____/ WiseGuy on Wednesday 09 January 2008 16:01 : \____
> On Jan 8, 12:26 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>>
>> Windows Vista kicked out of Olympics PCs
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Microsoft's latest version of Windows is too risky to implement for the
>> | important computers managing the 2008 Olympic summer games in Beijing,
>> | said the event's computer supplier and sponsor Lenovo.
>> `----
>>
> You post these stories a lot, but they don't seem to have any point.
> What difference does it make whether or not someone waits to change if
> they buy some other OS from Microsoft instead? For example, this
> article ends up stating
>
> "All of the 12,000 critical systems will run the 6-year-old Windows
> XP"
>
> It ends up looking like the mechanic in the oil change commercials
> where he says "You can pay me now or you can pay me later."
>
> How does this hurt Microsoft?
Microsoft has its teeth on the politicians in China (see refs below) and they
have an exclusive deal for the Olympic Games. It's nothing to use to measure
success.
Microsoft's piracy fight gains momentum in China
,----[ Quote ]
| In his first official visit to the United States in 2006, China President Hu
| Jintao arrived for dinner at Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) Chairman
| Bill Gates' house with a gift for the host.
|
| Shortly before Hu's Seattle visit, the Chinese government had issued a decree
| requiring all personal computers manufactured in China to come with a
| licensed operating system before leaving the factory gates.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN2127797020071221
McCain comes out against Net Neutrality; Says would hire Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer
,----[ Quote ]
| In another move that was sure to infuriate many geeks, the 70 year
| old presidential hopeful also said that he would ask Microsoft CEO
| Steve Ballmer to serve on his cabinet to deal with technology issues
| if elected. He did not however say what position Ballmer might be
| hired in, but did joke that he might consider him for a diplomatic
| position, such as ambassador to China.
`----
http://www.thedailybackground.com/2007/05/30/mccain-comes-out-against-net-neutrality-says-would-hire-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer/
Treachery In The Trenches
,----[ Quote ]
| I believe that most people do not grasp the immense entity of Microsoft.
| This is an organization and a man who commands the attention and bidding
| of world leaders. On a recent trip to America, the President of China
| spent his first evening in the United States, not with our President,
| but Bill Gates. He was the guest of the Gates mansion that first
| evening and the guest of honor for a dinner attended by over one
| hundred people. Why? To ask him to crack down on Software piracy
| and to insure that his computer manufacturers put Microsoft Windows
| on thier newly made machines instead of shipping them with no OS. He
| didn't see the President of the United States for over 36 hours...he
| spent that time with Bill Gates at his home and at the Redmond
| Campus.
`----
http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/88-Treachery-In-The-Trenches.html
Not all is rosy though:
Microsoft's China boss quits to head NBA in China
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft said its global vice president, Zhang Yaqin, would take over as
| acting Greater China chief while it sought a permanent replacement.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9595_22-6208825.html
OOXML, ODF and UOF: What's Up in China?
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has seemed to be flying high in the Peoples Republic of China
| lately. Bill Gates spent several days in Beijing earlier this year in
| meetings with high-level officials, after hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao
| the spring before at Gate's own home. And legitimate copies of Microsoft
| products appear to be at last gaining ground in comparison to pirated copies,
| albeit at the price of discounting them to almost unimaginable levels
| (students can now reportedly obtain a Windows/Office bundle for the
| incredible price of $3). Many credited Microsoft's pragmatic decision to
| accept Chinese realities and not insist on having everything its own way.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070817070419313
Microsoft ‘monopoly’ comes under fire
,----[ Quote ]
| We are calling on the government to veto the OOXML format at the
| International Organization for Standardization (ISO).” The OOXML format is a
| file specification released by Microsoft in December last year for its
| Microsoft Office 2007 suite. It is currently in a fast track standardization
| process with the ISO and will be subject to voting next month. Unlike the
| current ISO digital document standard ODF (Open Document Format) and China’s
| national standard UDF (Unified Office Document Format), Microsoft’s OOXML
| format can only be run on a Windows platform.
|
| It is also criticized for containing many proprietary technologies that can
| only be fully supported by Microsoft’s Office products.
`----
http://www.bbj.hu/main/news_29721_microsoft+%25E2%2580%2598monopoly%25E2%2580%2599+comes+under+fire.html
An open document standard for China
,----[ Quote ]
| Another standard that Microsoft does not support, is the
| RFC 3987 specification, which defines UTF-8 capable Internet addresses.
| Consequently, OOXML does not support the use of Chinese
| characters within a Web address.
|
| Microsoft also did a bad job in creating a document format
| for the whole world, which is an important requirement for an ISO standard.
| Considerations for users in Israel and many Muslim countries were excluded in
| the specification of OOXML. For any locale, the function 'Networkdays()' will
| always return Saturday and Sunday as the weekend. However, this is wrong for
| Iraq, Algeria, Sudan, Bahrain, Qatar, Bangladesh, Israel, Jordan, Libya,
| Pakistan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. ODF handles this correctly.
|
| There are many more examples why OOXML isn't a suitable candidate for an ISO
| standard yet. From my point of view, Microsoft should stop, as soon as
| possible, bringing more redundancy into office document formats.
|
| It would be much better if Microsoft takes the good ideas and technologies
| from OOXML, and tries to join an effort to unify ODF, UOF and OOXML. For
| those interested, the blog of IBM's Robert Weir, is a good source to get
| informed about the issues of OOXML.
|
| I hope China will not support OOXML in its ISO voting, but force Microsoft to
| consider talks for one harmonized office document standard for the whole
| world.
`----
http://www.zdnetasia.com/blog/opensource/0,39060102,63000113,00.htm
China's Linux desktop market booms
,----[ Quote ]
| The Chinese government's antipiracy movement has had an effect. After the
| central government published two regulations last year to force its
| departments and local governments to stop using pirated software, the
| government has increased its spending on low-cost Linux desktop software.
| Last year, the antipiracy movement focused mainly on senior province and city
| governments, but this year it filtered into the junior village and town
| governments as well -- areas that previously relied on pirated software.
| Currently, the government is responsible for purchasing accounts for more
| than one quarter of China's Linux desktop software market, and the homegrown
| Red Flag Linux leads the government market.
`----
http://www.linux.com/feature/122473
Linux gains ground in China
,----[ Quote ]
| Linux has been riding on a wave in China, topping the growth of all operating
| systems in the first quarter of 2007, says an industry analyst.
`----
http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/specialreports/0,39044853,62028679,00.htm
Mac claims more Japan OS sales than Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| Sales growth of Windows plummeted from 75.3 percent to 28.7 percent. The
| sudden switch provided Apple with about 53.9 of the total OS-only marketshare
| in Japan during October -- a breakthrough for the company, BCN says.
`----
http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/11/13/mac.up.win.down.in.japan/
Novell, Dell expand customer choice with Linux offerings
,----[ Quote ]
| Novell and Dell announced to expand Linux offerings with the addition of SUSE
| Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 installed on Dell OptiPlex 330 and 755 business
| desktop PCs in China. The systems will be available later this year.
`----
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/pressnews/novell-dell-expand-customer-choicelinux-offerings/11/40/312402
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | if ("if"=inv("fi")) print("foo/bar")
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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