06.13.07
Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Novell, OpenDocument, America, Asia, Open XML, IBM, ISO, xandros at 9:07 am by Roy Schestowitz
OpenDocument format (ODF) is going strong. There is some encouraging news that contrasts some recent setbacks. In Malaysia, for example, people seem to have taken a careful look at Sam Hiser’s excellent analysis which — to put it one way — explains why Xandors and Novell committed themselves to a route leading to insanity.
Mr. Alan Bryden said that ISO will not approve two standards in the same area and ISO has its own “consensus” process to ensure that. Into this consensus process, Malaysia should give input that ODF is the single standard Malaysia needs and the single standard ISO needs.
Recall what Malaysian representative/witnesses had to say several weeks ago.
In New York, the first steps have just been taken towards adoption of ODF. IBM has strong presence in this state, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.
The New York state politician backing a bill that would order the state to examine a switch to open document formats for official business said Friday that she is optimistic her bill will escape the fate of similar bills in five other states.
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06.08.07
Posted in FUD, Patents, Standard, OpenDocument, Asia, Open XML, OpenOffice at 11:01 pm by Roy Schestowitz
New Bill-busting Target for Microsoft
The State of New York will evaluate the use of truly open standards in order to preserve and disseminate its vital information. Reporters seem pessimistic because, having looked at past stories, it is clear that Microsoft is above the American law. It will continue to fight for lockin and a monoculture.
A bill introduced in the New York state legislature on Wednesday would require the state government’s IT director to study the issue of using open document formats within agencies, although the proposal doesn’t seek to mandate an immediate or long-term move to such formats.
[…]
Microsoft also is seeking the ISO stamp of approval for Office Open XML, the default file format in its Office 2007 software. But the software vendor has fought the open formats bills in every state as part of an effort to protect its Office franchise.
On so-called ‘Junk Patents’
Lock your doors and then hide your spouses and children. The infamous monster is back…
USPTO Increases Scope Of Amazon’s 1-Click Patent
It apparently found its way into the hands of a sympathetic (and impatient) USPTO Examiner who had earlier defended his friends for approving 1-Click in the first place and referred 1-Click naysayers to a letter to the WSJ penned by the ex-Commissioner for Patents.
For those who do not know, this patent exemplifies the sad state of the USPTO. It’s a classic. There has never been a better opportunity to shout out in favour of a reform.
Fear and Loathing in Asia
We have some news coming from Asia/Singapore (ComputerWorld to be precise). In a new series of articles, there is evidence to suggest that we must put an end to the FUD once and for all, sooner rather than later.
One article suggests that Microsoft’s FUD tactics are working in Asia, despite the fact that they seem to backfire (i.e. do more harm than good) elsewhere in the world. In another article, a rhetorical question, Who’s afraid of whom?”, is being asked. As we attempted to clarify before, the fragile side is Microsoft, but it hides this fear using projection. It ’s what psychologists have come to know as ‘the bully complex’. There appears to be another article, which talks about the GPL. It is critical, but its speaks on behalf on industry, not developers.
Novell’s Enemy or Novell’s Sugar Daddy?
It is disappointing to see that while Novell does everything is can to please Microsoft (it must), Novell’s struggles in its ‘fight’ against Microsoft, which has lust for a greater share of the pie.
The Redmond giant’s latest iteration of its e-mail platform is expected to win a great many customers — mainly at the expense of IBM’s Domino and Novell’s GroupWise.
Novell’s CEO said that Novell would fight Microsoft, but are we not seeing them just forming an axis against other smaller rivals? Novell seems to have lost focus completely.
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05.25.07
Posted in Finance, Novell, Marketing, Asia at 11:03 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Over at SeekingAlpha, Eric Savitz opines that Novell might initiate stock buybacks, just like Microsoft. Additionally, following what might become a trend, we also hear about an aggressive hiring programme in India.
Novell has appointed Naresh Shah as managing director of Novell India Development Centre in Bangalore. This appointment adds onto his current role in Novell as vice president of Global Engineering Strategy. Naresh brings to Novell over 20 years of experience in the technology industry in Asia. Prior to this, he was product manager for Lucent for Mexico, with added responsibilities of managing Lucent’s relationship with AT&AT and its joint ventures in the Asia Pacific region. Novell’s India Development Centre is the second largest R&D centre for Novell worldwide and it is continuing its rapid expansion plans through an aggressive hiring programme.
Meanwhile, Novell has announced the availability of Sentinel 6.
Novell today announced that its next-generation real-time security event management product, Sentinel 6 from Novell, is generally available worldwide.
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05.23.07
Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Standard, OpenDocument, Asia, Interoperability, Open XML, OpenOffice at 6:36 am by Roy Schestowitz
Under increasing pressure, as small shops begin to preinstall OpenOffice.org, Microsoft steps up to have a 6039-page specification ratified as an international standard. As we said the other day, countries are not pleased with the huge stacks of paper. There are some more breaktaking photos in this new item, and also some interesting perspective which reveals a trick.
It is therefore clear that the interest of Malaysians of consumers can be summarised by the demand: “One Standard, Multiple Apps”.
What is interesting is how this issue is being played up. Instead on concentrating on the technical issues regarding the specification tow hich there are many, Microsoft is politicising it by claiming unfairness in the process, naming IBM as the alleged oppressor to MSOOXML.
This is probably the reason why Microsoft continually seems to be sending non-technical people (to Malaysia and Czech ) to these workshops probably to try to convince us of the merits of the specification not on a technical level, but on a “political” level.
Being a “policial battle”, it seems clear whose side Novell has chosen. This does not help anybody, except for the monopoly abuser.
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05.19.07
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, FUD, Asia, FOSS at 11:09 pm by Roy Schestowitz
According to one poll, which involved thousands of votes, Microsoft has tactlessly alienated too many of its own customers. It bought itself some new enemies, who will deploy more of Linux, not less.
The vast majority of respondents, some 54 percent, indicate that they would prefer to increase their use of Linux — and decrease their us of Windows, as a result of Microsoft’s patent pleadings.
It almost seems as though they do this for spite. Admittedly, this poll could be biased because the readership has certain inclinations. Regardless, this voice is echoed elsewhere, even in major publications such as InformationWeek.
Customers, meantime, hate getting pulled into this game. Microsoft is “out to strong-arm other companies,” says Eric Simon, VP of IT at Brookfield Homes, a California-based home builder that uses both Windows and Linux. “Shame on Microsoft for trying to squelch innovation,” says an IT director who requested anonymity.
The FUD campaigns may have gone too far this time. There were not subtle and they earned Microsoft a muchly-deserved “bully” status. Rather than be victorious, the attacker exposed a weakness. It will have many reasons to regret this too, as I’ll show in the next post. The malicious plan essentially backfired.
The same type of attitude, which involves iron fist raids, may have just cost a lot in India. Are we seeing India’s BoycottMicrosoft in the making?
The resellers have also planned boycotts against Microsoft. Those participating in the strike agreed to stop all purchases of Microsoft products for this quarter.
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05.13.07
Posted in Novell, Asia at 10:20 am by Roy Schestowitz
Credit where credit is due.
It is often said that we are being overly harsh with Novell, but we do bother to mention Novell’s raves and achievements as well. It’s just that there haven’t been many of them recently, apart from self-promotional press releases (which we cited without exception). Perhaps the co-called ‘apologists’ are more vocal in this Web site. But maybe we should tone ourselves down a little.
Here is the latest good deed from Novell.
Novell Inc has signed a memorandum of understanding with seven universities and institutes of higher learning to offer Open Source and Linux training as part of their information technology curriculum.
The institutions that signed up for the programme are INTI International University College and INTI College Subang , Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman College, Multimedia University , i-Systems College Kuching, Centre for IT Advancement – International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Kuala Lumpur and German Malaysian Institute.
The plan is to get these students on SUSE Linux certification programs, but the skills are generic. So, while Novell has its share of sins, it also shows that it is able to help Linux as a whole.
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05.12.07
Posted in Microsoft, Novell, SLES/SLED, Deals, Asia, Dell at 2:06 am by Roy Schestowitz
As you may or may not know by now, Lenovo has signed a software deal with Microsoft. The deal is said to address piracy in the east, essentially by preinstalling Microsoft software on more of Lenovo’s products. This follows intense debates on whether Linux-loaded (or what Microsoft conveniently chooses to call “naked PCs”) are destined to have a pirated version of Windows installed.
When Linux is assumed to be unwanted, then we truly face a dilemma, don’t we? Another issue comes to mind, however, because Novell recently got the privilege to have Lenovo compatibility certification, which means that certain Thinkpad models will be guaranteed SUSE support. This comes after promises of full preinstalls. These promises lasted only a couple of days. Rumours tell that Lenovo changes its mind after a little chat with Microsoft. Regardless, have a look at the following bit:
However, last fall, Microsoft and Novell signed a deal making the software giant more Linux friendly, particularly when it’s Novell’s Linux.
At least on the surface, relations between Microsoft and Lenovo have never been better. Last month, according to Lenovo’s statement, the two companies agreed to create a joint research and development center in China.
The stagnating Lenovo-IBM relationship springs to mind, especially at this stage when ex-IBMers land at Novell.
Novell has named Jim Ebzery, an ex-IBMer and former president of the Viisage Division of L-1 Identity Solutions, to run its identity and security management unit. Kent Erickson, who’s been running both identity and security and workgroup solutions, now gets to focus. Everybody Novell hires these days seems to be ex-IBM.
Could there be more that we should know about Novell, Lenovo, Microsoft, and IBM? Perhaps it would be premature to assert anything, let alone jump to conclusions. Speculations have led nowhere in the past and we wish to stick to factual information instead.
Finally, there’s this other OEM theory, which Dell and/or Novell have just denied.
First, as Danijel Orsolic, founder of Libervis.com, a technology and society discussion site, noted in a recent story, Microsoft is not the boss, we are. “It is being said Microsoft *allowed* Dell to start selling Ubuntu under the condition that it also sells Novell SuSE GNU/Linux.”
Based on what my sources at Dell and Novell are telling me, the Novell, Microsoft and Dell deal had nothing to do with the Ubuntu arrangement. David Lord, a Dell spokesperson, flatly denied that there was any connection between the deals. “Our customers told us loud and clear on IdeaStorm that they wanted desktop Linux and we’re delivering what they want.”
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04.10.07
Posted in Formats, FSF, Law, Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Novell, Marketing, Intellectual Property, Patents, Fork, Standard, GPL, OpenDocument, Asia at 7:35 am by Roy Schestowitz
Here are some stories of interest:
GPL 3: Will Somebody Get Short-Changed, No Matter What?
If Novell does not get grandfathered into GPL 3 compliance, Novell’s SUSE Linux will turn into a “fork” of Linux, said Bruce Perens, primary author of the original GPL GNU software contract.
EFF lawyer warns of e-learning patent dangers
Although Blackboard has publicly pledged not to enforce its patent against open-source software distributors, universities, or non-commercial entities, there are many gray areas that make it difficult to guess what is permissible and what is not. For instance, Schultz points out that the pledge allows Blackboard to sue proprietary software vendors that incorporate open-source software components into their offerings.
Comparing Blackboard to “a schoolyard bully who holds a huge club over your head and promises not to hit you as long as you don’t play with certain other kids on the playground,” Schultz believes that Blackboard’s pledge is “a nice gesture” but lacks the efficacy and legal significance of an official royalty-free patent license.
A school deploys Novell’s Linux solution.
“Each multi-station Linux desktop delivers exceptional performance. Students have access to USB audio headsets and can save their files to USB memory keys. The Linux Desktop Multiplier is transparent to users,” according to the posting.
According to Novell, in August 2006, Indiana school officials announced it would be using 20,000 Linux workstations as part of the “Affordable Classroom Computes for Every Secondary Student” program.
Finally, Malaysia suspends ODF approval process amid all the lobbying, which we have covered before.
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