One year after sealing their surprise alliance, Novell and Microsoft have announced an expansion of their technical collaboration to 'link together the existing Windows and Linux frameworks'. The firms will extend their existing collaboration to focus on virtualisation, standards-based management, directory and identity federation and document format compatibility. As part of this process, Microsoft said that both companies are 'now working closely' at the Microsoft and Novell Interoperability Lab in Massachusetts.
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Member since:2005-07-06
don't get me wrong MS opening up their formats would be the ideal solution! However, going by history, this is sadly unlikely to happen.
with regards to the threats, we do not know if they ARE unsubstantiated and this is where the FUD comes into play. What needs to happen is for someone to call their bluff.
The trouble with this is if it turns out they are NOT unsubstantiated then linux in the business world would crumble overnight. I also have no doubt that if it looked like the case was going against Microsoft there would be an 'out of court settlement' so the judgment was never passed, thereby allowing the FUD to continue..
Member since:2006-03-12
"with regards to the threats, we do not know if they ARE unsubstantiated and this is where the FUD comes into play. What needs to happen is for someone to call their bluff.
The trouble with this is if it turns out they are NOT unsubstantiated then linux in the business world would crumble overnight."
They are unsubstantiated...until they produce anything thats the point. What is interesting is that I can remember a time when there was a awful lot of other Os's around and Office applications. Microsoft is *very* late to the game Thats ignoring a whole host of things like API's or even networking. Microsoft has more to lose than *anyone*, its gonna make computers unusable. I personally cannot wait for the patent wars to start.
Member since:2006-01-04
with regards to the threats, we do not know if they ARE unsubstantiated and this is where the FUD comes into play. What needs to happen is for someone to call their bluff.
If these threats are not unsubstantiated then list the patented functionalities that are being infringed.
(cricket_chirp.ogg)
OK then.
Until this is done there is no substantiation that there is any infringement, only empty claims and implicit threats over those unsupported claims. MS Legal has publicly said that it is not feasible to list these "infringements". If that is the case then how are these claims substantiated? How are they ever going to be substantiated? And how valuable are patents that aren't worth listing?
The call has gone out from open source advocates to list these patents and the infringed functionality. So far no valid response has been provided. So, do we kick MS out of the game for not laying down their cards now that the bluff they are running has been called? If so, how?
Are you sure they are playing the game that you think they are?
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.""And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
Member since:
2006-03-12
"You keep your moral high ground, I would rather get work done.
If this partnership helps me do that, I'm all for it"
Why is being moral, and getting work done mutually exclusive. I have yet to see any *benefits* to Linux from this partnership, I actually see Linux being threated by Microsoft *weekly*. I can only see possible short term benefits to Novell, at the expense of Linux as a whole.
Although its about defending Novells and Microsoft's corrupt actions by calling everyone fan boys or 16-year olds or religious whatsisnames. When its about Microsoft Making unsubstantiated threated against *ME* personally.
Of course if you *really* want to talk interoperability which I think is what you mean. Why doesn't Microsoft *release* their specifications years ago, at the request of the EU no less, rather than delay for years.
Is there anything new here? GPL3 blah blah blah
Edited 2007-11-08 19:25