Mozilla Takes on Microsoft in China
,----[ Quote ]
| Internet Explorer has held a virtual monopoly on the mainland, home to 160
| million Internet users. Now, Firefox is pushing for more market share
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb20080111_084224.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business
>From their manager in Europe
Open Enterprise Interview: Tristan Nitot
,----[ Quote ]
| Marketing: Unfortunately the best product does not always win and
| unfortunately, getting open-source products in the hands of users is a hard
| task. Also, established, closed-source software vendors do their best to
| prevent open-source from spreading. They use a number of techniques to
| achieve this.
|
| The first is about formats and interoperability. The game here is to prevent
| competing products accessing files data (files or documents) created by a
| proprietary application. For a long time, this issue was more important in
| the office applications realm. Now we are in a connected world, this issue
| has extended to new domains like network protocols (SMB/CIFS for printing and
| file sharing, for example), Internet applications (Microsoft Silverlight
| applications running in the browser, requiring a proprietary plug-in) and
| Digital Rights Management.
|
| The second technique used by proprietary players is in the legal field, using
| software patents and royalty schemes and open source software is often unable
| to respond. For example, embedding a piece of software requiring a
| royalty-fee codec (such as a video) breaks the open source nature of the
| code, because it prevents redistribution.
|
| Right now, such methods are being used by some vendors and are threatening
| the open source model. I think open source has a great future if it manages
| to ‘avoid’ these threats. As individual users, we need to make sure that the
| products we adopt are open source: In today’s world we are ever more
| dependent on technology and keeping it open is the best way to master it in
| the long term.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=356&blogid=14
Related:
Barclays says no to Firefox
,----[ Quote ]
| A READER ATTEMPTING to log into a Barclays web site here found himself with a
| little bit of a problem.
|
| He’s running some operating system called Linux and using Fireferret but gets
| an annoying message from Barclays and Mind Leaders (motto: e-learning that
| works) telling him to go away and use Internet Exploder.
|
| We tried it using Windows XP and Fireferret and got the same result too, as
| you can see below.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/03/barclays-firefox
Microsoft's Silverlight Promises to Disrupt Linux Web Users
,----[ Quote ]
| Just as it seemed that Linux users (especially 64-bit users) would
| finally be able to enjoy streaming content with a minimum of
| hassle, Microsoft's new Silverlight software promises to throw a
| wrench in the works. Because of sites like Google Video and
| Youtube, Flash video has become a common means of streaming
| multimedia over the Internet.
`----
http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1418.html
Microsoft's 'Everywhere' excludes Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| This browser add-on enables rendering of WPF content, but
| "Everywhere" doesn't include Linux.
`----
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/7794/53/
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 for
| network applications.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/ECIS_Accuses_Microsoft_of_Plotting_HTML_Hijack/1169824569
|
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