperabilidad de los Servicios Públicos Europeos”, la introducción de la segunda encarnación del Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad (EIF) y la Estrategia Europea de Interoperabilidad (EIA) [1]. Esta semana la Comisión también publicó nuevas directrices horizontales [2], en las hace a los cárteles de patentes exentas bloque-de defensa de la competencia.

“El Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad es una leyenda. Es difícil, en efecto, para que el impacto que se compara con el primer EFI. Lamentablemente el lobby diluyó la interoperabilidad europea. Es asombroso que la Unión Europea, el Comisario Šefčovič superó la indecisión, y presento sus “húmedos” documentos. “, Dice el Vicepresidente de la FFII Magos René.

David Meyer de ZDNet Reino Unido escribió acerca[http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/europe-backs-open-standards-in-interoperability-drive-10021324/] de la siguiente manera:

El nuevo Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad (EIF), publicado el jueves, incluye una recomendación de que, “la hora de establecer los servicios públicos europeos, las administraciones públicas deben preferencia a las especificaciones abiertas, teniendo debidamente en cuenta la cobertura de las necesidades funcionales, la madurez y de apoyo al mercado”.

La postura de la Comisión en cierta manera de desafiar a la opinión de la Alianza Empresarial de Software (BSA), que había afirmado su preferencia por especificaciones abiertas “socavaría la capacidad de innovación de las normas europeas”.

Andy Updegrove, un experto en este tipo de campo (las normas), dice que “la Comisión Europea da un paso adelante, dos pasos atrás[http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20101221084910541] en la apertura”:

“El pasado jueves la Comisión Europea ha dado un paso importante en la “apertura” a escala. La ocasión fue el lanzamiento de una nueva versión del Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad (EIF), que aprobó definitivamente el uso de normas de origen abierto en la prestación de “servicios públicos” dentro de la Unión Europea. Este resultado fue considerado con razón por los defensores de código abierto como Open Forum Europe.”

“Sin embargo, la CE dio dos pasos hacia atrás en todo lo demás, ya que revisó su definición de “estándares abiertos”, presumiblemente reflejando los esfuerzos del sector (por ejemplo, por la Alianza Empresarial de Software) para preservar el valor de las patentes de software.”

“En esta entrada del blog, voy a revisar el largo proceso de siete años en que el “Marco Europeo de Interoperabilidad” (EFI) en primer lugar establecer una marca mundial alta para la liberalización de la definición de estándares abiertos, y luego se retiró de esa posición.”

“Si uno tuviera que elegir la pregunta más controvertido en la elaboración de normas en la última década, tendría que ser la pregunta engañosamente simple: “¿Qué significa ser un” estándar abierto? ‘”

[...]

“La preferencia por la ejecución sin derechos de autor también ha sufrido una caída. No se distingue ahora aparece entre FRAND (“JUSTO”, Razonable y “No-Discriminatorias” licencias) y normas libres de FRAND (“JUSTO”, Razonable y “No-Discriminatorias” licencias), incluso en el lenguaje más aspiracional (“la apertura es más plenamente efectivos”) de la EFI en comparación con 2.0 a 1.0 (“los requisitos mínimos de los estándares abiertos son”).”

Esto se acerca más a la evaluación de Glyn Moody’s ya que concluye con:

“Por alguna razón, parece que la CE ha decidido abandonar la posición de liderazgo que tomó en 2004 para fijar la meta de normas adecuadas para la adopción en el gobierno. Aquellos que creen que los estándares abiertos, libremente definidos, son vitales para abrir gobierno ahora tendrá que buscar otro lugar para la innovación.”

Cuanto más esperemos, más negativa de la opinión sobre EIFv2 parecen ser. Como ha señalado acertadamente por Microsoft Florian[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Florian_M%C3%BCller], las reacciones iniciales (por ejemplo, en Twitter/Identi.ca) de la multitud a favor de Europa fueron prematuramente positivas.

Las cosas como son (en EIFv2), OOXML no serán excluidos. Ese es un problema. “Cuando Miguel de Icaza -La Malincha- dijo que” OOXML es de una excelente calidad “, NOVEL ESTABA RECIBIENDO DINERO de Microsoft para promover OOXML”, dice Rob Weir[http://twitter.com/rcweir/statuses/17242705654456320] en relación con el más reciente tomar Groklaw [1[http://techrights.org/2010/12/21/novell-is-slammed-by-groklaw/], 2[http://techrights.org/2010/12/21/spanish-version-novell-sellout/]].█

EN/ES: Microsoft’s OS/2 Attack Plan

Posted in Antitrust, IBM, Microsoft at 11:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Gear of war

(ODF | PDF | original)

Resumen: Comes vs Microsoft PX01116

AS promised, here is the exhibit we previously referred to in:

Eduardo Landaveri has translated it into Spanish and here is the text/HTML version of his work (properly-formatted ODF/PDF versions above):

Exposición, # 1116

*************************************************

Confidencial de Microsoft – No Distribuible 20 de noviembre 1991

OS/2 2.0 Plan de Ataque – Proyecto Sólamente-

Para: – Proyecto -

De: José Krawczak

Cc: Lista Adjunta

INFORMACIÓN GENERAL

Windows ha vendido cerca de 7MM unidades en todo el mundo, y es el más popular sistema operativo en el mundo después de MS-DOS. Sin embargo, IBM se prepara para una asalto competitivo con OS/2 2.0. A pesar de nuestro éxito, aún existen áreas, especialmente en las grandes cuentas corporativas, donde estará bajo fuerte presión de la competencia de IBM. Cualquier éxito con OS/2 en gran medida fortalecer la posición de IBM como un competidor importante en el negocio de sistema operativos.

Por tanto, es fundamental que evitar OS/2 2.0 de la eroda el impulso de Windows y derrotar el intento de IBM a ganar un punto de apoyo en el escritorio con OS/2. Para ello debemos:

Llevar a cabo una estrategia de desarrollo de producto que evite que IBM clame la compatibilidad de Windows. Impedir que las aplicaciones de Windows ejecuten correctamente en OS/2.
Redefinir lo que Windows es con Windows 3.1. Establecer nuevos obstáculo de la funcionalidad de Windows y sus requisitos de compatibilidad.
Cambie la posición de OS/2 como poco práctica e incompatibles en la mente de los clientes.
Diseñar y ejecutar una respuesta competitiva a OS/2 2.0 en todos los ámbitos, competimos en las cuentas corporativas, los revendedores, los ISVs, OEMs, la prensa, etc.

Plan de Ataque a IBM ………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………..2

La Comparación de Windows 3.1 y OS/2 2.0 ……………………………………………………………………………….6

Plan de Ataque – Reposicionamiento OS/2 …………………………………………………………………………………..7

Plan de Ataque – Estrategia de Desarrollo Futuro ………………………………………………………………………….8

Planes de ataque por el Canal …………………………………………………………………………………………………..10

Necesidades de Recursos ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16

IBM PLAN DE ATAQUE

Posicionamiento del Producto

“OS/2 2.0 es la plataforma de integración, ofreciendo una mejor DOS que DOS, Windows mejor que Windows, y mejor OS/2 a OS/2″.

Puntos de Apoyo

Mejor DOS que DOS
Ejecuta todas tus aplicaciones de DOS que tienes pero mejor.

Mejor protección – múltiples máquinas virtuales DOS.
Más memoria disponible – 633k XMS convencionales, 16MB, 32MB EMS,DPMI 512.
Antecedentes DOS ejecución de la aplicación.

Mejor Windows que Windows
Ejecuta aplicaciones Windows 2.X y 3.0
Mejor protección a través de MVDMs
Cortar/Pegar y DDE para OS/2 aplicaciones PM
Beneficio de OS/2 HPFS, multitarea preventiva, la demanda de 4K paginación.

Mejor OS/2 que OS/2

Fácil de Usar
Lugar de trabajo Shell – arrastrar y soltar, orientado a objetos, los applets, gráfica instalar, servidor de instalación.
Una mejor integración – combinar datos de DOS, Windows y aplicaciones de OS/2.

Potente Sistema Operativo
Arquitectura de 32 bits – explota 386, 486 modelo de memoria plana, la demanda 4k paginación.
Proteger el modo. MVDMs, las aplicaciones se ejecutan en la memoria protegida.
Preventiva multitarea. Múltiples subprocesos.
HPFS y FAT mejorada.
Adobe Type Manager integrado.

Confiable
Mejora arquitectura – que la anterior.
La confiabilidad, servicio y soporte – Piedra y respaldada por IBM.

IBM Reposicionamiento de MS DOSy Windows

Reposicionamiento
“DOS y Windows son sólo adecuados para aplicaciones sencillas de gama baja hardware. Para el hardware de gama alta, aplicaciones sofisticadas, de misión crítica el desarrollo, la conectividad, o apoyo para el hardware de IBM, se necesita las funciones avanzadas de OS/2 2.0. ”

Puntos de Apoyo

DOS es una Base Débil
Gestión de la memoria primitiva, no protegidas, no realizar múltiples tareas, no interfaz gráfica de usuario.

Windows es un Extensor de DOS
Agrega una interfaz gráfica de usuario “shell” para DOS, pero no están protegidos, no preventiva, no 32 bit. poco, no es fiable, no se conecta a hardware de IBM.

IBM Planes de Ataque por el Canal

Cuentas Corporativas/Desarrolladores corporativos

Tradicionalmente el área más fuerte de IBM. Ellos tienen el mercado de OS/2 en las empresas de segmentos de cuenta:

MIS
Aprovechar los años de MIS dirección ajuste de potencia para OS/2, la estándar corporativo. Una prensa de toda la cancha por los representantes de IBM.
Utilice el programa Experiencia beta temprana para promover la prueba anticipada y evaluaciones.
Mostrar la forma en OS/2 se convierte en la base estratégica de la empresa informática – AEA, AC, conectividad, etc.
Posición de OS/2 como un requisito para la conexión con el hardware de IBM.
Introducir FUD que no va con OS/2 supondrá una amenaza para el soporte de IBM para el hardware de IBM y los grandes sistemas de hierro.

Los desarrolladores corporativos
Posición de OS/2 como la base estratégica para la computación empresarial -AEA, AC, conectividad, etc.
Posición de OS/2 como la elección para la estabilidad, la protección, múltiples tareas, y 32 bits beneficios poco para el desarrollo de aplicaciones de misión crítica.
Promesa de soporte para desarrolladores con IBM y el tercer partido patrocinado herramientas de desarrollo, conferencias y seminarios de desarrollo.

Usuarios Finales Corporativos
IBM no ha centrado tradicionalmente la habilidad para llegar directamente a los usuarios finales. Sin embargo,se hará un mayor empuje a este que nunca por:
Llegar a los usuarios finales a través de una amplia publicidad y campaña de relaciones públicas en OS/2.
El despliegue de un programa de actualización de Windows para OS/2.
Utilización de aplicaciones de OS/2 de misión crítica para conducir OS/2 en la organización ordenadores portátiles.

Publicidad

Anuncios
Campañas de publicidad enorme para OS/2. Gran presencia en curso ahora en la prensa especializada, y la campaña comercial de negocios en el envío del producto. En la actualidad la ejecucion probable es que sea producto de la conciencia continua y posicionamiento campaña, actualmente en ejecución. Lanzamiento de los anuncios probablemente se centrarán en grandes campañas.El anuncio de la campaña en envío con los anuncios de respuesta directa de actualización. Mensaje probable que sea un impulso / campaña testimonial. Además, en la actualidad la ejecución de algunos anuncios de televisión como parte del aniversario 10 de la PC, centrándose en PS/2 es. probable que estos se desplazará a destacar de OS/2 2.0 en el envío.

Prensa / PR

Ferias
Incrementar la presencia en ferias importantes y MIS vertical muestra relacionadas y hacer de OS/2 de su mensaje central.

Editores de Prensa
El OS/2 vs problemas de Windows, naturalmente, adquiere mayores proporciones con la prensa como una historia de IBM contra Microsoft. Esto puede tienden a aumentar la cobertura general de OS/2 frente a los problemas de Windows.
Sin precedentes (para un producto de software de IBM) gira de prensa scchedule. Se cumplir con los editores con regularidad, y la oferta de papeles blancos, videos, demos, etc Mensajes clave de relaciones públicas será de 1) OS/2 es la tecnología líder del sistema operativo, y 2) de IBM es impulsado por los clientes y comprometida con el cumplimiento de sus promesas.

ISV
Contratar y comprar las herramientas clave para el desarrollo para OS/2 PM, según sea necesario – Borland, Micrografix, etc.
Utilizar todos los puntos de apalancamiento que tiene que conseguir mayores ISV que se comprometan a PM aplicaciones – Oferta “alianzas” con IBM, trata de co-marketing, oficial de IBM la aprobación de sus aplicaciones y la fuerza de ventas de soporte. Incluso simples pagos para las aplicaciones de PM.
Promover el OS/2 como la plataforma de tecnología líder para los desarrolladores.
Destacar las ventajas únicas sobre Windows.
Posición de OS/2 como la futura dirección segura.

Fabricantes de Equipos Originales

El Objetivo de IBM es
Asegúrese de que OS/2 funciona en clave hardware de OEM.
Prevenir a Microsoft de ofrecer MS OS/2 para OEMs, por lo que los OEM se vean obligados a ir a IBM para ser capaz de proporcionar a sus clientes que desean. (Rich Fade-es esto correcto?).
Oferta ofertas de stock a bajo precio con los OEM. Trate de conseguir OS/2 bundled/pre-instalado para la exclusión de Windows.

Distribuidores

El objetivo de IBM será conseguir una amplia distribución por primera vez. Un desafío clave se mudará de PS /2 distribuidores en canales más amplio. IBM probablemente:

Ponga en marcha una SKU al por menor de SRP de $ 149.
Ofrecer una pequeña OS/2 Referencia de actualización para todos los usuarios de MS-DOSpor $ 49.
Crear programas agresivos para la agrupación de OS/2 con PS /2 máquinas.
Hacer un tour distribuidor principales 2-3 meses antes de su lanzamiento, destacando OS/2 al usuario final y corp. cuenta de programas de generación de demanda, a continuación, ofrecer grandes acciones del programa de incentivos para conseguir vender.
Usar una variedad de fondos de marketing, el almacenamiento créditos, incentivos pantalla, y spiffs para promover OS/2 pantalla, promociones locales, y RSP conciencia.

Usuarios finales

El objetivo de IBM es ampliar el conocimiento de OS/2 más allá de las cuentas corporativas y en el mercado más amplio.

Gran campaña publicitaria, que el anterior.
Utilice el programa Experiencia beta temprana de encouragee los primeros ensayos.
OS/2 programa de actualización para el usuario final , incluyendo las ventas directas y de actualización publicidad de respuesta directa.
Más fuerte presencia minorista para OS/2.

Internacional

IBM tiene un agarre más fuerte en las cuentas corporativas a nivel internacional que en los EE.UU. Además, tienen una mayor OS/2 de penetración y adopción, y relativamente las organizaciones empresariales más grandes se han comprometido a OS/2 de desarrollo. Las estrategia básica de IBM serán los siguientes:

Envíe las versiones localizadas de OS/2 lo antes posible.
Extender los esfuerzos de marketing completo como en los EE.UU.
Llevar una presión aún más fuerte para influir en las cuentas corporativas y MIS los tomadores de decisiones. Ser aún más contundente acerca de la vinculación de OS/2 en el hardware de IBM para la conectividad y la continuación del apoyo de IBM.

La comparación de Windows 3.1 y OS/2 2.0

Windows 3.1 vs OS/2 2.0

Véase el Anexo 2 de un proyecto de “hechos rápidos” comparación de tarjetas que se enumeran ventajas de Windows y características de la paridad con OS/2. Podemos enumerar más de 100 artículos en el que OS/2 no ofrece la misma funcionalidad, el apoyo o la compatibilidad de las áreas como la interfaz del usuario, soporte de hardware, soporte de aplicaciones, rendimiento, y apoyo de la industria.

Los Temas Críticos para los clientes que comparar Windows 3.1 y OS/2 2.0

Sin embargo, para el mercado de gama más amplia de usuarios, una visión crítica es que gran parte de este detalle no será significativa. Al comparar Windows y OS/2, hay son dos segmentos de clientes principales que tienen diferentes necesidades informáticas para determinar qué sistema operativo va elegir.

Evaluadores Intensivos

Fabricantes de MIS Decisión, las empresas fabricantes, fabricantes de equipos originales, y los revisores de prensa son los más “intensivo evaluadores ” los que harán el más completo asi com producto-comparación orientado. Para estos grupos es necesario reunir una serie de comparaciones rápidas de información, guías detalladas de evaluación, papeles blancos sobre temas clave, análisis de rendimiento, guías de desarrollo, migración, etc

Usuarios Finales

Los usuarios finales y revendedores que representa la más amplia del mercado será menos evaluadores “intensivos:”, que tomarán las decisiones sobre todo en impresiones netas y recomendaciones de los demás. Para estos grupos hay que reducir nuestros mensajes claves frente a la competencia de OS/2 en un reposicionamiento simple que les da una razón de peso para mantenerse alejados de OS/2.

PLAN DE ATAQUE – REPOSICIONAMIENTO OS/2

Necesitamos mensaje sencillo y convincente para el mercado en general, y un detallado, mensaje centrado en los productos para los evaluadores sofisticados y desarrolladores.

Reposicionamiento OS/2

“OS/2 es muy poco práctico e incompatibles para la mayoría de los usuarios de PC.”

Puntos de Apoyo Para el Mercado Amplio

Incompatibles
OS/2 no es compatible con Windows 3.1, por lo que es incompatible con mis necesidades de Windows
OS/2 no jecuta una gran cantidad de aplicaciones de Windows correctamente.
OS/2 no es compatible con muchas no-PS /2 máquinas.
OS/2 no es compatible con muchos dispositivos periféricos populares, impresoras, pantallas de vídeo, etc.

Poco Práctico
OS/2 sólo se ejecuta en 386 máquinas de 4 MB o mayor.
OS/2 es grande y complicado, y será un reto de formación y un apoyo dolor de cabeza.
OS/2 en realidad no le permite utilizar su base instalada de aplicaciones Windows.
OS/2 en realidad no le permite aprovechar sus habilidades y conocimientos de Windows.
La cáscara tiene su lugar de trabajo las nuevas reglas propias, y tomar un montón de re-entrenamiento.

Los Puntos de Soporte Adicionales Para el Evaluador

Además de los puntos de apoyo más arriba, vamos a añadir lo siguiente para los evaluador de los clientes más sofisticados:

Incompatible
Más detalles sobre la forma de OS/2 funciona y no es compatible con Windows y las aplicaciones de Windows.
Cortar / Pegar metarchivos.
Los problemas de DDE
Soporte de TrueType?
Soporte de OLE?
El rendimiento comparaciones de aplicaciones de Windows en Windows vs OS/2.
Código de los problemas de manejo de la página.

Estrategia de Producto Confundida

¿Qué es el OS/2 3.0 va a ser? ¿Qué pasa con Nextstep, GO. Rosa?
IBM no tiene una clara estrategia de producto de sistema operativo.

Una Plataforma de Desarrollo Comprometida
No tiene la aceptación y el apoyo que Windows tiene.
No es realmente 32 bits. Avanzar hacia Win 32.
En realidad, no protegido MVDMs puede derribar el sistema, sin reiniciar el sistema local, etc.
El rendimiento golpe para las aplicaciones PM.
Problemas con el soporte de dispositivos.

Windows Funciona hoy y Mañana
3.1 ofrece fiabilidad y soporte completo de aplicaciones de Windows.
Windows se conecta en su entorno. Robusto soluciones de conectividad hoy en día.
Windows tiene una clara estrategia de productos en movimiento a una moderna, protegid, no comprometido sistema operativo con Windows NT.
Su inversión en Windows será protegido 100% – del cliente formación de usuarios finales a su actual código de Windows.

PLAN DE ATAQUE, ESTRATEGIA DE FUTURO DESARROLLO

Estrategia de Desarrollo de Incompatibilidad

A Corto Plazo – Negar IBM “Mejor Windows que Windows”

Posicionamiento

Prevención de la percepción de los clientes que OS/2 ofrece real compatibilidad con Windows, mientras que al mismo tiempo el aumento de la penetración y adopción de Windows 3.1, se eliminará OS/2 de la consideración para la mayoría de los clientes. Tenemos que usar de todas las actividades relacionadas con el desarrollo de Windows como una oportunidad para destruir esta afirmación, tanto en términos de compatibilidad de los productos reales y, a continuación, en términos de la percepción de los clientes.

Largo Plazo – Oportunidades de Desarrollo

TBD basado en el análisis de Brian Moran.

Se centrará en cuestiones fundamentales de desarrollo que impida OS/2 de reclamar la compatibilidad con Windows, o de ejecutar aplicaciones de Windows correctamente. Algunas posibles áreas de investigación-problemas para la asignación de la API, Metarchivo problemas de extensión, los problemas de manejo de páginas de códigos diferentes, el conductor diseño, Unidriver patentes, etc.

Oportunidades del Producto

Windows 3.1

Sube el listón con TrueType, OLE. Necesidad de conducir rápidamente aceptación en el mercado de Windows 3.1 para que redefine lo que significa ser Windows, y hace tan OS/2 2.0 obsoleto el día en que se envia.

Extensiones Multimedia a Windows

Windows soporta las últimas tecnologías multimedia, y es el líder la industria hacia un estándar común. OS/2 multimedia de los esfuerzos no son compatibles con Windows.

Windows para Informática Pluma

Windows de nuevo lídera la industria en la aplicación y la normalización de líder tecnología de punta. Los esfuerzos de OS/2 de nuevo son incompatible, e IBM tecnología de punta es confusa y no estándar.

WinBall

La creación de redes para Windows, Windows no bajo OS/2. Sube el listón de nuevo por lo que Windows es y trae a los clientes.

Win 32

De 32 bits del sistema operativo OS/2 no ofrece ni apoya.

Windows NT

Un moderno, protegido sistema operativo que cumple la promesa de un poderoso sistema operativo con total compatibilidad con Windows.

PLANES DE ATAQUE POR EL CANAL

Cuentas Corporativas/Desarrolladores Corporativos

Situación de Windows

Alto conocimiento y juicio. El aumento de la adopción y penetración. Poca conciencia del valor de 3,1. MIS “en espera” para las decisiones de estrategia a largo plazo.

Situación de OS/2

IBM pesados zapatos de cuero en las grandes cuentas. Alto conocimiento con MIS, mezclado MIS exterior. prueba beta en MIS. Sendero de bajo [sic] y su uso fuera de MIS. MIS impulsado por adopción, en algunas cuentas. Poco E / U adopción.

Para las cuentas y desarrolladores corporativos que se han comprometido a OS/2- diferentes grados de incertidumbre y confusión sobre las instrucciones del sistema operativo y de futuro. Actual compromiso hace que la migración a Windows difícil políticamente y técnicamente.

Pre-Lanzamiento

Para los Evaluadores Corporativos / MIS:
Maximizar la oportunidad de beta para crear conciencia de 3,1 y establecer los criterios que se utilizarán para las evaluaciones.
Enviar guías de evaluación, notas a los sitios beta.
Tener seguimiento de campo en la beta.

Para los Desarrolladores de las Empresas:
Asegúrese de que tengan la oportunidad de comenzar a usar 3.1 beta 3.
Proporcionar guías de evaluación.
Producir un “HeapWalker” utilidad que muestra cómo OS/2 no es totalmente protegido.
Elaborar una guía de migración para pasar de OS/2 para el desarrollo de desarrollo de Windows.
Proporcionar un conjunto de ayudas de la migración y herramientas de desarrollo.

Lanzamiento

Campo para dar inicio a la evaluación a gran escala de Windows 3.1 y OS/2 2.0
Forzar a IBM sacar a la luz los problemas de soporte, soporte de hardware, formación, soporte de aplicaciones, TT, OLE.
Para los desarrolladores, asegúrese de que nuestra guías de desarrollo de la migración tengan amplia distribución.

Post-lanzamiento

Campo de seguimiento con la información, y cerrar la decisión por Windows.
Continuar forzar las evaluaciones, decisiones por Windows, y bloquear a OS/2.
Mantenga a los desarrolladores al día sobre las últimas novedades en Windows Win32, Win NT.

Distribuidores

Situación de Windows

Sensibilización enorme. Win + Gana aplicaciones cada vez mas, como porcentaje de las ventas. La mayoría de nuevas calientes aplicaciones son aplicaciones de Windows.

Situación de OS/2

Sensibilización desigual. Muy limitada distribución. Poca demanda de los clientes,

Pre-lanzamiento

Vender en el programa de de gran lanzamiento utilizar una gran parte de la conciencientización del revendedor, recursos, y dólares con una amplia formación de Windows 3.1, el incentivos de almacenamiento, presupuesto de marketing para la promoción local, y los incentivos pantalla. IBM se el despliegue de sus promociones del canal, pero los revendedores se apuesta por Windows para el volumen.

Lanzamiento

Estirar el lanzamiento del programa. Construir enorme tráfico y demanda de 3.1. Utilizar nuestra alto
volumen de mandar alto porcentaje de recursos de distribuidor y así excluir a OS/2 la distribución y el canal de promociones.

Post-lanzamiento

Utilice 3.1 éxito de lanzamiento para construir ampliamiento de distribuidores centrandose en la ampliación de Windows y las ventas relacionadas con Windows. Continuar aumentando los paquetes de Windows en el nuevo hardware, entrenar RPS’s para seguimiento a las ventas de aplicaciones de Windows, fomentar los mejores distribuidores para ofrecer servicios de valor añadido y ganar apoyo. Redefinir el negocio de Windows para ser mucho más que la SKU de Windows sí mismo, así como
Windows crece, negocios de revendedor crece con ella, para la exclusión relativa de OS/2.

Prensa

Situación de Windows

100% de conciencia. Alta adopción. un amplio apoyo.

OS/2 Situación

Alto interés en MS historia vs.IBM, Win vs OS/2 pisos. Escéptico de IBM reclamos. IBM llevará a cabo a las promesas.

Pre-lanzamiento

Reforzar nuestro enfoque en el cliente.
Hacer los encuestados entender el significado de 3,1.
Envíar guía de evaluación para su uso cuando se mira en las betas.
Definición de los criterios de lo que hace un gran sistema operativo.
Establecer un listón muy alto para las demandas de compatibilidad Windows en OS/2 con la prensa.

Lanzamiento

Saturar la prensa con Windows 3.1 información, e impulso.
Asegúrarse de que todos los editores, los encuestados cuenten con información para su evaluación.
Comparación de envío de OS/2 en contra lo que IBM promete.
Alentar a las evaluaciones.

Post-lanzamiento

Excluir a OS/2 de ganar respaldo. Reafirmar Windows como la elección de las personas y el camino hacia el futuro. Enfoque en el éxito de Windows 3.1 y el impulso con clientes y en la industria.

Usuarios Finales

Situación de Windows

Alta conciencia. Amplio estudio. Aumento de la adopción y uso.

OS/2 Situación

Sensibilización desigual. Muy limitada prueba.

No amplia adopción por los usuarios finales.

Pre-lanzamiento

El aumento de la satisfacción de Windows. Enfocarse en el boletín de noticias, WTWs, el Kit de recursos.

Mostrar una amplia adopción de Windows y anuncios de apoyo, relaciones públicas, aplicaciones.

Lanzamiento

Toque 50 veces el número de personas que IBM puede tocar a través de enfoque de actualización
envíos a 1 MM+, Introducción WTWs en el lanzamiento de 50K +, y ancha coberturade prensa.

Unidad de concienciación de Windows 3.1 y la adopción en una escala sin precedentes.

Cambie la posición de OS/2 como poco práctica, incompatibles, y obsoleto en la mente de clientes a través de mensajes de relaciones públicas, los materiales de evaluación y guías de comparación.

Post-lanzamiento

Siga conduciendo Windows 3.1 toma de conciencia y la adopción.

Fabricantes de Equipos Originales

Situación de Windows

Apoyo de OEMs creciendo en amplitud y profundidad. El aumento de la demanda de los clientes Windows es claro para los OEM. OEM envíos de Windows creciendo en EE.UU. e Internacionalmente.

OS/2 Situación

Poco apoyo interno OEM para OS/2. Sin embargo, los fabricantes deben ser capaces de abordar las necesidades de sus clientes corporativos que se han comprometido a OS/2. La idea crítica es que los OEM para responder a las necesidades de OS/2 son las mismas que las empresas cuenta/corp. cuenta las necesidades de desarrollo, ya que estos son los clientes fabricantes de equipos originales de servicios.

Pre-lanzamiento

Utilice próximo lanzamiento 3.1 como una oportunidad para aumentar venta general de OEM Windows.

Desarrollar materiales de las empresas cuenta para su distribución por las fuerzas de ventas OEM-guías de evaluación, las comparaciones de productos, OS/2 para el desarrollo de Windows guías de migración y herramientas.

Entrenar superior OEM personal de apoyo en Windows 3.1.

Lanzamiento

Anunciar nuevo Windows 3.1 de OEM tratos.

Post-lanzamiento

Seguir con el apoyo adicional y materiales de evaluación, según sea necesario.

ISVs

Situación de Windows

Muy amplio apoyo ISV. ISV son impulsados por el mercado, por lo que se centran en Windows como el más caliente de la plataforma en el mercado.

Situación de OS/2

Desigual el apoyo de los ISVs comerciales. A algunos focos de apoyo ISV a OS/2 vinculada a IBM si de alguna manera, o para aplicaciones verticales para OS/2 cuentas. El mejor y mayores esfuerzos de desarrollo de ISV estan todas ellas centradas en Windows.

(Desde la perspectiva de CameronM, ISV comerciales no son un problema real dado el enfoque del mercado. El problema difícil son desarrolladores corporativos que no se ven afectados por el mercado, y ya se pueden comprometer al desarrollo de OS/2. Ver Dearrolladores Corporativos)

Pre-lanzamiento

Fomentar el desarrollo de ISV que requieren o que apoyaron la funcionalidad de Windows 3.1.
Adoptar la estrategia interna de desarrollo a largo plazo para hacer OS/2 incompatible.

Lanzamiento

Seleccione las aplicaciones que se aprovechan de 3.1.

Post-lanzamiento

Evangelismo en curso para el desarrollo de nuevos productos en Windows Win32, Win NT.

Internacional

Situación de Windows

Alto conocimiento y juicio. Aprobación ligeramente detrás de los EE.UU.

OS/2 Situación

Alta conciencia. Alta juicio entre los desarrolladores y evaluadores. Muchas empresas cuentas fuertemente influenciadas por IBM, y ya se han comprometido a OS/2.

Pre-lanzamiento

Siga el programa de EE.UU. para aprovechar el Windows 3.1 beta para aumentar sensibilización y evaluaciones.

Localizar y distribuir guías de evaluación, papeles blancos, e información competitiva.

Fomentar subalternos a seguir las actividades de lanzamiento con los mismos objetivos que los programas de EE.UU. para los revendedores, corp. desarrolladores y fabricantes de equipos originales.

Lanzamiento

Lanzamiento simultáneo en EE.UU.

Post-lanzamiento

Extender los programas de Campeones Internacional para impulsar la adopción. Localizar Kit de recursos, El enfoque, y de WTWs.

Las MS Fuerzas de Ventas de Campo

Situación de Windows

Gran Drive Share centrarse en Excel-Word. Realmente no vendás Windows. Problemem de percepción con 3.1 visto como revision menor.

Situación de OS/2

IBM en algunas de sus cuentas. Pocas alarmas e incendios. ¿Necesitas más herramientas e información para el combate.

Pre-lanzamiento

Windows 3.1 curso de formación para el campo entero en la RKOs. Proporcionar herramientas competitivas e información.

Extender el programa de evaluación beta con el apoyo amplio de campo – encontrar 2.000 evaluadores para el kit beta de evaluación, con el campo de seguimiento de los evaluadores clave en las cuentas de empresas .

Despliegues de Distrito en febrero-marzo para entrenar en la venta de Windows, competición.

Amplia CPP en marzo, ligada a los materiales de evaluación.

Lanzamiento

Eventos de lanzamiento en 20 distritos con los principales corporativos que tomen decisiones y principales revendeores.

Una semana de la WTW para las corporaciones profesionales de la cuenta de apoyo, consultores y revendedores.

Post-lanzamiento

Actualización de las promociones en las cuentas.

Seguir de cerca las decisiones de evaluación a favor de Windows.

HERRAMIENTA DE NECESIDADES

Estrategia de Desarrollo

Revisión de productos y estrategia de producto de oportunidades para evitar que OS/2 clame compatibilidad con Windows.

Herramientas Competitivas

Tarjeta Resumen de Comparación

La comparación rápida sobre por qué Windows 3.1 es una mejor opción para los clientes a OS/2 2.0. Para su uso por vendedores de campo, revendedores, y cuentas corporativas.

Guía de evaluación

Un sistema de evaluaciones detalladas de operación manual. Diseñado para la cuenta corporativa evaluadores y revisores de prensa. Establece los criterios para un gran sistema operativo, y detalles por qué Windows es la mejor opción. Comparación detallada sobre las principales técnicas del producto cuestiones claves, y la comparación de futuras estrategias del producto.

Guías de la Migración

Ayudas de migración y herramientas de desarrollo se necesitan [sic] para los desarrolladores corporativos utilizando OS/2, pero migrando a Windows.

Herramientas de Información del Producto

Papeles Blancos

OLE

Una visión general de nuestra estrategia de integración y aplicación OLE en el punto 3.1.

TrueType y Fuentes

Información general de nuestra tecnología TrueType y beneficios para los usuarios. También
compatibilidad con otros paquetes de fuentes.

Fiabilidad

Windows 3.1 ‘s incorporado protección de accidentes, control de protección de parámetros, recuperación de errores de aplicación, el estado global de limpieza después de un fallo, el Dr. Watson.

Conectividad

Una visión general de las soluciones de conectividad disponible para Windows.

Windows caché de disco

Información general de nuestra nueva tecnología de almacenamiento en caché de disco. Aumentar el rendimiento.

Puntos de referencia.

And in English:

Microsoft Confidential — Do Not Distribute November 20, 1991

OS/2
2.0 Attack Plan -Draft Only-

To:
- Draft -

From:
Joseph Krawczak

Cc:
Attached List

Overview

Windows
has sold nearly 7MM units world-wide, and is the most popular
operating system in the world after MS-DOS. However, IBM is poised for a

competitive assault with OS/2 2.0. In spite of our success, there are still
areas,
especially in large corporate accounts, where we will be under strong
competitive pressure from IBM. Any success with OS/2 will greatly
strengthen IBM’s position as a major competitor in the operating system
business.

It is therefore critical that we prevent OS/2 2.0 from eroding Windows
momentum and defeat IBM’s attempt at gaining a foothold on the desktop with
OS/2. To do this we must:

  • Pursue a product development strategy that prevents IBM from
    claiming Windows compatibility. Prevent Windows applications from

    running correctly on OS/2.

  • Redefine what Windows is with Windows 3.1. Set a new bar for
    Windows functionality and requirements for compatibility.
  • Reposition OS/2 as impractical and incompatible in the minds of
    customers.
  • Design and execute a competitive response to OS/2 2.0 in every arena

    we compete in – corporate accounts, resellers, ISVs, OEMs, Press,
    etc.

IBM’s attack plan ………………………………………………………………………2

Comparing Windows 3.1 and OS/2 2.0…………………………………………6

Attack Plan – Future Development Strategy………………………………….7

Attack Plan – Repositioning OS/2…………………………………………………8

Attack Plans by Channel……………………………………………………………..10

Resource Needs……………………………………………………………………………18

MS 0072031
CONFIDENTIAL

11/20/91 19 20

Microsoft Confidential — Do Not Distribute

IBM’s ATTACK PLAN

Product Positioning

“OS/2 2.0 is the integration platform, offering better DOS than
DOS, better Windows than Windows, and better OS/2 than OS/2″.

Support Points

Better DOS than DOS
Run every DOS application you have better.

  • Better protection – multiple virtual DOS machines.
  • More memory available – 633K conventional, 16MB XMS, 32MB EMS,
    512MB DPMI.
  • Background DOS application execution.

Better Windows than Windows

  • Runs Windows 2.X and 3.0 apps
  • Better protection via MVDMs
  • Cut/Paste and DDE to OS/2 PM apps
  • Benefit from OS/2′s HPFS, pre-emptive multitasking, 4K demand
    paging.

Better OS/2 than OS/2
Easy to use

  • Workplace Shell – drag and drop, object oriented, applets, graphical

    install, server install.

  • Better integration – combine data from DOS, Windows, and OS/2 apps.

Powerful OS

  • 32 Bit Architecture – exploits 386, 486 flat memory model, 4k demand
    paging.
  • Protect mode . NVDMs, apps run in protected memory
  • Pre-emptive multitasking. Multiple threads.
  • HPFS and enhanced FAT
  • Adobe Type Manager built-in

Reliable

  • Better architecture – as above
  • Reliability, Service and Support – Built in and backed up by IBM.

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IBM’s Repositioning of MS DOS and Windows

Repositioning

“DOS and Windows are only appropriate for simple applications on lower-end

hardware. For higher-end hardware, sophisticated apps, mission critical
development, connectivity, or full support for IBM’s hardware, you need the
advanced features of OS/2 2.0.”

Support Points

DOS is a weak foundation

  • Primitive memory management, not protected, not multitasking, not
    GUI.

Windows is just a DOS extender

  • Adds a GUI “shell” to DOS, but not protected, not pre-emptive,not 32
    bit, not reliable, doesn’t connect to IBM hardware.

IBM’s Attack Plans by Channel

Corporate Accounts/Corporate Developers

Traditionally IBM’s strongest area. They will market OS/2 into corporate
account segments by:

MIS

  • Build on years of MIS direction setting power to make OS/2 the
    corporate standard. A full court press by IBM reps
  • Use the Early Experience beta program to promote early trial and
    evaluations.
  • Show how OS/2 becomes the strategic foundation for enterprise
    computing – SAA, CUA, connectivity, etc.
  • Position OS/2 as a requirement for connecting with IBM hardware.
  • Introduce FUD that not going with OS/2 will threaten IBM support for
    IBM hardware and big-iron systems.

Corporate Developers

  • Position OS/2 as the strategic foundation for enterprise computing -
    SAA, CUA, connectivity, etc.
  • Position OS/2 as THE choice for stability, protection, multitasking, and
    32 bit benefits for mission critical application development.
  • Promise developer support with IBM sponsored and third party
    development tools, conferences, and developer seminars.

Corporate End Users

IBM traditionally not focused or skilled at directly reaching end users. But
they will make a bigger push at this than ever before by:

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  • Reaching end users through a broad advertising and PR campaign on
    OS/2.
  • Rolling out a Windows to OS/2 upgrade program.
  • Using OS/2 mission critical apps to drive OS/2 onto organization
    laptops.

Advertising

Ads

  • Huge advertising campaigns for OS/2. Big ongoing presence now in
    trade press, and business trade campaign at product ship. Currently

    executions likely to be continued product awareness/positioning
    campaign as currently running. Launch ads likely to focus on big
    announcement campaign at ship with direct response upgrade ads. Post
    ship likely to be a momentum/testimonial campaign. Also, currently
    running some TV spots as part of the 10 year anniversary of the PC,
    focusing on PS/2′s.Likely that these will shift to highlighting OS/2 2.0
    at ship.

Press/PR

Tradeshows

Increase presence at major tradeshows and vertical MIS related shows and
make OS/2 their central message.

Press editors

  • The OS/2 vs. Windows issue naturally takes on bigger proportions with
    the press as an IBM vs. Microsoft story. This may tend to increase
    overall coverage of OS/2 vs. Windows issues.
  • Unprecedented (for an IBM software product) press tour scchedule. Will
    meet with editors regularly, and supply with white papers, videos,
    demos, etc. Key PR messages will be 1) OS/2 is leading OS technology,
    and 2) IBM is customer driven and committed to meeting its promises.

ISVs

  • Recruit and buy key development tools for OS/2 PM as needed – Borland,
    Micrografix, etc.
  • Use every leverage point they have to get major ISV’s to commit to PM
    apps – offer “partnerships” with IBM, co-marketing deals, official IBM
    endorsement of their apps and sales force backing. Even outright
    payment for PM apps.
  • Promote OS/2 as the leading technology platform for developers.
  • Highlight unique advantages over Windows.
  • Position OS/2 as the safe future direction.

OEMs

IBM’s goal is to

  • Make sure OS/2 works on key OEM hardware.

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  • Prevent Microsoft from offering MS OS/2 to OEMs, so that OEMs
    are forced to go to IBM to be able to provide it to their customers who
    want it. (Rich Fade- is this correct?)
  • Offer low-price royalty deals with OEMs. Try to get OS/2 bundled/pre-
    installed to the exclusion of Windows.

Resellers

IBM’s goal will be to get wide distribution for the first time. A key challenge
will be moving out from PS/2 resellers into broader channels. IBM will likely:

  • Launch a retail SKU for SRP of $149.
  • Offer a small OS/2 upgrade SKU for all MS DOS users for $49.
  • Create aggressive programs for bundling OS/2 with PS/2 machines.
  • Do a major reseller tour 2-3 months before launch, highlighting OS/2
    end user and corp. account demand generating programs, then offering
    big stocking program incentives to get sell-in.
  • Use an array of marketing funds, stocking credits, display incentives,
    and SPIFFs to promote OS/2 display, local promotions, and RSP
    awareness.

End Users

IBM’s goal is to broaden awareness of OS/2 beyond corporate accounts and into
the broader market.

  • Big ad campaign, as above.
  • Use the Early Experience beta program to encouragee early trial.
  • OS/2 end-user upgrade program, including direct upgrade sales and
    direct response advertising.
  • Stronger retail presence for OS/2.

International

IBM has an even stronger hold on corporate accounts internationally than in
the U.S. Also, they have greater OS/2 penetration and adoption, and relatively
more large corporate organizations have committed to OS/2 development.

IBM’s basic strategy will be to:

  • Ship localized versions of OS/2 ASAP.
  • Roll out full marketing efforts as in U.S.
  • Bring even stronger pressure to bear on corporate accounts and MIS
    decision makers. Be even blunter about tying OS/2 to IBM hardware for
    connectivity and continued IBM support.

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Comparing Windows 3.1 and OS/2 2.0

Windows 3.1 vs. OS/2 2.0

See the Attachment 2 draft of a “Fast facts” comparison card which lists

Windows advantages and parity features wiih OS/2. We can list over 100 items
in which OS/2 does not offer equal functionality, support, or compatibility in
areas such as user interface, hardware support, application support,
performance, and industry support.

Critical issues for customers comparing Windows 3.1 and OS/2 2.0

However, for the broadest end user market, a critical insight is that much of
this detail will not be meaningful. When comparing Windows and OS/2, there
are 2 major customer segments that have different information needs to
determine what operating system to choose.

Intensive Evaluators

MIS decision makers, corporate developers, OEMs, and press reviewers are the
most “intensive” evaluators who will make the most thorough and product-
oriented comparison. For these groups we need to muster an array of
information- quick comparisons, detailed evaluation guides, white papers on
key topics, performance benchmarks, developer migration guides, etc.

End Users

The end-users and resellers representing the broadest market will be less
“intensive” evaluators, who will make decisions primarily on net impressions
and recommendations of others. For these groups we must boil down our key
competitive messages vs. OS/2 into a simple repositioning that gives them a
compelling reason to stay away from OS/2.

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Attack Plan – Repositioning OS/2

We need simple, compelling message for the broad market, and a detailed,
product-focused message for sophisticated evaluators and developers.

Repositioning OS/2

“OS/2 is too impractical and incompatible for most PC users.”

Support Points for the Broad Market

Incompatible

  • OS/2 doesn’t support Windows 3.1, so is incompatible with my Windows
    needs.
  • OS/2 doesn’t run a lot of Windows applications correctly.
  • OS/2 doesn’t support many non-PS/2 machines.
  • OS/2 doesn’t support many popular peripherals- printers, video displays,
    etc.

Impractical

  • OS/2 only runs on 386 4MB machines or greater.
  • OS/2 is big and complicated, and will be a training challenge and a
    support headache.
  • OS/2 doesn’t really let you use your installed base of Windows
    applications.
  • OS/2 doesn’t really let you leverage your Windows skills and knowledge.
    The Workplace shell has its own new rules, and will take a lot of
    retraining.

Additional Support Points for the Evaluator

In addition to the above support points, we will add the following for the more
sophisticated evaluator customer:

Incompatible

  • More detail on how OS/2 does and does not support Windows and

    Windows applications.

  • Cut/Paste metafiles
  • DDE problems
  • TrueType support?
  • OLE support?
  • Performance comparisons of Windows apps on Windows vs. OS/2
  • Code page handling problems

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Confused Product Strategy

  • What is OS/2 3.0 going to be? What about Nextstep, GO. Pink?
  • IBM does not have a clear OS product strategy.

A Compromised Development Platform

  • Doesn’t have the acceptance and support that Windows does.
  • Not really 32 bit. Move towards Win 32.
  • Not really protected- MVDMs can bring down system, no local reboot,
    etc.
  • Performance hit for PM apps.
  • Problems with device support.

Windows works today and tomorrow

  • 3.1 offers reliability and complete Windows application support.
  • Windows connects in your environment. Robust connectivity solutions
    today.
  • Windows has a clear product strategy moving towards a modern,
    protected, non-compromised OS with Windows NT.
  • Your investment in Windows will be protected 100%- from customer

    end user training to your current Windows code.

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Attack Plan -Future Development Strategy

Development Strategy for Incompatibility

Short Term – Deny IBM’s “Better Windows than Windows”
Positioning

Preventing the customer perception that OS/2 delivers real Windows support,
while at the same time increasing the penetration and adoption of Windows
3.1, will remove OS/2 from the consideration set for most customers. We must
use every Windows-related development activity as an opportunity to destroy
this claim, both in terms of actual product compatibility and then in terms of

customer perception.

Long Term – Development Opportunities

TBD based on analysis by Brian Moran.

Will focus on fundamental development issues that would prevent OS/2 from
claiming Windows compatibility, or from running Windows applications
correctly. Some possible areas for investigation- problems for API mapping,
Metafile extension problems, problems handling different codepages, driver
design, patenting unidriver, etc.

Product Opportunities

Windows 3.1

Raises the bar with TrueType, OLE. Need to quickly drive market acceptance
of Windows 3.1 so that it redefines what it means to be Windows, and so makes
OS/2 2.0 obsolete the day it ships.

Multimedia extensions to Windows

Windows supporting the latest multimedia technology, and is leading the
industry toward a common standard. OS/2′s multimedia efforts do not support
Windows.

Windows for Pen Computing

Windows again leads the industry in implementing and standardizing leading
edge technology. OS/2 again is incompatible, and IBM’s pen efforts are
confused and non-standard.

WinBall

Networking for Windows, not Windows under OS/2. Raises the bar again for
what Windows is and brings to customers.

Win 32

A 32 bit operating system that OS/2 does not offer or support.

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Windows NT

A modern, protected OS that fulfills the promise of a powerful OS with full

Windows compatibility.

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Attack Plans by Channel

Development Strategy for Incompatibility

Corporate Accounts/Corporate Developers

Windows Situation

High awareness and trial. Increasing adoption and penetration. Little
awareness of value of 3.1. MIS “on-hold” for long-term strategy decisions.

OS/2 Situation

Heavy IBM shoe leather in large accounts. High awareness with MIS, mixed
outside MIS. Beta trial in MIS. Low trail[sic] and use outside of MIS. MIS-driven
adoption in a few accounts. Little E/U adoption.

For accounts/corporate developers that have committed to OS/2- varying
degrees of uncertainty and confusion over OS directions and futures. Current
commitment makes migrating to Windows difficult politically and technically.

Pre-launch

For corporate evaluators/MIS:

  • Maximize beta opportunity to build awareness of 3.1 and set the criteria
    to be used for evaluations.
  • Ship evaluation guide, white papers to beta sites.
  • Have field follow up on beta.

For corporate developers:

  • Make sure they have an opportunity to begin using 3.1 beta 3.
  • Provide with evaluation guides.
  • Produce a “heapwalker” utility that shows how OS/2 is not fully
    protected.
  • Produce a migration guide for moving from OS/2 development to
    Windows development.
  • Provide a set of development migration aids and tools.

Launch

  • Field to kick off large scale evaluation of Win 3.1 and OS/2 2.0
  • Force IBM into the open on issues- Win support, hardware support,
    training, application support, TT, OLE.
  • For developers, make sure that our development migration kit gets wide
    distribution.

Post-launch

  • Field to follow up with info, and close the decision for Windows.
    Continue forcing evaluations, decisions for Windows, and shut out OS/2.
  • Keep developers up to date on latest Windows developments- Win32,
    Win NT.

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Resellers

Windows Situation

Huge awareness. Win + Win apps increasing as % of sales. Most hot new
apps are Win apps.

OS/2

Uneven awareness. Very limited distribution. Little customer demand,

Pre-launch

Sell in huge launch program to use up a large share of reseller awareness,
resources, and dollars with broad Windows 3.1 training, stocking incentives,
marketing dollars for local promotion, and display incentives. IBM will be
rolling out their channel promotions, but resellers will be betting on Windows
for volume.

Launch

Roll out launch program. Build huge traffic and demand for 3.1. Use our high
volume to command high % of reseller resources and so shut out OS/2
distribution and channel promotions.

Post-launch

Use 3.1 launch success to build reseller focus on broadening Windows and
Windows-related sales. Pursue increasing Windows bundles on new hardware,
train RSPs to follow up with Win application sales, encourage top outbound
resellers to provide value added Win services and support. Redefine the

Windows business to be much more than the Windows SKU itself, so as
Windows grows, reseller business does with it, to the relative exclusion of
OS/2.

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Press

Windows Situation

100% awareness. High adoption. Broad support.

OS/2 Situation

High interest in MS vs.IBM story, Win vs. OS/2 story. Skeptical of IBM
claims. Will hold IBM to promises.

Pre-launch

  • Reinforce our customer focus.
  • Make sure reviewers understand significance of 3.1.
  • Ship evaluation guide for use when looking at betas.
  • Set the criteria for what makes a great OS.
  • Set a high bar for Windws compatibility claims on OS/2 with the press.

Launch

  • Saturate press with Win 3.1 info, momentum.
  • Ensure all editors, reviewers equipped with info for evaluation.
  • Compare shipping OS/2 against IBM promises.
  • Encourage evaluations.

Post-launch

Shut out OS/2 from winning endorsements. Reaffirm Windows as the people’s
choice and the path to the future. Focus on Win 3.1 success and momentum with
customers and in the industry.

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End Users

Windows Situation

High awareness. Broad trial. Increasing adoption and usage.

OS/2 Situation

Uneven awareness. Very limited trial.

No broad end user adoption.

Pre-launch

Increasing Windows satisfaction- Focus newsletter, WTW’s, Resource Kit.

Show broad Win adoption and support- ads, PR, apps.

Launch

Touch 50X the number of people IBM can touch through Focus upgrade
mailings to 1MM+, Introductory WTWs at launch to 50K+, and broad presszbr/>

coverage.

Drive Win 3.1 awareness and adoption on an unprecedented scale

Reposition OS/2 as impractical, incompatible, and obsolete in minds of
customers through PR messages, evaluation materials, and comparison guides.

Post-launch

Continue driving Win 3.1 awareness and adoption.

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OEMs

Windows Situation

OEM support growing in breadth and depth. Increasing customer demand for
Windows is clear to OEMs. OEM Window shipments growing in US and Intl.

OS/2 Situation

Little internal OEM support for OS/2. However, OEMs must be able to address
the needs of their corporate customers who have committed to OS/2. Critical
insight is that OEM needs for responding to OS/2 are the same as corporate
account/corp. account developer needs, since these are the customers OEMs
service.

Pre-launch

Use upcoming 3.1 launch as opportunity to increase overall Windows OEM
sales.

Develop corporate account materials for distribution by OEM sales forces-

evaluation guides, product comparisons, OS/2 to Windows development
migration guides and tools.

Train top OEM support staff on Windows 3.1.

Launch

Announce new Windows 3.1 OEM deals.

Post-launch

Follow up with additional support and evaluation materials as needed.

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ISVs

Windows Situation

Very broad ISV support. ISVs are market driven, so are focused on Windows
as the hottest platform in the market.

OS/2 Situation

Uneven support among commercial ISVs. A few pockets of ISVs support OS/2
if tied to IBM in some way, or for vertical apps for OS/2 accounts. The best
and largest ISV development efforts are all focused on Windows.

(From CameronM’s perspective, commercial ISV’s are not a real issue given
market focus. The hard problem is corporate developers who are not affected
by market, and may already be committed to OS/2 development. See Corporate
Developers.

Pre-launch

Encourage ISV development requiring/supporting Windows 3.1 functionality.
Adopt internal longer-term development strategy to make OS/2 incompatible.

Launch

Highlight applications that take advantage of 3.1.

Post-launch

Ongoing evangelism for development for new Windows products- Win32, Win
NT.

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International

Windows Situation

High awareness and trial. Adoption slightly trailing U.S.

OS/2 Situation

High awareness. High trial among developers and evaluators. Many corporate
accounts heavily influenced by IBM, and already committed to OS/2.

Pre-launch

Follow U.S. program for leveraging the Windows 3.1 beta for increasing
awareness and evaluations.

Localize and distribute evaluation guides, white papers, and competitive
information.

Encourage subs to follow launch activities with same goals as U.S. programs

for resellers, corp. developers, and OEM’s.

Launch

Simultaneous launch as U.S.

Post-launch

Roll out Intl Champions programs to drive adoption. Localize Resource Kit,
Focus, and WTW’s.

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MS Field Sales Force

Windows Situation

Big Share Drive focus on Excel-Word. Don’t really sell Windows. Perception
problem with 3.1 seen as minor rev.

OS/2 Situation

IBM in some of their accounts. A few alarms and fires. Need more tools and
info to combat.

Pre-launch

Win 3.1 product training for entire field at RKO’s. Provide competitive tools
and info.

Roll out beta evaluation program with wide field support- find 2,000 evaluators
for the evaluation beta kit, with field follow-up on key evaluators in corporate
accounts.

District rollouts in Feb-March to train on selling Windows, competition.

Broad CPP in March, tied to evaluation materials.

Launch

Launch events in 20 districts with top Corp. Account decision makers and top
resellers.

A week of WTW for corporate account support professionals, consultants, and
resellers.

Post-launch

Upgrade promotions in accounts.

Close evaluation decisions in favor of Windows.

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TOOL NEEDS

Development Strategy

Review products and product strategy for opportunities to prevent OS/2 claims
for Windows compatibility.

Competitive Tools

Fast Facts comparison card

The quick comparison on why Windows 3.1 is a better choice for customers
than OS/2 2.0. For use by Field, Resellers, Corp. Accounts.

Evaluation Guide

A detailed operating system reviews guide. Designed for corporate account

evaluator and press reviewer. Sets up criteria for a great OS, and details why
Windows is the best choice. Detailed technical product comparison on key
issues, and comparison of future product strategies.

Migration Guides

Migration aids and development tools are need[sic] for corporate developers using
OS/2 but migrating to Windows.

Product Information Tools

White Papers

OLE

An overview of our OLE integration strategy and implementation in 3.1.

TrueType and fonts
Overview of our TrueType technology and benefits for users. Also
compatibility with other font packages.

Reliability

Windows 3.1′s built-in crash protection- parameter checking, recoverable
application errors, global state cleanup after fault, Dr. Watson.

Connectivity

A overview of the connectivity solutions available for Windows.

Windows disk caching

Overview of our new disk caching technology. Performance increase
benchmarks.

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Many thanks to Eduardo for his translation. █

Links 23/12/2010: FOSS is Not “Non-commercial”, Firefox 4 Beta 3 for Mobile

Posted in News Roundup at 10:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

  • Kernel Space

    • Removing the big kernel lock. A big deal?

      There’s a lot of hubbub recently about removing the big kernel lock completely in Linux 2.6.37. That is it’s now possible to compile a configuration without any BKL use. There is still some code depending on the BKL,
      but it can be compiled out. But is that a big deal?

      First some background: Linux 2.0 was originally ported to SMP the complete kernel ran under a single lock, to preserve the same semantics for kernel code as on uni-processor kernels. This was known as the big kernel lock.
      Then over time more and more code was moved out of the lock (see chapter 6 in LK09 Scalability paper for more details)

      In Linux 2.6 kernels very few subsystems actually still rely on the BKL. And most code that uses it is not time critical.
      The biggest (moderately critical) users were a few file systems like reiserfs and NFS. The kernel lockf()/F_SETFL file locking subsystem was also still using the BKL. And the biggest user (in terms of amount of code) were the ioctl callbacks in drivers. While there are a lot of them (most drivers have ioctls) the number of cycles spent in them tends
      to be rather minimal. Usually ioctls are just used for initialization and other comparatively rare jobs.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Embedded GPUs On Linux Remain A Great Big Mess

        For anyone that happens to be on holiday this week (or just have excess time otherwise), there is another lively and polarized discussion that’s been taking place for the past several days on the DRI mailing list. What does it involve if it’s not about developer disagreements amongst themselves? Embedded GPU driver support on Linux, of course. This mailing list thread just reaffirms how the situation is a great big mess.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Elementary’s new Wingpanel in action

        What is nice about Wingpanel is that it saves real-estate without compromising the functionality of the indicators.

      • GTK+3 Now Uses X Input 2 By Default, New Back-End Caps

        Due out today is the latest GNOME 3.0 development snapshot, GNOME 2.91.4, and because of that in recent days there’s been a slew of GNOME package check-ins. Landing yesterday was GTK+ 2.91.7, the latest version of the GTK+ 3.0 tool-kit that plays one of the most important roles on the GNOME desktop. While it’s getting late in the release cycle and this GNOME tool-kit has already delivered lots of new features, the changes keep rolling.

      • Window Applets 0.2.10, Released

  • Distributions

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Debian Family

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Working Together To Get Unity Ready For Natty

          As many of you will know, we have been working hard in the Ubuntu world to ensure that the transition to Unity is not only smooth and painless, but also provides the best possible user experience. To do this the DX team, Ayatana community, desktop team, and my team have been working closely to ensure we are not only getting plenty of testing for Unity, but helping to ensure the community is an open and accessible as possible.

        • Free Fonts Forever

          When you think open source, chances are you think software. You may not know that there are open-source fonts as well. Today, Google and Ubuntu have released a new free, open font to the Web: the Ubuntu Font Family.

          [...]

          To add the Ubuntu Font Family to your pages go to the Google Font Directory Select “Ubuntu” and insert the two lines of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code provided as instructed into your page The full font source code can be downloaded from the Ubuntu font page.

        • Getting the Ubuntu font working on your own website
        • Helping out Compiz

          In case you’ve missed out, smspillaz has started working fulltime at Canonical on working on Compiz.

          Sam’s been shuffling getting things fixed in the code and needs a bit of help, so I asked him to put together a list of things Compiz could use help with.

        • Sound Indicator news and updates

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Fonts in Edubuntu

            Every now and again, educators ask me where they can get more fonts for Edubuntu. We include great desktop publishing software (scribus-ng, inkscape, gimp, etc) in Edubuntu, but our default font selection is rather dry and uninspiring. A few weeks back I looked whether there are some nice fonts in the Ubuntu archive that we could include. I figured that even if there’s one or two good ones available that we could ship, then it would at least be some improvement. The results were quite surprising, there are a wealth of fonts available in the archives.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Community and Context: Thoughts on Closing Comments

      Google has asked a number of TV and set-top box makers to delay plans to release new Google TV products at the beginning of next year. According to a New York Times report, Google plans to revamp the software due to its “lukewarm reception” and decidedly ho-hum reviews.

      The Google TV concept seemed promising, in particular the application of search to tie together the various sources of content—broadcast, cable, satellite, online—and bypassing many of the frustrating listing guides. However, many networks have so far blocked Google TV access to their online content. Additionally, the push to include full access to the Web required a keyboard and mouse for navigation, resulting in some awkward and bulky remotes.

    • Phones

Free Software/Open Source

  • IBM releases open source version of TranslationManager/2

    A reference implementation of a fully open translation environment is available to integrate the OpenTM2 CAT system with the free Joomla CMS and the equally free GlobalSight translation management system by Welocalize.

  • NX Compression Technology To Go Closed Source
  • ☆ FOSS is not “non-commercial”

    I keep seeing people contrasting “free/open source software” with “commercial software”. This is a really bad contrast, as in my experience almost all open source software is commercial. It’s just commercial in a different way.

  • The CENATIC Foundation’s OSS report

    The CENATIC Foundation, a public foundation based in Spain, has announced the release of a report on “the international status of open source software 2010.”

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • Oracle

    • Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.0 Has Arrived

      Oracle’s VM VirtualBox virtualization software just went into beta two weeks ago, but since then they have put out four beta releases. Now though Oracle is already ready to announce the official release of VM VirtualBox 4.0.

  • BSD

    • OpenBSD chief believes contractor tried to write backdoors

      The lead developer of the OpenBSD operating system says that he believes that a government contracting firm that contributed code to his project “was probably contracted to write backdoors,” which would grant secret access to encrypted communications.

      Posting to an OpenBSD discussion list Tuesday, Theo de Raadt said that while he now believes that a company called Netsec may have been involved in backdoors, he doesn’t think that any of this software made it into the OpenBSD code base.

    • Update on the OpenBSD IPSEC backdoor allegation

      Theo de Raadt has summarized what is known, so far, about the allegation that OpenBSD’s IPSEC stack had a backdoor inserted into it by contractors at the behest of the US FBI. Some code auditing has been done, and found some problems, but no “smoking gun” has been found.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • FSF Fall 2010 bulletin articles start to appear

      In the first article, operations manager at the FSF, John Sullivan talks about how the lending problem is an artificial scarcity in the digital age.

      In the second, Benjamin Mako Hill — a member of the FSF’s board of directors — confronts the fact that free software is sometimes not as high quality or featureful as proprietary alternatives and that most free software projects aren’t particularly collaborative.

    • Lending: A solved problem

      Lending and borrowing are not desirable activities. They are things we do when we have to, when there isn’t enough of something to go around. Not to say that lending something like a book to a friend is without benefits beyond access to the material; it can create a shared experience that makes for good conversation, or provide an excuse to see each other.

  • Licensing

    • Software Licensing – Don’t Complain If You Don’t Like The License

      Free Software licenses are designed to ensure that the source code cannot be taken proprietary, and to attempt to maintain the user’s freedom to do whatever they want. The General Public License (GPL) is the most common Free Software license. It was recently updated to Version 3 to cover situations that didn’t exist when Version 2 was written.

      A common complaint is that Free Software licenses are communistic, which they aren’t. They are communalistic, in the same tradition as a North American school or church raising.

      The GPL is considered restrictive by a lot of organizations which would like to use software that uses it as a license. For one example, I was told that if the Linux Kernel moved to GPL V3 it would kill the use of the Linux Kernel in mobile phones. When I asked why they didn’t just switch to one of the BSD kernels like Apple did, the response was that the Linux Kernel was more suitable.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Language Harmonization at Creative Commons

      One of the most important values at Creative Commons is the usability of our tools. We strive to make all of our tools human-readable, often bridging dissonant vocabularies and frameworks to ensure our tools are compatible and understandable the world over. The challenge of localization is balancing legally sound terminology with culturally palatable translations. Sometimes the terms in which lawyers and courts communicate are unfamiliar or alienating to users outside of the legal profession. Moreover, even within the legal field, there can be a range of opinions about which terms are most appropriate.

    • How Creative Commons saved Ficlets

Leftovers

  • 11 Free Tools to Test the Speed of your Website

  • Humour

  • Science

    • Google Scholar Spam

      In a previous paper we provided guidelines for scholars on optimizing research articles for academic search engines such as Google Scholar. Feedback in the academic community to these guidelines was diverse.

    • Blackawton bees [written by schoolchildren]
    • Border collie takes record for biggest vocabulary

      IN THE age-old war between cats and dogs, canines might just have struck the killer blow. A border collie called Chaser has been taught the names of 1022 items – more than any other animal. She can also categorise them according to function and shape, something children learn to do around the age of 3.

      Chaser follows in the footsteps of Rico, who trained at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Rico had a “vocabulary” of 200 words and could identify new objects in a group of familiar objects by a process of elimination, according to a study published in 2004.

    • Another case of early human interbreeding confirmed in Siberia

      It’s been a busy year in research on recent human ancestry. Back in the spring, scientists completed a draft of the Neanderthal genome, which provided clear evidence that these now-extinct humans left some of their genes behind by interbreeding with some human ancestors. A bit earlier in the year, DNA sequencing revealed an even larger surprise: there seems to have been another population of premodern humans present in Asia that were genetically distinct from modern humans and Neanderthals. Now, the team behind both of these discoveries is back with a draft genome of this population that suggests it was genetically distinct from both humans and Neanderthals, and a single tooth that suggests it was physically distinct. And that it also interbred with the ancestors of a modern human population.

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • John Pilger – The War You Don’t See

      John Pilger says in the film: “We journalists… have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else’s country… That means always challenging the official story, however patriotic that story may appear, however seductive and insidious it is. For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home… In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us… Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power.”

    • SIU charges Toronto police officer with assault during G20

      The G20 protester whose violent arrest was caught on video and caused controversy when no officers were initially held responsible said he’s glad a police officer has been charged.

      But protester Adam Nobody and his lawyers called on Toronto’s police chief on Tuesday to help identify other officers who were involved in the case.

      Toronto police Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani was charged Tuesday with assault with a weapon in the takedown of Nobody at the Ontario legislature during the June summit.

    • WikiLeaks: imperial precedent

      In December 1917 British imperial troops occupied Jerusalem, ending four centuries of Ottoman rule. Earlier that year, the British Empire also took control of Baghdad, and was advancing across the middle east. In Asia and the West, the British government spread the message that they were bringing a new age of national freedom to the Arabs. Unfortunately for Whitehall, however, the newly installed Bolsheviks in Russia had their own message to tell the world. A couple of weeks before General Allenby, the chief of British forces in Palestine, made his official entrance on foot through the Jaffa Gate of the old city of Jerusalem, the Bolsheviks published the secret agreements that they had just discovered in the Russian archives.

      This was the first major leak of international diplomatic documents, the scale of which has never been surpassed. If Julian Assange and his associates had access to the inner sanctum of the White House and the Pentagon, they might get close to documentation that was of similar significance. Pride of place amongst the material published by the Russians was a plan by the British and French governments in 1916 to carve up the middle east between themselves after the war.

    • Audio Podcast #72: Byron Sonne is Still in Prison

      The strange, suppressed story of Byron Sonne, the G-20 security hacker who has been held, unconvicted, for 6 months and counting.

    • White House Drafts Executive Order For Indefinite Detention

      The White House is preparing an Executive Order on indefinite detention that will provide periodic reviews of evidence against dozens of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, according to several administration officials.

    • Insurgency Movements in India

      Wikipedia lists 16 belligerent groups and 68 major organization as terrorist groups in India, which include: nine in the northeast (Seven Sisters), four in the center & the east (including Maoist/Naxalites), seventeen in the west (Sikh separatist groups), and 38 in the northwest (Kashmir).

    • G20 protests: Don’t let charge be end of story

      There is a lesson in the laying of charges Tuesday against a police officer in connection with the beating of a G20 protester: we don’t have to acquiesce when the authorities circle the wagons.

      Many allegations of police misconduct were made following the G20 summit in Toronto last June, where more than 1,000 people were arrested, most of them without charge. But in the immediate aftermath of the summit, officialdom excused and even lauded the police overreaction. Toronto City Council passed a motion commending “the outstanding work” of the police. Then councilor — now mayor — Rob Ford went further and said “our police were too nice.” The Toronto Police Services Board, which is supposed to exercise civilian oversight over the force, issued a press release thanking the police for “the manner in which they conducted themselves.”

    • Lone policeman identifies colleague charged with assault in G20 arrest

      After nearly six months, several videos and a showdown between Toronto’s police chief and a provincial watchdog that played out in front of the national media, an officer has been charged with beating a man during the G20 demonstrations.

  • Cablegate

    • WTF? OMG, LOL! CIA gives WikiLeaks taskforce naughty name

      The CIA has launched a taskforce to assess the impact of 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables. Its name? WikiLeaks Task Force, or WTF for short.

      The group will scour the released documents to survey damage caused by the disclosures. One of the most embarrassing revelations was that the US state department had drawn up a list of information it would like on key UN figures – it later emerged the CIA had asked for the information.

    • How Wikileaks killed Spain’s anti-P2P law

      Spain last night killed a controversial anti-P2P bill that would have made it easier to shut down websites that link to infringing content. The move was a blow to the ruling Socialist government, but it may be of even bigger concern to the US, which pushed, threatened, and cajoled Spain to clamp down on downloading. And Wikileaks can take a share of the credit for the defeat.

    • Spain’s House rejects new copyright law; #cablegate showed it had been written by the US government

      The Spanish House of Representatives has rejected a new copyright law that would have made the nation’s file-sharing sites and services illegal. Some of the leaked #cablegate cables affirmed what many had suspected: the law had been pushed by the US government on behalf of the Hollywood studios. Local activists told me that they believed the legislation would pass despite broad national condemnation; however, El Pais accelerated its schedule in oder to release the relevant cables before the House voted — and it seems that this did the trick.

    • Video on MSNBC [Assange]
    • Bank of America Shares Defy WikiLeaks Reports

      Several of them related to WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange, has said he has major revelations that may cause the head of a large U.S. bank to resign. There has been widespread speculation, drawing on earlier comments made by Assange, that Bank of America is Assange’s target.

    • WikiLeaks cables: McDonald’s used US to put pressure on El Salvador

      McDonald’s tried to delay the US government’s implementation of a free-trade agreement in order to put pressure on El Salvador to appoint neutral judges in a $24m (£15.5m) lawsuit it was fighting in the country. The revelation of the McDonald’s strategy to ensure a fair hearing for a long-running legal battle against a former franchisee comes from a leaked US embassy cable dated 15 February 2006.

    • WikiLeaks cables: Bangladeshi ‘death squad’ trained by UK government
    • WikiLeaks cables: Vatican vetoed Holocaust memorial over Pius XII row
    • WIKILEAKS NEWS & VIEWS for Tuesday, the Day 24 Blog [still being updated]

      5:15 Don’t know what to make of this—the French may be claiming something that, in fact, was not true (the usual problem with these cables)—but Mondoweiss calls this a “smoking gun” showing US secretly backed Israeli settlement growth even as Obama denied that.

      5:05 The Guardian in its usual late-afternoon move with half dozen stories on new cables with wild range: from UK training death squads in Bangladesh and Halliburton involved with “mafia” in Iraq to Anna Nicole Smith in the Bahamas, a vetoed memorial to a Pope, and “burger giant” McDonald’s getting US aid in lawsuit. The death squad story will be huge in UK—story notes that even the US would not help because of their “extra-judicial killings.” We did provide “human rights” advice….

    • Transcript: The Assange interview [BBC propaganda]
    • Julian Assange: ‘I feel at peace’
    • [Michael Moore talks about WikiLeaks]
    • Assange’s “already assassinated” comment, clarified

      A Wikileaks volunteer points to this as the source of that reference: a report of Wikileaks writers in Kenya having been killed in 2009. I cannot yet confirm the content of the article, but I’m updating the blog to note that this is what Assange was referring to.

    • Wikileaks: Manning’s attorney on the laws he’ll use to fight inhumane treatment

      David House, a personal friend of Manning, visited him in the brig over the weekend, and plans to blog about the conditions on Firedoglake.

    • My Exclusive Interview with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

      ASSANGE: Well, I have been a member of the Australian press union for many years. I co-authored my first book when I was 25 and have been involved in setting up the — the very fabric of the Internet in Australia since 1993 as a publisher.

      So quite interesting that this is something that is being raised.

      It’s — it’s actually a quite deliberate attempt to split off our organization from the First Amendment protections that are afforded to all publishers.

      You know, as time has gone by and our journalism has increased, I’ve been pushed up into senior management, into a position where I manage other journalists. I now even am in a — in a position where I’m managing the interrelations between “The Guardian,” “Spiegel,” “The New York Times,” “Al Jazeera” and so on, which were used in — in our last production.

      So, yes, unfortunately, I don’t write that much anymore, because I’m busy being editor-in-chief, coordinating the actions of other journalists. But a quite deliberate attempt to split us off in the mind of the public from those “good” traditions of the United States, protecting the rights of the press to publish, to split us off from the support of the press in the United States, the support of journalists.

      Some of those journalists have fallen for that.

      And why?

    • Freedom is Sexy: Julian Assange
    • Issues and challenges for the post-Cablegate world

      Already the birds are chirping (they’re not tweeting anymore) about WikiLeaks and its Cablegate affair, how it came to be, how it got blocked, how it got filtered, DDoS’ed, removed from Amazon’s cloud service, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, how its founder became wanted by the Interpol and arrested for sex crimes, how a 16-year old boy was arrested for DDoS’ing etc. etc., so I won’t bother you with this. Also I am not really interested much in what the cables say and whether they should have leaked or not.

      No, this post is about what I think we have to watch out after Cablegate.

      In all honesty, I think that traditional media and the general public will get bored with WikiLeaks and forget about it in about a months’ time. That is unless WikiLeaks has some pretty well-planned and well-timed tricks up his sleeve (which still may be the case).

      [...]

      And let us not forget that ACTA is still hanging above our heads. This is not the time to get sidetracked. In fact, we should fight harder to stop ACTA! Chances are that governments might try to pass it as soon as it can in the wrong fate it would prevent future such affairs.

      We need to remember that this problem was not triggered by Cablegate, it merely put it in the limelight.

    • Community and Context: Thoughts on Closing Comments

      This afternoon, several of our readers questioned our decision to close the comment thread on Jaron Lanier’s post about WikiLeaks, “The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy.” The discussion transformed into an extended Twitter conversation with some of my favorite writers, professors, and readers about the ethics and strategy of that decision. I’d like to walk through my thinking with you all here.

    • Jaron Lanier’s Virtual Reality

      What the Wikileaks cables show is precisely that those sanctioned “secretive spheres” are not currently accountable to the civilian sphere. They show all the shady deals made in backrooms, the outright lies told to the public to keep us quiet, the connivance with big business to ensure that profit comes before ethics.

      Lanier’s logic seems to be that everything’s fine and the revelations of Wikileaks will only mess things up. And until Wikileaks’ revelations, people might have gone along with that analysis, since that was the story that governments were feeding us. But in the wake of Wikileaks, that is simply not a tenable position: as the words of diplomats delineate time and again, everything is not fine, and the social pact of accepting those “secretive spheres” in return for a responsible use of the advantage they bring has been broken.

    • Julian Assange’s All-Star Legal Team: the Starting Lineup

      It seems that with every new story about the plight of Julian Assanage, we are introduced to another member of the WikiLeaks leader’s legal team. Let’s remake the acquaintance of these accomplished attorneys before he hires another one and we lose track again.

    • Lawmakers Must Respect Freedom of Expression in Wikileaks Debate

      The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a broad coalition of advocacy organizations sent an open letter to U.S. lawmakers today, calling on government officials to respect freedom of expression in the debate over the whistle-blower website Wikileaks.

    • American Soldiers Should Be First in Line To Defend Bradley Manning

      If average soldiers were to operate under this assumption, moreover, political and military elites would be forced to take the time to actually hide any truly sensitive documents from the view of hundreds of thousands of people, as they should have been doing from day one.

    • WikiLeaks Joins Forces With Lebedev’s Moscow-Based Newspaper Novaya Gazeta

      President Dmitry Medvedev said the documents published by WikiLeaks don’t hurt Russia’s interests and that the Russian authorities don’t care what’s being discussed in diplomatic circles.

      “When people communicate, they sometimes use very harsh language and if such a leak had happened from our Foreign Ministry or secrete services, many of our partners, including Americans, would have got an emotional charge after reading ‘kind words’ about themselves,” Medvedev said during a meeting with students in Mumbai today.

      WikiLeaks was condemned by the U.S. government for posting thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic and military documents. Assange was released from a London prison on bail on Dec. 16. He turned himself in to British authorities Dec. 7 after Sweden issued a warrant for his extradition on counts of sexual molestation and rape.

    • WikiLeaks partners with Russian paper for Kremlin corruption dump
    • Wikileaks – The Movie (“The social leak”)
    • Three-Strikes “Typhoid Mary” Identified Via Wikileaks

      While official channels want us to focus on Julian Assange, the real meat of Wikileaks is not the leader but the leaks. And news from Spain suggests we should be learning from those leaks.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • UK’s infrastructure will struggle to cope with climate change, report warns

      Britons might have to get used to power blackouts and disrupted travel plans as the country struggles to cope with the long-term effects of climate change, a report for the government has warned.

      Consumers will have to learn they cannot expect cheap heating and lighting and to go where or when they want as floods, rising temperatures and higher sea levels threaten the UK’s road, rail, water and energy networks, it says.

      If that warning was not sombre enough in a month when air, rail and road travel has been badly hit by the weather, mighty storms and changes in wind direction could threaten some of the country’s busiest ports and airports. That would mean the abandonment of coastal docks and increasing pressure for the building of new runways throughout southern Britain.

  • Finance

    • CONFIRMED: Bank Of America Is The Wikileaks Target

      Update: The interviewer claims that Assange never personally said Bank of America was a target, and that the news was falsely reported by AFP.

      Update: Everyone has suspected it, but it was never officially confirmed by Julian Assange: Bank of America is the bank he has tons of documents on.

      He made the comments in his Times of London interview, but that interview was behind a paywall, so nobody really noticed the news

      Now we can stop presuming that it’s the bank. Now it’s just a question of what he has, and whether it’s as damaging as he thinks it is.

    • Confirmed (?) Wikileaks’ next target is Bank of America (UPDATE)

      Buried in that Times of London article you didn’t read because it was behind a paywall was confirmation by Julian Assange that Wikileaks will release a very large cache of documents about Bank of America, to be released in early 2011.

      “We don’t want the bank to suffer unless it’s called for,” Assange told The Times. “But if its management is operating in a responsive way there will be resignations,” he said, without giving details about the material.

      Oh, and,

      Assange compared WikiLeaks’ “persecution” to that endured by Jews in the US in the 1950s.

    • Bankster robberies: Bank of America and friends wrongfully foreclose on customers, steal all their belongings

      The NYT reports on a growing phenomenon of wrongful foreclosure by US banks on homeowners who are caught up on their mortgage payments — and on homeowners who have no mortgage at all. In some cases, homeowners return from vacation to discover their locks changed and their every earthly possession sent to the dump (one woman lost her dead husband’s ashes when her bank burgled her ski chalet).

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Conservative links to Murdoch under scrutiny as private meeting revealed

      Rupert Murdoch’s close links to the Conservative party were thrown into the spotlight today after it emerged that the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, held a private meeting with the tycoon’s son, James, at which no civil servants were present.

      The meeting took place on 28 June, shortly after News Corp said it had made an offer to buy the 61% of BSkyB it does not already own.

  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • Who is behind the porn-block campaign?

      Who is Ms Suit?

      Well, intrepid reader Sugar The Pill sent us a link to this page which shows Ms Suit previously stood as a candidate for the Christian People’s Alliance.

      Want to know more? Here are her views:

      We must not forget the influence of the media: it needs much stronger regulation so that our young people are not constantly conditioned by violent films, video games and lyrics; pornography must be outlawed so that it cannot undermine marriage and the dignity of women and encourage sex crime. All schools should teach Christian values.

      In 2000 co-founded Mediamarch, a peaceful protest group “seeking stronger obscenity laws and restoration of basic decency to all media”.

      And now she has co-founded Safer Media, which has come out nowhere to be extensively quoted everywhere by the media. This is the BBC’s idea of balance.

      Compare that to the other side of the debate, the Open Rights Group, which has thousands of supporters and years of experience in evidence based campaigning.

    • BAA accused of banning passengers from filming travel chaos

      It seems that UK airport bosses are not content with keeping passengers in the dark as to when they will ever leave the ground. Angry passengers who’d rather be swilling their eggnog in foreign climes have told El Reg that British Airports Authority (BAA) staff are stopping passengers stranded at Heathrow – and other airports – from filming the ensuing chaos on their mobiles.

    • Judge Makes Feds Pay Pocket Change To Two Lawyers It Wiretapped Without A Warrant

      Yes, if you share a a few songs you love with others, you may get fined millions of dollars, but if you’re the US government, and you violate the 4th Amendment by spying on people without a warrant, you get fined $100 per day. And only for the two people who were able to bring a lawsuit because you screwed up and sent them the details of how you wiretapped them without a warrant. For everyone else who was wiretapped (or is still being wiretapped) without a warrant, you’re out of luck, unless the government makes the same mistake with you, and then you go through years of trials to get $100 per day of wiretapping for your troubles.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • The FCC’s weak new “open Internet” rules

      Republicans and their house organ, Fox News, talk about Tuesday’s vote as a “plan to regulate the Internet,” and they’re half-right. They mouth platitudes about freedom and liberty. They end up with a free-fire zone for corporations — an oligopoly of content and services for captive consumers.

      But they’re right to be wary of regulation, because we’ve seen the corrosive effect of regulation in so many other arenas already. The FCC is already a captive of telecom companies in its traditional operations. Why would anyone expect this to be any different when it comes to the Internet? And the law of unintended consequences tells us that any regulations would be sure to have effects we can’t foresee today. That’s the issue the network-neutrality advocates also usually fail to address.

      What wasn’t on the table in the FCC’s deliberations was actual competition. Unlike many other countries, the United States doesn’t require Internet providers to share their lines and networks. By “share” I don’t mean “give away” — this is essentially about renting capacity to other companies that want to be ISPs. That’s how the Internet got so big so fast in the first place: Phone companies were not allowed to prevent other ISPs from offering service on phone lines, but now they’re allowed to prevent similar competition, and the market is a stifling oligopoly as a result.

      If you think the Internet should be an enhanced form of cable television, you should be happy where we’re heading. If you think it should be the messy and complex result of what innovators want to create, and what customers at the networks’ edges want to do with the creations, you should worry.

    • The neutering of the Net: what the FCC ruling means

      Net Neutrality is a concept like ‘transparency’ — something that most people are vaguely in favour of without realising what it really means. One consequence of this is that they are not motivated to defend it when it’s threatened: it’s hard to fight for something that you only vaguely understand. And yet, in principle, it’s not that complicated. Dan Gillmor articulates net neutrality as “the notion that end users (you and me) should decide what content and services we want without interference from the ISPs”. In other words, they provide the pipes (for which they get paid) and leave us free to choose what we want to pull down through them.

    • MYTH – we need a tiered internet

      The telcoms are already feeding from both ends of the trough.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Debunking The ‘But People Just Want Stuff For Free’ Myth

      One of the popular myths we always hear about content-based business models these days is that “but people just want stuff for free.” This has been debunked so many times, it’s silly, but it’s worth debunking again. One of the easiest ways to debunk it is to show examples of people being more than happy to pay, even if the content at the core of what they’re paying for is available for free. We saw this, a few years back, when Trent Reznor sold out of his $300 “Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package” of the Ghosts I-IV album, even though all of the tracks were available as a free download under a Creative Common license. To some extent, we saw this ourselves, when we offered our own CwF+RtB packages, and the more expensive packages outsold the cheaper ones.

    • Copyrights

      • Spanish Legislature Rejects Hollywood-Backed Copyright Law Changes

        We’ve discussed in the past how Spain actually has somewhat more reasonable copyright laws than other parts of the world. It says that personal, non-commercial copying is not against the law and also says that third parties should not be liable for copyright infringement done by their users. This seems perfectly reasonable but, of course, Hollywood hates it.

      • Where Record Labels Ran Into Trouble: Monoculture

        In summary, farming theory suggests that anytime you rely on a single crop (monoculture) over a long enough period of time, you can expect something really awful to come along that will ruin you. Why? Because of the common genetic code that results when you have a single crop in a single location for so long. What inevitably happens is that there is a change in the environment: disease, new wildlife, slight or great variances in the temperature or amount of sunlight, etc. And because your crops are all essentially the same, they’re all affected. So, instead, the theory suggests that you should always have multiple crops in production. That way, if something comes along that wipes out all of your rice crops, you still have your corn and wheat. Multiple streams of income, so that there is no single point of failure.

      • Movie Group Will DDoS The Courts To Have File-Sharing Laws Weakened

        A movie interests association has just announced an interesting new strategy. Having previously focused on having The Pirate Bay blocked in their home country, ACAPOR – which recently had its emails leaked by Operation Payback – says it will now make legal history by reporting unprecedented numbers of file-sharers to the authorities. Their aim? To have the law for infringements made less severe.

      • Harvard Newspaper Staff Apparently In Need Of A Lesson On Copyright Basic

        Copycense points us to an editorial in the Harvard Crimson apparently supporting the MPAA’s new demands to universities that they need to police their local networks to stop students from file sharing. The editorial has tons of problems — starting with the fact that it ignores that the MPAA lied to get the law passed in the first place. But the editorial has much more serious problems, and makes you wonder what they’re teaching students at Harvard these days.

      • Judge Orders Hearing To Deal With All ACS:Law File-Sharing Cases

        Following last month’s failed attempt by ACS:Law to have default judgments handed down to 8 individuals accused of illegal file-sharing, the company’s allegations have again been heard in court. Detailing a case where ACS failed to get the defendant’s name right, a judge has now rounded up all of the company’s outstanding cases for a hearing next month. Things are about to get interesting.

      • RIAA, MPAA recruit MasterCard to help them police the Internet

        Two weeks ago, MasterCard felt the wrath of Anonymous Operation Payback-style DDoS attacks after refusing to process payments that were intended to fund WikiLeaks, the website which began leaking confidential US diplomatic cables last month. Now, the company is preparing to head down another controversial path by pledging to deny transactions which support websites that host pirated movies, music, games, or other copyrighted content.

      • Pirate Bay’s Carl Lundstrom appeals appeal

        Carl Lundstrom, often tagged as the financier to The Pirate Bay, has “formally appealed to the Swedish Supreme Court against the denial of the party’s previous appeal in late November”, says Deutches Welle.

        “In an interview with Sveriges Radio’s P3 news program, Lundstrom’s attorney, Per E Samuelsson, said that his client does not accept the sentence of four months of jail time for himself, and a collective fine for him and the three other defendants of 46 million Swedish kronor (5.1 million euros)”, says the story.

      • ACTA

Clip of the Day

Wikileaks – The Movie (“The social leak”)


Credit: TinyOgg

IRC Proceedings: December 22nd, 2010

Posted in IRC Logs at 3:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log

Enter the IRC channels now

ES: 2010 El Año en que Microsoft se Convirtió en un Sistemático Matón de Patentes

Posted in Microsoft, Patents at 3:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Anxious puppy

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: El año pasado puede ser recordado como el año cuando la agresión de patentes de Microsoft y el número de demandas presentadas superaron casi el número de nuevos productos.

Un resumen de los fallos de Microsoft es algo que esperamos anunciar alrededor del año nuevo, porque hay mucho para ponerse al día y con muy poco que decir acerca de los nuevos productos de Microsoft, hay casi NINGUNO. En lugar de aportar valor al mercado de Microsoft ha presenta juicios de patentes, dirigidos contra los similares a Motorola y Salesforce (Motorola lucha contra el demandado y el ITC (Comisión de Comercio Internacional) ha dado el “OK”).

Para Microsoft, 2010 no sólo fue un año de los despedidos. Fue un año de éxodo y litigios[http://news.cnet.com/2702-10805_3-989.html], CNET afirma (aunque no con estas palabras). Techrights ya no se centra tanto en Microsoft, porque mirando el largo plazo, Microsoft es un pequeño reproductor. En cuanto a Novell, es la historia. Así que en vez nos centramos en las cuestiones más importantes, una de las cuales son las patentes de software. No sólo las empresas como Amazon y Apple, que esta promoviendo las patentes de software, la “pseudo industria” de abogados de patentes también es una parte importante de este problema y algunos de los culpables de publicar nuevos libros[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bna-books-new-2010-cumulative-supplement-to-electronic-and-software-patents-law-and-practice-second-edition-keeps-pace-with-evolving-changes-112005539.html] al respecto. Se esta tratando de imponer impuestos en maneras nuevas y creativas a la gente, en esencia saquear desarrolladores de software para el ENRIQUECIMIENTO DE LAS PERSONAS QUE FUERON A LA ESCUELA DE LEYES. Esto no es beneficioso para la sociedad, es un desperdicio y muy estresante.

“Smart Phone rivalidad juega en Juicios de Patentes”, dice este nuevo título de NPR[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=132144741] y AP Tecnología NewsBrief dice[http://www.techzone360.com/news/2010/12/17/5202284.htm]:

La competencia entre los fabricantes de teléfonos inteligentes se está calentando al por menor, en la publicidad y, cada vez más, en la sala del los tribunales cuando los fabricantes de teléfonos y el software de ejercen demandas de patentes para proteger su territorio y frenar a sus rivales.

Lo bueno de este caos en el mercado móvil es que ayuda a convencer a más gente que el sistema de patentes está roto y es necesario un cambio urgente. teléfonos móviles del pueblo no son simplemente tan bueno como podría ser, debido a las patentes, por supuesto. Hay algunos a favor de “derechos de propiedad intelectual” la propaganda de China [[1], [2]], pero le falta el punto de que China se desarrolla ahora a pesar de – no porque – de “derechos de propiedad intelectual”. Aquí es un escritor anónimo que dice [http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-home-energy-audit-with-just-a-thermostat/]:

Divulgación: a pesar de muchos periodistas y analistas de las patentes de desprecio y se quejan de que las patentes, en particular las patentes de software, ahogan la innovación, creo que la propiedad intelectual sigue siendo la base de Silicon Valley.

Los capitalistas de riesgo son a veces opuestas las patentes de software también. Corazonada de quién es que dice que las patentes de software son buenos para la innovación, a pesar de la falta de pruebas? El autor no tiene nombre en este caso y Yuankai Tang de los demás artículos no ha ofrecido ninguna información. De cualquier manera, a una inspección más cercana, a menudo resulta que los que promueven las patentes de software en la prensa son los ABOGADOS de PATENTES hecho de que se benefician de “impuestos” estos algoritmos no deseados. █

ES: Compadrazgo de Patentes

Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Patents at 2:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Osborne house

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: Falsa representación de los intereses europeos e internacionales por parte de Microsoft y un embajador de EE.UU.

Ya es suficientemente malo que los abogados de patentes hayan secuestrado el sistema de patentes que estaba destinado a servir los científicos, muchos políticos tienen una experiencia profesional en la ley y que tampoco están ayudando a que los intereses que sirven son atados a sus compañeros con los que posiblemente fueron a la universidad. En un futuro próximo vamos a tratar de reunir las pruebas que ya tenemos y se presentaremos ejemplos.

Por el momento, la FFII (Fundación para una Infraestructura de Información Libre) se queja[http://twitter.com/FFII/statuses/17224401263009792] de que “Barroso[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Manuel_Barroso], un ex-maoista y ex-comunista daña la dignidad de su cargo” porque Microsoft va a realizar el Gobierno del Foro de Liderazgo[http://www.microsoft.eu/Videos/Viewer/tabid/163/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/793/Securing-Europes-future-innovation-and-technical-progress-are-key-says-Barroso.aspx]:

Como el Presidente de Microsoft Internacional tuve el honor de acoger el Foro de Liderazgo de Gobierno (GLF) de Londres.

Un evento que reúne a los líderes gubernamentales de toda Europa, así como de las instituciones de la UE. GLF siempre le ofrece una dinámica, y en tiempos difíciles debate, y este año no fue la excepción.

Microsoft esta en la gestión de Europa ahora? Techrights debe haber perdido el memo. Este tornillos de las políticas europeas y documentos como EIFv2, como vamos a cubrir en el próximo post. La FFII[http://twitter.com/FFII/statuses/17224303317614592] añade: “¿Tienen miedo del fin del impuesto irlandés dumping?” Para aquellos que no lo hace, Microsoft ha dispuesto de tal manera que Irlanda seá su paraíso fiscal[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_-_Tax] en Europa. Ese es otro ejemplo de las LEYES QUE SE ESCRIBEN POR LAS CORPORACIONES, PARA LAS CORPORACIONES. ¡Qué absurdo e indignante que debe ser ahora que la economía de Irlanda se está derrumbando. Una gran cantidad de tonterías en realidad viene del otro lado del Atlántico y “Embajador de EE.UU. en la ONU” afirma que “La protección de patentes y derechos de autor SON Más Importantes que el Desarrollo”, sugiere Techdirt[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101220/01525812337/us-ambassador-to-un-protecting-patents-copyrights-more-important-than-development.shtml]. Aquí es[tá el artículo similar sobre el embajador de EE.UU.[http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/12/17/us-ambassador-over-focus-on-development-will-kill-wipo/]. Se ha dicho:

A pesar de los avances en materia de patentes en las capitales, “este grupo en Ginebra parece empeñado en acortar estas patentes y crear más excepciones”. Sugirió estos países pueden estar motivados por un intento de impulsar el mercado de sus industrias nacionales de medicamentos genéricos.

Las leyes internacionales de propiedad intelectual vienen con una función de las excepciones y limitaciones a los monopolios y la exclusividad de la concesión de derechos. Pero King dijo que “si se crea demasiadas excepciones a una regla, es mejor no tener la regla.”

Europa está sitiada por el partidismo de EE.UU. que subvierte las leyes de copyright y de patentes en Europa (Wikileaks/Cablegate afortunadamente sólo descarriló la subversión de los derechos de autor de España). No pretendo ofender a ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos[http://techrights.org/2010/11/20/esp-america-pov/], sino ayudarles a ver el elemento bribón que deberían quitarse de encima, por su propio bien. Observen las noticias inquietantes de Techdirt[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101220/02310112338/appeals-court-says-again-that-diagnostic-tests-are-patentable.shtml], que opina que las patentes de genes también puede ser legitimadas en los Estados Unidos. después de esta cosa:

Sin embargo, como nos preocupamos, el año pasado la CAFC (Tribunal de Apelaciones del Circuito Federal de los EE.UU.), como lo ha hecho tantas veces, ha estado de lado de los titulares de patentes. Este verano, cuando la Corte Suprema decidió Bilski, una cosa que pidió hacer CAFC era reconsiderar el caso de Prometheus. Ahora es el hecho, y no mucho ha cambiado. Una vez más, CAFC ha dicho que las pruebas básicas de diagnóstico podrán ser patentables. Muchos también piensan (probablemente con razón) que este es un buen indicio de que CAFC también revertir una sentencia de primera instancia en el caso de Myriad Genetics, relativa a si los genes son patentables. Si las pruebas de diagnóstico son patentables, por qué no los genes? Por supuesto, todo esto realmente significa es que más pronto o más tarde, el Tribunal Supremo va a tener que sopesar de nuevo, y no es de esperar que se despeje el tema como lo hizo en Bilski.

Este es aclamado por los abogados de patentes[http://gametimeip.com/2010/12/21/cafc-again-refuses-chance-to-give-bilski-test-teeth/], pero ¿qué pasa con todos aquellos que no sólo estan impuestos a todo el sistema? El sistema de patentes no se diseñó originalmente para proporcionar puestos de trabajo sólo a más abogados. Algo está terriblemente distorsionado aqui.

Eduardo Landaveri adds (in English):

Did it really happen: (Wikileaks/Cablegate has fortunately just derailed the subversion of Spain’s copyright law).? If so I’m so glad. I was worried about because of so many “Vendolas” showing up lately. Hats Off to the people of Spain!

We should add to the America Hall of Shame:
Betty E. King – US Ambassador To The UN: Protecting Patents & Copyrights More Important Than Development
That’s ludicrous & shows complete disregard for other countries sovereignties just to please her Corporate Masters.

Europe should watch out of ex-Maoists or ex-communists like Barroso or Vendola many end up like the later selling out her/his country sovereignty & future.

Many thanks to Eduardo for his timely translation. █

“Software Patents to Get Their Way in New Zealand”

Posted in Law, Patents at 2:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Lake Tekapo

Summary: New Zealand is still under threat from software patents, not just when they are formulated with the “device” trick

LAWYERS and multinationals in New Zealand have been attempting to legalise software patents over there and the HTML version of this new document suggests that “[s]oftware patents to get their way in New Zealand,” says the FFII’s president. To quote just one part:

20. The mere identification of any physical step or any physical element within claimed subject matter is not equivalent to a claim to a new principle as “an artificially created state of affairs” within the context of a “manner of manufacture”. That is, the mere identification of the presence of any physical interaction in a claimed invention would not be sufficient to render something patentable if the contribution would not otherwise be patentable.

People of New Zealand should stay vigilant because companies like Microsoft plan an attack (extortion offence) against rivals and right now the laws are being changed around the world to make such an attack legally applicable. It’s not different from what Hollywood does to copyright law, e.g. with DMCA. █

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