__/ [ B Gruff ] on Thursday 22 February 2007 17:15 \__
> On Thursday 22 February 2007 16:21 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> At Dell, Windows XP Home is $19 less than worthless
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Latitude D520N Duo (with FreeDOS): $984
>> |
>> | Latitude D520 Dual Core (with Windows XP Home Edition SP2): $965
>> `----
>>
>>
>
http://danpritchard.com/blog/2007/02/21/dell-winxphome-19-less-than-worthless/
>
> Yep:-)
>
> 1. Dell is likely paying MS whether or not you take Windows.
>
> 2. "No Windows" means that you don't get (pre-loaded) all those trial
> versions of apps., like at least two A.V. suites. No trial versions means
> no kick-back for pre-loading them from the vendor of the apps.
>
> Has the E.U. picked up on it yet?
Europe is very afraif of a company with proxies that elevate it abive the
law. When you dare criticise it, it bites.
So, let's take a couple of examples. Europe defends Open Source because of
savings...
Trialing the open source franchise model
,----[ Quote ]
| It appears that a group of European suppliers are giving it a go, at
| least on a trial basis.
|
| The Open Forum Europe (TOF-e) has been set up to run until the end
| of May to "test the commercial viability of a framework that will
| allow for more confidence and commercial clarity of the whole
| Open Source process".
`----
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2007/02/trialing_the_op.html
EU report on FLOSS: "FLOSS saves money"
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070112025016466
Now look what happens...
European Commission denies favouring open source
,----[ Quote ]
| The Commission's statement comes just days after it was lobbied to
| clarify its position on open source. The Initiative for Software
| Choice (ISC) wrote to the Commission immediately after the
| release of the report urging it to contact the "international
| press" to "set the record straight" over its stance. The ISC's
| external affairs are handled by CompTIA, which is funded by
| several IT vendors including Microsoft.
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
`----
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/30012007/152/european-commission-denies-favouring-open-source.html
EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-10-03T134311Z_01_L03693228_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-OFFICIAL.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
http://tinyurl.com/h47g3
US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
,----[ Quote ]
| Before C. Boyden Gray was named as George Bush's number one person in
| Europe, he was a lawyer lobbying on behalf of Microsoft.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34706
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
EU's Kroes denies vendetta against Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes on Tuesday rejected
| an accusation she was pursuing a vendetta against U.S. software giant
| Microsoft Corp. and suspected a "coordinated campaign" to discredit
| her agency.
|
| [...]
|
| Kroes was responding to a letter published by the newspaper from a
| Microsoft business partner who accused the EU Commission of "playing
| games" with Microsoft by raising concerns over its Vista operating
| system that could delay its launch in Europe.
|
| "There appears to be a coordinated campaign to portray the Commission
| in a negative light," she said...
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/060919/microsoft_eu.html?.v=3
Microsoft Hard-Balling EU Over Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| "This is part of the negotiating strategy," a person familiar with the
| situation told internetnews.com. "They're in a public relations battle."
|
| Microsoft made the same threat to South Korean regulators, but did not
| follow through when they lost that battle.
`----
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3631041
IDC (Microsoft-funded study) pronounces Linux unimportant to European economy
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34542
Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/12/2036223&from=rss
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
|
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure
| group, the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109
Study: open source needs official support; Lobbyist
disagrees with "flawed" conclusions
,----[ Quote ]
| The study, commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate
| General Enterprise and Industry, is but a small part of the larger
| FLOSSPOLS project that aims to keep the EU a leader in global
| development of open source software.
|
| [...]
|
| Now, the ISC is widely regarded as a shill for Microsoft, although
| the member list also includes companies like Intel, Autodesk, and
| RSA Security (now an EMC subsidiary). The 300-strong member list is
| mostly padded with lesser lights such as Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi(
| Turkey), ThreeSixtyDegreez (Pakistan), and Datoprogrammu Apgads
| (Latvia). The institute pushes hard for the right to patent
| software, alongside regular bashings of open source businesses.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061017-8011.html
As another example, take ODF which threatens the monopoly and cash cow. IBM
and other companies like Sun have been vocally supporting ODF and (quite
justifiably) criticizing the monpoly enabler (OOXML). They didn't just join
the Alliance like Google. Now see what happens...
No Valentines on the cards for Open XML, OpenDocument
,----[ Quote ]
| In the letter Microsoft claimed that IBM is attempting to slow
| down the approval process by the International Organization
| for Standardization (ISO) to recognize Open XML as an
| international standard.
`----
http://open.itworld.com/4934/070214openxmlodf/page_1.html
But it's all clear really...
Microsoft's 'Open' Debate Is Nothing of the Kind
,----[ Quote ]
| Cutting Through the FUD
|
| Behind Microsoft's rhetoric and FUD there is a clear effort to advocate
| proprietary interfaces that protect the monopoly.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft's contention about "choice" is hallow. This is the same
| company that used marketing about choice to combat Apple's iPod
| and iTunes in 2004 and 2005. Strange, since kicking loose its
| PlaysForSure partners and releasing Zune and the Zune Marketplace,
| Microsoft is no longer talking about choice--even though its
| directional change limits the choice previously advocated about
| music services and devices. Microsoft's "choice" included
| a proprietary interface, Windows Media Audio, tied to its
| major monopoly product.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/business_applications/microsofts_open_debate_is_nothing_of_the_kind.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
http://tinyurl.com/2s3ahc
--
~~ Happy Birthday, George W. (not Bush)
Roy S. Schestowitz | D-I-S-C-O becomes D-I-E S-C-O
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
6:05pm up 30 days 18:23, 7 users, load average: 0.00, 0.05, 0.18
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
|
|
