10.18.12
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft Tries Taxing Linux With Patents, Lock-in, or Altogether Lock Linux Out
Bricking hardware for Android
Summary: Dirty tactics from Redmond as we see them used against Android or its underlying kernel, Linux
The anti-FOSS camp has helped arrange a pro-FRAND (software patents) meeting in Eurorpe, marking yet another example of lobbying success. Let’s face it; evidence suggests a gloomy forecast for Vista 8 and while Microsoft Office comes to Android it will not come to some versions of Windows. As SJVN said:
One of the attractions of Windows RT tablets to business was to have been that it was coming with a baked-in version of Office 2013. And, so it will, it’s just that you may, or may not, be able to use that edition for “commercial, nonprofit, or revenue-generating activities.” Say what?
Not to worry. Ex-Microsoft employee Zack Whittaker plants Microsoft tablets ‘ads’ in technology news sites. There is no disclosure of course. The last real resort Microsoft has got is Android tax (adding the Office tax or patent extortion costs) and preventing Linux from booting easily on hardware. Those are real options that are already actively pursued by the monopolist.
With UEFI, Microsoft has been exploring the latter route. Here is the journal of one Linux developer who wrestles with this issue. In his latest entry he writes:
One of the benefits of the Shim approach of bridging trust between the Microsoft key and our own keys is that we can define whatever trust policy we want. Some of the feedback we’ve received has indicated that people really do want the ability to disable signature validation without having to go through the firmware. The problem is in ensuring that this can’t be done either accidentally or via trivial social engineering.
Linus Torvalds said that UEFI would not contribute to security.
This is all about control — not the user’s — and it is about financial security for Microsoft. █
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Michael said,
October 18, 2012 at 1:35 pm
If Android is using MS IP why shouldn’t people who sell devices with Android pay MS?