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06.12.14

CAFC Shown to be Incapable of Ruling on Garbage/Disgraced Monopolies Time After Time, So Perhaps It Should be Barred From Ruling on Patent Issues

Posted in Patents at 6:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Thumbs down

Summary: Now that the US Supreme Court smacks down some more flawed rulings from CAFC (regarding patents) it is time not only to limit patent scope but also prevent CAFC (the court behind software patents) from ruling on patent scope ever again

There is a reason for cautious optimism when it comes to the US patent system. The bar is being raised by the highest court, dealing for the most part with business method patents. Here is a good article highlighting some background information:

If you want to blame someone for the explosion of patent litigation in recent years, a good candidate is the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That’s the appeals court responsible for handling appeals in all patent cases. Over the past decade, the Supreme Court has slapped down its rulings, which the high court has seen as too friendly to patent holders and patent applicants.

Here again we have ramifications for software patent — a subject that SCOTUS never directly addressed (not even in the Bilski Case). SCOTUS refuses to deal with many very important issues these days even with assassination (without trial) of US citizens by CIA drones and the protection of CIA sources by a journalist (Risen). There is actually a pair of decisions here, as noted earlier this month. To quote: “The US Supreme Court issued rulings this morning in two of the five patent cases it heard this term. In both cases, the high court unanimously struck down rules created by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the nation’s top patent court.

“The two rulings continue a pattern that has developed over the past several years, in which the Supreme Court has overturned key Federal Circuit rulings, finding them too favorable to patent-holders and too harsh on parties accused of infringement.”

Here is another report which says “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to make it easier to hold companies liable for encouraging others to commit patent infringement.”

Not everyone is happy about it. Quite expectedly, Fortune, a pro-plutocrats paper, promotes software patents because there is impact on them. To quote this one article: “For a method patent to be infringed, says the high court, the infringing party must deliberately perform all the steps.”

There are several other articles which allude to the effect on software patents.

While plutocrats’ papers continue to associate patents with achievement, it is rather clear that for patents to be effective a tool they should be scarce and hard to attain.

The CAFC clearly serves the interests of patent lawyers by always expanding the scope of patents and even copyrights. SCOTUS almost always vetoes it. The CAFC is the biggest booster ever of software patents and other such monopolies on software (API copyrights for example) because it is inherently incompetent or simply corrupt. To quote just one pundit: “What do you know? The Supreme Court has completely shot down two more decisions from the “patent appeals court,” which is supposed to be an expert in patent law. The court of appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), which was set up explicitly to cover “complicated” patent cases, has been getting shot down by the Supreme Court left and right over the past few years, often unanimously. It happened a month ago on fee shifting and it happened twice more today on key patent cases: Limelight v. Akamai and Nautilus v. Biosig.”

Let this remind us that CAFC issues decisions that are almost always the opposite of what’s just, especially when it comes to patents.

It should not be surprising to see overzealous patents boosters who are also patent lawyers (like Gene Quinn) scrambling to defend the CAFC, which is not a court but more seemingly a front for patent lawyers.

CAFC is apparently no longer a court but rather an occupier working at the behest of patent lawyers (just look what judges were added to CAFC, it’s more like entryism). It should be de-funded, re-booted, or altogether shut down. █

Apple Hopes to Enjoy Inherent Corruption in the Patent System and the Legal System

Posted in Apple, Patents, Samsung at 6:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Apple

Summary: Apple is reportedly trying to start a new wave of patent attacks on Android/Linux — a plan which failed after misconduct at the legal system had been made publicly known

The USPTO not only lost the ability to protect its reputation; this long-lost reputation or credibility loss is bound to get worse because scope is expanding and the number of approved patents is rising, to the point where almost every application is successful at one point or another (e.g. after resubmission). Recent numbers showed just how bad it was getting all around.

Here is a good new example of patent scope gone awry, even expanding to software (IBM to blame here). Here is another new example from
Apple, which enjoys support from the USPTO (it grants Apple patent monopolies on almost everything Apple wishes).

Apple continues using patents as a weapon against Android/Linux, seeking to tax and eliminate features. Apple pretty much lost the case, with just under a dollar charged per phone from Samsung, so any additional patent the USPTO grants Apple will almost certainly pose a threat to Free software. Apple wants billions from Samsung’s sales of Android devices, and that’s just from Samsung alone. Apple is pursuing patents on all sorts of exotic ideas that Samsung is not pursuing for aggressive purposes like Apple does. In pro-Apple sites one can find the expected bias (portraying Samsung as some kind of thief) as a new trial is expected, this time perhaps without a foreman conflict of interest (only corrupt trials have worked in Apple’s favour).

There is a good new article where a conflict of interest has led to a judge stepping down, proving perhaps that in the area of patents we rely on people in gown ideologically deciding on stuff with their dogma and vested interests.

The USPTO’s conflicts of interest (e.g. profit from patents) and conflicts of interest in the courtroom (e.g. Jury moles) may be beneficial to Apple at one stage or another, but if justice prevails one way or another (eventually), then Apple’s war on Android will always fail miserably at the end. █

06.08.14

Links 8/6/2014: Valve Funds Mesa Development, SQLite 3.8.5 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 3:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Diving into FOSS

        Before sometime I got in touch with KDE community and was overwhelmed by it. Then I became a member of this community and started exploring about open source environment. The most fascinating thing about KDE community members is how committed they are to open source technology. Through IRC I would be able to contact with genius coders all over the globe. It’s been quite a time that I am using open source software. It is very much important to aware people about open source. We can have access to all robust and efficient soft wares for free. After being a part of KDE it interested me to use open source systems and I am really enjoying this.

      • Plasma Active on Qt5/KF5: Wallpapers and Activities Configuration
      • The future of activity switching

        The new pretty thing that is taking away my time is the activity switcher which got a rather big revamp for the next release of Plasma.

      • Plasma mediacenter 1.3 beta on Arch User Repository

        As you already know, Plasma mediacenter 1.3 beta is released on 3rd June.

        Many distros like Fedora, openSUSE, KUbuntu have already packaged this beta in their repositories

        So to make life of Archers easier, I have uploaded PKGBUILD for Plasma mediacenter 1.3 beta on AUR.

      • GSoC 2014: KDE Games

        I am Anuj Pahuja(alasin), a Computer Science undergraduate from BITS Pilani, India. It is my first GSoC and I can’t thank KDE Community enough for accepting me as a student.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • Get Your Ubuntu to Look like Mac OS X with a Simple Theme

        Most of the themes that can pull this Mac OS X transformation work on desktop environments like GNOME, MATE, Xfce, and so on, but not all of them work in Unity. The designer of this particular version made it compatible with GTK 3.10 and it works in Ubuntu as well.

        “The goal is to keep it as close as possible to ambiance on the code base with the same look as the original cupertino. If that isn’t possible for an element I will prefer the look of cupertino,” said the designer on gnome-look.org.

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

      • Release Announcement: LinuxBBQ “Cream”
      • GParted Live 0.19.0 Beta 1 Gets New Debian Base Update

        GParted Live 0.19.0 Beta 1, a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86-based computers that can be used for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions with the help of tools that allow managing filesystems, has been released and is now available for download.

      • Robolinux 7.5.3 OS Wants to Keep You Safe from NSA

        Robolinux 7.5.3 is a fast and easy to use Linux distribution based on Debian, and its developer thinks that it can be the solution for people who look to protect their privacy.

        If you remember from previous releases of Robolinux, the developer of this particular distribution came up with a working idea on how to move people from the Windows platform to Linux without them having to give up their favorite applications.

      • SparkyLinux 3.4 LXDE, e17, and Razor-Qt Distros Are Based on Debian Jessie

        SparkyLinux 3.4, a lightweight, fast, and simple Linux distribution designed for both old and new computers featuring customized LXDE, e17, and Razor-Qt desktops is now available for download.

        The SparkyLinux 3.34 “Annagerman” system is built on Debian GNU/Linux “Jessie” and is not all that different from the previous versions in the series, at least not in this particular aspect.

    • Screenshots

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • OpenMandriva Lx 2014 review

        OpenMandriva Lx 2014 is the latest edition of OpenMandriva, a desktop Linux distribution derived from Mandriva Linux. It is one of the distributions that rose out of the ashes of Mandriva Linux; the other being Mageia, and, to some extent, ROSA Desktop.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Apple Copies Ubuntu, Pimping Scientific, and 500 Steam Games
      • The ultimate Scientific Linux pimping guide

        Several weeks back, we reviewed Scientific Linux 6.5, a rather spartan incarnation of the legendary RHEL 6, which might be considered too boring and outdated for modern home use. Well, not so. Once long ago, I showed you how to transform CentOS into a home use beast.

        Today, we will do it again, with the most comprehensive guide on Scientific Linux pimping ever made on Planet Earth. Here, you get a bit of everything, and then so. Best of all? This guide is also relevant for CentOS and even Fedora, so make sure you keep it close to your heart. Let’s go.

      • Fedora

        • Public Fedora Board Meeting — Monday June 9th 2014

          Matthew Miller just announced that fortnightly public Fedora Board meetings are starting up again. The first meeting will be on Monday the 9th of June at 17:00 UTC time. (Matthew notes in the email to fedora-announce that the command date -d ’2014-06-09 17:00 UTC’ is an easy way to convert this into the timezone on your Fedora machine.)

        • More fedora.next branding ideas

          We previously posted about some of the logo design ideas that Máirín Duffy was working on for the 3 products of fedora.next (Cloud, Server, and Workstation). Since that post, Máirín has also posted a bunch of other iterations, and I also entered the fray with a few ideas of my own. Now, Máirín has done another round of design ideas. Check them out, and join the discussion over on her blog.

    • Debian Family

      • Elive 2.2.6 beta released

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Apple introduces Unity Scopes-like search and no one cries foul

            This week, Apple announced the new OS X Yosemite, and Linux users across the Linux-verse stood up and proclaimed “Oooo, I’d like to lay my hands on the lily-livered swab is writ that forgery!” Why so up in arms? Because Apple has done what Apple does — riff on features from other platforms and claim they’ve recreated a wheel that will make your life far easier. What did they do this time? Let’s chat.

            One of the big features of OS X Yosemite is included in the Spotlight tool. For those who don’t know, Spotlight is the OS X search tool that, up until Yosemite, searched the local drive. As of Yosemite, anyone who has touched the Ubuntu Unity Dash will notice something very similar to Scopes.

            [...]

            When Ubuntu released Unity Scopes, a very large and very vocal group from the Linux community cried foul, that Scopes was an invasion of privacy, was insecure, and would probably steal their identity…

            …maybe not that last bit. But there was plenty of backlash from the community (many of whom didn’t even use Ubuntu).

            How will the Apple community react when they start using the Scopes-like feature in Yosemite? They’ll love it. They’ll realize how convenient it is to be able to, from one location, search their local drive, Wikipedia, Amazon.com, and countless other sources.

          • Ubuntu 14.04 – There has never been a better time to switch to Linux

            You would think that writing about the latest version of Ubuntu 14.04 would be easy but it is hard to write about one of the biggest Linux distributions without repeating everyone else’s sentiments or covering the same ground that was covered with Ubuntu 13.10.

            With that in mind please don’t be disappointed that much of what I will be writing here has been written before.

            There is nothing revolutionary about Ubuntu 14.04, especially if you have already tried Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 12.04. The improvements to Ubuntu have been slow and steady.

          • Meizu Will Present A Meizu MX3 Phone Running Ubuntu Touch, At The Mobile Asia Expo 2014

            Earlier this year, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) in Barcelona, Canonical has announced the first two phone manufacturers that will create Ubuntu Touch-based smartphones: Meizu and Bq.

          • More OpenSSL Vulnerabilities Found, Ubuntu OSes Get Patched

          • Flavours and Variants

            • An Ubuntu MATE Desktop Spin Might Still Materialize

              There’s been much talk in the past about creating a spin/derivative of Ubuntu Linux using the MATE Desktop Environment fork of GNOME2. While no spin materialized for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, talk of developing a new spin is again happening.

            • Ubuntu Might Get An Official Ubuntu MATE Flavor Soon
            • Linux Mint 17 Qiana MATE : Video Review and Screenshot Tour

              Linux Mint 17 Qiana is the latest version of linux mint that based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, it was released and announced by Linux Mint Developer a few days ago. Linux Mint 17 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2019. In addition, The Linux Mint developers plan to use this package base until 2016.

              Linux Mint usually comes with four desktop editions: Cinnamon Desktop Environment, MATE Desktop Environment, KDE and XFCE, although currently, only Cinnamon and MATE editions are available, XFCE and KDE edition should arrive shortly.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Your Android phone, now with NSA-grade security

        NSA-grade security is now coming to an Android device near you.

      • Tizen-powered Samsung Z smartphone with open source mobile OS

        The Samsung Z looks and feels very much like Samsung’s Android smartphones. There’s the tiles section at the top of the home screen, with some app icons at the botton, and there’s the pull-down notifications and settings tray at the very top. You also get the hardware Back and Menu buttons, in addition to the main Home button. The Settings app looks almost identical to Samsung’s Android version.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open Source Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Solutions

    LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is an application protocol for accessing directory services. It runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack incorporating simplified encoding methods, and offers a convenient way to connect to, search, and modify Internet directories, specifically X.500-based directory services. It is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol. LDAP utilizes a client-server model.

  • Nine Advantages of Open Source Software

    While it initially seemed revolutionary, open source software is actually rooted in traditional IT processes. Technology, after all, has always been about collaboration and continuous improvement. (In the early days of the ARPANET, for example, researchers established a “request for comments” procedure to improve the project.) Of course, there have been trepidations raised about open source. But the always-active open source communities are more than happy to address any concerns. As a result, more than one-half of the software acquired over the next several years will be open source, according to industry research.

  • SaaS/Big Data

  • Databases

    • SQLite 3.8.5 Arrives with New Features

      SQLite 3.8.5, an in-process library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine, has been released with an impressive list of changes and improvements.

      Most of the SQLite releases are maintenance ones, but from time to time the developers make some important changes. The current update features a few new options, so an update is recommended.

  • BSD

    • FreeBSD 9.3 Beta 2 Is Now Available

      One week after FreeBSD 9.3 went into beta, the second beta update is now available.

      FreeBSD 9.3 is the next major FreeBSD 9 update due out that brings down some features from FreeBSD 10.0 like the Radeon KMS/DRM driver support, Xen HVM support, Apple MacBook trackpad support, disables hardware random number generators by default, and has a ton of other changes.

      FreeBSD enthusiasts can find out more about the forthcoming 9.3 update via the tentative release notes. FreeBSD 9.3 is expected to be officially released in mid-July.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GNUstep’s position on Swift

      I wanted to make this post to make it clear to the community regarding GNUstep’s position on the new Swift language. If the language is released as open source then GNUstep will fully support it. If it is, however, not released as open source then we will either take steps to create an implementation ourselves or provide any assistance needed to a group of people other than ourselves who are willing to take that on.

    • We’re glad you liked Email Self-Defense. Let’s take it even farther.

      Yesterday was a big day for defending our freedom and privacy on the Internet. The FSF and its supporters joined the ranks of thousands for Reset the Net, the biggest-ever day of action against bulk surveillance.

    • Theming and Style in GNUstep

      Not only the pixmaps and colours can be changed, also the style of the interface. This include the menu style (vertical, in-window or Mac OS style), the scrollbar position (right or left), the behaviour of contextual menus, popup list and pulldown list (so these can have similar behaviour of the gtk components). The Silver theme include an style that let users run GNUstep’s apps on, for example, Gnome without problems.

    • GNU remotecontrol: Newsletter – June 2014

      GNU remotecontrol relies on OS file access restrictions, Apache authentication, MySQL authentication, and SSL encryption to secure your data. Talk to us you want to find out how you can further strengthen the security of your system, or you have suggestions for improving the security of our current system architecture.

    • GNU Nettle 3.0 Cryptographics Library Released

      The developers behind the Nettle project are out with a new major update to their dual-licensed GPLv2 and LGPLv3+ cryptographics library.

Leftovers

06.07.14

Lots of Coverage About FOSS Bugs, No Coverage About Intentional ‘Bugs’ (Back Doors) in Proprietary Software

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft, Security at 7:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Bugs inside blobs are also serious bugs, and sometimes there by design

Bug

Summary: The increased media coverage of bugs in security-sensitive FOSS projects reveals lack of desire to cover much bigger threats, including back doors in proprietary software such as Windows

OpenSSL has been somewhat of a whipping boy of the technology press. One reason is, OpenSSL is widely used, but another is that it’s known what the issues are (transparency) and the corporate media sure has agenda. We already gave the example of Dan Goodin, to whom security bugs are only news is they affect FOSS (here is his latest go at it) and now that GnuTLS bugs become public knowledge (after a public release with full source code) there is some more coverage that resembles what we found amid “Heartbleed” hype [1, 2, 3] (in both cases a firm with Microsoft connections claimed credit for other people’s discoveries and trumpeted FUD in the press). One can expect the same from Microsoft-funded ‘news’ networks like IDG and ZDNet, which merely covers an already fixed bug. To quote the summary:

The security team behind the Debian distro are urging users to upgrade their Linux packages after patching a newly-found flaw in the Linux kernel.

This is not an unusual thing. Why it this suddenly front page news?

Notice the pattern. In all cases the bugs are already fixed (users just need to apply updates, unless they have already been applied automatically). This shows a strength of FOSS, not a weakness. The latest OpenSSL patches that we covered a couple of days ago (in daily links) don’t relate to or amount to huge risk [1] and these are already patched [2]. The same goes for kernel bugs [3].

What we found highly disturbing here is that despite discoveries that companies like Apple and Microsoft facilitate the NSA with back doors (in secret code) we see an improportionate focus on every small bugfix in projects such as GnuTLS, OpenSSL, and Linux. Someone might be trying very hard to make the point that FOSS is the issue, not back doors which are very much included by design (and hidden in blobs). Reporters who cover bugs in FOSS but are never covering back doors in proprietary software ought to be challenged. Their bias (by omission) should be pointed out to them. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. New OpenSSL breech is no Heartbleed, but needs to be taken seriously
  2. OpenSSL Security Update now available for Fedora
  3. Canonical Closes Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Don’t Install Pipelight, It Helps Infect the Web With DRM and Microsoft

Posted in DRM, Microsoft, Mono at 7:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Nasty DRM pipeline

Rusty pipe

Summary: Putting DRM on GNU/Linux, and especially DRM that Microsoft controls, is a very bad idea

Microsoft tried to break the Web with Silverlight, turning the Web into a bunch of binaries or cryptic blobs that will be run by proprietary software on the user’s computer/client’s end (probably not spiders, except for Microsoft’s). It is worse than Flash and more like DRM, which Silverlight was used to promote. When Silverlight died its key proponent Netflix had to go infect HTML. This is even worse because it means that the Web itself starts requiring proprietary blobs. One site said this is “Good news for folks tired of installing Microsoft Silverlight just so they can stream videos from Netflix: The company now has an HTML5 media player which works without any plugins.

“Here’s the bad news (for now): While Netflix is rolling out its HTML5 player to another platform, you still have to jump through some hoops to install Silverlight if you want to watch Netflix on a computer running GNU/Linux.”

Well, this is about DRM in HTML, which is even worse and has put Mozilla to shame. Mozilla also got a little close to Mono, which does not invite much support.

Now, using the Mono-based Moonlight one could almost get this DRM going, but it helped Microsoft get a foothold on the Web. One project remains which still tries to achieve this. It received coverage in some FOSS sites, which is unfortunate. One site said: “Pipelight is a wrapper for Windows NPAPI plugins such as Silverlight, Widevine or Flash (the Windows version) which allows you to use these plugins in native Linux web browsers and thus, use services that aren’t officially supported on Linux, such as Netflix (Silverlight), HBO Go (Widevine) and so on.”

Another bit of coverage said:

Pipelight is the interesting open-source project to support Windows browser plug-ins within native Linux browsers. Pipelight serves as a wrapper for Windows plug-ins in Linux browsers using Wine and for browsers supporting NPAPI plug-ins. This software, which allows Silverlight and Netflix to work on Linux, is out with a big update.

This is about DRM and it should be rejected or worked around by breaking DRM, not by bringing DRM to GNU and Linux.

The fight here is not just against Microsoft but against DRM. What Pipeline does helps create the perception that GNU/Linux is now compatible with DRM. Some copyright maximalists can use that to impose DRM everywhere. A Slackware-oriented site, writing about a similar issue, noted that support is lacking, so it really is only the illusion of compatibility.

The version 35 of Chromium has a major side effect that many people are not going to like. The support for browser plugins that use Mozilla’s NPAPI protocol to communicate with the browser has been removed and only Google’s own PPAPI protocol is supported as of now (MS Windows users still have a bit of time before the same happens to their Chrome browser – removal of NPAPI support in Windows is scheduled for the end of 2014). This step was of course announced long time ago and many reminders were posted, but if you need Java support in your browser, or want to watch Netflix using pipelight, then you are out of luck. PPAPI versions for these browser plugins do not exist and in the case of pipelight, are very hard to create.

Anything that requires running a blob for access to data/information should be rejected, especially on the Web. We are entering a dangerous era where FOSS become fundamentally incompatible with data. Unless of course we fight back… █

Links 7/6/2014: ‘Linux is Everywhere’, Valve Games Milestone (500)

Posted in News Roundup at 3:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Linux is Everywhere….So where do we go from here?

    We all know that Linux has changed the world….in small ways and large One of the ways it’s changed the world is by changing the way work gets done in corporations, big and small, around the world. As with the computer itself, the effects of ever-advancing Linux seem evolutionary and “slow & steady” from day to day. But in the 20 years since its introduction, the impact Linux has made in macro is truly staggering!

    Today everything from cars and jets to every supercomputer and most servers in datacenters have Linux somewhere…doing something important. Linux is, indeed everywhere! How’d that happen? And more importantly, what will happen next?

  • Why (Linux-)devs use Macbooks

    And I think that’s why many people prefer OS-X over Windows or Ubuntu/Fedora. For everyday tasks as email, picture stuff, booking flights, doing taxes etc. OS-X definitely offers a good solution. And being UNIX-y enough to be used in a Linux delpoyment context, you get a good compromise.

  • Desktop

    • Chromebooks Can Finally Play Movies and Shows Offline

      When Google launched Chrome OS, it touted it as a nearly entirely cloud-centric operating system. In fact, it wasn’t designed to store data or applications locally at all, or do anything local, really.

      Since then, Google has wisely hedged that bet, and it is doing so in a big way as it finally gives Chromebook users a way to watch Google Play Movies and TV offline. Google announced offline viewing last month and new Chromebooks are indeed pulling the feat off via a new app for Chrome OS.

  • Server

    • Oracle, Extreme Join OpenDaylight SDN Group

      Oracle and Extreme Networks are the latest companies to join the vendor-driven OpenDaylight Project, which is developing an open-source platform for software-defined network and network-functions virtualization.

      Also joining the group June 5 was supply-chain services firm Flextronics, bringing the total number of members in the consortium to 39. The numbers have more than doubled since April 2013, when Cisco Systems, IBM and 16 others announced the formation of OpenDaylight.

    • Why are Linux professionals in such high demand?

      There’s no doubt that Linux professionals are in high demand. But how much are they getting paid? I took a peek at the average Linux salaries page on SimplyHired and it was quite interesting to see how much various Linux jobs paid. See for yourself in the image below. You can also compare Linux salaries on that page, and you can search SimplyHired for Linux jobs in your area.

    • OpenDaylight SDN Grows to 39 Members with Oracle

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux 3.16 Handles 64-bit ARM EFI Stub Support

      The “ARM64″ pull request pertaining to EFI was sent on Thursday. This newest 64-bit ARM EFI patch-set enables EFI stub support similar to the x86 EFI stub support. The Linux EFI stub kernel support on (U)EFI systems to let the firmware function as the bootloader and to boot directly into the kernel without having to deal with a separate bootloader such as GRUB2 or Gummiboot.

    • Sound Support Gets Updated For The Next Kernel Release

      Most of the sound driver updates for Linux 3.16 revolve around ASOC (ALSA System-on-Chip) changes but there’s also a number of other noteworthy commits. HD Audio changes include Tegra HDMI support, a ThinkPad T440 dock fix, Realtek codec updates for several chips, Firewire audio support improvements, and various other changes.

    • Many ACPI & Power Management Changes Head Into Linux 3.16

      Rafael Wysocki has sent in his ACPI and power management pull that will target the next Linux kernel release cycle.

    • Understanding Intel’s RAPL Driver On Linux

      For many months now Intel has been working on RAPL support within the Linux kernel as part of their power-capping framework as a power feature for Intel hardware on Linux.

    • Trying Out kGraft Live Kernel Patching On Ubuntu Linux

      Graft is the SUSE-developed approach to live-patching the Linux kernel as another reboot-less option similar to Ksplice.

      Besides kGraft and Ksplice, Red Hat coincidentally shortly after the release of Ksplice had announced Kpatch as their means of live patching a running kernel. Both Red Hat and SUSE have open-sourced their live patching mechanisms and both hope to have their solution mainlined, or some unified form of both. While no solution has been queued up for merging in the Linux 3.16 kernel, there still is a lot of interest by Linux developers in these solutions.

    • Linux Kernel 3.10.41 LTS Is Available for Download

      The amount of changes and enhancements for this branch of the Linux kernel is rather large and the developers have added numerous drivers and other improvements. This is an LTS release and it’s likely that it will be updated for a long time.

      “I’m announcing the release of the 3.10.41 kernel. All users of the 3.10 kernel series must upgrade.”

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Calligra-powered Okular plugin for ODT, DOC & DOCX

        You might know that Okular has a plugin system, for adding support for more document formats. And you might know that Calligra since years also provides a plugin to Okular, which adds support to view slides from files in the OpenDocument Presentation (ODP) format. And not only for the ODP format: by simply using the Calligra import filters for PPT and PPTX you can also view the slides locked away in those formats.

      • Preview GCompris Qt 0.11

        Just a little video showing a gimpse of our progress on the port of GCompris in Qt Quick. So far we already have 44 activities on the 144. We now have a configuration dialog box and a menu similar to the old version.

      • Political Map for Marble

        I am glad that I accomplished my first task to integrate political map with marble.

      • KDE Frameworks 5 Beta 3 Gets More Improvements

        A new development build of KDE Frameworks 5 is now out and the developers are making great progress. If things continue to evolve according to the plan KDE has laid out, we should see this new desktop environment pretty soon.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • Popular Faience GTK / GNOME Shell Themes Updated For GNOME 3.10 [Ubuntu 14.04 PPA]

        A year and a half after the previous release, the beautiful Faience GTK / GNOME Shell theme pack was finally updated and it now supports GTK / GNOME Shell 3.10.

      • GNOME: Notify me

        Over the past several GNOME releases, we have been aiming to stabilise GNOME Shell as much as possible. We have been largely successful in this: the last major UI change was in 3.10, when we introduced the combined system status area, and the main improvements in the recent 3.12 release were for performance and bug fixing. This is a good thing. At the same time, there is one area where a number of us still feel that bigger changes are needed. This is notifications, particularly the Message Tray.

        In this post, I’m going to present a new set of designs for notifications and the Message Tray, which we’re hoping to implement for the next GNOME release. As ever, these aren’t set in stone and are in a state of evolution. The aim of publicising the designs is to get feedback so we can improve them.

  • Distributions

    • RoboLinux Smooths the Linux Migration Path

      RoboLinux is a robust Linux desktop solution for a home office, as well as for SOHO and enterprise users looking for a well-protected migration path away from other operating systems. Its modified traditional desktop design and built-in virtual machine packages for running windows XP and Windows 7 from within the Linux desktop make it an easy and reliable option.

    • Kali, Makulu, and Robo Linuxes

      In today’s Linux news, LinuxInsider has a review of RoboLinux saying it “smooths the Linux migration path.” Makulu Linux 6.1 is said to be “big, beautiful, and fun.” A new flaw has been patched and Shawn Powers discusses the new Linux professional.

    • New Releases

      • Black Lab Linux 5.0.1 released

        Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Linux 5.0.1. With this release we bring some much needed overhaul and advancements to our Linux desktop to make it the most stable, and easiest to use yet.

    • Screenshots

    • Red Hat Family

      • Fedora

        • Valve improved X-Box gamepad driver for Fedora

          I’ve added to the Steam package repository for Fedora an alternative kernel module for xpad, the X-Box gamepad driver. This variant contains patches created by Valve to improve the driver and its behaviour.

          The module is available in both akmod (RPMFusion) and dkms package formats.

          This made my 3rd party X-Box controller work without any issue in Steam games and in the Big Picture Mode interface!

        • The new (potential) notification system for Fedora

          This new design allows for a greater amount of detail when glancing at your notifications, rather than just an icon, and the number of unread notifications. The upstream developers seem to be targeting getting this new design implemented for GNOME 3.14, so hopefully we should see this in Fedora 21 Workstation.

        • The new Fedora Project Leader is…

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-based NAS hosts private clouds and VMs

      Qnap unveiled a Linux-based, SOHO-focused “TS-X51 Turbo NAS” device with 2-8 HDD bays, plus private cloud sharing, video transcoding, and virtualization.

    • Wireshark support for AllJoyn: What it means for Internet of Everything developers

      The AllJoyn open source project is the core interoperability framework hosted by the AllSeen Alliance and works on Linux, Android, iOS and many other operating systems and platforms. This ability to discover, connect and interoperate regardless of the OS or manufacturer will enable a simple, seamless and universal experience for consumers and businesses.

    • Arynga and Mentor Graphics Showcase Over-The-Air Updates for Linux-Based…
    • Introducing the Linux Development Module for Rockwell Automation Processors
    • More APUs For Embedded And Mobile Devices
    • World’s first emotional robot runs Linux

      SoftBank and Aldeberan have teamed up on a Linux-based, $1,930 personal robot named Pepper that can read emotions and respond autonomously.

      As we gradually approach the “singularity” when robots overtake human intelligence, we often comfort ourselves in believing robots will never duplicate our often troublesome capacity for emotion. Yet such James Kirkian sentiments may prove suspect as roboticists make robots more sensitive to emotions while using emotional expression to communicate.

    • Phones

      • Ballnux

        • Samsung and Barnes & Noble are making a Nook together

          Samsung and Barnes & Noble announced on Thursday a co-branded device called the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, a 7-inch reading-focused tablet designed to compete with the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7. It’s the first sign of life in some time for the Nook brand, the lineup of ebook readers and tablets that have been consistently great but never popular enough to unseat Amazon as king of the reading device. Now, however, with the combined retail and marketing weight of Samsung and Barnes & Noble, the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook may have the might to find a place once again. (And there’s only the slightest irony in the fact that Microsoft owns part of the Nook brand, meaning it now owns yet another Android device.)

        • Linux Video of the Week: Meet the First Tizen Smartphone, Samsung Z

          At the Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco this week, Samsung unveiled the first smartphone to run the Linux-based Tizen mobile operating system. In this video, CNET reporter Jessica Dolcourt walks through the phone’s features and demonstrates its camera capabilities.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Meta blogging

    Some time ago, I read Jos’ “meta” blog post. Jos argues that contributors to free software projects should blog more regularly. In my own “meta blog” post, I will confirm everything that Jos writes and share a few of my own thoughts on why blogging is important for everyone who is part of a free software community.

  • PicasaWeb integration: Add the Miner (Update 1
  • Contributing to OSS

    Many individuals may want to contribute to Linux or some open-source software project. However, many people may not be sure where to start or how to help. Others may not know computer programming and feel that there is no way they can contribute. Well, guess what? There are many ways anyone can contribute to Linux directly or some open-source software (OSS).

  • LinkedIn upgrades its search engine and ditches an array of open source extensions

    LinkedIn has overhauled its search engine infrastructure in favor of a new system dubbed Galene, a homegrown engine designed to improve search results and problems with maintenance, the company plans to announce Thursday.

  • An open-source robotics OS is moving from the lab to farms and even into space

    They’re routine activities for people, but this was a Willow Garage PR2 alpha robot. By navigating through eight doors and using nine outlets, it notched an important milestone—using the Robot Operating System (ROS) to accomplish its complex mission.

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • Mirantis offers Icehouse-based OpenStack 5.0

      Mirantis announced version 5.0 of its OpenStack distribution. This version is based upon OpenStack Icehouse and is designed to play well in VMware vCenter environments. I’ve spoken with company executives from time to time and have always come away impressed with their understanding of the market and OpenStack technology.

    • Hadoop Drives Storage Costs Down, Needs Friendly Front Ends

      The Hadoop Summit went on this week in San Jose, California, right in the heart of Silicon Valley, sponsored by Hortonworks and Yahoo. There were some interesting keynotes, including one from Microsoft on “Transforming data into action using Hadoop, Excel, and the Cloud,” and Red Hat officials delved into “Enterprise Hadoop and the open hybrid Cloud.” At the Summit, it was clear that Hadoop has become a true open source success story. It’s also driving down enterprise storage costs.

    • Exploring OpenStack cloud case studies

      During the course of the last twelve months, the OpenStack community has advanced as more users of the leading open source cloud technology have been reporting their progress—with the help of their partners—towards making a meaningful impact on their business goals and objectives.

    • MapR, Syncsort Partner on Big Data ETL Hadoop Solution
    • Exploring OpenStack cloud case studies

      During the course of the last twelve months, the OpenStack community has advanced as more users of the leading open source cloud technology have been reporting their progress—with the help of their partners—towards making a meaningful impact on their business goals and objectives.

    • The challenges for enterprises going open source

      With Hewlett-Packard’s recent announcement of HP Helion, there are questions lingering about how the company can compete in the public cloud market, while using OpenStack as a way to get into the enterprise.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice 4.3 Beta 2 Is Now Available for Testing

      The developers from The Document Foundation have released a new build in the LibreOffice 4.3 Beta branch, bringing even more changes than the latest update in the series. It looks like 4.3 will be quite interesting, but it’s going to take a while until it’s released.

  • Education

    • RASPBERRY PI IN SCHOOLS

      Two years ago, when the Raspberry Pi launched, it was with the intention of improving IT education in the UK. Since then more powerful, better connected or cheaper boards have come onto the market, but the Pi retains its position as the white knight of ICT teaching.

  • BSD

    • PC-BSD 10.0.2 Receives GNOME 3 and Cinnamon Updates

      According to the developers, the distribution is based on FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE, but it looks like that there is still room for improvements. The developers have made a few important changes and it’s recommended to update.

      “In preparation for the next release we have been fine tuning some of the new features and making sure the loose ends are tied up. We were also able to close out a good amount of trac tickets this week and commit the fixes for 10.0.2,” reads the official announcement.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Reset the Net with our email self-defense guide

      One year ago today, an NSA contractor named Edward Snowden went public with his history-changing revelations about the NSA’s massive system of indiscriminate surveillance. Today the FSF is releasing Email Self-Defense, a guide to personal email encryption to help everyone, including beginners, make the NSA’s job a little harder. We’re releasing it as part of Reset the Net, a global day of action to push back against the surveillance-industrial complex.

    • Join the FSF and allies: strengthen the Tor anti-surveillance network

      Today we’re joining our allies at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in kicking off the Tor Challenge, an effort to strengthen the global Tor network that protects Internet traffic from surveillance.

      Tor is a publicly accessible, free software-based system for anonymizing Internet traffic. Tor relies on thousands of computers around the world called relays, which route traffic in tricky ways to dodge spying. The more relays, the stronger and faster the network.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Weatherman’s best friend: How Australia used open source for its supercomputing network

      How did Australia scale up to cope with all of its public research agencies at the same time? FutureGov spoke with Allan Williams, Associate Director, Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) to find out how they did this.

    • Help Labour Get Its Digital Policy Right This Time

      Long-time readers of this column may remember the great Digital Economy Bill saga back in 2010, which culminated in one of the most disgusting episodes in recent Parliamentary history, with the Bill being approved by a near-empty House of Commons in the dying hours of the last government, and with no substantive debate whatsoever. The result was an appalling piece of legislation, whose putrefying corpse is still polluting the UK’s digital landscape, acting as an ever-present reminder of just how badly the Labour treated the online world when it was in power.

      Labour is now out of power, and trying to get back into power. I leave readers to decide for themselves whether it would be better or worse than the present incumbents. Instead, I want to concentrate on two initiatives that the Labour Party is taking to help it come up with some decent policies for the digital world.

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Standards/Consortia

    • Natron 0.92 released with new roto and keying nodes

      The project is a free (Mozillla Public License v2) node-based compositor that relies on OpenColorIO for color management, OpenImageIO for file formats support, and Qt for user interface. It also works with 32bit float per channel precision and supports OFX plugins, both free and commercial.

    • Khronos Releases OpenGL ES 3.1 Conformance Tests

      The adopter program lets potential adoptees run the OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance test for possible certification as their driver’s implementation being conformant to the official specification. The ES 3.1 test is obviously built atop the existing OpenGL ES 3.0 test.

Leftovers

  • Tetris at 30: a history of the world’s most successful game
  • Tetris at 30: An Interview with the Historic Puzzle Game’s Creator

  • Hardware

    • Unboxing the Intel NUC at Tizen Developer Conference 2014

      This is a quick unboxing video of the Intel NUC device that was given out to attendees of the Tizen Developer Conference 2014, and represents reference hardware that developers can use Tizen Common to test and develop their applications with.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Deep Interest of the Deep State

      The language is the language of intelligence service tasking memoranda, which Obama is consciously or unconsciously reproducing.

  • Transparency Reporting

    • Memo to Potential Whistleblowers: If You See Something, Say Something

      I’ve met many whistleblowers over the years, and they’ve been extraordinarily ordinary. None were applying for halos or sainthood. All experienced anguish before deciding that continuous inaction had a price that was too high. All suffered negative consequences as well as relief after they spoke up and took action. All made the world better with their courage.

      Whistleblowers don’t sign up to be whistleblowers. Almost always, they begin their work as true believers in the system that conscience later compels them to challenge.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Fox News Enlists Fossil Fuel Industry To Smear EPA Carbon Pollution Standards

      Fox News hosts or guests cited a discredited report by the Chamber of Commerce seven times, even though it studied a scenario far stricter than the actual rule from the EPA. According to the executive director of the Green Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is “dominated by oil companies, pharmaceutical giants, automakers and other polluting industries.”

  • Finance

    • Writing Unions Out of the Story on Fighting Poverty

      The New York Times (6/4/14) took a look at one of the economic puzzles of the last few decades: If growth has been strong, why aren’t we seeing a greater reduction in poverty? Interestingly, the research the Times is relying on offers some explanations–ones the paper doesn’t see fit to mention.

    • USA Today and Wal-Mart Poop

      It’s not often that anti-corporate activists are heard from in the corporate media. Do they really need to be called “party poopers”?

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Censorship

    • Guardian Installed SecureDrop Outside The UK, Due To Legal Threats

      In other words, the Guardian, a UK newspaper, is admitting that it simply doesn’t feel safe locating its SecureDrop implementation inside the UK. For people who believe in press freedom in the UK, this is a pretty scary statement — just the latest in the past few years that have really called into question the UK’s support for a free and open press.

  • Privacy

    • The Year of Edward Snowden

      A year ago I stumbled across a story about a wor­ry­ing new sur­veil­lance pro­gramme developed by the NSA: Prism. While nobody was iden­ti­fied as the source of the dis­clos­ure, I was awe­struck by the bravery of this unknown person.

    • The Best Ways to Better Protect Your Online Privacy
    • Edward Snowden and Reset the Net: Eight ways to take back your online privacy
    • Snowden: one year on and still no action by the British government

      It’s a year since The Guardian published the first of many news stories about the scale of GCHQ and the NSA’s intrusion into our private lives. Based on the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden, the stories had global implications, exposing the insecurity of the Internet, straining relationships between the US and its allies and raising questions about who has control over the agencies that purport to protect our freedoms.

      And as my conversation in Germany showed, surveillance has damaged global freedom of expression, affecting the way we think when we use the Internet. There have been other consequences to free speech in the UK as well. We have fallen five places in the Freedom House world ranking of countries’ press freedom. This was as a result of legal threats made by the Government against The Guardian, the destruction of hard drives in the newspaper’s offices and the detainment of David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald – one of the journalists who broke the Snowden story.

    • Why should I care about privacy, when I have nothing to hide?

      We get this a lot. There are a million answers (our favorite short one is “Nothing to hide? Really?”) but here’s something thoughtful and comprehensive to share with a friend the next time it comes up. The short version? None of the freedom and progress we’ve won over the past century would have been possible without the freedom to change things (starting with our own lives first) that privacy gives us.

      Imagine a world where you were constantly being judged by everyone around you, suffering immediately, or years down the road, for anything you did or said that was unusual, unpopular, or against the rules. In that kind of world, social and economic progress grinds to a halt, because everyone’s afraid to rock the boat!

    • Email encryption using an email self-defense guide from the FSF
    • FSF publishes email encryption guide to mark Snowden anniversary

      The Free Software Foundation has released a guide to encrypting email to mark one year since the disclosures of NSA blanket surveillance by analyst Edward Snowden.

      The British newspaper, The Guardian, carried the first story on the topic on June 6, which also happens to be the anniversary of the Normandy landings. Since then, there have been a slew of stories on the topic in newspapers all over the world.

    • In Some Countries, Big Brother Listens In Without Telling Mobile Operators

      Vodafone, the world’s largest wireless operator outside China, says governments in some countries have installed permanent listening “pipes” into mobile networks, allowing authorities to monitor all communications and data without alerting or getting cooperation from network operators.

    • Vodafone reveals secret wires allowing direct-access government spying

      Pirate Party spokespeople are always ready to give a lively, informed, and often provocative view on the issues of the day. Whether it’s tech politics, civil liberties, the EU, local issues or anything else we’ll have something to say.

    • Vodafone Reveals Government Agencies Have Direct Access To Its Network Around The World, No Warrants Required

      One of the important results of Snowden’s leaks over the last year is that the companies involved are not only becoming more open about how their services have been used by the NSA and GCHQ to spy on people,

    • Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance

      Wires allow agencies to listen to or record live conversations, in what privacy campaigners are calling a ‘nightmare scenario’

    • Google’s End-to-End is Unacceptable

      2) As if #1 wasn’t bad enough, Google has chosen to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Namely, the long-standing, mature, fully-debugged gpg2 open source OpenPGP standard codebase is being rejected out of hand, again because they want to do things ‘their’ way by creating a duplicate, immature, bug-laden codebase port of gpg2 as an incomplete subset into slow, interpretive Javascript. That’s right. Javascript. gpg2 is fully compiled C/C++ code.

    • U.S. Marshals Seize Cops’ Spying Records to Keep Them From the ACLU

      A routine request in Florida for public records regarding the use of a surveillance tool known as stingray took an extraordinary turn recently when federal authorities seized the documents before police could release them.

  • Civil Rights

06.05.14

Windows is Dying Quickly, Even on the Desktop

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 4:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

China flag

Summary: The inertia of Windows is impeded by bans and disruptive trends (or form factors) where Linux is a key platform

Microsoft is wishing for public ignorance. It trying to pretend that it cares about privacy and Open Source [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This is despicably in the eyes of informed people and it is tied to a paid marketing/deception campaign. As we showed some days ago, China’s ban on Microsoft (and promotion of Linux-based alternatives) led to some shameless openwashing, seeking to paint Windows as “open”. Microsoft’s spokesperson pretends that Microsoft code can be audited, but there is already evidence that Microsoft tells NSA about flaws before these are patched. China’s government does not get that kind of treatment, so it is abundantly clear who Microsoft is loyal to (not the users’, that’s for sure). The latest call for abolishment of Windows [1-4] makes press again (notice the dishonest response from the spokesperson of Microsoft). The corporate media or the Western press tries to ridicule the Chinese or echo Microsoft’s lines. There are gross media campaigns about it, playing along with these Microsoft lies (or lines) which are hogwash, diversion, and innuendo. We covered only some of those lies before. It is truly a disgrace. The NSA works closely with Microsoft and Microsoft under Nadella (not really in charge) continues to engage in racketeering against FOSS. China would be right to eradicate all Microsoft software. It is the reasonable thing to do not just for business reasons. Bill Gates is pro-NSA and against Snowden; China should take that as a clue. Remember that the NSA engages in espionage against prominent Chinese companies like Huawei.

Based on this Microsoft puff piece, Microsoft spyware is now trying to enter Android, doing what we said Nokia would do (Microsoft spy phone on top of Android base). The puff piece says “That’s great news for Android tablet owners” as if spyware like this is necessary. Here is the interesting part though: “it’s also likely to disappoint and even anger some Windows users, who feel Microsoft is ignoring its own backyard while bringing this polished and finger-friendly Office experience to Windows rivals. But this is the trajectory that Microsoft must follow to succeed in what Nadella recently labeled a “post-post-PC era.” “There are going to be Windows devices and there are going to be other devices and we have to make sure our services run on all of them,” he said during last week’s Code Conference. Nadella suggested that Office for iPad won’t the last time Microsoft launches a major app on a platform other than Windows; today’s Android rumors seem to back that claim. Nadella said that while a touch-first Office for Windows is coming along, he’s unwilling to let it hold the company back.”

In short, the world is already abandoning Windows, so Microsoft tries to rescue its bigger cash cow.

Software developers and users no longer need Windows. China does not need Windows. Business can gradually adapt to homegrown Linux- and GNU-based systems. This, in turn, makes OOXML (and Office) obsolete. It makes Microsoft a thing of the past.

Interestingly enough we missed this article from March where Microsoft is shown to be sabotaging software projects of potential partners. Fernando Cassia sent us this link, highlighting bits like:

Defense Grid was dead. That was the message, delivered by Microsoft in the summer of 2008, just a few months before the game’s planned release.

Hidden Path had poured all the money it could spare into a small project to make an original game: Defense Grid, a downloadable sci-fi tower defense title that it could call its own and that would prove Hidden Path was a company that knew how to make games.

It’s what every developer wants to do. It’s why people make anybody’s games at all: to eventually make their own. And Hidden Path had struck out to do it right out of the gate. And it had almost worked.

The story begins in 2007, shortly after Jeff Pobst, Mark Terrano, Michael Austin, Jim Garbarini and Dave McCoy founded Hidden Path. It begins after they’d begun making Defense Grid and pitched the game to their contacts at Microsoft.

The founders had deep connections to Microsoft, so they pitched them a distribution deal: Hidden Path would make the game, Microsoft would distribute it on Xbox Live. For Microsoft, it was an easy sell. Microsoft, initially, loved the idea. The concept for the game was bold and brash. It was a downloadable title being developed for twice what downloadable titles normally cost to make at the time. The extra money was to be put into producing and polishing the game, potentially making it a premium offering for its Xbox Live lineup. Defense Grid, built by the men who worked at Microsoft’s Advanced Technology Group and who made sure Xbox games played and looked better on Xbox than anywhere else, would be one of the most highly produced downloadables on Xbox.

Microsoft was hot for the game. It wanted quality games to announce at the 2007 Game Developers Conference as part of its then-new Xbox Live Arcade program. The problem: Hidden Path hadn’t named the game yet. The working title “The Last Stand” had been taken by someone else. Hidden Path hadn’t expected to need a name for months, but suddenly it had only weeks. Hidden Path scrambled, spent money and came up with Defense Grid. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it worked. And it was theirs. And best of all, Hidden Path suddenly had a game in development for a flagship service on the best-selling console. With the increased attention and aggressive demand from Microsoft, the little studio, still in its first year of existence, felt like it had won the lottery.

For Microsoft, Hidden Path was just the sort of company to help promote Arcade — it was indie but comprised of veterans. Pobst had run a support department at the Advanced Technology Group at Xbox. Terrano had created Age of Empires 2. Austin also came from Xbox, and McCoy and Garbarini from the MechWarrior developer FASA. These five men threw their combined development expertise into one game: Defense Grid. It couldn’t lose. It was planned for release in 2008. Everyone was excited. And then things changed.

[...]

Shortly after a Microsoft reorg in early 2008, the “new team” called for a meeting with its partner, Hidden Path, to see the results of development on Defense Grid, which already had the green light from the “old team.” Everything went right in this meeting with Microsoft. The game looked great, played great and was running on schedule. But a strange thing happened: According to Hidden Path, the more right things went, the more frustrated the Microsoft people became. The game, they eventually said, was too good. They’d wanted it to be bad. They’d planned for it to be bad. Now they didn’t know what to do.

[...]

The new crew from Microsoft had come with orders to shut down Defense Grid. It was too similar, they said, to another game, one more dear to the new team leader’s heart. Defense Grid was part of the old plan. The new guy had a new plan. Defense Grid had to go. But … It was a great game. It was too good to cancel. Chaos.

This is classic Microsoft. Nobody should be working with and for this company. It should be universally abandoned for its behavior. Thankfully, Xbox continues to fail and production reportedly stalls. Why would anyone at all bother with this platform? It is spying on users (more so than any console) and betraying developers. Not only China will be better off without a company that spies on it, betrays it, and denies the truth. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. China puts Windows 8 on TV, screams: ‘SECURITY, GET IT OUT OF HERE!’

    China has stepped up its war on Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system with a report in state-backed media that questions the security of the software.

    In a one and a half minute segment aired on China’s CCTV television channel, journalists reported that the Chinese government is concerned by the security of the Windows 8 software and is increasing efforts to develop its own rival system.

    “Microsoft would no longer open its Windows 8 source code to the Chinese government, however the security scheme of the Windows 8 operating system is designed to provide better access for Microsoft to users’ database. For China it’s a big challenge for our cybersecurity,” said Yang Min, a professor at China’s Fudan University, through a translator.

    “Your identity, account, contact book, phone numbers, all this data can be put together for big data analysis,” explains another academic, Ni Guangnam. “The US has a law that requires anyone that has this data to report to the government. The data might be a good way for the US to monitor other countries.”

    This report follows the Chinese government banning Windows 8 from a chunk of its public sector PCs in late-May.

    In March 2013, El Reg reported that Canonical had partnered with various Chinese government agencies to develop and support a Linux distribution named Ubuntu Kylin for the country. Given this television segment, we imagine installations of that OS are about to increase.

  2. China escalates rhetoric in campaign to ban Windows 8

    CCT pivoted on the official reasoning today. According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) the segment quoted experts who argued that operating systems’ makers can steal data from computers, including phone numbers and financial information.

  3. Microsoft faces new difficulties in China over Windows 8
  4. Chinese Media Says Apple Google Microsoft Etc Spying for NSA

    The official Chinese state run media outlet, People’s Daily, is accusing U.S. corporations of representing a spying front for the NSA, and the PRISM program. The outlet stated “Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc. are all coordinating with the PRISM program to monitor China.” The outlet wants fierce punishments against the corporations, and promised they would pursue all those involved in spying activities. David Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer released a statement Wednesday, advising the U.S. government has no access to Google servers, including no access to any “back door, or a so called drop box.” The leading search engine giant advised they only “provide user data to governments” in accordance with the law.

Black Duck a Trojan Horse in the Linux Foundation and Elsewhere

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software at 4:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Mallard in winter, Sardinia

Summary: Another reminder of what Black Duck is really doing and why entities in the FOSS world, including the Linux Foundation, should be careful

THE IRC channels that we run occasionally teach us a thing or two. One person has shown us that, based on this source, Black Duck “use a lot of M$ technologies… probably a coincidence, right? ;)”

Mark responded by saying that “if Perens is saying Black Duck Software is BSing about the GPL, that’s a good reason to be leary about them” (we covered this before).

The original source said: “it makes me happy to see how much fear copyleft strikes in the hearts of the software hoarders” (Black Duck hoards more than just software, as Palamida can remind us).

Black Duck articles have been showing up in some news sites again. There is a marketing drive and the Linux Foundation too plays along, having received payments from the parasite. We mentioned the parasite yesterday, noting that it was a source of FUD again. Guess who wrote the marketing piece in the Linux Foundation’s site? “Lou Shipley is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Black Duck Software” it says at the very bottom along with heaps of promotional text. Why is this firm being legitimised in this site? This CEO placement helps create the illusion that Black Duck is an ally of Linux.

In some ways, Black Duck can almost be treated as a Microsoft Trojan horse. Not only was it founded by a Microsoft guy but over the years it also absorbed staff that had come from Microsoft, such as Ohloh. Black Duck is potentially very dangerous because it also tries to portray (in public) Microsoft as some kind of “Open Source” champion. We are reminded of this propaganda in light of the CBS/CNET puff piece from the other day. Here is one response to it, going back just hours ago:

Okay, I hate to be a Negative Ned here, but I’m firmly in the “trust but verify” camp when it comes to Microsoft and open source. Yes, a new CEO and other changes may be helping Microsoft to adjust to living in an open source world. But change never comes easy or fast in such a large organization, so I think the jury is still out on whether or not Microsoft has really changed for the better when it comes to open source software.

Also, I’ve never forgotten the company’s “embrace, extend, extinguish” strategy that they used in the past to destroy competitive software products. That alone is reason enough to keep a wary eye on Microsoft’s involvement with any open source project. Perhaps the company really has changed, but maybe it hasn’t. I think it bears watching for at least another few years to see if enduring change has really set in or not.

This is a good enough assessment, but we ought to be less optimistic about Microsoft changing its ways. He gives them too much a benefit of the doubt, despite decades of criminal activities, infiltrations, and systematic deception. How much sabotage will it take before Microsoft is just treated as a pariah or gets widely boycotted? Well, in China things are changing and we shall cover this in the next post. █

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