The company of marketeer has begun its next round of deception. It is no coincidence that this comes as soon as clients prepare for the next generation of servers and desktops (software-wise).

Lately there has been a HUGE push by Certified Microsoft Professionals and their companies to call clients and warn them of the dangers of open source. This week I received calls from 4 different customers that they were warned that they are dangerously insecure because they run Open Source Operating systems or Software because ‘anyone can read the code and hack you with ease’ they are being told. Other colleagues in the area also have noticed this about 3 Microsoft Partners or so they claim have been going out of their way to strike fear of OSS in companies that respond with ‘yes we use Open source or Linux’ when the sales call comes in.

The beast from Redmond is gearing up towards delivery of more disinformation than ever encountered before. It’s bracing itself for destruction of perceptions which accompany the term “Open Source”. According to Mary Jo-Foley, Microsoft has been preparing yet another
self-commissioned anti-Linux study. On top of that, Frost & Sullivan were recently used to conduct outrageous TCO studies. And yet, the press fails to mention who is behind the studies whose ‘conclusions’ it helps propagate.

Microsoft’s grip on public information and the media is nothing to sneeze at. Just have a look at the leaked Holloween Documents to get a quick reminder. That of course is the company which Novell, a so-called Linux advocate, chooses to do business with. Whilst Novell removes its anti-Windows Web site components, Microsoft fuels its anti-Linux fire and added aggression to its sales pitch. Clearly, “know your enemy” is a little tidbit which Novell absolutely must begin to digest and act upon.

In other news, LWN speaks of the division that’s formed in the Linux community, as well as the possible defection of developers who were invited to depart from Novell. Google and Canonical are named as examples.

To complete this quick roundup, I would also briefly mention Susan Heystee, the newly-appointed babysitter for this controversial deal. Shane has read the article more carefully and concluded that “they are going to customers jointly, in here she says that IP issues aren’t that important to customers that she has talked to. Plus, they admittedly have no plan – after ‘months’ of working out a deal and now they go to customers and are pitching them what exactly? Vague concepts like ‘interoperability’, ‘virtualization’ and ‘patent protection’“. This aligns perfectly well with the confusing ‘virtues’ that Novell waves in the eyes of European businesses, to whom patents are not even valid. All in all, this creates a great deal of noise and confusion. Wake up, Novell. You help destroy your source while returning to your proprietary roots.

PPLE’S moves seem slightly worrisome. They have just incorporated encryption into their kernel.

Apple’s so-called ‘DRM‘ of the kernel does not only mean an adoption of dodgy technology for the benefit of the company rather than the customer. Binaries (without accompanying source code and compilation details) are bad enough as they are. They hide the intention of a program. DRM‘ing them makes them not even runnable, regardless of what they are set to do.

Apple is being hypocritical here. It boasts virtualisation of Linux and Windows (even full installation of Linux), but it doesn’t permit OS X to run on anything other than Apple’s pricey hardware. It’s a one-way relationship.

Here is an an Arabic perspective that I found amidst some of very recent moves to Linux (at policy level) in Pakistan, Turkey, the Philippines, China, and Kerala.

Another unfortunate event is that school age children and teenagers are so being accustomed to use Microsoft products that for most of them nothing else exists. In schools they are being thought that Internet Explorer 6 is the only web browser that they should use, or that outlook express is the only email client that could display Arabic characters correctly and if they were to use other email clients then the emails they write recipients would not be able to read…etc.

Some photos I took in Oxford last year

ATER this month I will present my work at Oxford University. I still have many photos from my last visit (sample above) and I also wrote some notes. The absurd thing is that, for the first time, the college where we’ll be staying does not permit jeans and T-shirts. It doesn’t sound so liberal to me.

As was the case before, another concern for me would be whether the projection facilities can handle OpenDocument format. Even if I choose to present in HTML with JavaScript, there’s no guarantee that a proper Web browser (one that supports Web standards) will be installed. In that case, I need to bring a laptop and, oddly enough, people are assumed to have the same ‘flavour’ of software. Therefore, it has become common to share the same computer in a session, passing files using USB sticks. Use of laptops is frowned upon, so ignorance in computing and standards evidently leads to inconveniences. That aside, I have little desire to travel anymore, but I am left without much choice. I’ll probably write more on this topic, nearer to the actual date of the event.

TFM stands for “Read The Fine Manual”. But the letter “F” does not necessarily stand for “Fine”. This phrase, which is a popular support forums acronym, is often used in scenarios where a basic question is asked despite the fact that it can be easily answered given some minimal research effort.

Inevitably, this reminds me of times when my mother asks me computer-related questions over the telephone. I have read about similar experiences from others, so I will share. The bottom line is that I steer away from any such conversations and sometimes refuse to answer questions. Why? Because, at the end, these conversations tend to frustrate both sides. What was supposed to take just seconds to achieve can ultimately consume long and miserable minutes that involve impatience, anger and blame games.

The root of such problems is reluctance to read manuals. To friends or family members, the demands are often higher. To a non-tech-savvy person, everything needs to be done in the form of a UI or command-line ‘recipe’ by somebody else. Rather than exploring a program and learning how it works, some people want to exclusively know the path to the few things which need doing. It’s the natural and rational approach, so there is little room for blame. However, any program which is to be used in the long term can be learned from literature and tutorials, rather than endless one-on-one crash courses.

Lazy users, in my opinion, are often those who rebel against the intrusion of technology into our lives. When it’s something new that they face, they just immediately ask others and expect to be served. Why? Because it’s easier to ask. But beyond a certain point it’s unacceptable. Exploration and trial-and-error routines are still a fundamental and important skill to anyone that is inquisitive.

As for my mother, I reached the point where I insist that she spends several hours looking at application menus, without ‘tinkering’ too much. For one who isn’t familiar with the application at hand, it’s unfair to seek help to grasp the very basics. The exception is, of course, dedicated/paid support/teaching. Otherwise it’s just wasteful; Especially if the manuals are out there. Giving a solution will not help without context, as well as user orientation. Without letting others acquire the skills of exploring computer programs and their user interfaces, a request is implicitly made for more of the same.

The powers and savour of GNU/Linux have taken the attention of Oracle’s taste buds. Anything that reduces margins seems to make the founder, Larry Ellison, feel elated. And he’s no exception these days. Some months ago I heard the following joke (paraphrased below):

Q: What is the difference between God and Larry Ellison?

A: God does not think he is Larry Ellison.

Oracle is no longer waiting for a days of free beer (let alone Freedom, as in Free and free UNIX). Oracle reaps the crops which others have previously sown, throughout the early days of Linux. Oracle programmers do not share much of their work, despite their new Open Source strategy. Meanwhile, OSDL is being snubbed too, according to a recent interview. So what gives? Will Sun Microsystems go down a similar route with Java?

I sometimes think that Oracle executive need to sober up their mind (preferably with some rum) and give something in return. Linux could truly benefit from budgets as large as Oracle’s — budgets that expand owing to the competitive advantage one gets with Linux. Seeing the abuse they currently direct at Red Hat leaves nobody with impeccably-neutral thoughts, sentiments and Oracle affinity. The ethical issues that are tied to forking of Red Hat Enterprise Desktop/Server, as well as the inability to snatch JBoss for middleware, has left Oracle bitter. But it’s more akin to snobbery, as well as neglect of the roots that got Oracle where it is today (Oracle was among the earliest large adopters of Linux).

RedHat Linux

Will Oracle ever befriend Linux and actually prove that something can be given in return? At present, Oracle competes with and destroys some of the business that MySQL, Firebird, and PostgreSQL have conquered with Linux and pure Open Source software. This lack of moral values makes the mind boggle. Reciprocal benefit is just a belt-and-braces exercise given that Linux is out there begging for mere donations. What about assisting the giant whose shoulders you now stand on? Nobody can issue a cease-and-desist on the use of Linux and, in fact, with contributions to the kernel and even vocal appraisal alone, this can be seen as a form of advertising — a reciprocity.

I continue to perceive Oracle as somewhat of a Linux and Open Source parasite. Sometimes, more damage to reputation is done rather than the very contrary. Every once in a while somebody needs to crack that whip and knock some sense into those who only use Linux, accumulating enormous wealth and refuse to return anything, even when gently asked. Although there is no obligation (this is a clear point that frequently recurs in such discussions), there should be some sense of responsibility. You give and you get. FLOSS is community based, so the development of ‘lamer’ habits is dangerous. Let us all work together for the betterment of Linux.

Related item: Open Source and Paracites

From the press: Oracle #1 on Linux With More Than 80% Market Share

Oracle’s Linux commitment began in 1998 with the first commercial database on Linux. Today, only Oracle provides support for the complete software stack on Linux with applications, middleware, database and the operating system, including Red Hat, Novell/SUSE and Asianux. All Oracle products run on Linux, and Oracle Database on Linux meets the EAL4 Common Criteria…

Upgrade to Thunderbird. It’s Open Source and it honours standards/netiquette.

ICROSOFT Outlook is a terrible mail application, despite some common beliefs (and expectations due to cost, or bloat). I cannot comment on its abilities as a calendaring software as I have only seen others using these peripherals features. However, at least one Outlook user whom I exchange E-mails with is breaking every rule in the book regularly (if not always). Outlook does not prevent him from doing this. As a matter of fact, it encourages this and a dissatisfied recipient is of course less likely to reply.

Here is a short description of the problems inherent in these messages that I receive from Outlook (and sometimes Outlook Express too):

• HTML-formatted
• Non-standard ‘HTML’ (Microsoft Office inclination, MSIE-centric)
• Roughly 38 kilobyte even for a one-liner (an enormous non-standards compliant ‘style sheet’ is prepended)
• 10-line signature (Outlook does not warn or deter)
• No signature delimiter (breaking all RFC standards)
• Always top-posted, not trimmed and lacking context (Outlook is definitely not helping by creating new lines and putting the cursor at the top)
• In quotes, re-wrapping is broken and irregular symbols get inserted sporadically

There is no gentle way to approach the issue, but one such person learned to at least stick to plain-text (owing to a kind request). The top posting habits remain though. Outlook Express requires QuoteFix, which is addon software/hack, just to stop this default behaviour and make bottom posting practical. So there is no subtle way to suggesting others to improve their posting habits, unfortunately. To them, the Windows/Microsoft way is the right way. Acceptable standards lose their value when a desktop monopoly simply ignores them.

Some time ago I wrote some notes on how to begin loving E-mail again , which reminds me of an old favourite that is titled the UseNet improvement project.