05.16.08
Posted in Red Hat, Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, Novell, FUD, Deception, Ubuntu, Virtualization, Xen, Kernel, xandros at 9:45 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Novell makes Ballnux, not GNU/Linux (free software) anymore
Techtarget.com may be delivering this news a little too late, but it incorporates some quotes which the publisher sought from Red Hat, Xandros, Novell and some so-called ‘analyst’. The new article further illustrates the fact that Novell-type deals were more of an anti-Red Hat alliance (or an alliance against anyone who ‘dares’ not to pay Microsoft for GNU/Linux, including Ubuntu which is fairly dominant on desktops). You might find this article repetitive in the sense that it talks about news that’s over a fortnight old, but mind the following:
Novell extends interoperability with Microsoft
“This is just another good thing for Novell,” which has already increased its market share 9% due to the Microsoft relationship, said Chris Wolf, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group. “This gives Novell an increased opportunity for licenses and greater penetration into Microsoft space … and will hurt Red Hat. The results speak for themselves.”
[…]
Another Microsoft partner poised to benefit from the interoperability pact is Xandros, Inc.
Be careful of what the Burton Group utters. We previously wrote about this group in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36] because it’s seen serving Microsoft’s agenda on a regular basis.
“Novell buys its own stock, moves jobs abroad (cheaper labour), and expects layoffs this year.”In this case, Burton’s message to you is that the Novell/Microsoft deal is grear news and that you, as a customer, will be better off choosing ‘Microsoft-approved’ distributions. Don’t be fooled though because Novell does pretty badly. Novell buys its own stock, moves jobs abroad (cheaper labour), and expects layoffs this year.
What we find in Novell-type deals is actually related and similar to what is already happening in virtualisation. Not only has the Burton Group recently spread FUD about VMWare, but others do this too. Xen has, to an extent, become “the Novell of the hypervisors space”. Yes, it’s very much the same with Xen, which became a tool for Microsoft to fight VMWare and all those ‘nasty’ Linux distributors that don’t pay Microsoft. Ubuntu can’t be blamed for moving over to KVM, which is said to be superior and more elegant anyway. More recently it was an IBM virtualisation expert who said this, but the flamewars continue.
As further evidence that Xen is now indirectly controlled by Microsoft’s needs (just like Novell), consider this from the news:
XenSource, now part of Citrix Systems, has been the mainstay of the leading open source hypervisor, Xen. Unlike other open source companies, it has always shown an affinity for working with Microsoft.
[….]
Before being acquired by Citrix, XenSource already had a technology partnership with Microsoft to help it prep Windows Longhorn, now Windows Server 2008, to run Linux in Microsoft-generated VMs. There were subtleties to doing that well, and Microsoft needed a knowledgeable partner. Xen needed to be a super performer on future Windows systems to compete against VMware. Thus an alliance was built.
Citrix, long a close Microsoft partner, acquired XenSource last August for $500 million. By September, Microsoft and the XenSource team inside Citrix were saying they’d use the same VM file format, Microsoft’s Virtual Hard Disk. You can’t get closer to your virtualization allies than that.
As we stressed on some occasions before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], Microsoft brought Xen over to Redmond and later put former Microsoft employees in it (at least a General Manager). That’s how it seems anyway. If you have been following Microsoft’s proxy fight against Yahoo, then you’ll probably have an idea of how such brutal things work. Deform and subvert, until forced obedience is achieved. █
“There are people who don’t like capitalism, and people who don’t like PCs. But there’s no-one who likes the PC who doesn’t like Microsoft.”
–Bill Gates
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05.15.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, Office Suites, Europe, Antitrust at 9:28 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Secret deals, intimate relationships
BECTA, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, should be considered among those who are largely responsible for turning an entire nation into a Microsoft workshop [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. We mentioned its [cref complaint 3420] several days ago (further mentioned in [1, 2]), but at the end, unsurprisingly, it gave up to what the following article calls “the convicted software monopolist.”
Becta, the UK quango governing technology spending in education, swept the licensing issue under the carpet in order to sign a new three-year deal with Microsoft, the convicted software monopolist, last month.
[…]
During 2007, when the 2004 MOU extension was operating, Becta complained about Microsoft’s licensing practices and technology to the UK’s Office of Fair Trading, and advised schools not to upgrade to Vista and Office 2007, Microsoft’s latest software.
Yet Becta had no choice but to sign a new agreement with Microsoft, said Ian Lynch, who campaigns for open source software in schools with the Open Schools Alliance.
“In the sense that Microsoft has a monopolistic presence, Becta [still] has a remit to get the best discount it can,” he said.
“In the short term they might get the best pricing, but in the long term they might think, ’sod this, we are going to take them to the Office of Fair Trading’,” he said.
As we stressed at he start, BECTA, like many other loyal Microsoft customers that thrive in taxpayers’ money (e.g. The British Library), is just trying to save face with its complaint. Had it wanted a solution to the problem, it would have easily found one. It’s total disinterest in change and blind obedience that continue to stand in the way and make children more dependent than ever on this “convicted software monopolist,” which locks them in using personal data (technical barrier) and skills (getting children ‘addicted’, having them memorise menu layouts). █
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05.14.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, Novell, Europe at 6:42 am by Roy Schestowitz
“What is this thing called Lunix?!?!”
Richard Steel, a CIO whom we mentioned on several occasions recently [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], seems to have something in common with Ron Hovsepian, who fails to keep an eye on the market. Is this deliberate or is someone being pressured to wear blinders? Matt Aslett has a go at it.
During a visit to the KommITS conference in Sweden, Richard discovered the following information: “I note that Novell has a local arrangement with Microsoft, which resells its version of Suse Linux to enable Linux exploitation on a Windows platform!” The exclamation mark is his own, and suggests genuine surprise at hearing the news of Microsoft and Novell’s entanglement.
It would be easy to suggest that any CIO must have had their head in the sand not to have been aware of a small agreement that Microsoft and Novell entered into a little while ago, but also I think one also has to accept that for a great number of senior IT executives this sort of information just isn’t as fascinating as open source followers think it is.
[…]
Conspiracy theory alert: Newham is one of Microsoft’s flagship local government accounts in the UK following its controversial decision to sign a ten-year agreement with Microsoft after ditching plans to move to an open source environment. Clearly, Newham has less reason then to be interested in Linux and Microsoft’s relationship with Novell than other organizations (it also explains why Microsoft’s SLES voucher-wielding sales team hasn’t been breaking down the door).
Many people will tell you that what Newham and Richard Steel have done so far is a shameful disgrace. They turn an entire nation into a Windows workshop and cite their own studies for validation. █
‘Suffolk told Gartner, “I think we have fundamentally failed on a worldwide basis as an IT industry to understand the cost of what we do. And I roundly blame Gartner for this, because you guys are the ones who come up with TCO [total cost of ownership] benchmarking. It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.’
–Context
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Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, Novell, SLES/SLED, OLPC, IBM at 4:23 am by Roy Schestowitz
A: Offer discounts on XP and encourage OEMs to embrace Microsoft-taxed Ballnux
What happens when you discover that choosing a PC with GNU/Linux means paying more than for the same PC with Windows? Shouldn’t free software be inexpensive? Microsoft would love to change this [1, 2, 3].
“Novell is merely following Microsoft’s lead in this, for its own selfish benefit.”We recently debated this very same problem using China’s server market as an example, where GNU/Linux can be made more expensive than Windows due to Microsoft’s and Novell’s plot. Novell is merely following Microsoft’s lead in this, for its own selfish benefit.
Someone recently raised the concern that many low-laptops these days pick up a Microsoft-taxed GNU/Linux distribution (also known as “Ballnux”). Might Microsoft be helping Novell getting contracts behind the scenes? We recently uncovered some secret deals Microsoft had been making with laptop manufactures/assemblers.
It’s important to defend Free software’s entry point into the broad consumer market. Most recent additions (from the news) include the muchly-anticipated MSI laptop, which turns out to have picked SUSE.
MSI today has firmed up specs for its Wind mini-notebook, including its launch timeframe. The 10-inch system will closely follow ASUS’ practices with the Eee PC and ship in both a low-cost Linux version (based on Novell’s distribution) as well as a more expensive Windows XP edition.
SUSE is described here as “Linux version (based on Novell’s distribution).” Better than “Microsoft’s Suse Linux franchise,” right? Here is another news report:
There will be a Novell Linux version and a Windows XP MSI Wind, similar to how the Asus Eee. I do not know why MSI chose Novell Linux, seems a bit odd.
The selection of SUE Linux [sic] wasn’t quite so odd to the Microsoft-friendly CNET, which said this about the Ballnux-loaded ThinkPad a few days ago.
I was gladdened yesterday when techbargains.com reported a sale on a new Lenovo ThinkPad R61 running SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ($552, see below).
People need to demand that OEMs do not make a Microsoft-owned Linux their de facto choice. This could have horrendous effects that are summarised in the title of this post. Mark Shuttleworth warned about it just over a year ago.
Microsoft cannot make Windows cheaper than free (gratis). In the case of the OLPC, Intel and Microsoft actually covered the cost of hardware to defeat AMD and GNU/Linux, but that’s dumping, which is illegal. As such, Microsoft will try to elevate the cost of GNU/Linux, using software patents and back-room deals. █
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Posted in Windows, Novell, Vista at 12:56 am by Roy Schestowitz
Some months ago we highlighted what initially seems like Novell endorsement for Windows Vista. Novell is still quite Windows- and Microsoft-dependent.
The Web page in Novell’s Web site seems to have changed or expanded. It is even more promotional than before, with the exception of a bizarre image.
Scott Ruecker at LXer says: “This is an advertisment for Vista on the Novell website. I especially like the line “Migrating to Vista? We can help you make the leap” alongside a picture of man in suit and tie plummeting to the earth off a tall building. Equally helpful was the ominous exhortation “Prepare now, Windows Vista is coming”.”
Discussion here, for those who wish to know more about this “advertisment for Vista on the Novell website.” █
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Posted in Windows, GNU/Linux, Debian, Security at 12:49 am by Roy Schestowitz
A flaw which was found in Debian has stirred up a lot of discussion about security. People tend to forget where the real problem lies however, so here is just a quick clarification. I’ve personally accumulated literally hundreds of references about this, but here are a couple of more recent ones that provide the gist of it all:
1. Bots rule in cyberspace
USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam, viruses and to mine for sensitive personal data.
2. Botnets Running Rampant
How much money is being stolen by cybercriminals? No one knows, and no one even knows how to go about coming up with that number, IronPort’s Peterson said.
The reason for posting this off-topic story is actually a bit of input from one of our readers, who talks about Microsoft’s back door-happy policy. Looking at this latest article, which in essence shows Microsoft and its buddies at the Partner [sic] Group saving face, he paraphrases: “Microsoft Windows does not need a back door. Crackers, malware code writers and forensic investigators need not worry because Microsoft Windows is so insecure there is no need for a back door.” He also points out this recent Slashdot discussion, adding:
“Crackers, malware code writers and forensic investigators need not worry because Microsoft Windows is so insecure there is no need for a back door.”“It reminds me of the laptops captured near the beginning of Bush’s ongoing wars. The initial boast was that it was insignificant effort to crack the systems because they were running Microsoft Windows. Subsequent boasts steered clear of that and focused on the data captured.
“If you have trouble from the police, then you have bigger worries, with or without data. For the rest of us, there is an important warning:
“Police are never early adopters and usually adopt tools and methods only after they are in widespread use. Those that are stupid enough to default to Microsoft Windows and the compound that by connecting to the net, are asking for trouble from the various criminals and criminal organizations that made cracking Microsoft Windows popular enough for the police to pick up on it.”
It is worth highlighting some recent stories about police departments that have moved or are moving to GNU/Linux and/or Free software. Examples include:
There are many more such examples.
Other stories of interest:
The impact of poor security on the police is only a small part of a colossal problem. Our reader later adds: “It’s even more severe for large companies. Corporate espionage is multi-billion dollar business and can make or break products and even product lines. It still gets under reported, perhaps in part to Bill Gates’ lobbying.”
As the recent article from USA Today showed, 40% of all PCs are zombies. Sarcastically, asks the reader: “40% of all PC’s or 40% of Microsoft Windows PCs?” It’s quite a rhetorical question.
The Partner [sic] Group was mentioned at the start because it helps Microsoft extinguish the fire, so to speak, whenever that’s required. It achieves this by messing about with people’s perception. We’ve already shown in the past some lies from Jim Allchin about Vista security, fueled by the Partner Group, Rob Enderle and the usual suspects who cite one another for pseudo peer-review and validation. They orchestrate a blitz in vapourware-like fashion. The Microsoft-obedient press has for quite some tried not to incite public panic by unleashing the real figures and Mr. Geer even lost his job for ‘daring’ to suggest that “in zombies we trust.” In vapourware and deception need we trust instead? █
“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
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05.13.08
Posted in Microsoft, Finance, Windows, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Bill Gates, Europe, Antitrust at 12:41 am by Roy Schestowitz
“I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.”
–Adam Smith
A couple of days ago, news sites began to be filled with articles sparked by IDG, which broke the news about nearly-gratis XP for crippled laptops. Rather than invest in development of better products Microsoft seems to have gotten itself preoccupied with eliminating competitors, in which case the quality of its products is irrelevant (because there’s no choice). Computer World UK raises an important question and suggests that such moves from Microsoft will not help its attempt to escape the fines and scrutiny from the European Commission.
There’s another issue, though: does this latest move amount to (yet another) abuse of Microsoft’s dominant position in the operating systems market? Some would say “no”, pointing out that price reductions of this kind are precisely how capitalism is supposed to work. But others would say “yes”, because it seems to be exactly the same behaviour that got the company into trouble with the antitrust authorities last time.
Now, I’m no expert on the niceties of this or any other kind of law, so I won’t try to sort that one out. But one organisation that certainly does have plenty of legal eagles is the European Commission, which is already looking at other aspects of Microsoft’s business practice, particularly with regard to open source and open standards. So I’m sure that it is now having a think about this latest move against free software.
It turns out that Jeff Raikes, a departing senior executive (president even) from Microsoft, is joining the ‘Microsoft division’ which writes the very big checks and encourages dumping, political manipulation and other means of self-serving glorification that harms rivals. For those who are new to this:
The ‘best’ type of charity is that which has a good return on investment. It makes it not a charity as much as business as usual, even a tax evasion mechanism. █
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05.12.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, Open XML, FOSS at 12:16 am by Roy Schestowitz
“Some things should only work on Windows, some things work cross-platform…”
–Steve Ballmer, 2007
Remember ThinkFree? There are many situations where Microsoft approaches or acquires projects to ensure it can successfully exclude competitors and make third-party software developers (including their end users) more Microsoft-dependent. Watch what Microsoft is up to with Bldender at the moment. Blender is a FOSS poster child.
Microsoft has just approached the Blender guys, and I would assume have or will approach other FOSS projects since we learn that Microsoft has assigned a guy to work with Open Source projects, with a request for information on how to make Blender run better on Windows.
[…]
Get it? They view everything as a battle. “All Open Source innovation” means to him, I gather, that Windows runs the applications so well, the GNU/Linux operating system dies off. Who needs it? That’s how they think, because they don’t grasp any purpose to freedom for the code or for the end user. If you do, please watch out. The OOXML saga stands as a perfect example of how Microsoft plays to win, by hook or by crook. It is a “standard” that only Microsoft can fully use. That’s not openness to me.
Nothing has changed. Microsoft believes it can just buy people’s souls — buying them away from its #1 competitor. Watch out for those who possibly enable Microsoft to achieve this. Watch out, Blender developers. █
Related articles:
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« 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.