BEFORE we begin this long post, here is a must-read background story to those who are not aware of Microsoft's abuses against the Indian people. This is part of Microsoft's EDGI in India [1, 2].
E-mail system of the Prime Minister's Office was under the grip of a computer virus for three months last year forcing officials to replace the software.
The technical glitch plagued the e-mail communication system of the PMO, which was based on the Microsoft Outlook Express, from February to April in 2008.
Although the extent of damage was uncertain, the PMO said that most of the e-mails addressed to it were not received.
Just read it this morning in TOI at page 7. PM Office has migrated to Linux based mailing solution. Its a great achievent for the Open Source Community in India.
Here goes the complete report
BUGGED Virus gripped PMO’s email for 3 months New Delhi: Email system of the Prime Minister’s Office was under the grip of a computer virus for three months last year forcing officials to replace the software. The technical glitch plagued the email communication system of the PMO, which was based on the Microsoft Outlook Express, from February to April in 2008.
“This article from the Times of India wrongly calls it a "computer virus". It's really a Windows virus.”Someone from Red Hat has just told us that "major Indian political parties support open source and open standards." Here is the relevant page and the vision of The Bharatiya Janata Party [PDF]. According to the person who sent this to us, this document "makes extensive reference to open source as an integral part of their IT plans. This was unveiled on Saturday, 14th March, 2009, by LK Advani who is their candidate for prime minister, if the BJP comes to power.
"The CPI(M), another major national party has been a long time supporter of free and open source software:
Indian prime minister-in-waiting and Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani of the BJP has come out with a stand that is seen to strongly favour Free Software and Open Source, released here today. While politicians are known to be lavish with pre-poll promises, Open Source campaigners were upbeat over the development.
IDG Ventures, Microsoft India partners to aid startups
Bangalore: In a bid to provide to aid the technology startups, IDG Ventures India and Microsoft India partnered to give access to Microsoft suite and funding of up to Rs.25 crore by IDG Ventures. Under the program Early Stage Funding Program, Microsoft will offer suite at no upfront cost under the company's BizSpark program and IDG Ventures will invest up to Rs.100 crore in startups.
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Camp organised by Microsoft India
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Guys and girls at this Microsoft camp
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Part of the Microsoft-sponsored tour
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Microsoft-sponsored tour
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Microsoft-sponsored tour
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
The luxury hotel where Microsoft put these students
[Picture removed at the request of the author]
The train whose costs Microsoft covered
Microsoft Bootcamp details
Microsoft runs something called "Microsoft campus club" in most of the famous engineering colleges in India (not only from Tamilnadu, there are participants from other states too ). The students of corresponding colleges are chosen to take care of this club, Microsoft calls these students as "Microsoft student partners" (shortly MSP).
They use these students to teach (brainwash/addict) other students with Microsoft’s technologies like Dot net, etc.
- These students mostly act as a ambassador of Microsoft in colleges
- They motivate students to take part in competitions like http://www.goalivechallenge.com/ (Web design contest by Microsoft, the only technology allowed is ASP.NET and Silverlight)
- They distribute free copies of Windows, if the academic institution has a academic alliance license (colleges have to pay 2laks to get this license... just heard from someone, not sure)
- Setting up Microsoft ELMS (details below)
- Recruiting the next MSP
About bootcamp: (Recently in Hyderabad, Andra pradesh)
It's a camp for these MSP's
Microsoft pleases/bribes the MSP's by providing them free copies of their DVDs, t-shirts, lots of small gifts... they take them to tour (like picnic :D see picture) They make the students to stay in luxury hotels (see pictures) and a lot more.
The main objective of this club is to get them addicted, get the education system in their control.
It's too bad... see how many students are getting cheated.
[...]
I haven't included any pictures that could show individual MSP's face for their privacy
“They wrote cheques for $200 to people who just dropped names of Microsoft products publicly.”Look back at the beginning of this post where we referred to solid proof that Microsoft had bribed professors even just to mention Microsoft software. They wrote cheques for $200 to people who just dropped names of Microsoft products publicly. It seems to be similar in parts of Europe.
Going back to India, it ought to be added that they also exploit schools for their "addiction" that's directed squarely at students. We have this leaked letter about Microsoft ELMS, which is how Microsoft achieves a lot of the above.
Again it's worth stressing: For those who think it's an India-only issue, well... it's not. Just looking a few days back at the news, we find similar stunts happening in Thailand. It's worth remembering dirty tricks that Microsoft was pulling in Thailand because there are some large adoptions/deployments there of OpenOffice.org. Let's not forget the OOXML irregularities in Thailand and Microsoft's EDGI over there [1, 2]. Well, right now Thailand is being further manipulated by a Microsoft top executive who visits the prime minister. Microsoft is trying to extend an "e-Learning project" by another 5 years.
The commitments discussed with the prime minister included a five-year extension of the Partner e-Learning project, a re-training project involving 2 million unemployed workers in Thailand, and a three-year joint research and development project with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).
--Famous quote, Anonymous
Comments
RaSh
2009-03-27 03:13:06
I don't really care about most of the post, as I'm not really bothered about someone who can't use Outlook or some random guy getting cash because he mentioned MS (Really?! I want cash too!). The only part that I'll point out is on the MSP (Microsoft Student Partner). And you've got nearly nothing right there! :P
1. Nearly all major companies today, (MS, Google, Sun etc) have student amabassadors/student partners. Infact Sun Ambassadors even get paid, apart from the other perks. And all of them are expected to promote the respective brands in & around their college.
2. Motivating students to take part in challenges like GoALive/Imagine Cup is wrong? Agreed, they want you to use a MS technology. But haven't you heard of other such events? IBM TGMC, Sun Code for freedom etc.? Each of these is aimed at promoting their own products (Why would they care to give random students prizes otherwise, eh?) :P
3. Microsoft Academic Alliance is just a simple program that your institute can register for (And it doesnt cost all that much) and lets every student use Original (Individual License) MS products (Including Windows, Visual Studio etc.) It's a little price the institute pays to give students access to technology for free (and stop piracy). And it has nothing to do with MSPs (Every student gets a license for every software. MSPs are only expected to tell the authorities about this program, if they don't know about it already!).
4. (Dunno anything about the leaked letter) :P
5. MSPs do not (can not) recruit other MSPs. They can, however, inform their campus students when they can apply for the test. Now that isn't something evil, eh?
Oh & one more thing. Do give C# & Silverlight a try. Or just check the MIX09 videos on what Silverlight 3 is offering and compare that with, say Adobe Flash/Flex or Java Fx (I'm not saying which is better. But just pointing that Silverlight surely isn't soooo bad that profs shouldn't teach it!).
Anyway one day when you'll believe that MS isn't all *evil*, you'll notice that products like Visual Studio, Expression Suite, XNA Game studio etc. are available FOR FREE to students (Read: Dreamspark). So you can learn and use them easily. (Adobe Master collection costs much more than your college tution fees) :P
Oops! MS is still *evil*. It's luring innocent students to use their softwares for free! Don't use it! Buy Adobe softwares (Wait, even this isn't open source!). Oh no, go look for Free & Open source softwares that can't do half the things (But they're better. They are Free. I mean they are Open Source. They'll become better in some time. A day or two.) This is just like saying, "look MS is giving me a thousand bucks, but no I won't take it, coz it's from MS! Who knows, it may have a virus!". :D
Stop hating MS so much. For a day atleast. Maybe then you'll see the other side of DreamSpark, BizSpark, Imagine Cup, Dream.Build.Play, MSNDAA, Live@Edu, Student2Biz, Faculty Connection etc.
Have a great time! -- Just another MSP :P PS: I couldn't attend that picnic. *Sigh*
Arun SAG
2009-03-28 12:13:36
The random guy is india's prime minister.And he can use Outlook and his whole office is damned by it.
>or some random guy getting cash because he mentioned MS >(Really?! >I want cash too!).
wow.so if some one gives him cash to burn india he will do too.
>Nearly all major companies today, (MS, Google, Sun etc) have >student amabassadors/student partners.
They aren't evil like M$.http://boycottnovell.com/2009/02/08/microsoft-evilness-galore/
>Motivating students to take part in challenges like GoALive/Imagine >Cup is wrong?
Its motivating students to smoke cigars and its a crime. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html#1
>Dunno anything about the leaked letter
You dont know anything.
>Do give C# & Silverlight a try.
**** you silversh*t
>are available FOR FREE to students
We need software which liberates people not free (of cost ) software.I need source code with the freedom to do whatever i want to do with it. can you get me one ?
“They’ll get sort of addicted [with windows], and then we [Microsoft] somehow figure out how to collect[money] sometime in the next decade.”-BillGate$
>Oh no, go look for Free & Open source softwares that can’t do half >the things (But they’re better. They are Free. I mean they are Open >Source.
"you are choosing to use a product that dictates you purchase or use another product in order for that first product to work.
Oh, you don't do that?
Got anti virus?
This says much about any person who is willing to sacrifice their freedom in exchange for not taking a few hours to learn something different. Something that does not dictate how you use your own machine." (from linuxlock.blogspot.com)
Its not about who is superior, its about where you get freedom.Guys like you do anything if some one pleases you with bribes.
RaSh
2009-03-28 12:52:20
First of all, I was being a little sarcastic in the first part. (The PM & Money part :D) Sorry it wasn't evident enough.
>>Dunno anything about the leaked letter >You dont know anything.
True. I happily accept what I don't know, instead of making baseless comments about it. Hence the comment about the Leaked letter. (Noticed how I didn't comment about anything else that's written here about MS? Unless I'm sure that you're wrong, I'm not going to just go around screaming "MS's \m/ every1 else sux!" :|)
>>Motivating students to take part in challenges like GoALive/Imagine >Cup is wrong? >Its motivating students to smoke cigars and its a crime.
>>are available FOR FREE to students >We need software which liberates people not free (of cost ) software.I need source code with the freedom to do whatever i want to do with it. can you get me one ?
Your comment about the competitions like Imagine Cup & GoALive is really funny. The products needed to participate are available for FREE to students, and most of them are much better than other alternatives (Take XNA Game Studio for an example). As far as open source is considered, I would anyday prefer an Open Source alternative IF it was as good/better than the product. I still use (Adobe) Photoshop & (MS) Office instead of GIMP & OpenOffice, because the latter lack a lot of features that I need. Simple.
>>Nearly all major companies today, (MS, Google, Sun etc) have student amabassadors/student partners. >They aren’t evil like M$
Thanks for the link, but your point is? Does it say even one word about Student partners/ambassadors? If you can't add anything usefull to the discussion, please don't. Random links about "How M$ is poisoning you!" isn't what I'm looking for.
>You are choosing to use a product that dictates you purchase or use another product in order for that first product to work.
If I'm using Linux/Mac, I'm still forced to run Windows Application (So I need to use Wine/VM Ware to run them). So your point is?
PS: Yes I do use an anti-virus, which is completely free. And I don't have a problem downloading 10MB of software to keep my OS AND Email experience safe.
>Its not about who is superior, its about where you get freedom.
Instead of talking all abstract about "Freedom" & "Pride" & "Life, Universe & Everything", could you please elaborate on what freedom do you expect & what all do you do with it? Not that I'm saying that MS will make everything Open source just because you say so, but I just want to know what all YOU will do with that freedom. Maybe you'll motivate my inner desire to break free from "M$ crap" (Replace with any better adjective that you generally use to refer to Microsoft).
>Guys like you do anything if some one pleases you with bribes.
Heh. Again, get your facts right before writting rubbish. I'm not paid anything by MS, nor have I got anything special for being a MSP till now (TShirt/ID Card don't count as anything great). In fact, there are times when I'm speaking from YOUR side, advocating Open Source & Free Software. But your narrow mindedness forced me to take this stance.
>>Do give C# & Silverlight a try. >**** you silversh*t
Pretty much tells about your attitude. If being "Anti-M$" means you make a fool out of yourself by not making a single relevant point in the discussion, then I'm more than glad that I'm not one of YOU. :|
PS: Next time, instead of using those "special characters" above the digits, please try & jot down a few logical arguments. That is, if you have any.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 13:16:36
RaSh
2009-03-28 13:26:44
And if by Web, you were referring to following Web Standards, then trust me I'll be the first one to agree with you on that. :)
PS: MSPs aren't hypnotized zombies which go around propagating MS everywhere. I do agree MS needs to get a few things right, but that doesn't mean you call them bribed, brainwashed cheaters :|
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 13:32:12
I never call them that. I hope that equipped with information that the mainstream media conceals and censors* people will make decisions that nurture a good society and people in India will learn the lessons of Gandhi about colonisation -- whether digital or one of physical presence.
If I go over the line in my assessment, please let me know so that I can correct or clarify.
__ *Editors or publication owners can do this due to fear, or wrath. I know this from personal experience.
RaSh
2009-03-28 13:38:43
"The main objective of this club is to get them addicted, get the education system in their control.
It’s too bad… see how many students are getting cheated."
That's the only reason I commented Roy. Sometimes the point we want to put forward doesn't sound the same to another reader! :)
I agree with your views about Digital colonisation, but I don't think it's possible in today's world, where everyone is aware of what's going on. Maybe that's why Silverlight is available for all browsers (one of the many examples of how MS is trying to change it's policies after the massive feedback they've been getting).
Anyway good to see someone's trying to find out facts that not many know about. Just ensure that your posts continue to be based on authentic facts!
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 13:41:04
Dan O'Brian
2009-03-28 14:01:03
Just like Gnash isn't the same product as Adobe's Flash, they still render the same content - presumably you even use Gnash, so don't be hypocritical in suggesting that Moonlight isn't Silverlight, because for all practical purposes it is.
If you really want to complain that Moonlight 2.0 isn't out yet, you could always exercise one of the Freedoms you pride yourself in having and contribute to the project ;-)
RaSh
2009-03-28 14:02:30
Just wrote that to point that MS does realize that not everyone uses only IE! :D And they aren't restricting some of their best technologies to just IE/Windows. :)
RaSh
2009-03-28 14:05:15
Quoting from http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight : Moonlight is an open source implementation of Silverlight, primarily for Linux and other Unix/X11 based operating systems. In September of 2007, Microsoft and Novell announced a technical collaboration that includes access to Microsoft's test suites for Silverlight and the distribution of a Media Pack for Linux users that will contain licensed media codecs for video and audio.
So well, it's now Open Source, available on majority of OS, across web browsers. And you can also develop Silverlight Apps in Linux, not just view them in your browser.
I guess MS isn't all that evil, eh? :D
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 14:06:19
RaSh
2009-03-28 14:15:47
From the site I mentioned above, I noticed that you can build apps (even Silverlight 2.0 is supported) and do most of what you can do with Silverlight on Windows. Plus, it's Open Source, so I guess you guys would be more than glad to make it better right?
I never heard so much when Adobe releases their Suites only for Windows/Mac. How come you guys aren't angry about that tiny GIMP you are left to use?
PS: Again I'll point out that unless you decide to change your attitude towards Microsoft, you'll always be biased. But then that's asking too much from a guy who runs a huge blog about how evil M$ is.
*Tired of commenting*
That's all folks! I guess wasting all this time here isn't worth it. :|
Dan O'Brian
2009-03-28 14:18:28
To Roy, I ask: if you don't intend to take advantage of your Freedoms, why bother having them?
I'm taking programming courses after my day job to get myself up to snuff so that I can hopefully start contributing to various FLOSS projects. I fully intent to exercise my Freedoms that Free Software affords me.
You don't have as much of an excuse. You don't have a full-time job or a family to take care of AND you already have a CS degree, so you are more than qualified (and have plenty of free time) to contribute to Free Software, yet you choose not to.
One has to wonder why not, especially since you like to go on and on about how great and wonderful Free Software is because of these Freedoms that you don't even care enough about to take advantage of.
Arun SAG
2009-03-28 14:33:20
You sound like a TOYA Boy. What is TOYA? http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2009/03/toya-boys-fight-linux-flow.html
Good excuse :D .
RaSh
2009-03-28 16:36:28
Oh & just to let you know, I do you Linux for batch scripting and python sometimes. But most of the applications that I need aren't there on Linux, so I see no reason to shift. And yes, I'm from a college where we promote both Linux & Microsoft, and I'm in no way against Linux.
Now before you comment again with some other interesting link, abuse or a new "Tag", here's an advice: Read my comments clearly and then comment only if it's something that'll add to the discussion, not random bullshit about MS. Please.
@Roy: Sorry about this. I just wanted to give my side of MSP. Wasn't expecting such unreasonable, illogical and personal remarks here. :|
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 17:01:52
Please understand what Silverlight is about (the "Microsoft Web") and don't help spread it. We wrote a lot about this before.
RaSh
2009-03-28 17:06:36
Anyway, I'll check the link. I've been using Flash for years, and I found Silverlight a much better alternative. Flash isn't even Open source (Nor is Adobe Flash free), so I don't know why I shouldn't switch to Silverlight.
Anything better you have in mind in place of Silverlight?
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 17:17:04
Web video has become very ubiquitous because of broadband and it's the main vital carrier of things like Flash. But at the same time we are in the midst of arrival of new technologies like HTML5+JS+SVG (see http://croczilla.com/svg/samples/ ). Firefox 3.5 will come with built-in Ogg support and Opera et al seem likely to follow suit. They were strongly in favour. SDKs will come too, so rich Web development with standards will be further simplified.
Help us open the Web, not give companies like Adobe and Microsoft ownership of it (along with media/DRM). That's what they want and the GNU Web site will tell you why it's dangerous.
Arun SAG
2009-03-28 19:37:58
Your colleague (gracelyne) has asked a wonderfull question in her blog
"What would you say - if OS(open source) ppl started giving out free distro cds…Wait a minute - they do ship free cds…So is that called making them addicted?? Well ,Forgive MS for being gracious and giving people a taste of their tools ! I can’t believe you think handing out free stuff can make them addicted *LOL* Its time I hahahaed @ you and your hapless cultism!"
When you redistribute FREE software (Free as in freedom) its not addiction.It’s sharing, helping your neighbour.Microsoft restricts people from redistributing copies of their software.
Most of those so called CD’s are developed by common people like you and me… not by a greedy abuser.
If you fell in love (aka:addicted) public software, in future it won’t hurt you, as its in public domain and open.
BUT, The CD/DVD’s you people distributing is controlled by a monopoly vendor called Microsoft and it has track record of breaking standards , illegally killing competition, defaming good organization and people (http://deepakphatak.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-is.html) If you teach silverlight or DOT NET what your are doing is just making the student to learn a PRODUCT.Engineering institutions should not do this they should teach PRINCIPLES. This makes the student/kid to depend on a particular technology controlled by a vendor.
Remember what billgates said “They will get sort of addicted and eventually microsoft will find a way to charge them”
More over a product/ technology which is not open to learn cannot make good science or cannot be used to teach kids. If you do so what you doing is teaching the kid how to use a product rather than how to develop one…
“Words from the famous star-wars movie episodes perhaps most aptly describe the Microsoft behaviour. I believe these were “Either you are with me, or you are my enemy”. Perhaps in the context of Microsoft, these should be rephrased as “Either you are with me in exactly the way I want you to be with me, or you are my enemy” –Professor IIT-Bombay
RaSh
2009-03-29 04:11:22
oiaohm
2009-03-28 14:40:13
HTML 5 + SVG + Javascript Yep basically silverlight/flash without the closed source bit.
Now for good message design HTML5 + 3d support.
True solution is not clone crappy closed source standards if we did you would still have to use right browsers for web sites.
Dan O'Brian
2009-03-28 15:04:29
...if only that were true :-\
The <video> tag, if everyone supported the same codecs, would have been awesome and useful. But unfortunately the supported codecs are browser/platform dependent.
Secondly, the other problem that <video> + SVG + JS doesn't solve is the ability to synchronize media playback with SVG animations or interaction. The video tag doesn't give you full control over the media which is a limitation that neither Flash nor Silverlight have.
While YouTube could most certainly be done with the video tag (assuming the HTML5 specification standardized a list of required codecs to support; which it didn't), that doesn't mean that other sites could be.
I read the other day that a guy from Mozilla was working on this, it's called Canvas3D or something and now that he has a fleshed out design, they are looking into getting it standardized. I forget the details, but I'm sure you can google it up ;-)
In other recent news, Microsoft apparently has Ogg/Vorbis and Ogg/Theora support in their upcoming Silverlight 3.0 - apparently it was mentioned (demoed?) at their recent MIX conference.
Dan O'Brian
2009-03-28 15:19:18
(Apparently I got the Canvas3D link from Mono's blog planet, of all places ;-)
http://blog.vlad1.com/2009/03/24/3d-on-the-web-its-go-time/
There's more information here:
http://blog.vlad1.com/canvas-3d/
Roy Schestowitz
2009-03-28 14:43:22
oiaohm
2009-03-28 15:25:53
Now the truth of the matter html 5 standard cannot say all browsers will have the video codec why. Because text base browsers exist. Most graphical browsers will support the complete list in the standard. Why because something like acid test will appear and pressure them into it.
Canves3d is only the start. I would really be taken a close look at what khronos is upto they are not going to stop as just opengl support in web pages. This is what kills off in time the rest of the advantage flash and silverlight has.
Dan O'Brian
2009-03-28 15:39:16
Since content providers would have to support video in multiple formats (in their best effort attempt at reaching the widest audience), suddenly they have vastly increased the size of their video archive (each video in multiple formats) which costs $$ and they've wasted time trying to get video to work in multiple browsers on multiple platforms which also cost $$. And then they have to support Flash or Silverlight anyway for their users that are still using "older" browsers (I say "older" here since there's no browsers currently released that support the video tag at all, nevermind browsers that are widely used).
In the end, I doubt we'll see content providers embracing the video tag.
Clarkson
2009-05-08 18:10:52
Arun SAG
2009-05-08 18:16:50
Dont click on those stars of your own comments :P
Roy Schestowitz
2009-05-08 18:35:53
Check your English. Don't invoke Godwin's law.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=51483&dict=CALD
molest (ATTACK) verb [T] FORMAL to touch, push, etc. someone violently: United Nations premises were looted and personnel were molested by demonstrators.
Uncle B
2009-05-08 17:53:20
Roy Schestowitz
2009-05-08 17:58:51
Clarkson
2009-05-08 18:08:48
Arun SAG
2009-05-08 18:13:12
piracy is now being done my those poor Somalians near indian ocean, your ship got hijacked?