Microsoft milks Casio for using Linux

Microsoft milks Casio for using Linux - The Register

 

I see MS is still under the delusion they created and own everything that beeps and has a UI.

 

Apart from this news which is the usual M$ petty wrangling, I am far more worried about this one. http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html UEFI secure boot is M$'s version of napalming linux.

 

For once, I have to agree with linuxforall. That's some serious anticompetitive stuff they've got brewing there.

The annoying thing is that the Secure Boot protocol *is* useful for security, since it would prevent driver rootkits from loading easily. So it's not like it's a totally useless thing that only gets them a bigger monopoly. This might be ugly business for the desktop OS market.

 

In the guise of security that can be impelemented by other means and ways, UEFI is just a pretension here for anti competitive behavior, it remains to be seen how many hardware manufacturers are willing to go down that slippery path.

 

I wouldn't worry about UEFI Secure booting.
Win 7 can't support secure booting, hardware vendors wont want to sell new machines that are Windows 8 only, think of all those business users who will be stuck on Win 7 or older by the time Windows 8 is launched. Its going to have to be optional, as these machines are usually imaged/OS installed by the business's own IT guys.
Its going to have to be optional.

Cheers, Nick

 

Really? Microsoft is proving that they are what they are after all, a company looking for the $$.

Would you rather they take the Apple's approach and start preventing all competition from being sold in the first place? When it's a choice between the 2, I know which I'd choose. Microsoft does infact contribute to Apple and Linux, if it's not money, it's code. So you know they have no interest in shutting down the competition.

However, we all know the patent system needs re-written, the current spider web of who's claiming what patents against who is disgusting, and quite frankly, boring as sin. It used to be Internet drama, now it's just another day on the Internet it's so common.

 

Okay

 

Oh yes, we can see thousands of M$ code in the Linux kernel.

 

Code: https://encrypted.google.com/#hl=en...gc.r_pw.&fp=c7fdb32d10b82f2d&biw=1680&bih=924
Funding: https://encrypted.google.com/#pq=mi...gc.r_pw.&fp=c7fdb32d10b82f2d&biw=1680&bih=924

One of the articles states over 20,000 lines of code.

 

Yep what would poor UNIX and LINUX be without the benevolence of M$

Microsoft donated a set of three General Public License v2 license drivers (Hyper-V Linux Integration Components) to the Linux community in July. The drivers are designed to improve the performance of the Linux operating system when it is virtualized on the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V hypervisor-based virtualization system, and they were released after the company was found to be in violation of the GPL.

The drivers required a "massive cleanup effort," consisting of more than 200 patches to bring the code into a "semi-sane kernel coding style," Kroah-Hartman wrote in the status report.

 

What for?
http://techie-buzz.com/foss/microsoft-linux-3-0.html
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news...-integrate-hyper-v-drivers-with-linux-kernel/

from the second link

 

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7439/

You may have already heard, but the unthinkable has happened. That’s right, Microsoft, the self-proclaimed enemy of Linux and free software, has announced that they will be submitting some 20,000 lines of code to the Linux kernel. Come again? Yes, Microsoft wants to get its code into the Linux kernel. You read that right! It is important to note that this code has not yet been included into the official Linux kernel. The code has also not yet been thoroughly scrutinized by the wider community to see what the code actually consists of. Is it all code, or does it rely on binary blobs? Will the quality of the code make the grade, or will the community be expected to clean it up and maintain it? When approached by Linux Magazine as to whether he has even looked at the code, Linus Torvalds (the father of Linux) replied:
“I haven’t. Mainly because I’m not personally all that interested in driver code (it doesn’t affect anything else), especially when I wouldn’t use it myself. So for things like that, I just trust the maintainers. I tend to look at code when bugs happen, or when it crosses multiple subsystems, or when it’s one of the core subsystems that I’m actively involved in (ie things like VM, core device resource handling, basic kernel code etc). I’ll likely look at it when the code is actually submitted to me by the maintainers (Greg [Kroah-Hartman], in this case), just out of morbid curiosity.”

 

I'm not really interested in talking about the awesomeness of Linux and the evilness of "M$" with a diehard Linux follower, I've made my point, and it consists of the following facts:

• Microsoft is a for-profit company
• Microsoft is NOT being anti-competitive, they are looking for an extra buck
• Microsoft WANTS competition, otherwise they wouldn't be donating money to Apple back in the day when it was struggling, and code to Linux
• If Microsoft wanted to destroy competition, they'd do as Apple is trying to do now

I'm done here.

 

Who said M$ is evil, they feed scraps to UNIX and LINUX and keep them alive with their charity of 20000 codes

BTW, FYI, LINUX is also in for the money, just not from desktop users, they get their bucks from enterprise, servers and supercomp which by the way run exclusively on LINUX.

 

Okay

 

i believe real theat to microsoft is linux not apple

many reasons few of them is success of ubuntu being so user friendly, Linux is free, adoption world wide, security and stability lots of eyecandy now days,

but the main reason is if person dosent like to use windows he/she can try and install linux a same hardware without spending much which include donations downloads power electricity cost..........



i am not married so you guys better know but one my brother review linux as

 

Linux is not now, and, without major back from hardware makers and software vendors, never will be a threat to Windows. Apple, however, is a threat to everybody, for the reasons already laid out here. However, I'll get back to Linux. Ubuntu is only as user friendly as the hardware a user has, and the software needs they have, which is true for all distros. Ubuntu is also becoming less user friendly to those who already employ it, as we see with the Unity arguments.

The free argument only stands for as long as the user finds what he/she needs for free. If their hardware doesn't work right, then they find themself with a freshly downloaded and burned drink coaster. If it does work right, but the software needs aren't met, they get the same deal. As far as eye candy, well, who cares except for kids and teens I guess? I'd much rather have a run of the mill desktop that works flawlessly than a cute little spinning cube that I only see when X doesn't screw up.

I will grant you that things have most certainly improved since, oh 2006-ish, but not near enough for widespread adoption. That being the only thing that would give Linux a fighting chance to compete with Microsoft and Apple, let alone threaten them. Sorry to crush the little hearts floating above your head, but it is what it is

 

In the article from the register:

Everyone to date has caved to Microsoft and settled.

Looks like it's time someone finds out what patents Linux is violating or prove otherwise.

The patent and copyright laws are in need of a clarification.

Until things are clarified, use by business and government will always be under a cloud.

rrrh1

 

Have you forgotten that Linux dominates web server market and strong competition in various roles as a business server. Its very popular as an embedded device (everything from TVs to routers), then of course there is the market dominance in the mobile sector thanks to Android ?

Linux may not be a threat in the desktop, but when you look beyond you will find that there is are far more devices running Linux than Apple.
Its dominant in a lot of markets that Microsoft has interest in.

Cheers, Nick

 

I've been using Unity for the last month or so. I really like it.

It's common for savants to rubbish change. We see it with each new version of anything.

 

Ahh, but Nick, when most of these pro-Linux arguments pop up, they are referring almost exclusively to the desktop, which is what I addressed. I've not forgotten about servers, believe me. That is where Linux is at its strongest, as there is a critical need to have the very best stability possible. I'm also referring to the Linux that users see. It's not exactly beneficial to argue in favor of Linux for such uses as TVs and routers. Users change settings in routers and then don't touch them until they need to do so again. TV channels get changed, people go through the channel lists and that's as far as they go with it.

You of course have the interactive menus for such things as digital cable, DVR and all, but that is mostly down to how an individual company sets up these menus. The work behind it makes no difference to users, they'd still do the same things with it if it were based in Windows. The mobile market is a different beast entirely. Linux is a beautiful OS for that market, as it doesn't need to rely on "hard use". What I mean by that is that smartphones and tablets are far more limited in functionality than desktops. Nobody is using Photoshop on a smartphone or tablet, nobody is editing movies, playing serious games. No one needs to worry about hardware and software requirements, among many other things desktop users worry about.

Linux has its place, but unfortunately, for the majority of people, that place is not the desktop.

 

The Desktop is the only weak part of a Linux Desktop. The underlying OS is well suited for desktop use, just that critical top layer (the bit the average user cares about) seems to be 10 years behind the competition IMHO !

Don't forget the desktop is slowly starting to matter less and less and Windows is having to adapt to markets that Linux already is strongly competitive in.

Cheers, Nick

 

Desktop as in the UI is the only weak part, or Linux on desktop systems? Two very different areas, and I would very strongly disagree that the UI is the weak aspect. The UI is not what makes wireless fail, it is not what makes experienced users recommend one graphics card brand over another, and it is not the reason that alternatives to popular software either don't exist or have less functionality.

The UI, I would go so far as to say that it is ahead of the competition. Between the unnecessary, but pretty eye candy, and the fact that new software is but a click away in a trusted repository, a good Linux distro has that top layer pretty well covered. It's when you stop looking at the OS and start using it, that it starts to show its failures.

I've heard plenty enough of the "desktop is dying" mantra. Funny how photographers, video editors, musicians, gamers, and more would disagree with that. We should also bring up the little matter of Flash on tablets, and the issue of IT departments not wanting employees to use mobile because it's a nightmare for them. I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing with you Nick, but we have a long way to go before the "dying" PC is lowered into its grave.

 

Going by current trend, Linux KDE, Unity and even GNOME3 has been showing others how to do desktop, new Windows 8 is one example of that. Linux desktop as such is rock stable but do bear in mind that 3rd party graphic vendors who don't port their drivers to open source is the big issue here. All stability depends on either ati or nvidia drivers. In case of Intel, the open source drivers run rock steady.

On another note, I have been using Unity since 11.04 was released, I use it on my i7 laptop and my newly acquired amd fusion desktop, on both the drivers are installed via x-swat, not even once have I suffered any issues, crashes etc. Even under heavy use with my netbook, there has been absolutely no problems. I regularly play HDMI movies with h/w acceleration enabled on my netbook, the movies get full acceleration with no stuttering.