Further thoughts on M$ (No apologies for the $)
Posted 10-01-2011 at 05:20 AM by rich_c
In the past, I posted on why I don't hate Microsoft. I must have been feeling generous back then, because on reflection, there isn't a lot to like with that company... Here's a couple of recent news articles that illustrate what I mean.
The first one Is the Windows 8 UEFI secure boot debacle. (Here's an excellent blog post on the subject.) My concern is that Microsoft will quite happily mandate that hardware manufacturers enable secure boot by default and then let their 'partners' take the blame when it becomes apparent that this measure effectively locks out competing operating systems. It looks very likely at the moment that this is the way it will go. I have written to my MEP and the EU competition commissioner. I'm very much hoping that the EU can do something useful about this.
The other thing is Microsoft's anti Linux/Android protection racket. The message to Microsoft should simply be: “Stop making money from other companies' innovations and start producing quality software like you should be doing." Let's face it, the products they sell at the moment are vulnerability ridden expensive garbage!
To end on a positive note, there's the news that IBM has passed Microsoft into second place in terms of market valuation. This is good, as IBM is an investor in the Open Invention Network. To me, this (Among other things.) shows that a company that has at least some sense of ethics and fair competition can succeed.
The first one Is the Windows 8 UEFI secure boot debacle. (Here's an excellent blog post on the subject.) My concern is that Microsoft will quite happily mandate that hardware manufacturers enable secure boot by default and then let their 'partners' take the blame when it becomes apparent that this measure effectively locks out competing operating systems. It looks very likely at the moment that this is the way it will go. I have written to my MEP and the EU competition commissioner. I'm very much hoping that the EU can do something useful about this.
The other thing is Microsoft's anti Linux/Android protection racket. The message to Microsoft should simply be: “Stop making money from other companies' innovations and start producing quality software like you should be doing." Let's face it, the products they sell at the moment are vulnerability ridden expensive garbage!
To end on a positive note, there's the news that IBM has passed Microsoft into second place in terms of market valuation. This is good, as IBM is an investor in the Open Invention Network. To me, this (Among other things.) shows that a company that has at least some sense of ethics and fair competition can succeed.
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