The Verge is reporting that Microsoft is considering making Windows RT and Windows Phone free for OEMs, to combat Android.

So, let me get this straight. In April this year, a Microsoft-sponsored antitrust complaint about Android had this to say:

And we have the whole Scroogled campaign (I felt dirty just for visiting that site).

And now they're considering doing the exact same things they claim Google is doing unfairly? Does this company have any internal consistency whatsoever?

Ina Fried has just confirmed the Nokia Android phone - and even argues that Microsoft might go ahead with actually releasing it.

Makes sense. It does raise another question, though: wouldn't this be yet another operating system Microsoft would need to develop and support?

A new demo live CD of eComStation 2.2 beta, the evolution of OS/2 Warp, is now available. The new live demo CD (beta 5) can be downloaded after a free registration from the eComStation site. There is some discussion about it on the OS2World.com forum.

Good news.

This is a real threat. The gutted Nokia still holds a considerable amount of patents, and they've already shown remarkable willingness to sue Android device makers over them. Good to know the EU is on top of it.

While my Jolla still hasn't shipped, the community isn't sitting still at all. Sailfish has already been ported to Jolla's spiritual predecessor - yes, the Nokia N9 can now run Sailfish OS. The beautify of it all is that you don't even need to remove Harmattan, since it can dual-boot. It's relatively complete too, since GPS, A-GPS, Bluetooth, wifi and 'Calling Functions' are already working.

In addition, Sailfish' first update, version 1.0.1.10 has been detailed in its changelog - it's mostly a bugfix and stability release. So, when the pre-order devices arrive at our doorsteps, we'll have a software update waiting

The gist: Microsoft needs someone strong enough to stand up to the old guard still looking over everyone's shoulder (Gates and Ballmer) - and essentially dismiss them - since the company needs to look to the future, not the past.

Good luck with that.

I'm puzzled too. It doesn't seem like Chromebooks are that big of a threat - why create terrible advertisements that only provide Google with free publicity?

Great move by Google. The Data Liberation Front had gotten a bit stale, and it was about time exporting all your emails from Gmail became easier. Good backup tool, too - for, you know, company stuff. Or emails from a girl you like.

Charts like this do great in certain areas of the web, but it's too simplistic. First, it does not take into account that many core aspects of Android are updated through Google Play, such as Chrome, Gmail, Maps, the keyboard, and so on. Whereas iOS needs an entire update to fix a small bug in, say, Maps - Android does not. Many core parts that require an entire OS update for iOS are updated weekly on Android.

Second, it does not mention that even though older iPhone models get the latest version of iOS, some functionality of these latest versions is disabled due to marketing, and in some cases due to hardware constraints (if you were to believe Apple, that is).

Third and foremost, though: I'm betting each and every one of those devices has at least an Android 4.2 or 4.3 release (and some have 4.4 too, like my Find 5) from, for instance, CyanogenMod - and countless other ROM makers. Installing a custom ROM is one of the strengths of Android, and not nearly as hard or difficult as some make it out to be. If your iPhone becomes unsupported or really slow due to iOS7 - you're screwed. You have no other options. If Samsung's TouchWiz crap makes your Galaxy slow, run out and get a quality phone install a custom ROM.

I see this all the time: people ignoring core strengths of Android because they don't understand them or because they don't belong to their interests - "this is just for nerds and geeks, so it's irrelevant!" Take discussions about application on iOS and Android, for instance; those arguing in favour of iOS routinely ignore that Android has access to types of applications iOS users could only dream of. If you leave those out, it's easy to make Android's application offering look weaker. The same happens when looking at Android and updates.

All this doesn't negate the fact that updates are by far Android's weakest link, although not nearly as much of an issue as it used to be during the gingerbread days. Moving more and more parts of Android to Play will eventually all but solve the issue completely.

Aside from the really cool stuff regarding X11, I'm absolutely fascinated by the user interface of this exotic piece of hardware. It's quite utilitarian, but still has an interesting sense of beauty and focus. I'd love to play with this (even though I have no idea what this equipment actually does).

Mark my words: Valve will do for Linux gaming what Android did for Linux mobile. Much crow will be eaten by naysayers in a few years.

On the one hand, this is insanely cool, awesome, and scifi.

On the other hand, with timeframes like this and the big 60 Minutes reveal, it smells like a marketing trick during the holiday shopping season.

Mary Jo Foley has some information on the next wave of big Windows releases - scheduled for Spring 2015. This wave will supposedly bring the three Windowqs branches - Xbox, phone, PCs - more in line with each other.

The first bit seems like a no-brainer and should have been done already, but the second part seems like traditional Microsoft marketing nonsense. "High value activities"? Seriously? Could this be any more vague and meaningless?

With time frames like that it almost seems as if even Microsoft itself doesn't care.