I didn't begin to suspect Microsoft's strong-armed business practices until I took a job with a computer manufacturer. Does anybody remember Microsoft Bob? MS Bob was a cartoonish front end for Window 3.1 designed to make computers less threatening to children and the technologically bewildered. (They've used the same interface for that annoying talking paperclip on the new version of MS Office.) It was bloated and buggy. Engineering hated it for all the problems it created when we installed it. At the same time, Sales pushed Bob to customers like it was grain in a North Korean grocery store. "Why?" I asked. I was told that if we didn't sell X number of Bob, we wouldn't get the best price on some new earth-shattering OS that was coming. That OS was Chicago, a.k.a. Windows 95.
Bill Gates is always afraid. That's why, when he wanted his wife-to-be to sign a prenuptial agreement, he couldn't summon up the nerve to give her the contract himself. Some months before his wedding engagement, I'd asked Gates how he felt about prenuptial agreements...
Hundreds of people who prefer other operating systems, but had to buy Microsoft software with their new computers, converged on Microsoft offices on Monday.Carrying shrink-wrapped manuals and disks and wielding the penguin mascots of the free Linux OS, they demanded their money back.
Microsoft's trouble with the Korean government first began to surface in October 1997 when the Korean Fair Trade Commission announced an investigation into Microsoft's business practices. This investigation mirrored that of the U.S. Department of Justice. (No resolution of this investigation has yet been seen in the local English language press.)
In November, Microsoft announced that disk fragmentation technology developed by Executive Software had been licensed to Microsoft for use in Windows 2000, due for release in February.Executive Software's CEO Craig Jensen is a member of the Church of Scientology and has boasted that his staff is trained according to administrative systems developed by the Church of Scientology. Jensen has attributed his company's success in selling its defragmentation utility DisKeeper to a 12-volume encyclopedia on managing organizations written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
He tells us, in no uncertain terms, that WSN is going to be the premiere internet service provider in the next 5 years, and Will Bates had given him personal authorization to do "whatever it takes" to do this.Somebody asked what this meant.
He said "Somebody close the door" and waited until someone did. He then mentioned that what he said should never go outside of the room, because certain people had a habit of misinterpreting what he said, and that nasty things like lawsuits came out of it.
He then proceeded to tell us that Mr. Bates himself had given the authorization to do "whatever it takes, regardless of any pending litigation" in order to win the ISP war. He said if that meant breaking AOL's software with a patch, then so be it. I couldn't believe my ears.
"We are challenging old and established businesses like newspapers, travel agencies, automobile dealers, entertainment guides, travel guides, Yellow Page directories, magazines and over time many other areas. We must devise ways of working with them or winning away their customers and revenue streams."** Three-year Microsoft strategy memo, quoted by The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 1997
The part of W2K that's extracting the price is Active Directory. Microsoft has integrated its directory service so tightly into the operating system that they are basically one entity. As you'll see from Alan Zeichick's review on Page 29, there are a significant number of Windows features, most of them management-related, that can't be used without Active Directory.
Mario Monti, the EU's competition commissioner, told journalists that several competitors had complained that Windows 2000 would give Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) a dominant position in the server-software market.
One of the common defenses that Microsoft supporters vocalize is that "Microsoft isn't doing anything that its competitors don't do as well." One could dismiss this argument using the alternative, "Two wrongs don't make a right" observation (i.e., the fact that others are breaking the law is never much of a defense in our legal system). Beyond that, the argument that Microsoft is doing things in the exact same manner as its competitors, even if true, would not be a defense for Microsoft so much as additional proof of the violation of the relevant law.
Here's a tech support anecdote for you: I actually got my start in the industry by working tech support for Microsoft. One night I was trying to get a modem working with Windows NT 4.0, and because I only had one line, the support person had to call me back after I tested it. When he did, I caller ID'd his phone number and was surprised to see a 770 area code, a local Atlanta number. I was disappointed with the quality of the service and I was sure I could do better, so I asked him for an HR contact number, sent in my application, and was hired a month later. Not by Microsoft, but by a "PSS Partner," Wang, to whom they had outsourced their support.If you want to see what I saw inside the beast, read on. Microsoft was focused almost exclusively on closing tech support calls, and not very motivated in the realm of customer satisfaction. We were given an extremely rigid "support policy" which all but stated that if there was any non-Microsoft software on the machine, we didn't have to fix it. If the machine wasn't on the hardware compatibility list, we didn't have to fix it (even if it was an application problem). Hold times and call length were the major concerns. "Going the extra mile" to help the customer was discouraged...I kept a call 40 minutes one time to talk a guy through actually opening his case and moving a jumper on his sound card. Did I get praised for a good save? Nope. I got upbraided for exceeding the average call time on an unauthorized procedure.
Dave Whitinger -- The Battle That Could Lose Us The War
OS Opinion:
Who Stands with Microsoft?
Dr. Dobbs' on
Caldera sabotage
The first step in discovering why the error message appeared under DR DOS but not MS-DOS was to examine the relevant WIN.COM code. However, the WIN.COM code that produced this message turned out to be XOR encrypted, self-modifying, and deliberately obfuscated--all in an apparent attempt to thwart disassembly.The code also tries to defeat attempts for a debugger to step through it. For example, Figure 2 shows a code fragment in which the INT 1 single-step interrupt is pointed at invalid code (the two bytes FFh FFh), which disables DEBUG. The same is done with INT 2 (nonmaskable interrupt) and INT 3 (debug breakpoint). However, since modern debuggers (I used Nu-Mega's Soft-ICE) run the debugger and debuggee in separate address spaces, the AARD code's revectoring of INTs 1-3 has no affect on the Soft-ICE debugger. In any case, these attempts to throw examination off-track are in themselves revealing.
For whatever reasons, while much of it is XOR encrypted, the code contains, as plain-text, a Microsoft copyright notice and the initials "AARD" and "RSAA," perhaps the programmer's initials.
The free software movement embodies principles consistent with those of Community Aid Abroad and Oxfam International. Free software products are tools which fit the needs of Oxfam International members, in many cases better than alternative proprietary products.It is therefore recommended that:
Development organisations should include software in their policies on ethical purchasing and appropriate technology; such policies should encourage the use of free software and open protocols.
Development organisations should encourage and assist project partners in the deployment of software systems that will enable them to "take control of their own destiny", and to reduce their dependence on the developed world. They should consider the major advantages free software has in this area.
Development organisations should ultimately try to free themselves from the shackles of proprietary software.
When her company first began competing against Microsoft, she [Gates friend Heide Roizen] and Gates would compare sales figures on how WriteNow was doing against Microsoft Word. During one encounter with Gates, she made the mistake of telling him her company had just shipped a thousand copies of WriteNow to Apple. Gates was furious. He whipped out a note pad and began questioning her like a prosecutor. Who did she sell them to? Who signed the purchasing order? Who authorized the sale? Have you shipped them yet? Later, over dinner, she asked Gates what he was going to do with the information. Gates said he planned to call Apple and demand they not buy those 1,000 units of WriteNow. Gates never made the call. But he did give his friend some free advice about himself. "Heidi", Gates said, "don't ever tell me anything you don't want me to use against you."
As most MCSE's are aware by now, if you want to retain the certification, you must upgrade your certification to Win2k standards, else you're liable to be left out in the cold. Microsoft will officially retire the NT 4.0 MCSE come this December.
The Digital Divas are devoted to helping women get together to learn from each other in the world of Web design. More than that, the Divas organize Grey Day, an annual effort to spotlight the dangers of unlicensed copyright use and plagiarism on the Web. And, oh yes -- it appears that Microsoft has stolen their trademark.
In Microsoft's case, competing with its customers has become part of its core business model, due to its internal lack of innovation. Lack of innovation was a good thing when backwards compatibility and standardization were the dominant forces driving the industry, but now it's a real handicap to Microsoft, forcing it to steal entire products from competitors in place of real innovation. Taking the web browser away from Netscape is only the most recent example. Before that Microsoft crushed dominant software like Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, DesqView, QEMM, Stacker, Borland "Turbo" compilers, and dozens of others.
MSN Explorer asks new customers if they would like to import their contact list from Outlook or Outlook Express. If they opt for yes, the program will give them an option to notify everyone in their contact list that they have installed MSN Explorer, a default feature in the system. If new members click "yes," a message is sent."It's troubling because the message that's sent has 8 lines of advertising from MSN--inviting people to switch to MSN Explorer--and 1 line saying you have a new email address. And we call that the Melissa virus in slow motion," said Leonhard, who said newsletter author Barry Simon pointed out the feature last week.
SEATTLE--Microsoft is being sued for allegedly using a subjective job evaluation process that discriminates against black and female employees.Microsoft "permits managers, who are predominantly white males, to rate employees based upon their own biases rather than based upon merit," Monique Donaldson, a former program manager at Microsoft, states in the suit
On Friday, Canada Internet.com reported a partnership between Canada Post and 3Web. The announcement boasts a service, which can reach "70 percent of all Canadians." You have probably guessed the rest: This service, paid for with our tax dollars, supports and promotes Microsoft to the detriment of other OS vendors: This federally funded program is implicitly restricted to only those Canadians who buy their O/S from Microsoft. The 3Web site presents an explicit message: There is no connection software for Mac, Linux, nor, dare I guess, for BSD or OS/2 or...
SEATTLE: Microsoft shareholders on Thursday defeated the company's first-ever shareholder proposals that would have forced the software giant to detail political contributions and take a vocal stance on human rights abuses in China.
Microsoft has started a pilot program rewarding computer system builders for turning their customers over to Microsoft's license enforcement department. If the builder or reseller receives an RFQ (Request For Quote) that includes computers to be shipped without Windows installed, Microsoft wants a copy of the RFQ sent to them, and, if you are the first to submit that particular RFQ, you'll be awarded points toward winning prizes.
I sat across the table from Microsoft as they forced a large multi-national oil company to eliminate all the Novell servers, and move to NT, as Micro$oft refused to sell them 260,000 upgraded copies of Windows and Office unless they did so. By replacing the 1,600 unattended Novell servers on oil rigs in places like the North Sea, it only required the purchase of a half-dozen of so helicopters to ferry technicians out to the oil rigs to reboot and maintain the NT servers.
Microsoft is holding up compensation claims from a quarter of million Californians in order to punish Lindows.com, and to coerce the class action plaintiffs "into siding with Microsoft against its Lindows competitor," according to a court filing seen by The Register. The document, filed on 21st November by Townsend and Townsend and Crew, lead counsel for the Californian class action consumers, points out that none of the claims being held up was actually filed via Lindows.com, yet Microsoft has held them "hostage" for over two months.
In three separate legal actions, Microsoft has been using the courts in an attempt to smoke out sources, challenge the first-amendment rights of writers and reporters, and chill press coverage and public disclosure of important information that it prefers remain secret.Two of these cases have been conducted publicly, and one in secret. In early October, Microsoft subpoenaed the source materials of Dan Goodin, a reporter for the online news organization C/NET, and a hearing on the matter will take place next week. Appealing a lower court decision that denied its demand for source materials, Microsoft is still pursuing access to these materials from the authors of Competing on Internet Time, Harvard professor David Yoffie and MIT professor Michael Cusomano.
Less known are Microsoft's activities to determine the confidential sources of my articles and my best-selling book The Microsoft File, published in August by Random House, through a bizarre motion filed under seal against Caldera Inc., which has sued the software giant for antitrust violations.
Documents obtained by the INQUIRER show that Lotus Philippines managing director Victor M. Silvino has filed charges against Microsoft Philippines managing director Darren G. Lockie at the Makati City Metropolitan Trial Court.Criminal Case No. 278388 or "The People of the Philippines vs. Darren Lockie" stems from an alleged confrontation between the heads of the two rival software companies on Nov. 16 near the main entrance of the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. In a shouting match, Lockie reportedly had uttered grave threats against Silvino and his family by saying: "Mr. Silvino, where is your mother? You and your mother are finished, f--k you."
It seems Microsoft was not very amused at my posting of their advisory to the list the other day. As the copyright holders of the work they have told me in no uncertain terms that I do not have their permission to redistribute a text version of their web page bulletins via the mailing list or the securityfocus.com web site, and that doing so would be considered an act of copyright violation.
Open Source. Recipient's license rights to the Software are conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined below); and (ii) not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to develop Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in part. For purposes of the foregoing, "Potentially Viral Software" means software which is licensed pursuant to terms that: (x) create, or purport to create, obligations for Microsoft with respect to the Software or (y) grant, or purport to grant, to any third party any rights to or immunities under Microsoft's intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Software. By way of example but not limitation of the foregoing, Recipient shall not distribute the Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with any Publicly Available Software. "Publicly Available Software" means each of (i) any software that contains, or is derived in any manner (in whole or in part) from, any software that is distributed as free software, open source software (e.g. Linux) or similar licensing or distribution models; and (ii) any software that requires as a condition of use, modification and/or distribution of such software that other software distributed with such software (A) be disclosed or distributed in source code form; (B) be licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or (C) be redistributable at no charge. Publicly Available Software includes, without limitation, software licensed or distributed under any of the following licenses or distribution models, or licenses or distribution models similar to any of the following: (A) GNU's General Public License (GPL) or Lesser/Library GPL (LGPL), (B) The Artistic License (e.g., PERL), (C) the Mozilla Public License, (D) the Netscape Public License, (E) the Sun Community Source License (SCSL), and (F) the Sun Industry Standards License (SISL).
The Australian charity "PCs for Kids" received threatening telephone calls from Microsoft's Australian legal counsel, according to reports on the technology mailing list Polytechbot. The charity--which was set up in Victoria to refurbish old computers for the benefit of disadvantaged children and nonprofit organizations--was in trouble for distributing PCs without paying Microsoft about $85 per machine for the use of its Windows operating system.But the software giant--facing dozens of public and private antitrust suits--now wants to resolve the issue outside of the courts. Microsoft said it would no longer pursue legal action against PCs for Kids. Over the past few days it has held meetings with the charity to decide on a one-off settlement amount to be paid for the outstanding Windows license fees.
1. Effective 8/26 - New Microsoft contract rules stipulate that we can no longer offer the "NO OS" option to our customers beyond September 1st. As such all customers currently purchasing a "NO OS" option on either OptiPlex, Precison or Latitude for the express purpose of loading a non-MS OS will have the following options: 1. Purchase a Microsoft OS with each OptiPlex, Precision or Latitude system. 2. For OptiPlex and Precision - purchase one of the new "nSeries" products (offered for GX260, WS340 & WS530 - details in the attached FAQ) that are being created to address a different OS support requirement other than a current standard Microsoft OS. We must have all "No OS" orders shipped out of the factory by September 1st. The "No OS" legend code and SKUs will be I-coded on 8/19 and D-coded on August 26th to ensure shipment of orders prior to September 1st. FYI - this effects all of our competitors as well.
The PC maker next month will introduce n-Series corporate desktop and workstations that ship without Microsoft's Windows, or any other operating system, pre-installed.The new desktops appear to be a slick interpretation of Microsoft's new licensing terms and a way to navigate customer demand for PCs without an OS installed. The Microsoft licensing terms, which were put in place on Aug. 1, specify that PC makers must ship PCs with an operating system. The new policy exists to prevent piracy and to better track OS shipments.
With the n-Series, Dell will include a copy of a free operating system--FreeDOS--inside the cardboard box. However, the OS will not be pre-installed, so customers will not have to worry about reconfiguring their machines should they want to use a different product.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - News) and others have filed objections to the proposed $8.4 million sale of Bluelight.com to United Online Inc. (NasdaqNM:UNTD - News), citing software licensing and tax issues among their concerns. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago is slated to hear Kmart's motion on the sale on Wednesday.
Microsoft promised us a kinder, gentler company. But this week, the software giant sent a legal threat to Steven Bink, curator of WindowsXP.nu, a Windows enthusiast Web site that provides news, tips, and information. The problem? Microsoft says that it owns two trademarks on the name Windows and never gave Bink authority to use its names, logos, and other graphics on his Web site. But why would the company only now take such an action against a Web site that's existed for more than 18 months?
A PLAN BY Office Depot to only carry products that carry a "Designed for XP" logo has prompted outrage from hardware vendors and posed questions about products that are sold for both Windows and Linux platforms.We reported earlier that Office Depot has given its vendors only until May to have their products "certified" by Microsoft, or find them not being sold on the retail chain's shelves.
One senior manager at a major peripheral manufacturer, who declined to be named, told the INQUIRER the policy by Office Depot was "sprung on vendors with very little notice".
THE BUSINESS SOFTWARE Alliance has been forced to apologise after it mistakenly detected OpenOffice files as Microsoft Office programs, and accused a respected body of distributing copies of the Vole software.The BSA accused the University of Muenster, of distributing Office software, and accused the academics of offering "unlicensed copies" of the Microsoft Office suite.
But all it had detected was OpenOffice and it was forced into an embarrassing retraction after the University pointed out the SNAFU.
As you are all aware, FWB is working diligently to update Real PC and Softwindows for OSX. In May, while working on this project, we received a setback in the form of a cease and desist letter from Microsoft.We are working to resolve the issues with Microsoft, and this has caused some delay, much to our frustration. We are committed to having a beta for you to test for us and help us optimize, this summer. We think we have only lost a few weeks of time to this issue.
Software Images general manager David Hill denied there was a non-compete agreement with Microsoft.But the existence of a 15-page contract with a non-compete clause was confirmed by Microsoft competitive strategy manager Brett Roberts.
He said that there was language in the contract that related to Microsoft competitors such as IBM, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems.
He said Software Images did some "clever logistical work" that provided a competitive advantage for Microsoft in the market.
"We view them as a critical strategic partner, not just a supplier."
Roberts would not disclose the wording of the non-compete clause, claiming commercial confidentiality.
Claims submitted through the www.msfreepc.com website will be invalid because the Settlement Agreement does not permit retailers or other vendors of qualifying hardware and software to submit claims on behalf of claimants. In addition, to prevent the development of a "gray market" for settlement vouchers, the Agreement contains clear restrictions on the transferability of claims and vouchers. Claims cannot be transferred at all and a transferee of vouchers may not redeem more than $10,000 in transferred vouchers. See Settlement Agreement, sections IV.F and V.B.2.(1)
"Okay, here's the first question. Is this page," and here he turned his monitor towards me, letting me see my "Even Microsoft wants G5s" post from last Thursday, "hosted on any Microsoft computer? Or is it on your own?""It's on mine. Well, it's on a hosted site that I pay for, but no, it's not on anything of Microsoft's."
"Good. That means that as it's your site on your own server, you have the right to say anything you want. Unfortunately, Microsoft has the right to decide that because of what you said, you're no longer welcome on the Microsoft campus."
And that simply, as of about 2pm today, I once again joined the ranks of the unemployed.
It seems that my post is seen by Microsoft Security as being a security violation. The picture itself might have been permissible, but because I also mentioned that I worked at the MSCopy print shop, and which building it was in, it pushed me over the line. Merely removing the post was also not an option - I offered, and my manager said that he had asked the same thing - but the only option afforded me was to collect any personal belongings I had at my workstation and be escorted out the door. They were at least kind enough to let me be escorted out by one of my co-workers, rather than sending security over to usher me out, but the end result is the same.
In a posting on his Web site earlier this month, the teen said he received a 25-page letter from Microsoft informing him he was committing copyright infringement, and threatening legal action.Desler said Friday that Microsoft believes it's important to take steps to prevent widespread infringement of its name. But he conceded Microsoft's original approach was "admittedly maybe impersonal."
Technology sold by Microsoft to the Chinese government has been used by Beijing to censor the internet, and resulted in the jailing of its political opponents.An Amnesty International report has cited Microsoft among a clutch of leading computer firms heavily criticised for helping to fuel 'a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for internet-related offences'.
The human rights group has slated Bill Gates's company for an 'inadequate response' to escalating abuses in China. 'We don't believe this is appropriate or responsible,' said Mark Allison, an Amnesty International researcher who wrote the report. '[Microsoft] should be more concerned about human rights abuses and should be using its influence to lift restrictions on freedom of expression and get people out of prison. It is worrying that they don't seem to have raised these issues.'
Amnesty believes Microsoft is in violation of a new United Nations Human Rights code for multinationals which says businesses should 'seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights'.
"Recently, I was going over my credit card statement, and noticed a charge I didn't remember making. After investigating, I determined that it was an auto-renewal for my Xbox Live account (for an Xbox that hasn't worked in months). I called to have the fee refunded, and Microsoft refused. They informed me that since it had been longer than 60 days from when my account was renewed, I was not eligible for a refund. The problem lies in that they didn't charge my credit card until December 26, despite renewing my account on November 15. I feel that this was done to increase the odds that I'd only be aware of the charge after it was too late to have reversed. They also claim I had fair warning I was going to be charged, since they sent me an email detailing my upcoming renewal. The email was sent to an old university account, which was de-activated after I graduated, and therefore never received.
