How could Windows Vista make the adoption of the Open Document Format more
difficult?
,----[ Quote ]
| Cryptography is similar to an automatic teller machine (ATM) that
| releases the money to you (decrypts the doc) after you have
| authenticated yourself with the card as well as the PIN number
| (public and private key). IRM [Microsoft's Information Rights Management]
| is like a nefarious big brother that was hired by the bank to follo
| you around after you got the money from the ATM, making sure that
| you spend it 'appropriately' or what the 'big brother' considers to
| be just. In turn, Microsoft does not just control who opens the
| document but it also controls what they can do afterwards....If the
| Open Source Software spreads and government organizations continue
| to insist on the use of the Open Document Format, consumers and
| citizens will be grateful a couple of years down the line.
| Otherwise Microsoft will tell us what we can and what we cannot
| do with documents that we have created using a licensed version
| of Microsoft Office.
`----
http://cytrap.eu/blog/?p=123
Related:
How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In - Cory Doctorow
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601781
The lock-out begins for Office Mac users
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is calling these "Microsoft Office Open XML Formats", but
| Office for Mac users will find them far from "open". In fact, they
| can't read them.
|
| Take Word 2007, for example. By default it saves documents in the
| new *.docx format. Trying to open one of these in Word for Mac 2004
| yields the following garbled mess
`----
http://apcmag.com/node/4755
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
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
Comes v. MS Antitrust Trial Begins in Iowa
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's part of what Allchin said about how to deal with the competitive
| threat from Novell then:
|
| "We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger....If you're
| going to kill someone, there isn't much reason to get all worked up
| about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Any discussions
| beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile at Novell while
| we pull the trigger."
|
| [...]
|
| Conlin used a variety of computer-generated illustrations,
| including one that showed 15 icons, each representing what she
| said was an illegal action taken by Microsoft in pursuit of its
| bid to become and remain a monopoly. The icons had titles like
| "exclusionary contract," "technical sabotage," "buying out the
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| competitition"...
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006120516224886
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
|
|
