In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:09:30 +0000
<4313617.0g0RNbH77b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> Opinion: Microsoft faces a turning point
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Instead, Microsoft's decisions have been shortsighted:
> | It has turned software antipiracy measures into a
> | strategic initiative; it has delivered Web-based
> | "Live" products that require a program installed
> | on the client;
One might quibble here on "installed", but the Web browser
nowadays could be construed as a bit of a mole. Javascript,
after all, can do quite a bit, or one can look into things
such as Java's JNLP, or the horrors of ActiveX.
One can also contemplate some interesting plugins for
Mozilla Firefox -- all with the user's and/or the sysadmin's
permission, of course. I'm assuming there are two types of
plugins for Firefox, one of which is from the old Mozilla
and requires some C/C++ development work, the other appears
to be some sort of HTML DIV affair with Javascript. I'd
frankly have to research the issue, but once in, interesting
things can happen -- again hopefully with the user's consent.
And then there's Google Gadgets, which has its own ideas.
> | and
> | its CEO, Steve Ballmer, has asserted that Linux infringed
> | on Microsoft's intellectual property.
Linus, maybe -- and probably by accident if that is the
case, which I for one doubt -- or some developers who
created modules which Linus et all eventually accepted
into the Linux kernel.
> | These are not the hallmarks of a company leading the
> | technology industry with strategic vision.
So what else is new? Microsoft has been excellent
at leading from behind, not unlike Niven's puppeteers.
(There are a few exceptions. Very few. Windows beat
out X by less than a year, but X has a far more robust
design.)
> |
> | So now Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo, badly? Where was
> | that kind of conviction in 2005?
Well, considering the DoJ's politicization and the reelection
of Dubya....good question. We could have used one. ;-)
> | Deep-pocketed Google has already won that war. (It's not
> | by chance that it did so by iteratively refining its
> | products to make them easier and more fun to use.)
> | In the words of Ken Mingis, Computerworld's managing
> | news editor, Yahoo is becoming Moby Dick to Microsoft's
> | Ahab.
More like Flipper the Dolphin after Moby Dick got away. ;-)
And they can't even get *him*.
> | While Ballmer and team are obsessed by the fish
> | that got away -- Internet search and ad sales -- Google
> | is slowly plotting its way into Microsoft's enterprise
> | business.
> |
> | Microsoft needs to get its mojo back -- to regain its
> | customer focus. But it's not alone in failing to do so.
> | The entire IT industry could use inspiration.
I think Linux is pretty good at that; I've not had so much
fun since the Amiga died. But even Linux could use more
mojo.
> | Tweaking your software license to increase profits is not
> | innovation.
Not in the technical sense, anyway. Of course game development
may not be that innovative nowadays either; the artists
(textures, mapmakers, etc.) seem to be doing the bulk of the
work, and have been for more than a decade now. Take a look
at the original DOOM, for example; most of it was the WAD;
the actual .EXE driver wasn't that big.
> | And leadership isn't putting a stake in the ground with
> | a promise of delivering a key new enterprise technology
> | to box out smaller competitors. That's the very essence
> | of shriveled, short-term thinking.
Is someone suggesting Microsoft needs bigger cojones? ;-)
> `----
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=operating_systems&articleId=322035
>
> MugabeSoft has helped computing as much as Fidel Castro helped
> Cuba and Stalin helped society. Ferocious is not 'successful'.
No, but $60B/year is a powerful argument...and I do wonder
how Linux can top that. Maybe patience is a virtue; after
all, Windows has had more than 20 years in the sunlight.
>
>
> Recent:
>
> Litigating against innovation: Legal attacks on Linux
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Patents and how they're controlled are damaging the way technology is
> | developed - and the Linux case is a key example of this.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | Litigation as a mode of business is fashionable in the
> | current climate, but offers little or nothing of benefit
> | to users or developers.
Ahhh, who cares about them? :-)
> | Authorial copyrights in the US have been extended to 70
> | years after the author's death. The law that made this
> | possible, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act,
> | was passed in 1998. Patent law, meanwhile, increasingly
> | protects the interests of the powerful, encroaches upon
> | notions of innovation and freedom to operate, and is
> | used to inhibit competition. Both are in critical need of
> | reform.
Considering the length of time a computer is in use
nowadays, 17 years appears a bit long. Of course, I'm
not at all certain how to reform it.
> `----
>
> http://www.itpro.co.uk/features/199785/litigating-against-innovation-legal-attacks-on-linux.html
>
>
> Memo to Microsoft: Put up or shut up on patent claims
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | They have signed innumerable contracts based on the claims,
> | contracts which assume the truth of the claims, and caused
> | the production of products whose chief selling point is that
> | their makers admit the legitimacy of the claims.
> |
> | Microsoft seems in no hurry to change the status quo.
> | They are not going to put up, in the form of a lawsuit.
> | They are not going to shut up, either,
> | given the commercial advantages they have created.
No point in doing so until someone calls them on it,
or can entice them out of their patent shell somehow.
> `----
>
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2460
>
>
> 'PatentGate,' one year later: Microsoft against the open-source world
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "Claiming you have IP that folks are infringing isn't the
> | same thing as proving it," wrote Pamela Jones, author of
> | the open-source legal blog Groklaw.net, in an e-mail.
This is not super-obvious?? Anyone who plays poker knows this! :-)
> | "I think they [Microsoft] are in a weaker position
> | because they did the [cross-licensing] deals. It makes
> | them look needy, like they can't make it any more
> | without Linux."
> |
> | "The [legal] threat [to open-source] is no greater"
> | today than a year ago, wrote Mark Radcliffe, a lawyer
> | with DLA Piper's Silicon Valley office and the
> | general counsel of the Open Source Initiative, which
> | oversees the approval of open-source software licenses,
> | in an e-mail.
One might say it's about 5.9% less, even. One less year out
of 17 for the alleged patents to protect their IP.
> |
> | Take Redmond's attempts to persuade vendors to sign
> | cross-licensing deals that include protection from
> | potential open-source patent lawsuits by Microsoft.
Doesn't that smell like something certain individuals in
Chicago used in the 30's?
> `----
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9087438&intsrc=news_ts_head
>
>
> Feeling the heat at Microsoft
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | If I ask you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now,
> | who would it be?
> |
> | Ballmer: Open...Linux.
> `----
>
> http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
>
>
> Related:
>
> Sun exec accuses Microsoft of 'patent terrorism'
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The efforts of Microsoft to pressure the Linux community
> | over alleged and unspecified patents is akin to
> | "patent terrorism", according to a local
> | executive for Sun Microsystems.
That might be a little strong, considering that no bombs
are involved. ;-) Still, it's certainly a form of FUD;
"use Windows because anything else might have the potential
of us considering the possibility that we might instigate
internal actions to start the process of litigation..."
> `----
>
> http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Sun-exec-accuses-Microsoft-of-patent-terrorism-/0,130061733,339280437,00.htm
>
>
> Microsoft, the art of Corporate Terrorism.
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Microsoft, no longer the technological leader in the Computer Desktop
> | market, is taking on a terrorist role in its attempt remain in power
> | at all costs. (see the link to the CNN story below)
> |
> | The tactic is intended to frighten current, and would be, free
> | software users away from products that Microsoft just can't compete
> | with. It's not a new tactic, but for the first time desperation is
> | beginning to show.
> `----
>
> http://sweetcomputing.com/index.php?wiki=Microsoft_Terrorism
>
>
> Convicted Monopolist Terrorizes Software Industry
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | That headline is designed to grab your attention. Sensationalistic as
> | it may be, it also happens to be true, if what you mean by 'terrorize'
> | is to provoke fear.
Well, terror is a form of fear, so one could make a case therefor.
> |
> | If you've been following the presidential race in the United States,
> | you know the present crop of candidates have been exploiting the fear
> | of the American people as they never have before in the history of
> | the country.
One of them, anyway.
> `----
>
> http://www.linux.org/news/opinion/ms_threats.html
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
GNU and improved.
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