Bad Windows

Microsoft has always had an awkward relationship with Linux specifically and with free software in general. Maybe awkward isn’t exactly the right word. For many hackers and hobbyists, their first real exposure to Microsoft and its then-CEO Bill Gates came way back in 1976, when he accused others in the then-nascent market for personal computing software of stealing his company’s products.

“As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software,” Gates wrote in an infamous open letter. “Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?”

Over the ensuing 20 years, of course, Microsoft experienced the kind of double-digit growth and open skies that we now associate with companies such as Apple and Google, and at the end of this run it dominated the PC market in ways that even Apple and Google can’t today muster in their own markets.

Read more at WindowsITPro

Those of us who have been around the block a few times here in the Linux blogosphere have seen it many times before: With one hand, Microsoft holds out a small olive branch to the Linux community, while with the other it prepares a new patent attack, posts a “cautionary” FUD-filled video, or perpetrates some other kind of anti-FOSS mischief. That’s why it felt like deja vu all over again last week, when we learned not only that Microsoft is apparently one of the top contributors to the Linux kernel, but also that it had sent an early birthday present to Linux.

Read more at LInuxInsider

The Linux Foundation is celebrating 20 years of Linux and as a part of the celebration, they are accepting videos as part of a video contest. One of the video submission came form none other than Microsoft itself.
The video is very interesting. It starts off with the animosity between Microsoft and Linux. Microsoft presented Tux a birthday cake but Tux turned its back on it. The video, though, ends on a hopeful note. Tux accepted the birthday cake from Microsoft and “Microsoft vs Linux” was changed to “Microsoft and Linux”.

Read and look more at http://digitizor.com

Tuxradar has asked another intriguing question this week: Is it time to start trusting Microsoft? This was spurred by the news that Microsoft has contributed a lot of code to Linux 3.0. They’ve been trying to get their hypervisor drivers into the kernel for quite a while, but faced various challenges of their own making.

Hardly anyone trusts Microsoft. After years of dirty back room deals and threats to keep Linux off store-bought computers, accusing the Linux community of being communists, calling Linux a cancer, and even undercutting its own bottom-line to knock Linux off netbooks, no one is ready to jump on the Microsoft bandwagon. Even after they tried to kiss and make up to Open Source, it was an obviously transparent move to better their position on interoperability.

Read more at OSTATIC

Microsoft has released four updates to close 22 security holes. Particularly noteworthy is update MS11-053 (KB2566220), which fixes a critical flaw in the Bluetooth stack on Windows 7 and Vista. Windows XP and the server systems are not affected. Sending a series of specially crafted Bluetooth packets to a vulnerable target system allows arbitrary code to be injected and executed.

Microsoft has assigned the problem only a “medium” exploitability rating, as the development of a reliable exploit for the hole is expected to be unlikely in the medium term, and it is generally expected to result only in a system crash. A successful attacker would also need to know the victim’s Bluetooth address. However, as Windows systems are not in discovery mode by default, there is no simple way for potential attackers to obtain the address.

Read more at H-online

Not long ago, penguinistas were bemoaning the fact that the purchase of a new computer almost always came with a built-in “Microsoft tax,” since all major OEMs wouldn’t sell a computer without Windows pre-installed. Now that things have changed and it’s relatively easy to purchase a new PC or laptop either with no operating system installed or already preloaded with Linux, that issue should be far behind us.

Guess again.

The desktop and laptop might be safe, for the time being, but now the evil empire has dug its talons into the mobile world. It’s becoming nigh near impossible to purchase a device running Android or Chrome OS without a hidden Microsoft tax, and the makers of smartphones and tablets probably won’t be offering devices with no operating system installed in the near future, for those of us who’d prefer to install our own OS and skip having any of our money shipped to MS.

Read more at Foss Force

Say what you will about Microsoft and its products, but you have to admit the company has a particular skill at making money. Take Android, for example. Instead of using the wildly successful mobile platform as an example and a model for its own lackluster efforts in that arena, Redmond has apparently opted instead to make its competitor a friend — a money-making friend, that is. Yes, Android has turned into quite the little cash cow for Microsoft of late, enabling the software giant to collect licensing fees right and left for what it says are related patent infringements.
Read more at LinuxInsider

“One of Microsoft’s hottest new profit centers is a smartphone platform you’ve definitely heard of: Android. Google’s Linux-based mobile operating system is a favorite target for Microsoft’s patent attorneys, who are suing numerous Android vendors and just today announced that another manufacturer has agreed to write checks to Microsoft every time it ships an Android device.

Read more at Slashdot

Summary: A ramble about the changing nature of Microsoft FUD, especially against GNU/Linux

At Microsoft, the days of ignoring and laughing are over. The company is now attacking its rivals with software patents, having mostly neglected attacks on rivals — notably Linux — based on verbal attacks (legal threats) and ridicule of technical nature. Microsoft’s strategy is now lobbying for software patents while extorting any company which does not use Windows.

This video tests some minor improvements in recording and it was neither planned not scripted.

Read and look more at TechRights

Microsoft scored a victory Monday when defense contractor General Dynamics’ Itronix division agreed to pay it licensing fees for using the Android operating system. Itronix makes rugged mobile computers for military, law enforcement, first responder and field service use. Microsoft’s assertions of patent rights over Android and subsequent demands for licensing fees are controversial. Some devices makers that use Android, such as Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, have ponied up in response to Redmond’s demands for licensing fees.

Read more at LinuxInsider