TECHNOCRACY

2006-08-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Vista Oops

Micro$oft buys out korea (Korea should have hit them harder)

2005-11-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Corp. moved a step closer to clearing up its legal problems in South Korea today when local Internet portal operator Daum Communications Corp. agreed to accept a $30 million settlement to resolve its antitrust complaints, the two companies said.

However, the agreement won't necessarily end an investigation into Microsoft by Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) that began in April 2004.

“It is significant that we have reached this settlement with Microsoft on terms that we believe are favorable to Daum, and to be able to work together with Microsoft to build a new business partnership,” said Daum vice CEO Kim Hyun-Young in a statement.

“This agreement marks not only the end of our legal dispute, but more importantly, the beginning of a closer working relationship between our companies,” said Tom Burt, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft, in the same statement.

Microsoft’s settlement with Daum, a Seoul-based portal operator with 55 million users worldwide, involves a $10 million cash payment, an advertising contract valued at $10 million and a further package of measures valued at $10 million including “marketing and promotional opportunities between the two companies,” the two companies said.

However, the actual terms of the third part of the package remain unclear. “What we’ve agreed is to run some selected online content from Daum on MSN,” said Oliver Roll, a Microsoft spokesman in Singapore. “We have no more details at this stage.”

The dispute dates to 2001 when Daum filed a complaint with the KFTC over Microsoft’s bundling of Windows Messenger with the Windows operating system. Daum operates its own instant messenger platform in South Korea that competes with Microsoft's product. This was followed by the filing of a lawsuit against Microsoft in 2004. Both the suit and the antitrust complaint are resolved by today's deal.

However, the KFTC launched a probe of Microsoft on its own initiative in April, 2004.

Meanwhile, RealNetworks Inc. filed a complaint with the commission on Oct. 28, 2004, alleging that Microsoft harmed other software producers by bundling audio and video software with Windows.

Last month, Microsoft reached an out-of-court settlement with RealNetworks, paying $761 million.

Asked whether antitrust penalties could still be levied in the case, Lee Hwang, head of the Microsoft Task Force at the KFTC, said “Yes. It is totally up to the commission.”

Lee said that although both the Daum and the RealNetworks complaints have been resolved, the KFTC is pursuing two investigations into the bundling of Windows server operating system with Windows Media streaming service and the Windows PC operating system with Windows media player.

He did not specify when a judgment would be reached.

“We are continuing to cooperate with the commissioners,” said Roll. “We are expecting a decision in the next few weeks.”

Roll added that Microsoft was committed to Korea, “one of the most vibrant markets in Asia.”

If the Korean agency rules against Microsoft, the regulator could order it to remove parts of bundled software from Windows. Microsoft has said that if it is ordered to pull Windows Messenger and Media Player from its operating systems, it could be forced to withdraw from South Korea, or limit releases of new software in the country.

However, few analysts expect events to progress that far.

“I think the KFTC will find that Microsoft has violated competition law and will order some very mild corrective measure; that would be the face-saving solution,” said Brendon Carr, an attorney with IT experience at Seoul’s Aurora Law.

“Microsoft has drawn a line in the sand that there are remedies that cannot be accepted, which include unbundling,” he added. “Maybe the remedy will be more bundling. They will not remove their own products, but maybe will add Daum products.”

The commission could also fine Microsoft 5% of its annual Korean sales. What those are is unclear, as the company does not release revenue figures from separate markets.

Currently, Microsoft faces two antitrust lawsuits worldwide: one in the European Union, and one in Korea.

Daum, meanwhile, saw its stock value rise by about 10% on the day.

Sony is opening up your computer to hackers (in the name of stopping music liberators)

2005-11-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

Back in the 1980s, one-hit wonder Rockwell sang about paranoia in "Somebody's Watching Me." Now, ironically, music itself is helping to keep track of listeners.

Software from Sony BMG, installed when someone plays one of the record label's recent copy-protected CDs in a computer, hides itself on hard drives using a powerful programming tool called a "rootkit." But the tool leaves the door open behind it, allowing other software--including viruses--to be deeply hidden behind the rootkit cloak.

Now, the first malicious software written to piggyback on the CD copy protection tools has been spotted online--a Trojan horse that aims to give an attacker complete remote control over an infected computer. As it turns out, this interloper didn't work well. But over the course of the day, several others emerged that apparently fixed early flaws.

Sony's use of the rootkit software has sparked a firestorm of criticism online and off over the company's techniques,

How Micro$oft kills progress.

2005-11-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." -the borg

It seems that no matter what area of software development you're involved in you can't escape Microsoft's empire. It sells the Windows operating system (OS) which is used on 95% of the worlds personal computers and produces 80% of the worlds software. They've grown so big in fact that they no longer face any serious competition, they're a monopoly. Since John Rockefeller and Standard Oil's domination of the oil industry one hundred years ago there have been numerous monopoly situations develop in the world economy. Some have been successfully dismantled some not. Some industries have been returned to vigorous competition and others not. But one thing they have all had in common is that they are bad news for consumers.
"It's uniform , it's standard and all of the applications that people run work in the same way. People don't have to worry their silly little heads with multiple choices." In any monopoly/dictatorship there are always toadies who have their social or financial position raised artificially by the monopoly/dictatorship. You might only be competing for the crumbs from the dominant players table but if they control 80% of the market they can be some seriously big crumbs. The Microsoft toadies has come up with numerous arguments against Microsoft break up, here's the main ones.

An argument put up is that Microsoft produces the best products. What they fail to acknowledge is that monopolies always produce the best products, it's their economic might and efficiency of production that make it impossible for a competitor to produce the same quality. It's a similar situation to professional sport. The more winning years you have the more money you make which means you can buy better players and you attract more fans which buy more tickets and you win more games which means you make more money.

The closest approximation to the situation with Microsoft and it's control of the OS would be if one of the teams owned the stadiums that the other teams play in and employed the umpires that controlled the games. Hardly sporting. And microsoft software can only
be viewed as best when factoring in the "easy to use" factor, as far as stabilty it seems every other OS has them beat, and the others are catching up in the user friendly catagory.

One argument put by the free marketeers is that it's only jealousy on our part and that Microsoft is one of the most successful companies in history. Some even go as far to make the ludicrous statement that monopolies are good for consumers and that somehow vigorous competition isn't central to a capitalist system.

The main reason for this statement actually has nothing to do with the economics of monopolies and everything to do with the politics of the people running the monopolies. The same people who give seemingly sincere testimonials to the benefit of only having one person running an industry seem unaware of the fact that that is exactly what happens in a dictatorship like Cuba. Now there's an economic model we should all be copying. Viva la revolution , viva Microsoft!

If you where out in the woods and came across a very large and very pissed off grizzly would you

Get the hell out of there as quickly as possible
Quietly sneak up behind it and kick it in the testicles

I'd say that no one I've ever met would be stupid enough to choose number 2.If you take this as an analogy for a software company taking on the Microsoft Windows monopoly, then the reaction of Bill and the boys would be pretty similar to the grizzly. They'd take about 30 seconds to turn you into a damp smudge on the ground.

One of the other reasons that competition for Microsoft is so unlikely is that there isn't any money in it. If you tow the line and develop exclusively for Windows then you are going to make far more money than by developing for another platform. The only way you will ever gain sufficient size to be able to challenge Microsoft is by working within their system and producing windows software which is successful and useful . Which of course makes the OS you are using more popular and therefore makes Microsoft money as well.

It's like the draw backs instigated by Standard Oil on it's competitions freight. The railroads paid them money for every barrel of oil their competitors shipped. Every program that is written exclusively for windows puts more money in the pockets of Microsoft, but under the current system it's the only way to make money.

Most of Microsoft's competitors have been reduced to the point where there main advertising thrust is the ability of their products to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's. Which leads to the obvious question . If you're producing a product that opens like a Microsoft product, runs like a Microsoft product and integrates with all the other Microsoft products, why on earth would they buy it from you and not Microsoft? The only reason that you have any market share at all is that Microsoft doesn't consider your segment profitable enough to worry about yet.

The example of a monopoly most pertinent to the Microsoft case is the brake up of "Ma Bell" or AT&T. Before it was broken up 1982 Bell controlled all of the local and long distance phone business in the U.S.A. Prices were high, service was bad and Bell was using it's control of the local phone exchanges to restrict competitors access to the long distance market. In an agreed settlement Bell was broken up into the regional baby bells which where given the local phone market and AT&T which had the long distance market.

In this sense I wouldn't limit the rules to simple OS but also extend them to programming languages and any Application Programming Interface that can be used to develop applications. So for example Sun Microsystems would be required to either publish all the source code for Java and allow it's use for programming or produce no software of any kind. Given the fact that the source code for Java is currently available this shouldn't present a problem, but it's important because it prevents Sun or anyone else in the future of going down the same road as Microsoft.

Only through Opensource can we can do away with micro$oft and insure that another micro$oft is not waiting in the wings. Its cheaper , more stable and open for you to hack and make it suit your needs.

Would you by a car with the hood welded shut? Thats what you get with windows.

How opensource can stop outsourcing.

2005-11-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

I ran across an IT post from an Indian news source.
seems that we might have more jobs(at lower pay) because of outsourcing.

A prime example of how opensource
can solve most the problems facing th IT industry in america.

New Delhi , Nov. 2

A RECENT study commissioned by the IT Association of America (ITAA) has said that the "incremental economic activity" triggered by offshoring is likely to create over 3.37 lakh net new jobs in the US by 2010.

So , it will take ten years ? , well I'm sure the electric ,gas,visa,mastercard,morgage,student loan,
, and other people you owe money too will understand they cant be paid until 2010.

"Even as the global software and IT service outsourcing has displaced IT workers in the US, the total employment in the US increases as the benefits ripple through the economy. The incremental economic activity that follows offshore IT outsourcing created over 2.57 lakh net new jobs in 2005 and is expected to create over 3.37 lakh net new jobs by 2010," the study conducted by Global Insight, an economic analysis and financial information company, said.

mmm the math does not ad up, many more jobs than that were lost , fewer IT staff also effected others .
like the poor guy who cleaned up the lab, the venders that sold the equiptment, and all the strippers in sillicon valley.

Stating that global sourcing was a "net positive" for American workers and the US economy, the ITAA President, Mr Harris N. Miller, said that by driving down the costs associated with computer software and services, global sourcing sharpened the US' competitive edge at home and abroad.

HHmm, so outsourcing is the only way to bring down software costs ? is'nt there some way to
have software designed here , in a cost effective manner? To have millions of people working
together to build new techology? ooohhh what , is'nt that what opensource is doing ?
Yes it is , opensource removes the need to go overseas to find an affordable way to design software.

The study found that outsourcing of IT services added to the take-home pay of average US workers. "With inflation kept low and productivity high, worldwide sourcing will increase real hourly wages in the US by $0.06 in 2005, climbing to $0.12 in 2010. Cost savings and use of offshore resources lower inflation, increase productivity and lower interest rates. This boosts spending and increases economic activity," it said.

so , millions of jobs are lost so salesmen can make an extra 12 cents an hour by 2010?
What this artical falls to realise is everyone ends up with higher wages(12 whole cents) exept those who's jobs are displaced .

The study predicted that spending for global sourcing of computer software and services will grow at 20 per cent, from about $15.2 billion in 2005 to $38.2 billion in 2010.

More jobs lost. well if you like working in IT I guess you'll have to move to india.

Micro$oft tries to bully south korea.

2005-10-30T15:44:00.000-08:00

After a four-year investigation of Microsoft by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the software giant has threatened to take its ball and go home. The commission is looking into whether Microsoft's inclusion of its instant messaging software and media player in Windows violates the country's antitrust laws. In a new turn, Microsoft has said it may be forced to withdraw Windows from South Korea entirely if the KFTC requires it to tailor a version of Windows specifically for the country.

The fact that the standoff is taking place in South Korea is significant because the nation boasts staggering levels of broadband adoption, gaming and PC usage. While avoiding the trouble of creating a South Korean version of Windows is probably tempting, forcing an entire nation of high-consumption technology users to explore alternatives to the operating system may be more detrimental in the end. If such a shift did take place, the world would surely be watching to see how the change would impact the country and its tech industry.

As issues related to Microsoft's market dominance tend to do, the debate has touched a nerve in the blog world. Many see the threat as yet another bullying tactic meant to strongarm an entire government into relenting to the company's wishes.

A look at what would happen if everyone went after "software liberaters" the way micro$oft does.

2005-10-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

ATHENS, GREECE -- Calling it the "greatest copyright violation in the history of civilization," the government of Greece issued a statement today demanding that Italy provide reparations for all of the countless ideas that were stolen by the ancient Romans.

"They took our gods and renamed them. They stole our stories and plays. They snatched our inventions and used them without compensation. It's been over two millenia and the people of Greece have never received so much as a 'Thank you' from the descendants of the pirate Romans. This injustice must end."

While the concepts of copyrights, patents, derivative works, and bark letters do not seem to have existed during the height of Greek or Roman civilizations, this minor legal obstacle is not stopping outraged Greek lawyers from pursuing their claims.

"Rome wasn't built in a day -- it took centuries of plundering Greek art, culture, mythology, politics, technology, and other valuable forms of intellecual property," ranted one lawyer. "And what, after all these years, does Greece have to show for it? 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'."

One lawyer has calculated, when adjusted for inflation, interest penalties, and currency conversions, that the total damages from Rome's piracy could easily surpass US$1,400,000,000,000,000,000.

"As the successor-in-interest to the Roman Empire, the nation of Italy owes us big time," said a Greek official.

But that's only the beginning. Greek lawyers also hope to collect royalties from other countries, such as the United States, for "pervasive use of stolen Greek architectural ideas." Boasted one lawyer, "If you own a building that violates our look-and-feel copyrights on the Parthenon and other Greek landmarks, then you'd better pony up at least US$50,000. And you don't even want to know the penalty for unauthorized use of Doric columns!"

Why linux will win. I found this artical enlightening .

2005-10-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

Any typical computer user today (user, not administrator) is just as helpless at the console of a Windows domain server as they would be at any Linux or Unix server. Anyone who actually has some experience in their normal OS and knows what they want to accomplish will fumble their way through the foreign server with just about the same difficulty whether they are a Unix geek trying to set up Windows 2003 Server or a Windows admin setting up RedHat AS: they both will have troubles, but they both probably will succeed.

As a related issue, I will note that a lot more so-called Windows admins are really incompetent even in the OS they say they know; I often find people who know far less about Windows than I do, and I consider myself functionally illiterate in Windows. But never mind those sour grapes.

Windows is hard to use, and it's about to get harder. When Vista starts booting up on shipping hardware, Windows people are going to find a lot of things they know nothing about, and the new restrictions on user privileges are just going to make things more difficult and confusing.

Windows is about to try to grow up and become a real operating system. It may not succeed, but the changes will only increase the difficulty of configuration, troubleshooting and maintenance. Windows is NOT easy, and it's about to get even harder.

*Originally published at APLawrence.com

Sony's PS3 beat Micro$ofts xbox 360 , hands down in the technologicaly informed Japan.

2005-10-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

These interest polls get released so often it almost seems redundant to post another one – but when the poll is done by renowned Japanese magazine Famitsu, and when the statistics are this plentiful, you tend to take notice.

Unsurprisingly, the PlayStation 3 still has the most amount of interest, with 63% of those polled absolutely wanting to buy it. The biggest reasons for buying the console would be its features (70.4%) and its line-up of games (61%), while the biggest reasons for not buying are its unannounced price (43.1%), its controller (32%), and that “it does not bring anything new to the PS2” (54.9%).

Coming in second place is Nintendo’s underdog, the Revolution, with 36% interested in buying the console (and, of note, 40% not interested “for the moment”). The biggest plus to Nintendo’s console seems to be its download plans (80%), its Wi-Fi (42%) and its controller (41.7%). In fact, 45% think the controller “looks very amazing.” The biggest reason to not buy a Revolution, interestingly, is “from the beginning I did not want to buy one” (53%) – seems like an uphill battle for Nintendo, doesn’t it? The other gripes include that no games have been shown yet (32%), “I don’t fully understand its features” (72%), and its unannounced price (60% and, apparently due to some typo, 49.3%).

In third place is the first-to-be-released X-Box360 with 24% of those polled interested and 40% still undecided. The new controller turned out to be a hit with Japanese gamers (82.2%), as well as the console’s features (53.9%). However, Microsoft also suffered from the unfortunate “from the beginning, I just didn’t like it” disposition (49.3%), as well as a uninteresting lineup (49.1%). For those undecided, 81% list the price as their biggest reason.

Believe it or not, there are still plenty more statistics available via the Next Generation’s page. Anything here surprise you?

Who is the real criminal ? The music liberators or the record industry for over charging us for music.

2005-10-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

A federal grand jury indicted three San Francisco-area men Wednesday for their involvement in what the music industry calls the largest illegal CD manufacturing seizure in the United States.

The indictments follow the arrests of five individuals and searches of 13 locations in California and Texas on Oct. 6 as part of the Department of Justice's (DoJ) "Operation Remaster." The campaign targeted the large-scale suppliers of pirated copyrighted music, software and movies.

Operation Remaster primarily focused on replicators, the companies or individuals who use sophisticated machinery to create hundreds of thousands of copies of copyrighted works that are then distributed around the country.

Ye Teng Wen (a.k.a. Michael Wen, 29) of Union City, Hao He (a.k.a. Kevin He, 30) of Union City, and Yaobin Zhai (a.k.a. Ben Zhai, 33) of Fremont were charged in two separate indictments with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and traffic in counterfeit labels, criminal copyright infringement, trafficking in counterfeit labels and aiding and abetting counterfeiting.

Wen and He were charged in a 10-count indictment. Zhai was charged separately in a seven-count indictment.

Zhai was released Wednesday on a $150,000 secured bond. Wen and He were released on Oct. 6 on $75,000 secured bonds. Their next court appearance is set for Oct. 27.

"These individuals are charged with affixing counterfeit labels on CDs to create the appearance of legitimacy, including the FBI Anti-Piracy Warning that stated 'Unauthorized copying is punishable under federal law,'" U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan said in a statement.

According to court filings, music and software piracy conspiracies usually involve geographically separate businesses that secretly handle different stages of the process of pirating intellectual property. The chain involves brokers, replicators, assemblers, packagers, printers, distributors and retailers.

Brokers solicit the orders, while replicators have the equipment to manufacture hundreds of thousands of CDs. Printers and packagers make the infringed work appear legitimate by assembling the CD case, booklet and artwork into a completed CD/DVD package that closely resembles the copyrighted work.

According to DoJ affidavits, Wen and He have been involved in large-scale replication of pirated music and software, including songs by numerous Latin artists, as well as anti-virus software manufactured by Symantec.

Similarly, Zhai has been involved in large-scale replication of pirated Latin music. All the counterfeited works at issue are copyrighted in the United States.

Replicators use machines to reproduce the CDs. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) estimated one stamping machine has an approximate value of $25,000.

Wen, He and Zhai are charged with using more than 2,000 stampers with an estimated potential replicating value of millions of dollars.

"The allegations of massive piracy of music and software reflect the potential loss of millions of dollars to the artists and businesses who legitimately own the copyrights on these works," Ryan said. "We will continue in our work to protect intellectual property rights and prosecute those who pirate music, software and movies for their own enrichment."

linux vs windows

2005-10-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

In debating the virtues of enterprise Linux versus Windows, let's put the market studies where they belong. OK, maybe not there; but put them aside.

Microsoft proponents usually make their cases against enterprise Linux by parroting market research. That's like playing with a stacked deck. Finding market research firms not beholden to Microsoft's big purse is like drawing an ace to complete your royal flush. It's possible, but the odds are against you. For example, recent Microsoft-funded reports by International Data Corp. and Forrester Research's Giga unit found, separately, that Linux costs more in development and total cost of ownership (TCO) than Windows.

For proof that enterprise Linux outdoes Windows in the ways that matter, the only reliable source is the corporate IT pro who has used both platforms.

Let's start with a game. Fill in the OS in this IT pro's statement: "We have ____ systems that have been running for years without a boot."
Users haven't coined a phrase about Linux crashes, but everyone knows about BSOD, Windows' "blue screen of death." BSOD caused many sleepless nights for Australian Fisheries systems admin Sean Lincolne. He'd find a Windows server dead upon his arrival to work more mornings than not. So he'd "have to reset it and then perform a database recovery," he said. Nowadays, he sleeps well because his agency's Linux-based servers are never DOA.
BSOD is just one of many hassles Windows administrators face and resignedly consider to be business as usual, Lincolne said. Indeed, in one SearchEnterpriseLinux.com field report after another, IT pros have expressed frustration with Windows' constant crashes, license management difficulties, lack of good failover options, hard-to-apply patches and service packs, DLL version conflicts, remote management problems, lack of scalability and flexibility and bugs, bugs and more bugs. Oh, and don't forget license costs.

Managing and supporting Windows is also a bear, because it contains more bells than Santa's sleigh,

Thanks to those bells and whistles, Windows is not only prone to breaking, it's easier to break into, according to a recent report by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. The report said that Microsoft has broken the basic rule of computer security by adding too many features and not giving users a way to easily remove them. IT systems cannot be secure, the report said, if Microsoft is allowed to maintain a stranglehold on the OS market.

Although no existing OS is bulletproof, Linux is a lean OS, and its open source foundation enables users to remove features and tweak the kernel relatively easily.

Yes, I used market research in my argument against Windows. It was a trick to bring us back to my original point about the unreliability of said reports. Dan Geer, a co-author of this Microsoft-bashing CCIA report, was CTO of security consultancy AtStake Inc., until he was fired shortly after the report's release. Need I mention that AtStake consults for Microsoft?

Microsoft , does not want your linux money.

2005-10-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Corp. is not going to release a version of its Office suite software for open-source rival Linux, although the company is actively studying how Linux works and how it can integrate with the platform, a Microsoft representative said Wednesday.

“The simplest way I can answer the question is that Microsoft is 100 percent focused on Windows,” said Nick McGrath, director of platform strategy for Microsoft in the U.K. “We have no plans at this present moment in time to deploy or build a version of Microsoft Office on Linux.”

McGrath participated in a roundtable debate on whether free software development leads to proprietary software or if the flow works in reverse at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo that started Wednesday in London. The lone representative from Microsoft, McGrath handled a fair amount of ribbing from emotional open-source advocates who used the forum to question how Microsoft plans to deal with what advocates say is increasing market share of the Linux platform.

Open-source software allows anybody who has a great idea to “stand on the shoulders of giants,” whereas in the commercial world it has to be patented, theunderlying infrastructure has to be licensed and the idea has to be tried, said Mark Shuttleworth of the Ubuntu Foundation.

“From an innovation point of view, they [a company] have to have every bright idea, they have to get it right every time, and it costs them a lot to do it,” Shuttleworth said. “Whereas in the free software world, we do take an evolutionary approach, and we know over time that evolution beats intelligent design, right?”

Shuttleworth wasn’t the only one who forecasted hard times for commercial software developers. But Matt Asay, director of open-source strategy at Novell Inc., said rather than focusing on why Microsoft isn’t developing programs for Linux, developers should be focused on customer value.

“It is precisely that customer-pleasing trajectory that ends up killing companies over time as they move up and up,” Asay said. “When was the last time Microsoft Office became appreciably better for you to use? Ten years ago. The market will take care of Microsoft.”

Linux has taken market share from Unix, but is gaining on Microsoft, Asay said.

“If you look at what’s happening on the server, finally for the first time Linux is starting to take Windows market share,” Asay said.

Linux developers aren’t fighting to match the desktop environment of today but “really trying to define the future of this digital operating environment,” Shuttleworth said. As such, hardware problems with Linux should dissipate as it becomes more common.

“I happen to believe that Linux will become a substantial part of the desktop market, and what I think is that the hardware vendors themselves will take care of all of those tricky issues as soon as they see it becoming a reality,” Shuttleworth said.

Patent conflicts pose a foreboding barrier for all involved in software, as it puts innovation into a murky legal world that tends to stymie creativity, panel participants said. While patents are broadly meant to be open source, software patents are not subject to disclosure.

“It is crippling to us right now,” said Rasmus Lerdorf, an infrastructure engineer for Yahoo Inc. “You cannot sit down over the weekend and write 30 lines of code without infringing on some patent. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Microsoft will continue to protect its work, McGrath said.

“We build software,” McGrath said. “We sell software. It’s only fit and proper that we protect our most important asset, which is our source code.”

When panelists were asked what they would like to see as the next major step in the next year for open source, McGrath said Microsoft would continue to listen to its customers on what it can do for integration. Shuttleworth responded to McGrath next: “What is the sound of market share receding into the distance?”

Why Micro$oft Fears Opensource

2005-10-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

For years, Bill Gates and other top executives at Microsoft railed against the economic philosophy of open-source software with Orwellian fervor, denouncing its communal licensing as a "cancer" that stifled technological innovation.

Today, Microsoft claims to "love" the open-source concept, by which software code is made public to encourage improvement and development by outside programmers. Gates himself says Microsoft will gladly disclose its crown jewels--the coveted code behind the Windows operating system--to select customers.

"We can be open source. We love the concept of shared source," said Bill Veghte, vice president of the Windows Server Group. "That's a super-important shift for us in terms of code access."
Did Microsoft suddenly find open-source religion? Hardly. It was dragged there kicking and screaming by its customers, who are increasingly drawn to open-source software like Linux, whose inner workings of code can be seen by anyone and modified.

While small in scope, Microsoft's adoption of some key open-source tenets is monumental in meaning. It is an acknowledgement that the company sees the technology as its most serious competitor in years and is taking steps to make sure its Windows franchise can survive the attack.

The open-source movement also represents a larger threat to Microsoft that transcends any particular technology or company: The high-tech industry has undergone a psychological shift that encourages challenges to Microsoft, which for many years had been technologically possible but practically unthinkable.

For a combination of reasons ranging from the troubled economy to mistakes in Microsoft business strategies, many large companies are wondering, for the first time in maybe a decade, why they pay so much for its products and how they can get by with less.

"This is going to force Microsoft to look at how they structure their software architecturally, and how they package and market their products, and I think that's good," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.

Microsoft has itself to blame at least in part for strengthening the hand of its rivals. A controversial new software licensing policy, which raises prices for some customers and asks them to pay in advance for future releases, has angered many Microsoft customers and driven them to seek cheaper alternatives such as Linux.
Too little, too late?
The question is, did Microsoft act too late? In just the past year, many companies have found that open-source software has gained a level of sophistication that makes it a viable alternative to Windows for server systems and Web site operations. Amazon.com, Verizon Communications and Air New Zealand have all switched to Linux over the past 12 months to cut costs.
Initially, Linux was seen as a competitor to Windows only for server operating systems, used by roughly 27 percent of corporate servers and more than half of all Web servers, according to industry researcher IDC. Recent moves, however, have begun to strengthen Linux's appeal in desktop PCs when combined with open-source alternatives to Microsoft's Office, such as Sun Microsystem's StarOffice.

That's leading some longtime Microsoft customers to the next, once-unthinkable step: serious consideration of Linux and other open-source software as a replacement for Windows and Office on their desktop systems.

Satish Mahajan, chief information officer of American Automobile Association, is evaluating Linux for his server systems and beginning to eye the open-source software for his desktops as well. "When I talk to my colleagues, I hear more and more willingness to move a portion of their businesses to Linux. I'm still weighing the pluses and minuses, but it has moved up on my scale," he said.

Mahajan and others say cost is only one reason for the decision to evaluate Linux. In Microsoft's modern world, its products are seen by a growing body of corporate technology managers and even some of the world's governments as inflexible, expensive and bloated. Large companies and public agencies--some of Microsoft's best customers--are weighing Linux and open source to simplify their operations and get off the update-replace treadmill long prevalent in the computer business.

Microsoft executives acknowledge the rising threat but, mindful of the popularity of Linux and open source among their customers, have tempered their comments. "We need to take a balanced tone," said Microsoft's Veghte, the man assigned by CEO Steve Ballmer to come up with a competitive strategy toward Linux. "No matter how you look at it, Linux is a huge competitor and isn't going to go away." The most difficult part of this competition is one of simple economics: Linux and other open-source technologies are licensed for free. That’s where Microsoft can’t compete, a point Ballmer willingly concedes. As Ballmer said at a recent conference in London, "We cannot price at zero, so we need to justify our posture and pricing."

But Ballmer thinks price is only one reason why companies are considering Linux. "People are going to look at Linux, whether our stuff costs $5, $50 or $100. So we have to work that value proposition every day."
In a recent survey ( at:http://news.com.com/2100-1001-956496.html ) of 225 chief information officers, 29 percent said they owned Linux servers and 8 percent are formally considering buying them. More troubling for Microsoft, 31 percent of those who recently purchased a new Linux server used it to replace a server running Windows.
Many technology managers cite the controversy over Microsoft's new licensing plan in their reasoning.

"We're looking at Linux as a less expensive alternative to Windows and Office," said Alan Flint, systems applications manager at Richmond Wholesale, a food distributor in Richmond, Calif. "I'm looking for more simplification in my environment because I'm displeased with Microsoft's licensing programs."
Mahajan said Microsoft's licensing plan is also driving him to take a closer look at Linux. "The cost of Microsoft's software continues to increase and change from the old days, where you could buy Windows 98 and keep it for three years. That's not an option anymore. You have to pay."
"Linux is the end game in 'good enough' computing," Illuminata's Eunice said. "It's great stuff, it comes at little or no cost, and it's good enough to do the job. Just as Windows gave Unix makers fits in years past--and the Unix makers gave minicomputer guys fits, and minicomputer guys gave the mainframe makers fits--open source is giving Microsoft and Windows fits."

SEC Filing Shows Microsoft Fears Firefox, Lawsuits Over Bugs, Guess Opensource is the Better Choice ,Compared to commercial.

2005-10-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

In recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft for the first time acknowledges that Mozilla's browsers pose a competitive threat and the software giant also notes that security vulnerabilities leave it open to legal action.

"Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products," said Microsoft in the annual 10K Form it's required to file with the SEC. This is the first time that the Redmond, Wash.-based developer has referred to Mozilla by name in an SEC filing.

Although Microsoft last year named Linux as a competitive threat on the client side, Mozilla's browsers, particularly Firefox, only climbed out of obscurity to grab 8-10 percent of the browser share after Microsoft filed 2004's 10K.

Note, too, that Microsoft didn't name its browser only as "Microsoft Internet Explorer" as it had in past filings, but called it "Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products." That nomenclature jibes with Microsoft's position that the browser is an integral part of the operating system, and is likely to continue to be.

Microsoft also added new text to the security section of the 10K Form, and for the first time said that it faced legal threats from continued security vulnerabilities.

"…actual or perceived vulnerabilities may lead to claims against us. While our license agreements typically contain provisions that eliminate or limit our exposure to such liability claims, there is no assurance these provisions will be held effective under applicable laws and judicial decisions," the 2005 filing read.

In comparison, 2004's 10K only said that security problems, " actual or perceived…could lead some customers to seek to return products, to reduce or delay future purchases, or to purchase competitive products."

Red Hat to launch Linux desktops in 8 languages

2005-10-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Chennai: Red Hat, world's leading provider of open source solutions, plans to launch Linux operating systems in eight Indian languages including Marathi, Telegu and Malayalam next year, Javed Tapia, Director, Red Hat India, said today.

The decision follows the success of its desktops in five Indian languages viz., Hindi, Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati and Punjabi in the country, he told PTI here.

Similar to the existing local languages desktops, all the eight Indian language operating systems would contain applications such as office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool as well as a Web browser and an e-mail client.

Tapia said Red Hat was also working to provide the entire "eco-system" for the Linux desktops such as printer and scanner, which would respond to the local-language operating systems. "We need to provide the whole ecosystem that would work with the Linux desktops," he said.

The US--based company, which announced global revenues of $ 60.8 million in the first quarter, a growth of 46 per cent year-over-year, was also bullish on the Indian market.

Tapia said Red Hat was working with several State governments in the e-governance and the educational fronts. Many of the e-governance projects of the States were run on Linux-based systems. Similarly, it was also important to train students on Linux and Open Source Technologies, he said.

Red Hat India, he said, has grown significantly in India in the last 12 months, with offices in seven cities and an employee base of 85 people.

Big Blue, Red Hat Go Global on Linux

2005-10-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

IBM and Red Hat will provide developers with technical support and implementation expertise to help them more quickly port and certify their new applications on IBM hardware and software and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux operating system, according to Todd Chase, program director of IBM Innovations Centers worldwide.

IBM and Red Hat unveiled a joint worldwide initiative aimed at speeding the development and adoption of Linux-based applications. The companies are placing particular emphasis on emerging markets, such as China, India, Russia and South Korea, according to an IBM executive. The deal is similar to one IBM struck in March with Red Hat's mainLinux competitor, Novell.

"One of the key issues with any environment is that the customer needs to have the feeling that if they adopt [the technology], there's a big player behind it that they can go to for support," says Judith Hurwitz, president of consultancy Hurwitz & Associates. "Or if there's a problem, a bump in the night, developers want to be able to hold someone responsible."

Developers will be able to reach IBM and Red Hat support in person or remotely at 15 of IBM's 25 Innovation Centers around the globe, Chase says. While he couldn't put a financial figure on IBM's support for the initiative with Red Hat, he expects 20 to 25 IBM staff members to be in the 15 centers. Red Hat will provide training on its Linux distribution at each of the sites, Chase adds.

Six of the 15 centers are in emerging markets. Three are in China -- in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai -- and one each in Bangalore, India, Seoul and Moscow. The others are in Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, Hursley in the U.K., Stuttgart in Germany, Amsterdam, and three in the U.S., in Waltham, Mass., Chicago and San Mateo, Calif.

In 2004, IBM provided support at its Innovation Centers to 400 independent software vendors, enabling them to run their applications on Linux, Chase says. By the end of last month, IBM had assisted the same number of independent software vendors, he adds. In U.S. Innovation Centers, 70% to 75% of the contact with developers is done remotely while that figure is in the 50% range in Europe and in the 20% range in Asia-Pacific, Chase says.

IBM also offers 29 new Linux tutorials on its DeveloperWorks Web site, Chase says. The tutorials are aimed at both developers and students looking to take Linux Professional Institute's junior and intermediate administration exams. Of 600 IBM tutorials, 79 focus on theopen source

operating system. IBM estimates that more than 100,000 Linux developers have joined DeveloperWorks and have created more than 6,500 Linux-based applications since 2003, according to information provided by the company.

Microsoft plans cheaper Windows version for India

2005-10-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

HYDERABAD: Microsoft Corp. plans to release a low-cost version of its Windows software for India in an attempt to check high piracy levels, the legal affairs head of the world's largest independent software maker said.

"We will launch more value products at affordable prices in India soon to reduce software piracy levels," Bradford Smith told reporters late on Friday in the southern city of Hyderabad, where Microsoft has a software development facility.

The low-cost Windows starter version for India will be available in Hindi and English at 1,000 rupees, which would also help reduce entry-level personal computer prices to 10,000 rupees, he said.

Smith said Indian piracy level was around 73 percent.

Microsoft's practice echoes that of global publishers, many of whom print lower cost versions of books whose sale is restricted to India or South Asia.
What this make me think is ,"WHY THE HELL WONT THEY DO THIS IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!" ,I mean do they think the price tag for windows is cheap here ?
Do they think that Mr. joe sixpack can afford to pay the hi cost of windows with pocket change ? I mean how much does a CD cost ? That is the reason winXP is downloaded so much on kazzaa . You see there are 2 ways to make money , markup and volume , its sad that microsoft chooses the former. That is why I'm soooo glad I switched to linux.