09.03.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, FUD, Google at 7:49 pm by Roy Schestowitz
When Ina Friedshill [1, 2] tried to rain on Google’s parade, she later received this response from Google: “Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don’t apply well to the use of that product. We are working quickly to remove language from Section 11 of the current Google Chrome terms of service.”
“The Maureen O’Gara incidents teach a lot about the ways such a routine works behind the scenes.”For those who do not know, Microsoft’s ‘public relations’ figure in CNET (motives are always disguised) muddied the water a bit when Google announced Chrome. This is only to be expected and it is also likely that Microsoft’s intelligence staff knew about Chrome well in advance, so they could prepare ‘FUD points’ to sling via the media, using special friends like Ina Friedshill. The Maureen O’Gara incidents [1, 2] teach a lot about the ways such a routine works behind the scenes.
Licensing ambiguities/issues aside, there are some other known ‘Microsoft moles’, who walk around praising Microsoft in the press and slamming its rivals. Some of them wear an “analyst” hat. A new example you can find here, under the article “Analyst Says Google’s Chrome Browser Needs Polishing.” Looking inside the article for the ‘meat’ by which a sensationalist headline was chosen, people can find only this:
“But for all the hype, Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Juptermedia, said Chrome is somewhat underwhelming for a first release.”
Michael Gartenberg, eh?
Who is this guy? Is he a shill? Why, yes he is! He’s a former “Microsoft evangelist” on the company’s payroll.
We even mentioned him previously in [1, 2, 3] and I once sent him an E-mail, to which he replied, denying any connections with Microsoft.
Let’s look carefully at what we have here.
Evangelist Gartenberg back to being analyst
After only three weeks at Microsoft as an “evangelist,” Michael Gartenberg is returning to his old job as vice president and research director at JupiterResearch.
Perhaps he has had enough ‘recruitment time’ in Redmond. Shortly afterwards came his anti-GNU/Linux piece, which made it into a lot of publications and was finally rebutted here.
More recently he was found praising one of Microsoft’s most disastrous products: the Zune.
Microsoft upgrades Zune players to challenge Apple iPods
[…]
“It’s a nice evolutionary development to the product line,” said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.
Gartenberg is surely part of ‘The Club’.
“Working behind the scenes to orchestrate “independent” praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy’s, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. “Independent” analyst’s report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). “Independent” consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). “Independent” academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). “Independent” courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
Other known AstroTurfers are clinging onto any morsel of dirt there is against Google Chrome. They pick up anything that they can find, then spreading it all over the place. It’s happening at the moment. We base this on observations made throughout the past couple of days. People whose preference is blatantly anti-GNU/Linux articles (sometimes dedicated just to that) and other Microsoft competitors are all over this one.
Could it be because Microsoft really needs IE8 to break the Web? Dana reports:
Microsoft’s decision, with IE8 beta two, to make its proprietary standards the default in corporate Intranets, defining Web pages using open standards as “broken,” may be the final break between these two Internets.
Can the two Internets be brought back together? And can we return to an Internet where consumers have choices and are free to do as they will?
Could it be because, according to some new tests, IE8 is a resource pig?
In a multi-tab browsing session against 10 websites under Vista, IE8 grabbed about 380MB of memory, in contrast with 250MB consumed by IE7 and just 159MB by Firefox 3.0.1. That makes IE8 nearly one and-a-half times more memory intensive than IE7 and well more than twice as greedy as Firefox.
Could it be because reports are suggesting that Google Apps, for which Chrome is optimised, are ’stealing’ customers from Microsoft? Sales of Microsoft Office are already declining.
Google Apps tops 1 million businesses
Almost all of the company’s revenue comes from its search engine, which last quarter accounted for more than $5 billion. New initiatives, such as the Chrome browser, Google Gears, and Google Friend Connect, are focused on building a mostly open-source Internet operating system out of Google technology in order to funnel more user data and targeted advertising opportunities into the Googleplex financial engine.
Could it be because Google is said to have ‘gained’ 1% market share in just one day or so, whereas Microsoft lost 1% in the past month?
Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer lost nearly a full percentage point in market share during August, the browser’s biggest drop in three months, a Web metrics firm said today.
This Web metric is highly inaccurate if not altogether meaningless, but trends as opposed to absolute number may say something. For an explanation about this “Web metrics firm”, see this previous post. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend 
View as PDF
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, SCO, FUD, Deception, Bill Gates, Security, America, SUN at 1:45 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Background
Patterns which are learned from history can be useful for the establishment of an hypothesis — in this case it being the hypothesis that Microsoft partners have implicit obligations which favour Microsoft and ‘punish’ its rivals. This can be harmful for many reasons and even cost lives at times.
The US Federal Aviation Administration seems to have gotten itself entangled after choosing Microsoft, but there are many other government departments which follow a similar route. The US Library of Congress comes to mind as a recent example of Exclusion Through Silverlight™ [1, 2, 3].
Just moments ago we attempted to show that the BBC’s deal with Microsoft seems to have resulted in exclusion of GNU/Linux users and even bashing.
Bank of America
In the case of the Bank of America, even Firefox was banned — until recently. To say more about this:
“As the usage of Firefox browsers has increased with our customer base, we will be initiating a full support model for Firefox version 2.x in the very near future,” spokeswoman Tara Burke told Networkworld.com.
Think “the very near future” will prove to be very soon? Don’t bank on it.
This was a case of merely beginning to support something other than Internet Explorer, despite its many known deficiencies and continued lack of adherence to standards. It’s stubborn snobbery. But what about GNU/Linux, the operating system level?
Welcome Citigroup
One reader, Jose, points out that Prince Alwaleed leads to just one link among others between Microsoft and Citibank (”Prince Alwaleed proposes Microsoft operation for Kingdom”). Bill Gates is mentioned there too. Remember where the SCO cash infusion almost came from and witness the many bits of circumstantial evidence.
According to Bill Parish, “[i]t is often forgotten that crown prince Al-Waleed saved Citicorp from going under a decade ago.” So a circle seems to be closing. Moreover, just watching old news, collaborations between Microsoft and Citibank are clear for all to view. Here are 3 examples:
1. Microsoft Business Solutions Joins Forces With Citibank Merchant Services To Offer Enhanced Retail Management System
Building on their strong relationship, Microsoft Corp. and Citibank Merchant Services today announced an extension of their collaboration to offer Microsoft® Business Solutions’ customers — specifically small and midmarket retailers — technology and services designed for the independent merchant. The agreement, announced at the National Retail Federation (NRF) 92nd Annual Conference & Expo, enhances Microsoft Retail Management System (RMS) by introducing a new payment processing module.
2. Microsoft Signs Citibank Indian Software Unit Deal
Microsoft Corp has formed an alliance with Citibank’s Indian software unit Citicorp Information Technology Industries Ltd (CITIL) to market the latter’s banking products world-wide. CITIL will use Windows NT and Back Office as its platforms of choice. Microsoft will sell the Indian firm’s banking industry products - Microbanker, Fundpower, and Finware - all over the world.
This pair seems to have gotten pretty close with a joint bill venture dating one decade ago:
3. Citibank joins Microsoft bill venture
Citibank has made an equity investment in MSFDC, a controversial joint venture of Microsoft and First Data for online bill presentment and payment.
Citigroup Snubs GNU/Linux
Blaming security, Citibank refuses to support GNU/Linux. Customers are furious. They deserve to be.
So you use that web browser to fill the application for a credit card at Citibank, and finally receive it. But when you start using that credit card and want to check you card usage on-line, the system won’t work when accessed with Linux. That’s exactly what has got Linux users furious at the banking giant.
Jason Antman, a techie and IT major at Rutgers University in New Jersey, got furious last week after realising that getting a card from Citibank using a Firefox is as easy as a walk in the park, but then checking his card activity on CitiCards.com using the open sauce browser was, well, as hard as a stone.
These complaints about Citibank are nothing new by the way. Here is one other rant from last year.
I hope they hear from enough people to take note. I think the Americans with Disabilities Act may be a powerful argument in favor of making web sites more standards compliant and accessible.
For its Web site, Citigroup deploys Solaris (UNIX), so it seems unwilling to run Windows on the server, yet it conveniently requires that customers do so on the desktop. Given the horrifying statistics which claim that one in two (Windows) PCs is a zombie, it’s a gamble, a Russian roulette. As Geer put it, “in zombie we trust.” What is Citigroup thinking?
Windows in ATMs
Citibank is in no position to brag about security. Here is a recent incident:
The alleged thieves made off with about $2 million between October 2007 until March of this year. Officials believe they remotely broke into the back-end computers that approve cash withdrawals and grabbed the PINs as they were being transmitted from the ATMs to the transaction processing computers, which increasingly use Windows, the report says.
From the comments:
Windows should not be used, nor shout OS X or Linux if it is running a GUI. While Windows can not be striped to a secure level and OS X is a bit of a challenge, Linux is very easy to run with a very minimalistic build.
Check out the NSA version of Linux.
Those PIN hacks seem reminiscent of the disaster which is Windows on ATMs. Here are some references that are relevant:
1. Windows-based cash machines ‘easily hacked’
ATMs, or automated teller machines, today face the Internet-born threat of worms and denial-of-service attacks, as well as being at risk from malicious applications that can harvest customer data or hijack machines.
2. Madness: ATMs Running Windows XP?
3. Pictures of ATM Machine Running Windows XP Crashing
The other day I pulled up to an ATM and it was in the middle of crashing and so I was able to shoot these pics during the crash and reboot. The ATM never did come up fully so I was unable to get some cash.
4. ATM using un-activated Windows
Ok, so lets be realistic for a moment here, first off, is ‘Hackers Best Friend” MS Windows really the optimal choice for an operating system that spits out cash?
5. ATM with Pirated Windows
In Russian you can sometimes meet pirated copy of Windows even on ATM. It warns that this copy of Windows need activation and the work of ATM gets interrupted.
6. Why not Embedded? ATM’s Running XP Professional…
This time, I happened to be there when it suddenly BSOD’d and began a reboot cycle. Obviously, to BSOD it needs to run Windows, and moments later, that was confirmed. But that’s not the story here — believe it or not, most ATMs run Windows nowadays, and there’s absoloutely nothing wrong with that.
[…]
There’s a million reasons why an ATM should must be RTOS, be it Linux or VxWorks or Windows CE, but even if you don’t go with RTOS, Windows XP Professional most certainly isn’t the answer. Especially if it’s not even SP2.
7. ATMs hacked using MP3 player
A criminal gang in the U.K. was able to steal confidential banking data by bugging ATMs with an MP3 player, The Times of London reported in its online edition Thursday.
Only Windows seems to reinterpret device insertion as a call for execution of arbitrary and untrusted contents. NASA recently saw its laptops out in space getting infected in this way (computer viruses passing via USB drives in Windows). With that in mind, how can Citigroup promote Windows for security reasons? Brazil seems to have stepped up to the plate and voted for change.
Brazilian banking giant Banco do Brasil this year is preparing to start a massive migration of one of the world’s biggest ATM fleets to the GNU/Linux operating system.
This is one among many migrations to GNU/Linux in Brazil. It includes hundreds of thousands of voting machine, so no wonder Microsoft is scared and resorting to FUD over there [1, 2]. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, FUD at 11:58 am by Roy Schestowitz
Former Microsoft executives inherit the Beeb
Whereas Microsoft crumbles at its executive ranks, it appears to find its influence penetrating other innocent companies, some of which are direct competitors of Microsoft. In addition, bias in the media can transcend the borders of the technical industry amid managerial changes, so this can affect also commerce-independent channels, such as the BBC.
Issues with the BBC were expressed before (to catch up with an assortment of criticisms, see [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]). Problems almost immediately followed a technical collaboration that had been established with Microsoft rather than with trusted UK-based companies, which are not convicted monopoly abusers.
Bias in the media comes in different forms. Editorial control, which is also supervised by the management, can affect article headlines and convey hidden messages. It is therefore interesting (yet worrisome) that Microsoft has just ‘lost ‘a vice president. Although it reflects badly on the future of the company, it turns out that this man will likely land in a position of influence where he can serve Microsoft better. He is reportedly headed towards BBC Worldwide, which is still perceived as trustworthy media.
Chris Dobson, Microsoft’s VP for its UK Online Service Group, is leaving the company. Dobson is believed to be joining BBC Worldwide in a senior role. He joined Microsoft in 2001 following positions at Zenith and MTV Networks.
He would be not the first executive from Microsoft who occupies a position of great responsibility there. Also inside the BBC, Erik Huggers, who arrived from Microsoft, continues to use iPlayer against GNU/Linux. Despite the fact that everyone pays tax, the BBC underplays the role of the operating system and has so far refused to support it. In addition, it threw FUD at it, suggesting that only 600 people in the UK are GNU/Linux users. How familiar a routine [1, 2].
“The language and attitude is very clear to see and for the BBC to publish such articles would simply be irresponsible.”Let us assume — but not hope — that Microsoft employees at the highest of levels are running the BBC and managing public money (tax money). What might be the impact? Technical facilities (e.g. iPlayer framework) is just one small ingredient of this equation; the other is media coverage. Might the BBC refuse to say anything positive about GNU/Linux, or altogether ignore its need/right for coverage? It is always hard to measure such things. One must consider incidents, keep track of them, and maybe count them.
The BBC’s inter-personal connections and partnership with Microsoft may already have a subtle effect. For example, just earlier, the BBC published this GNU/Linux-bashing article. It published it unchallenged. It contains ‘weasel words’ like “Hippy ideals” and it’s referring to the software just as “Linux” and explaining “open source”, not Free software. The latter mistake is not so uncommon, so it’s worth ignoring for now.
Looking at the myths that are spread and reinforced throughout the article, one finds “It’s not the machine itself that’s driving me to violence, but the operating system that controls its programs and hardware: Linux.” Another piece of FUD about GNU/Linux in 2008: “As someone used solely to double-clicking on pretty pictures to do most anything on a computer this is pretty hairy stuff.” There’s also the “no support” FUD at the end: “Bang a couple of lines of code into the terminal window to tell the machine to install what we’ve downloaded. Bingo, we’re cooking on gas,” it says. The language and attitude is very clear to see and for the BBC to publish such articles would simply be irresponsible.
The bottom line is: do not consider the BBC a credible source. This is far from the first such example. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
09.01.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, FUD, Open XML, FOSS, Africa at 6:09 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Fear and loathing of innocent gnus
Microsoft loves to claim that GNU/Linux does not exist. Where it exists, Microsoft pretends that it’s just ‘pirated’ Windows running and we recently covered such propaganda from Ina Fried and CNET [1, 2]. Kenya now seems quite likely a similar example.
Whenever Microsoft announces price drops, believe not the pitch about “poor students” and “to reduce piracy”. When and where Microsoft reduces its prices, it’s often because of Free software, which gains attraction that Microsoft is trying to stop.
There are at least two articles out there at the moment which claim Microsoft discounts in Kenya are intended to reduce copyright infringement. Microsoft compares this to the violent activity which is piracy. The original article pitches the news just like some obedient PR people from Microsoft rather than address the real market dynamics and share the details that Microsoft is not willing to talk about. The first post/article is a good example of this.
Microsoft’s plan to combat piracy in Kenya is pretty simple, really. Instead of trying to sue it away, they’re lowering prices to make Microsoft software more affordable, according to an IDG report.
Cherish the mercy of Microsoft. It prefers not to sue poor people.
This links to the IDG article, which resides in Network World.
But Ndung’u said that the corporation has developed a pricing structure for cyber cafés that requires them to pay US$10 per desktop annually.
Well, well…
It was widely publicised a while ago that cafés in Kenya were moving to GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3]. It’s not so much about so-called “piracy” then; it’s not about goodwill. It’s about being more competitive and reduce adoption of Free software. In other words, now they try dumping of Non-free software (or cheap giveaways) and they call it “fighting piracy”, not “fighting GNU/Linux”. They cast usage of GNU/Linux as something illegal that they kindly try to put an end to.
Why can’t Microsoft simply permit the Kenyan people to have freedom with Free(dom) software? It’s the same in South Africa where a new managing director has just been appointed. It has been a messy affair there [1, 2].
Need it be repeated that Microsoft allegedly blackmailed Kenya for OOXML support [4]? █
____
[1] Kenya: Copyright Board Takes Piracy War to Cyber Cafes
Cyber café operators within Nairobi are torn between legalising their Microsoft software operating system, shifting to Open Source Code or closing shop all together following the crack down on illegal software.
[…]
According to Mr Kasani, the software will manage all aspects of cyber café billing such as Internet time, printing, items, accounts, discounts, the programme will be across platform , it will be possible to run it on both Linux and Windows computers connected on the same cyber works.
[2] Linux cutting software costs in Kenya
Entrepreneurs in Kenya are putting Linux to work to cut costs and maximise profits as they look for new ways to bring computing to users.One of these entrepreneurs is Patrick Mathenge, CEO of Mullard Electronic Limited, a firm trading in hardware and software from its Mombasa Road offices. The company is distributing Linux software that can turn a single computer into up to 10 workstations.
[3] Open source opportunity on the road to Nairobi
Open source is facing a great opportunity in the cyber cafes of Nairobi, Kenya.
[4 ] Microsoft Denies Threatening to Withdraw Funding
[5 ] Kenya: How Software War Will Hurt Consumers
[6] Kenya Linux Group Challenges Procurement Policies
[7] Africa: ‘Microsoft is Imperialistic’ Says Open Source Advocates
[8] Swahili Blogosphere: State of education in Tanzania, M-Pesa and Open Source Movement in Kenya
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
08.30.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, FUD, Deception, Servers, America at 8:50 am by Roy Schestowitz
Pratinha - Chapada Diamantina
Brazil’s education system has already decided to embrace Debian GNU/Linux with KDE. It will be served to approximately 52 million children and adolescents. A reader of ours from Brazil recently estimated that GNU/Linux is already used by about 8% of the population in Brazil and by watching the following new article, a shift in momentum becomes rather evident.
Universities that do not use Free Software: Time for a boycott?
I received an email recently from a young man in Brazil who wanted me to come to his university and talk to the students and faculty about using Free Software. I am normally happy to advise universities to use Free Software, but usually this is done in conjunction with some large conference held at the university or some other venue. I just do not have the time to visit each and every school. But I did investigate the university of the student and found that Microsoft was indeed a sponsor of the University. In fact, the university had a large banner on the front page of their web site talking about Microsoft as a partner. It was the first time I saw a university advertising a commercial firm on their home page.
I started doing a little more investigation of the student’s city and found that there was another university in the same city that was very active with Free Software. In fact, they had a mirror of Debian software and were actively promoting Free Software.
[…]
Ten years ago a boycott might not have been possible. There were too few universities that had access to enough really good Free Software to ask the students to make a “sacrifice” in forsaking a university that only used proprietary software to teach. Now, with the range of Free Software that is available, and with the marketplace crying out for new programmers trained in Free Software development techniques, and with many more good universities using Free Software to teach courses, the university “marketplace” is ready for the boycott.
Microsoft rarely responds to such threats directly. It might anger people, whose freedom is taken away by a fraudulent multi-national, so it operates by proxy instead.
“As for IDC, they twist figures or prepare definitions that are biased by design. They are engineered to deceive.”Ina Fried, a known ‘Microsoft mole’ from CNET, is doing a batch of articles with photos of Brazil’s slums and articles about “Linux” (forget the GNU philosophy of freedom). Fried is therefore encouraging the view that only poor people would ’settle’ for “Linux” and that it’s all about cost.
Remember that CNET was funded by Microsoft’s co-founder and it’s only a small part of the corporate sponsorship maze in the press.
At the same time, CNET is citing ZDNet (also known as “Ziff/Gates” to some) with the usual bogus numbers from IDC. It’s the servers FUD all over again (a quarterly or bi-annual occurrence). We covered this just a few days ago.
As for IDC, they twist figures or prepare definitions that are biased by design. They are engineered to deceive. We saw it and remarked on this before. in reality, Windows servers are claimed to actually be on the decline. Says one reader in Linux Today:
They go to great lengths to mask some numbers.
Windows market share is down almost 2% from 38.4% to 36.5%.
Another article is suggesting that GNU/Linux is losing because of mainframes. The source? IDC. In a nutshell, IDC continue to sling mud at Linux by biasing, just as Al Gillen did about a year ago (the rebuttal stays the same).
It’s sheer dishonesty, which is typically paid for those with vested interests in lies (or gymnastics in statistics) [1, 2, 3, 4]. It even says “Linux sales”. GNU/Linux need to be sold? Since when? In fact, as time goes by and Free software improves further, it’s easier to deploy without buying anything. They try to make technical arguments (maybe even correct ones) to only highlight statistics of no interest or value.
All in all, Ina Fried and Matt Asay continue to participate in Microsoft’s propaganda against Brazil and Linux, respectively. There’s also intersection between them now, but Asay is probably doing this naively and accidentally. Here is one remark from the comments:
Bravo. Good corporate lackey.
Ina Fried gets a fluff job from the Microsoft head liar in Brazil and she runs with it THREE times and now you jump on it.
Bravo.
The above surely is rude, but it’s true. █
“There’s a lot of Linux out there — much more than Microsoft generally signals publicly — and their customers are using it.”
–Paul DeGroot, a Directions On Microsoft analyst (a fortnight ago)
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
08.28.08
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Apple, FUD, Servers at 6:58 pm by Roy Schestowitz
One year ago, due to increased trolling against this Web site, we presented a bunch of incidents where Microsoft got caught poisoning the Web using marketing people in disguise.
This is a reality, not a speculation. Here is another index where some of the following were found. They go a long way back, but they teach us about the present too.
One memorable example is this one.
An ad, titled “Confessions of a Mac to PC convert,” was posted to Microsoft’s Web site last week. The article purports to be a first-person account of a writer who decided to switch from an Apple Macintosh computer to a PC running Windows XP.
It later turned out that Microsoft had faked it. There was no Mac-to-PC covert. It was fictitious and it was orchestrated by a marketing agency hired by Microsoft (one agency among very many [1, 2, 3]). Remember this when people claim to be GNU/Linux users and slam it endlessly.
Here is another faker:
Microsoft has yanked another of its fraudulent user testimonials, in this case a fictitious twelve-year-old boy raving about a fictional homework assignment and the indespensable insights he received from MS Encarta Reference Library in preparing it.
Some of the all-time favourites reveal just how Microsoft manipulates the media, including CNET, which was mentioned just minutes ago.
The contracts, signed with companies such as Walt Disney, PointCast, and CNN, have received intense scrutiny from federal and state regulators, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the European Commission. (CNET, publisher of NEWS.COM, also has signed a contract with Microsoft.)
The following report, despite its age (available from the Internet Archive), is worth mentioning too.
Microsoft employee’s move against AOL backfires
By Melanie Austria Farmer, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
August 13, 1999, 9:00 a.m. PT
A Microsoft programmer apparently masqueraded as an
independent computer consultant in an effort to discredit
America Online’s tactics and behavior in its instant
messaging battle with Microsoft, according to reports.
The Barkto incidents are not to be forgotten, either. Last but not least, here is the article “MS targets Linux, Mac rivals with IIS astroturf.”
In total, we’re three-quarters of the way to collecting the full set, from various concerned correspondents, and were whimsically thinking of trading them with you. Can you swap us a Mac OS X vulnerability for a couple of PHP Engine Disable Source Viewing Vulnerabilities? We’ve lots of those… But most correspondents point out the first two on the list. And almost all such letters continue the theme: “It doesn’t matter what system you are running, if you don’t keep up to date you will be hit.”
Microsoft surely gave an honest answer yesterday, by tacitly accepting that IIS has a unique problem (or combination of problems), that they recognize it, and are taking steps to fix it with a rewrite. But we fear that this kind of Astroturf will continue for a while yet.
There are many more such examples and we shall revisit this in the future. █
“Working behind the scenes to orchestrate “independent” praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy’s, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. “Independent” analyst’s report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). “Independent” consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). “Independent” academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). “Independent” courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, FUD, Deception, Servers, America at 6:37 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Well, that’s pretty much the message they send
Ina Fried, one of Microsoft’s media talking points, has taken a trip to Brazil. Now that articles begin to be published, it’s clear that this is no vacation. There appears to be a subtle yet visible agenda there.
It was several months ago that Ina Fried downplayed the impact of GNU/Linux in Brazil by quoting some Microsoft-obedient analysts. It’s happening again when Ina writes:
“There was a retailer in one of the countries that sold their systems with Linux,” said Gartner analyst Luis Anavitarte. “They made a survey of clients within the first 30 days; 95 percent were already on Windows.”
This is not the first time that Ina quotes Microsoft’s Partner [sic] Group [1, 2, 3] on this subject in order to downplay the role and ubiquity of GNU/Linux. How was the survey conducted? Who sponsored it? Who would have had an interest in funding or ‘cooking’ a study with such conclusions?
“It’s likely deliberate, it’s biased by design, and this is probably how IDC is instructed to collect and unleash statistics.”It was only a week ago that Paul DeGroot, a Directions On Microsoft analyst, said: “There’s a lot of Linux out there — much more than Microsoft generally signals publicly — and their customers are using it.”
Also today in CNET, you might find Matt Asay quoting figures from the Microsoft-obedient IDC [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], claiming that GNU/Linux has a 13% ‘market share’ in servers. How is it measured? Revenue. Yes, and preinstalled only by industry giants. They don’t count units, they count money. They don’t count D-I-Y, they don’t consider cost, and they don’t track actual use or utilisation. It’s likely deliberate, it’s biased by design, and this is probably how IDC is instructed to collect and unleash statistics. They glorify Microsoft and this was covered here before.
Fortunately, some shrewd readers don’t let CNET/ZDNet get away with it all. Need it be mentioned that it’s indirectly funded by Microsoft, just like many other sites?
Apart from readers’ comments in CNET, there’s this response in Linux Today where Munchins are rare.
Ina Fried talks about Brazil’s big Linux usage but right off the bat implies it is not what the people want. And not only does the author start putting Linux down right from the start, the author uses the last few paragraphs to promote Microsoft’s agenda. Adding quotes such a 80% of Linux PCs get Windows installed by users within 30 days and another 10% in another 30 days. That’s write, the Microsoft employee is quoted as saying that 90% of Brazils Linux PCs are getting user installed Microsoft Windows.
The story is a pitch against Linux usage and very much about Microsoft’s products and strategies. And the Microsoft employee also stated that Linux is good for Microsoft because it keeps them on their toes. He then goes on to say that it exposes where they need to do better with distribution. That is correct, not make better software but push harder in the distribution channel. That means limit choice folks.
This is classic Ziff/Davis style of doing Microsoft PR work.
The next post will take another careful look at how Microsoft manipulates public perception in news sites like ZDNet and CNET. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
08.27.08
Posted in GNU/Linux, FUD, Servers, Ubuntu, FOSS at 5:50 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Determining usage and growth of Free software has always been a challenge. For over a decade, arguments have been held — sometimes flamewars — whose central point was the usage scale of software which is freely distributed. While market share can be estimated based on the number of sales. Free software usually replaces existing software that is proprietary, i.e. its ownership lies with a vendor and it is usually treated as an integral part of another product.
When discussing Free software, the term “installed base” seems rather popular. It is installation, not embedment or preinstallation, that tailors a product to the owner’s personal needs. Unfortunately, installed base, as opposed to market share, proves to be a tricky thing to gauge.
At the center of this debate, one typically finds the GNU/Linux operating system. Many perceive Linux the greatest contender which can bring Free software to the mainstream. Linux is commonly obtained through exchange of CDs, which can be modified, change hands, and be used to deploy the same software on multiple computers. The content of these CDs is usually (albeit not always) downloaded from the Internet. Lesser-known Linux distributions are sometimes obtained through peers or via BitTorrent, which cannot be properly tracked. These channels of communication are decentralized by nature.
Endless attempts have been made to count Linux users. Userbase vanity harbours confidence and leads to better support from the industry. Attempts to quantify growth included Web sites whose sole purpose is to have Linux users register and provide details about their computer/s. Even the most prominent among these Web sites met very limited success. They were not able to keep up with change, let alone attract and grab the attention of all Linux users. Most Linux users were simply apathetic toward this cause.
In more recent years, the ubiquity of interconnected devices and computers played an important role in statistics. Computing units that offer Web access have generated large piles of data. Statistical analysis of this data was thought to be another opportunity to study presence and geography of Linux users around the planet. It has, however, been a very deficient analysis. For a variety of reasons, too many assumptions were made, which led to flawed conclusions. To this date, no proper and valid analysis has been carried out.
Looking more closely at some difficulties in interpreting Web statistics, there are numerous factors to consider. There are obvious problems. The sample of selectively-chosen Web sites often contains particular audiences which, on average, do not represent the entire population. Additionally, due to diversity in the identity of Linux, as it comes in just one among a large number of distributions, identification strings are hard to understand. As such, many Linux users are simply be treated as though they use an “unknown” operating system. This “unknown” component is statistically significant, yet it tends to be ignored and discarded.
There are more problems that need to be taken into consideration. For example, data gathered by Web sites neglects to identify computers that are operated behind proxies, or even Squid. This data also assumes that everyone identifies himself or herself in a truly honest fashion. The matter of fact is that certain Web sites were designed to reject access from every Web browser other than Internet Explorer. As a result, many Linux users are forced to pretend (by altering HTTP headers) that they use a typical Windows setup. This is known as spoofing or forging and it is a matter of convenience.
“To use an example, Hollywood is considered a place where production studios adopt Linux, even on the desktop.”The last factor to consider here are botnets (zombie PCs), which are essentially travelling the World Wide Web. It’s a relentless Web journey and this happens without the awareness of the rightful owner of the computer. This troublesome phenomenon means that large amounts of Web traffic is devoured in a very wasteful fashion. It does not reflect on human consumption of information. Botnets ‘pollute’ log data and therefore tweak statistics. It rarely (if ever) works in favor of secure operating systems and Web browsers.
Web statistics and research that revolves around them suffers from yet another false assumption. One must not simply accept the contention that all computers are connected to the Internet nowadays. If they are, their users do not necessarily visit an identical number of Web sites or consume an equal number of pages. Different operating systems are used in different settings. They serve a particular purpose and facilitate working tasks that might not require the Internet at all.
To use an example, Hollywood is considered a place where production studios adopt Linux, even on the desktop. In a recent interview with the press, CinePaint’s Project Manager said that “Linux is the default operating [system] on desktops and servers at major animation and visual effects studios, with maybe 98 percent [or more] penetration”. These computers, which include user-facing workstations, get used heavily for design and rendering work, but probably not for Web surfing.
There have been other projects that are intended to keep track of the number of Linux users by setting up a communication channel that connects a computer to the Linux distributor’s servers. These projects are neither mature nor widely adopted.
On the other hand, the increasing adoption of online software repositories has made this process more feasible without it being considered “spying”. And yet, inexistence of a registration process leaves room for dynamic addressing, so a single unique user is still hard to identify. The user will remain a moving target on the network as long as system registration is an absent component. Free software is adverse to such privacy-compromising steps, so they are unlikely to ever become mandatory.
Last year, in an interview with Red Herring, Canonical’s CEO Mark Shuttleworth commented about the activity on his company’s repositories. At the time, at least 8 million distinct users or addresses with a particular version of his Linux distribution could be identified. That was only months after the release of this distribution, which many of us had already known as “Ubuntu”.
Regardless of the adoption rate of Linux on the desktop, Linux enjoys double-figure inter-quarter growth on the server side. This trend has sustained itself for several years. There are, however, great difficulties to overcome when it comes to tracking how widespread — not just profitable — Linux has become on in the datacenter. Market figures regularly come from analysts, but these figures are based purely on sales. They only gauge revenue. They fail to account for the fact that Linux is free and it is becoming easier to set up each year. Many companies take the do-it-yourself route and build their own server farms. They do not require much assistance, so deployment can be completed without a Linux purchase per se ever being made. The true growth of Linux will therefore stay an enigma for quite some time to come.
At the end of the day, let us all remember that Free software was not created to thrive in profits. There is no marketing department to boast growth either. Whether we use a search engine, or connect to a mail server, or acquire some snazzy gadget, Linux is likely to be there. The desktop, however, is perceived as an ultimate destination. It has the most visibility. Laptops and desktops can demonstrate that Linux has come and that it is here to stay and thrive. The back room usually escapes people’s attention, despite a gradual shift in paradigm, which encourages adoption of remote services and thinner clients.
Counting the number of Linux users might always remain an impossibility. Should you mind? █
Originally published in Datamation in 2007 and reached the front page of Slashdot
Permalink
Send this to a friend View as PDF
« Previous entries ·
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.