Corporate Fight Against Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| Remember during the Dot Com boom when sites used to display which
| browser you should use in order to best utilize their website?
| Quaint, annoying and even a little narrow minded. Those of us who
| have been yearning for a blast from the past will be thrilled to
| learn that Wal-Mart is apparently doing this in the year 2007.
| Wait, it gets better...
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2468&Itemid=449
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| From: Bill Gates
| Sent: Saturday, December 05, 1989 9:44 AM
| To: Bob Muglia (Exchange); Jon DeVaan; Steven Sinofsky
| Cc: Paul Mariz
| Subject: Office rendering
|
| One thing we have got to change is our strategy -- allowing Office
| documents to be rendered very well by OTHER PEOPLES BROWSERS is one of the
| most destructive things we could do to the company.
|
| We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office
| documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities.
|
| Anything else is suicide for our platform. This is a case where Office has
| to to destroy Windows.
`----
http://www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000/PX02991.pdf
Walmart video site gets worse
,----[ Quote ]
| As you can see, if you go to their video downloading page here,
| it now properly detects your browser. Yay, progress! Sadly, if
| you are not using the spyware vector called IE, well, it locks you
| out. You get the following error message.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37514
,----[ Quote ]
| "In the meantime, it's nice to see that Microsoft's COO hasn't lost his
| Wal-Mart friends (he was CIO there, of course, before he joined Microsoft).
| It's important to call a favor now and again. Whatever smoke and mirrors it
| takes to get by"
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/01/the_appearance.html
Wal-Mart to launch video downloads
,----[ Quote ]
| They won't work with Macintosh or Linux-based computers or with iPods.
| The downloads can be backed up as many as three times, including to a
| DVD, but the backup DVD won't play in a conventional DVD player.
`----
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=70062
Wal-Mart's Speeding Bullet
,----[ Quote ]
| Slow delivery times have proved that the digital video delivery
| revolution isn't exactly "faster than a speeding bullet."
|
| [...]
|
| The Wal-Mart offering isn't for everyone. In a nod to Microsoft
| loyalists, the downloads will only work on Windows XP systems and require
| the latest version of Windows Media Player to watch.
`----
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06112812.htm?source=eptyholnk303100&logvisit=y&npu=y
http://tinyurl.com/yzmpnf
Wal-Mart eyes Microsoft for Web build-out
,----[ Quote ]
| She said the intellectual property protections in the Novell deal
| give Wal-Mart more confidence in using Linux more broadly.
|
| Questions over intellectual property are a "huge problem," Stewart
| said. The company now uses Linux in the data center of its current
| Web presence but had some trepidation with the idea of expanding it
| a much larger operation.
|
| "To think about using it pervasively, we were very concerned about
| it," she said. The larger Web operation would have "significantly
| higher legal exposure.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6152247.html
BBC plans to lock viewers into Microsoft monopoly says Open Source Consortium
,----[ Quote ]
| The Open Source Consortium (OSC) believes the plans are anti-competitive
| and will use public money to lock viewers into the technologies of
| a repeatedly convicted monopolist.
`----
http://www.publictechnology.net/article_avantgo.php?sid=7655
Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates
,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
http://slated.org/bbc_microsoft_bias
Brits! Act now to save the BBC from Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| The BBC are holding an open consultation regarding how they're
| going to delivery on-demand content, they want answers to
| questions like: "How important is it that the proposed seven-day
| catch-up service over the internet is available to consumers who
| are not using Microsoft software?"
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/31/brits_act_now_to_sav.html
Beeb breaks out with Windows WMA protection
,----[ Quote ]
| According to a press release from Sonos, the blokes over
| at the Beeb have decided to jump ship for relying on
| Realplayer for web content, and have switched over
| entirely to the Windows-friendly WMA format. Now
| that the BBC has made The Big Switch, BBC radio
| stations will be received automatically for users
| of wireless music and radio provider Sonos.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35282
BBC Looks To Microsoft For Web 2.0
,----[ Quote ]
| However, you don't sign deals or commitments if you're a quasi-autonomous
| Public Corporation operating as a public service broadcaster, as the BBC
| is. BBC Director General Mark Thompson met Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
| in Seattle on Wednesday to sign the non-exclusive memorandum of
| understanding and discuss the BBC's digital strategy.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/28/bbc-microsoft-internet-cx_cn_0928bbc.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/j5pn7
Novell and GPLv3: Let the Beatings Begin!
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is not a friend to Linux, and to believe that their
| dealings with Novell are not part of a long-term plan to
| backdoor the Linux way of doing things is frankly laughable.
| Once you understand this, I will say that Novell has done a
| lot for the Linux community previously. As such, while faulting
| them in this whole matter is not easy for me, I can?t see how
| this entire thing is not going to prove to be troublesome a few
| years down the road.
`----
http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=7755
|
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