Bonum Certa Men Certa

Techrights and Microsoft

Techrights on grid



Summary: Why Microsoft matters less and why we must still keep track of Microsoft nonetheless (mainly due to patent lawsuits)

BACK when this site led a push against Novell, it was evident that Novell was a fairly strong company. In 2006 it had one of the best GNU/Linux distributions for the desktop, namely SLED 10 with XGL. Microsoft then stepped in and ruined it for Novell, harming the momentum and also ensuring that any of Novell's momentum would become Microsoft's (Mono, Linux tax, and so on). Microsoft's parasitic nature capitalised on patents that year. It devoured whatever parts of Novell it found valuable and in 2009 Novell was already out of breath. So we started concentrating on Novell's masters at Microsoft, spending the next year or two going through many of Microsoft's behavioural patterns that recur in the news. We also documented selected Comes vs. Microsoft exhibits, which offer a look back in time. There came a time in late 2010 when almost any story we covered was deja vu-filled and even a case of repetition with new examples. So we started focusing on the mechanism which Microsoft was exploiting (by that stage, Apple had already joined Microsoft's cartel-like efforts). Yes, we are talking about patents. I spent an hour talking to a friend today about how the Western system depends on so-called 'IPR' to ensure it gets paid without producing. Our recent Cablegate posts show the political process -- including back-room deals and secret treaties -- that are necessary to impose this system on producing nations which oughtn't have interest in IPR. We hope that going deep into the core of the issue, even if this done by using secret communications/leaks, will help advance the Free software ideology. We never hid this 'agenda', which is mostly ethical as it promotes equality and freedom.



So getting to the main point, this site was never about Microsoft even though it covered a lot of Microsoft after Novell had become insignificant. Some detractors of this site did try to portray it as a case of "zealotry" against Microsoft, even though we criticise a wide range of companies large and small, from small FUD shops to giants like IBM and GE (we also praise many companies, including those that we criticise when they do something positive). They are far, far bigger than Microsoft. Based on this new report that a reader sent us yesterday, Microsoft has become the company that can't grow (while Apple and IBM both pass it in terms of market cap). Quoting the opening part:

A rising tide of investor agitation over Microsoft Corp's static share price and bulging cash hoard made no mark at the software company's annual meeting with Wall Street analysts and fund managers on Wednesday.


Linux is a major part of Microsoft's problems, but it is not being called "Linux". As Pogson points out, Android has doubled while Ballmer is forced to admit failure:

Two major players are increasingly dominating the smartphone OS market: Apple with its iOS-based iPhones and Google’s army of Android devices. Microsoft wants a piece of the smartphone pie as well with Windows Phone 7 (WP7), but so far its efforts have fallen way short.

According to AllThingsD, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated at the Microsoft financial analyst meeting that, "We haven’t sold quite as many as I would have liked in the first year." Ballmer did insist that the company is working hard to make the WP7 platform more appealing – the upcoming “Mango” release will help quite a bit on this front.


Microsoft is also trying to make a lot of money out of Android. It is regularly being reported that Microsoft makes more money from Android (through patent extortion) than from its own platform. This is why, despite the decline of Microsoft, Techrights simply cannot ignore this company. Keeping track of Microsoft is common sense, not an obsession. We will diversify a bit as time permits while priorities change; the goal is still to protect the freedom of software and thus empower software developers. It's not about Microsoft.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: An Evening at the Fair and Fast Fourier Friday
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 10, 2025
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day