Nessuno has found this article about Microsoft copying another search engine, not just Google. Watch the picture in the article.
There’s no question Bing feels like Kayak. When Microsoft showed us the search engine under embargo, this reporter’s first comment upon seeing the travel page demo’d was “This looks like Kayak.” Our Bing review described its interface as “uncomfortably close to Kayak’s,” an observation that others made as well.
As Nessuno points out, “How do you find time for innovation when you’re so busy threatening companies with nonexistent patents, handing cash under the table to finance anti-Linux suits, bribing Congressmen and EU parliament members, corrupting standards bodies, managing armies of trolls on newsgroups, bribing third-world governments to cut off OLPC, inventing new “Get the Lies” campaigns, paying people to use Bing, fixing security holes in your swiss-cheese OS, copying features from OS/X and iPhone, strong-arming OEMs not to install Linux, etc etc? No wonder other companies (Apple, Google, …) run circles around MS in real innovation—they have a lot less distracting them.”
Microsoft, which has managed to dodge antitrust bullets matrix style for years, also chimed into the discussion, with a spokesvoles calling for “greater openness and choice” in the mainframe market. Excuse us while we choke.
It’s just like another SCO where IBM and Linux are targeted. Larry Goldfarb, the key investor in SCO, said that “Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.” He also added that Microsoft’s “Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.” Keep it classy, Microsoft. █
“On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO’s strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO’s financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital.”
Summary: Corrective remarks about a new paper from the University of Michigan
THE Mad Hatter has just sent us a new paper[PDF], describing it as “a hot one — paper which has Novell down as a “turn around success”, which was a real surprise to me. The paper is about how the North American big 3 could increase market share and profits by building more fuel efficient cars.”
“This is the exact wording”, he added.
“Fixing Detroit: How Far, How Fast, How Fuel Efficient”, a report by the University of Michigan concludes that improving fuel economy would be very profitable for Detroit automakers.
“This is interesting,” adds The Mad Hatter, “The same arguments could be made about Microsoft as are being made about Chrysler/Ford/GM, in that with Vista and Vista 7 Microsoft is ignoring its customers, and not producing what the customers want. This is reflected by the growth of Linux (and Microsoft’s panicked efforts to control or stop it) and the growth of Apple.”
We take an issue with the hypothesis in this paper where Novell is used as an example because Novell, like Sun, better serves as an example of a company that failed to make a turnaround happen. Jack Messman failed miserably and Ron Hovsepian just sold out to a competitor in exchange for a temporary supply of cash and a lifeline that came at a considerably high cost. Now that Novell is likely to be split apart [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] it does not seem like a bright idea, not in retrospect anyway. Like with EDS and other acquired companies, Novell will possibly sell the weak parts of the company and let that buyer do the layoffs.
All in all, the paper in question[PDF] seems like interesting work which is worth reading. It came from the prestigious University of Michigan, which is one of the highest-ranking public universities in the United States. █
Summary: Indicators that Microsoft is feeling cornered
MICROSOFT’S calculated attack on sub-notebooks running GNU/Linux is well documented [1, 2] and since Dana Blankenhorn finds excuses for what Groklaw concludes, it is clear that he has not been following what happened closely enough. What Groklaw offered as a “smoking gun” is just the tip of the iceberg and not even as compelling a proof as the words of ASUS and kickbacks, for example.
Matt Asay claims that “Microsoft is losing its way.” The sub-notebooks saga is just one among two symptoms that he offers as examples.
Two new Microsoft directives suggest that the writing is on the wall for the once-great company. And this isn’t even to mention Microsoft’s tactics to squash Linux’s growth in the Netbook market.
First, Microsoft has kicked off a “Get the Facts” browser campaign that is long on hyperbole and short on facts. Reading Microsoft’s browser comparison chart, one would think that using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome is a fast track to leprosy: IE apparently dominates in security, privacy, ease of use, healing the sick, and causing the lame to walk.
The situation puts Microsoft in a quandary. If the company lowers the price of Windows 7, it could hurt revenues and profits. If it keeps the price high, PC makers might bolt to alternatives, such as the free Linux operating system.
Google (GOOG) is offering PC makers another option. The search giant has been developing the Android operating system, originally to run high-end cell phones. But the software can be adapted for notebooks, and PC makers pay nothing for it up front, though there are often development costs. Acer, the largest seller of netbooks, said in May that it will begin selling an Android-powered netbook this summer.
Summary: A bundle of SCO news with some interpretation
SEVERAL days ago, SCO was temporarily rescued by a entity with connections to Microsoft [1, 2]. SCO may be rescued from immediate liquidation, but it remains to be seen if the plans are followed through. Either way, SCO might not die quite so quickly after all [1, 2]. Here is a quick summary of SCO news that we haven’t covered yet.
An appointed bankruptcy trustee recently asked permission to dissolve SCO under Chapter 7, saying the company has “no reasonable chance of rehabilitation.” That is, unless it somehow miraculously came up with the cash to pay off its debts. And oh how we scoffed at the very idea.
It seems SCO’s uncanny survival will now be decided at the new hearing set for July 16, or the backup date July 27.
Ken Jennings from LinuxToday calls this whole thing the “Price of FUD”, correctly remarking that:
Wasn’t SCO’s earlier asking price around 5million? Now I see it’s down to 2.4 million. Wake me when it’s 25 cents, so I can put in my bid.
Stephen Norris has come to SCO’s rescue before. Last year, IT Business Edge blogger Lora Bentley reported that a group led by Stephen Norris Capital Partners gave SCO a $100 million infusion to rescue it from Chapter 11.
Here’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols on ComputerWorld on SCO rising from the dead. We’ll see. I’d describe it more like keeping the patient on life support, while hoping for a cure. The plan hasn’t been approved yet, y’all.
[...]
So is Unix heading to Iraq? Google is your friend. Nothing SCO does surprises me any more, though, not even yesterday’s events. In fact, privately I predicted to several Groklaw folks that this is more or less the kind of thing I thought they’d try. SCO never gives up. The judge seemed surprised, calling it a Perry Mason moment. But that’s because he doesn’t know SCO like we do.
In yet another bizarre twist in the interminable legal dispute over source code allegedly illegally copied from UNIX System V into Linux, the SCO Group, which claims ownership of the disputed code, has secured a last-gasp reprieve from the threat of liquidation. Immediately before the crucial liquidation hearing in the bankruptcy court, SCO CEO Darl McBride signed an agreement with a company by the name of Gulf Capital Partners, backed by well-known investor Stephen Norris. Caught out by the surprise development, all parties have agreed to postpone the liquidation hearing until the 16th or the 27th of July.
Groklaw shows that SCO Germany has lost its CEO. SCO is actually a very small company at this stage, so overseas branches almost seem like a misfit, a legacy. SCO even gets fined in Germany for slander.
There is an unconfirmed claim that SCO will pass its assets to another company to operate under a different name. The sale of UNIX assets is neither a done deal yet nor is it an escape from Chapter 7, but it sure seems like a good route for procrastination, no matter the eventual outcome. SCO has nothing to lose when it’s all just paperwork.
Only moments before a hearing at which SCO would have faced conversion to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the company signed a deal to sell off its UNIX assets. This last-minute act of desperation could potentially allow SCO to delay its demise.
There are some media reports on the SCO cliff hanger bankruptcy hearing on Monday. The more information that comes in, the less clear I am on exactly who the actual proposed buyer is. I’ll show you why.
According to this new report, Microsoft makes another little move into Utah.
If you’re in the market for a software development job, you might want to head to Utah County. Microsoft Corp. is hiring. The software giant, based in Redmond, Wash., announced Wednesday that the company will occupy space at Thanksgiving Park in Lehi beginning in August and will eventually hire about 100 information technology professionals.
Microsoft relocated to Utah some months ago (despite layoffs in other areas) while Novell offshores Utah staff. A Novell-centric agenda was suspected at the time of this move from Microsoft, but it is probably much of a stretch and too far fetched. On the other hand, regarding the report above, Pamela Jones writes: “If SCO’s deal doesn’t happen, maybe the 62 employees left at SCO could find work with Microsoft.”
We previously saw how Microsoft rewards people who attack ODF and/or GNU/Linux by offering them jobs [1, 2]. It is a sophisticated form of bribery where action precedes the payment.
In other SCO-related news, some articles about the Psystar case note its similarity to the SCO case. See for example:
The Cupertino, California firm goes so far as to draw parallels between Psystar and the fate of infamous software house SCO Group. Known for using lawsuits against Linux-dependent companies over UNIX rights disputes as part of its business model in later years, it’s linked to Psystar through its approach to bankruptcy: when it lost its lawsuit against Novell and was ordered to pay money on UNIX licensing, SCO purportedly used bankruptcy and the resulting stay as a defensive measure to fend off the requests for money. Novell eventually had the stay lifted — a precedent which Apple is keen to take advantage of in its own case.
Apple compared the tactics to those of the SCO Group in its attempts to avoid paying Novell money owed based on UNIX licensing, painting Psystar president Rudy Pedraza as the Darl McBride of Mac cloners. Apple noted that the automatic stay was lifted in that similar situation.
Interestingly, Apple cites proceedings between Novell and SCO as a precedent. Novell obtained a summary judgement that it was entitled to copyright royalties from SCO, but before the case was tried SCO filed for bankruptcy.
Any more information about SCO would be welcome. █
Coders have reacted with disappointment and frustration to Microsoft’s decision to cease development of a connector to Oracle in its .NET Framework, a move that looks like another budget cut.
Microsoft has said it will no longer develop OracleClient, or System.Data.OracleClient, with the the up-coming .NET Framework 4.0. It will still be included with the framework but will be “marked as deprecated.”
If you install Google’s new Redmond-battling Outlook plug-in, it automatically disables Microsoft’s Windows desktop search service. And Microsoft is peeved.
[...]
“When a Google Apps user installs the sync plugin for Outlook, the plugin modifies a registry key which disables Windows Desktop Search from indexing and providing search functionality for all Outlook data, not just the Outlook data being synchronized from GMail. Because Outlook search relies upon the indexing performed by Windows Desktop Search, Outlook search functions are broken as a result,” Microsoft’s blog post reads.
Apple, however, has responded with a neat little message that never actually mentions Palm, even if it’s entirely transparent who it’s about, warning people that Apple can easily break syncing when it updates its software. Of course, Apple did it in a way that it can claim wasn’t meant nefariously at all. All the company really meant was to make people understand that it has no control over how the Pre syncs with iTunes, and it’s possible that an update could break that syncing. Sure. Right. Except most people assume this means Apple intends to break it.
Microsoft’s cost-cutting measures are costing more than just jobs at the software giant - staff are also having to give up their iPhones and BlackBerries.
If employees want to hang onto the devices they’ll have to pay for their own data subscriptions. Redmond will only pick up the bill for a Windows Mobile device - not Palm, not Android, not RIM and certainly not any Mac-based gadgets.
On Sunday we looked at two weeks of news headlines, aggregating about 1,500 items. Among those, only 4 contained “Vista” in the headline; over 60 contained “Windows 7″ in the headline. This is called vapourware tactics. █
“The purpose of announcing early like this is to freeze the market at the OEM and ISV level. In this respect it is JUST like the original Windows announcement…
“One might worry that this will help Sun because we will just have vaporware, that people will stop buying 486 machines, that we will have endorsed RISC but not delivered… So, Scott, do you really think you can fight that avalanche?”
I sat there shaking my head in disbelief as I realized I had just witnessed possibly the most disheartening Apple keynote in recent memory. Three years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the adoption of Intel chips in Apple machines, a move that would send its market share soaring. A year later he walked up on stage and announced the phone that would change the mobile world forever.
When the new operating system arrives in September, it’ll work only on Intel-based Macs. That means Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard, will be the end of the line for those with Macs that use PowerPC processors.
So well done, Microsoft! You’ve released a browser that deletes a system file it shouldn’t even LOOK at! That’s true creativity, that is. Who wouldn’t think that a piece of software designed for looking at web pages might be deleting boot files even before it’s told to load and run?
Morons.
Utter morons.
This has got to be the most obscure error I’ve ever had to track down, bar none. Congratulations on that score, I guess, MS.
Microsoft has “substantially understated” its share of the browser market in its effort to combat charges by Europe’s antitrust watchdog that it illegally ties its Explorer browser to its Windows operating system, opponents of the US software company are alleging.
For Microsoft to allegedly influence statistics this would not be the first. See for example:
According to Microsoft’s CEO, GNU/Linux has a greater share than Apple on the desktop. Macs are only popular in developed countries, so it is easy for US-based firms to obtain a narrow picture and for others in the west to actually believe it. █
“Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”
