Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Moonlight Reaches New Milestone So Microsoft Crowd Rejoices

"I saw that internally inside Microsoft many times when I was told to stay away from supporting Mono in public. They reserve the right to sue"

--Robert Scoble, former Microsoft evangelist



Summary: Preview of Microsoft Moonlight 2.0 is out and those covering it are mostly Microsoft fans

Information Week reminds readers that Microsoft is still attacking Linux by putting its patents inside it, e.g. FAT.

Although Microsoft asserted in a May 13, 2007, Fortune magazine article that it had concluded open source code violates 235 of its patents and the Linux kernel in particular, 42, it only claimed TomTom was infringing on three of its patents.


Raising of this issue in public may be valuable. After many years of letting FAT be absorbed everywhere Microsoft is attacking Linux using secret patents (some would maybe suggest that these are submarine patents). Technically, It's a patent ambush.

“Novell is the owner and biggest promoter of Mono, for which it acquired exclusive protection from Microsoft (due to expire in January 2012).”As an optimistic note, it seems as though Mono's grip on GNOME is being eroded. The project known as Gnote is a new GPLv3-licensed fork of Tomboy, which is the only GNOME application that brings with it a whole Mono stack to GNU/Linux distributions. Gnote is written in C++ by a gentleman whom Novell fired. Novell is the owner and biggest promoter of Mono, for which it acquired exclusive protection from Microsoft (due to expire in January 2012). As the TomTom case shows, not even "promise[s] not to sue" and de facto pseudo-standards make one safe from this aggressor's lawsuits. FAT was the equivalent of bait for a submarine patent, which is now causing great trouble to some distributors of GNU/Linux; they need to provide access to FAT-formatted USB devices, among other media.

No Lessons Learned at Novell



Microsoft bloggers are currently promoting the new release of "Microsoft Moonlight" (that's what they it), which tells us how Microsoft views the work of de Icaza. He helps Microsoft with this Mono- and Microsoft-dependent project. Gavin Clarke and his friend (partly colleague) Mary Jo Foley join others in the Microsoft crowd to celebrate the spreading of Microsoft formats on the World Wide Web. Prudent observers like Timothy who is Unix-oriented are not terribly excited. As he stated some days ago:

Microsoft challenges IBM to Websphere duel



[...]

The gauntlet was thrown down by Steven Martin, senior director of developer platform marketing at Microsoft, who launched a site called WebSphereLovesWindows to show off the results from some intricate benchmark tests that the nerds at Microsoft's labs have done to show how WebSphere on AIX iron stacks up to WebSphere running on Windows or the same application ported to C# and not using WebSphere at all, but the Windows stack.

(This site requires you to install the Microsoft equivalent to Flash, Silverlight, and I have managed thus far to avoid installing it. Because I'll give you a direct link to the PDF, which is here. Now you don't have to install Silverlight, either).


Readers also ought to watch the latest addition to this Rhythmbox/Banshee debate. The Mono team is still trying to push Banshee, which is a Mono application, into the core of Ubuntu.

2009.05.05 mrooney: I think it would be great to come into this session with a list of bug reports corresponding to any regressions of switching to Banshee, as a result of features Rhythmbox has that Banshee doesn't. It should be easier to weigh the pros and cons then, and give the Banshee developers a heads up of what would need to be implemented. Shall I create a wiki page for this spec and add this as a section?


This is part of an ongoing problem. Mono only belongs in Novell's SLE.

"There is a substantive effort in open source to bring such an implementation of .Net to market, known as Mono and being driven by Novell, and one of the attributes of the agreement we made with Novell is that the intellectual property associated with that is available to Novell customers."

--Bob Muglia, Microsoft President

Recent Techrights' Posts

No, Microsoft Didn't Lay Off So Many People Because of "AI" "Innovation" or "Efficiency" or "Era" or "Revolution" Etc.
Debunking one very common lie
What We Do When We Say "GNU/Linux" to People
It talks about "Linux", "GNU", and what it means to say "GNU/Linux"
Canonical Will Give You Money Only If You Work for Microsoft!
Only if you are servicing (being a slave to) proprietary forges that Microsoft and the NSA control while violating the GPL will Canonical give you money
There Are Also Loads of Microsoft LinkedIn Layoffs Today (Keep Track of the Subsidiaries They Keep Out of Headlines)
Perhaps lost in the smokescreen
There Are Bigger Rounds of Microsoft Layoffs Coming, a Cull of 10% Implemented in Waves (the "3%" Figure is Misleading, Face-Saving)
Last night we said they might do the layoffs in three or at least two waves
Unless a Third of All Microsoft Layoffs Worldwide Are in Redmond (Washington) Alone, Microsoft Has Just Lied to Everyone Via Jordan Novet in CNBC (i.e. the Usual Any Time There's Mass Layoffs and Novet Weighs in With False Numbers)
Maybe when Microsoft said 3% it meant ~6,000 or more in the US alone
 
VS Code Is Not FOSS, And Neither Is the Site "It's FOSS"
VS Code is proprietary spyware of Microsoft, yet this site keeps promoting it like it's FOSS
Links 14/05/2025: Facebook And Instagram Risk Nationwide Bans, Microsoft Subsidiaries Have Mass Layoffs Too
Links for the day
If Microsoft Staff That Strangles Woman Pays You to Write Lies, It Will Not End Well
The past couple of years were our most productive ever
Gemini Links 14/05/2025: "Writing My Story with Inspiration from Notable Lives" and People Start Shovelling Up LLM Slop Onto Geminispace,
Links for the day
Microsoft is Very Highly Stressed About Adoption of GNU/Linux at Windows' Expense (on Former "Vista 10" PCs)
What does this tell us?
Slopwatch: BetaNoise (BetaNews), LinuxSecurity, and Slopfarms Still Promoted by Google News
The primary goal is to demonstrate the problem persists
Links 14/05/2025: Google Agrees to $1.3 Billion Settlement After Spying, China Tariffs Don't Work
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Apocalyptic Future and More
Links for the day
McKinsey (McK) is Killing IBM, It's All About Killing This Goose, "National Sales Team 80% on PIP Now" (Preceding Layoffs Without Severance)
PIPs are not based on performance
Links 13/05/2025: Microsoft Breaks Windows Very Badly Again, Mass Layoffs Reported (But False Figures, It's a Lot Higher)
Links for the day
As Expected, Microsoft Uses Media Operative (Jordan Novet) to Downplay the Scale of Mass Layoffs
here we go
2025 Will be a Big Year For GNU/Linux on Desktops/Laptops
with an economy like this, people who don't live in rich countries won't turn to Apple
Signs of Trouble: Microsoft Job Openings for Jobs That Do Not Exist!
Keeping up appearances?
"Special Place in Hell" for Women Who Help Violent Microsofters From Another Continent Attack Local Women Who Did Nothing Wrong, They Just Got Bullied and Deserve Sympathy or Compensation
Nothing says "Brat" like men who attack women, right?
The Numbers Game: 50,000-60,000 Microsoft Workers Laid Off in 2.5 Years? And Debt Still Tripled Under Nadella.
under Nadella Microsoft's debt trebled
The Slow Death of Windows Will Mean the Inevitable Demise of Microsoft
Once people stop using Windows, it'll be hard for Microsoft to sell anything to them
Last Week's Public Talk by Richard Stallman Well Attended and Covered in Technical News Sites
and we're looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs in 3 years
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Shopping is an Exasperating Nightmare and Making Phones Minimal
Links for the day
23,000 More Microsoft Layoffs by the End of June If the Estimates Are Correct (In Addition to About 6,000 Layoffs So Far This Year)
There's no questions about many layoffs happening this month. It got leaked already. The only question is when (and also how many).
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 12, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 12, 2025
Major Microsoft Layoffs This Week (Discussed Online)
later we can expect a lot of spin, even misinformation
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Missed Deadline
they helped expose a number of other scandals
Links 12/05/2025: Measles Rising and Taliban Outlaws Chess in Afghanistan
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/05/2025: Advice, Iorist Ethics, and Touchscreens
Links for the day
The Finances of GAFAM Aren't as They Seem
MICROSOFT FINANCIAL PYRAMID revisited
Links 12/05/2025: US Brain Drain and Reminder That "Microsoft's Lobbying Efforts Eclipsed Enron" (Fraud Coverup)
Links for the day
The Enshittification of Royal Mail (Post Office/Postal Services) Continues
Enshittification is a thing, not only in the digital realm
Red Hat's Owner is Called "America's Worst Tech Company" (IBM) and Microsoft's Liabilities Grow
Microsoft has about a quarter of a trillion (yes, trillion with a "T") in liabilities
If the Gossip is True, Today Microsoft Has "Large M1 Meetings" to Discuss Almost 30,000 More Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
the claim is that Microsoft is preparing to lay off 10% of its staff
Microsoft Has a Long and Proven History of Funding Meritless Lawsuits Against Rivals and Critics (It Always Backfires)
It also looks like the solicitor used by two Microsofters to SLAPP us is being urgently replaced
Links 12/05/2025: Gardens and Kitchens
Links for the day
Links 12/05/2025: Media Being Attacked (New Forms of Attack on the Press), Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 11, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 11, 2025