__/ [ 7 ] on Sunday 28 January 2007 23:51 \__
> Doug Mentohl wrote:
>
>> 'Vinod Valloppillil's paper, "Open Source Software: A (New?)
>> Development Methodology, v. 1.00" has appeared as an exhibit [PDF] in
>> Comes v. Microsoft. I'd say that authenticates it once and for all.'
>>
>> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070127202224445
>
>
> "Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way
> to
> "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?
>
> A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard
> protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver
> advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding
> transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and
> would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards,
> of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to
> solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based
> customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft
> recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are
> different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the
> foundation on which further innovation can be based.
> "
>
> In other words the microshaft approach
> is to DELIBERATELY AND INTENTIONALLY BREAK A STANDARD by
> adding extra functions and features OUTSIDE of the standard,
> instead of following the spirit of a standard which is to
> add these extra functions TO THE STANDARD.
>
> Micoshaft shouldn't be invited to any more
> standards meetings until they legally sign up
> to giving up on this methodology.
And the tradition carries on. Recent examples:
Liberty Alliance, Microsoft discuss identity protocols
,----[ Quote ]
| "We have finally put down the boxing gloves and are trying to figure
| out how to solve our customers' problems," said Roger Sullivan, the
| newly elected president of the Liberty Alliance and vice president
| of Oracle's identity management section.
|
| The Liberty Alliance, whose participants include HP, Sun and IBM,
| backs the ID-Web Services Framework (ID-WSF), a set of protocols
| for Web services. Microsoft supports another set, WS-Star.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/011007-liberty-alliance-microsoft-discuss-identity.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news
FLOSS Weekly 14: Jeremy Allison of Samba
,----[ Quote ]
| 'In the section of the interview from around 33m30s to 39m00 Jeremy
| Allison reports how he was told that the Microsoft team implementing
| SMB2 were ordered to "f**k with Samba".'
`----
http://www.twit.tv/floww14
Researcher: PatchGuard hotfix stitches up benefit to Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has come under fire for quietly releasing a fix to
| its controversial PatchGuard kernel protection software in
| order to improve the performance of its Virtual Server 2005
| product.
|
| ...But it has also broken some legitimate software programs,
| leading to complaints from software vendors including Symantec
| and McAfee.
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070120/tc_infoworld/85291
Vista to give HD Photo format more exposure
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is looking to supplant the ubiquitous JPEG with an image format
| of its own--and it's hoping the debut of Windows Vista will help do the
| job.
`----
http://news.com.com/Vista+to+give+HD+Photo+format+more+exposure/2100-1045_3-6153730.html
Recently, they have also 'extended' or changed secure VPN
protocols/standards. All kindw of communication APIs, which Microsoft does
not intend to standardise, let alone leave unchanged.
'Microsoft broke anti-trust agreement,' prosecutors claim
,----[ Quote ]
| It's claimed Microsoft's engineers used at least 500 undocumented APIs
| to ensure Microsoft's applications worked better with Windows than
| those of competitors.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/18/microsoft_breached_antitrust/
Microsoft used undocumented Windows APIs - Iowa testimony
,----[ Quote ]
| 'All I can say is holy API batman...I'm not kidding...we are talking
| about literally 500-800 APIs here, no joke,' he wrote.
|
| Alepin had earlier claimed that Microsoft ran special demonstration
| programs whose sole purpose was to crash rival products and alleged
| that the company had subverted developers who used Microsoft's
| version of Java 'thinking they were developing multi-platform
| applications, but were actually developing Windows-specific
| applications'.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/101947/microsoft-used-undocumented-windows-apis-iowa-testimony.html
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/msg/cc1ad063dcc0400d
,----[ Quote ]
| Wow, this is absolutely devastating! As near as I can tell, the poor
| guy at Microsoft has been trying to support open standards against
| management. He doesn't say much about the history, i.e. the fact that
| Microsoft didn't do anything with IE until they were recently forced to
| by Firefox competition. The feedback is amazing. Example:
|
| Quote:
| -------------
| So if you believe that the reason for IE's lack of standards support is
| something other than malice of forethought to strangle other browsers,
| you are wrong. If you have followed the anti-trust trial you would have
| seen the actual evidence for these decisions. Microsoft is an
| anti-competitive company run by unethical shitheads.
|
| This won't change until the workforce is slashed and the entire company
| culture changes. Steve Ballmer is the king of the shitheads, so when he
| goes things might get better. But until then, expect MS to only do the
| absolute minimum to defuse the worst criticism. Remember my words:
| unethical shitheads.
| -------------
| End quote
|
| Erik cited this same guy's blog a few days ago to support the notion
| that Microsoft is dedicated to standards compliance and is doing the
| reasonable thing (I think that's why he cited it). The way this story
| has developed, it shows exactly the opposite, and is very revealing
| about sentiments out there in the developer world.
`----
Jury Hears Microsoft Competition Suit
,----[ Quote ]
| A judge on Friday told jurors they must accept as fact that a
| federal court found in 1999 that Microsoft holds a monopoly over
| computer operating systems and that it restricted computer
| manufacturers' ability to use competing systems.
|
| [...]
|
| She said she'll show that the company used its monopoly power
| to exclude competition and control prices and that it conspired with
| other companies to restrain trade, maintaining what she called a
| chokehold on software competitors and computer manufacturers.
|
| "It isn't illegal to be successful," Conlin said in opening
| remarks. "We applaud that. ... But you can't freeze out competitors
| and punish and retaliate against people who cooperate with
| competitors. Microsoft did all that and more."
|
| Conlin warned jurors that she would say some unflattering things
| about Microsoft and its billionaire founder Bill Gates, who
| serves as company chairman.
|
| [...]
|
| Conlin's first 3 1/2 hours of opening arguments delved deeply into
| computer industry history and how Microsoft fought off competitors
| attempting to design rival software.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061201/microsoft_trial.html?.v=1
The Formats of Excel 2007
,----[ Quote ]
| The "Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook" option saves as an "xlsxm"
| extension. It is OOXML plus proprietary Microsoft extensions.
| These extensions, in the form of binary blob called
| vbaProject.bin, represent the source code of the macros. This
| part of the format is not described in the OOXML specification.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/01/formats-of-excel-2007.html
ECIS Accuses Microsoft of Plotting HTML Hijack
,----[ Quote ]
| An industry coalition that has represented competitors of Microsoft
| in European markets before the European Commission stepped up its
| public relations offensive this morning, this time accusing
| Microsoft of scheming to upset HTML's place in the fabric of
| the Internet with XAML, an XML-based layout lexicon forn
| etwork applications.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/ECIS_Accuses_Microsoft_of_Plotting_HTML_Hijack/1169824569
Software rivals say Microsoft's Vista illegal in Europe (at CNNMoney.com)
,----[ Excerpt ]
| Software manufacturers, citing 2004 European Commission finding,
| contend the operating system violates server laws in Europe.
|
| [...]
|
| "Vista is the first step of Microsoft's strategy to extend its market
| dominance to the Internet," the ECIS statement said.
|
| It said Microsoft's XAML markup language was "positioned to replace HTML,"
| the industry standard for publishing documents on the Internet.
|
| Microsoft's own language would be dependent on Windows, and discriminatory
| against rival systems such as Linux, the group says.
|
| They said a so-called "open XML" platform file format, known as OOXML, is
| designed to run seamlessly only on the Microsoft Office platform.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/26/news/international/bc.vista.microsoft.eu.reut/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
Windows Vista Product Guide: Free to Download, $149 to Read
,----[ Quote ]
| 'Windows Vista Product Guide' was released in two formats:
|
| Microsoft Office Word 2007
| The standard .doc format isn't good enough, you need to be able to
| read a .docx file, so all those users of Office XP are just plain
| out of luck on
| this one.
|
| XPS
| What the heck is XPS? I hadn't heard of it before now, (a quick
| Google tells me XPS is Microsoft's proprietary rival to PDF)
| but apparently you need a special reader for it (which is
| kindly enough built into Vista, but nothing else).
`----
http://itsvista.com/2006/12/windows-vista-product-guide-free-to-download-149-to-read/
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Windows is 'intuitive': go to 'Start' to finish session
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
12:05am up 6 days 0:23, 6 users, load average: 0.06, 0.20, 0.52
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
|
|
