By David Worthington
The European Union has levied a record-setting €899 million (US$1.35 billion) fine against Microsoft.
EU regulators are penalizing Microsoft for charging "unreasonable prices" to software developers for access to information about Windows client and server protocols prior to Oct. 22, 2007. The sanctions stem from the EU's 2004 antitrust ruling against the company, which was upheld in September 2007 by the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, the EU's second highest court. Microsoft was found to have abused its dominant market position as set forth in Article 82 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
Microsoft was initially fined €497 million, or US$613 million in 2004, followed by an additional €280.5 ($357 million) in July 2006 for failing to obey the 2004 order. The cumulative fines amount to nearly €1.68 billion, or over $2.5 billion at today's rate.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Best free programs
‘THAT’S a cool looking notebook,” the customer at the computer shop said.
He was referring to the Asus Eee PC, an ultra-portable notebook that I was buying. The notebook’s small form factor and attractive price had made quite an impression, and he asked me a few more questions. The fact that the computer had no hard disk but used a flash memory drive seemed to intrigue him, but the idea of Linux—the operating system installed on the Eee PC—seemed to stump him. He had only heard of the operating system but had never used it.
“Okay ba ’yan? [Is it okay?]” he asked.
In the brief time I had, I tried to explain to him that Linux wasn’t just okay, it was superior to Windows in terms of security. In the two years since I switched from Windows, I told him, I had never been hit by a virus attack—and I’ve never had to use any antivirus software.
What about programs, he wanted to know. On Linux, I explained, all your software is free (in both senses of the word). There is no need to pay exorbitant licensing fees or use pirated programs and you are free to modify them to suit your needs.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get into too much detail and merely advised him to download Ubuntu, one of the most popular free Linux distributions, so he could try it out. If I had time, I’d probably have given him this list of commonly used Windows programs and their counterparts in Linux:
Azureus, BitTorrent or uTorrent. Utorrent, the hands-down best utility for downloading large files in Windows, does not run on Linux. Azureus does, but it’s a memory hog and not all that good. Fortunately, there are Deluge and qBittorrent, which are feature-rich and efficient alternatives. Transmission, a simpler torrent handler that is available on Mac OS X, now also runs on Linux.
Dreamweaver. Site designers looking for a what-you-see-is-what-you-get tool like Dreamweaver can turn to the free and open source Kompozer or Nvu for their Web authoring needs.
iTunes. For many iPod users, iTunes is defacto program for playing and organizing music files. Apple’s program isn’t available on Linux, but there are many alternatives. These include Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox and Songbird.
MS Office. OpenOffice.org comes already installed on many Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, and is comparable (and compatible) with Microsoft’s Office suite. OpenOffice Word Processing is the equivalent of Word; OpenOffice Spreadsheet does what Excel does; OpenOffice Presentation is the free version of PowerPoint; and OpenOffice Database is the counterpart of Access. Longtime MS Office users will take some time to get accustomed to the slightly different menus, but there are enough similarities to make the transition fairly quick and painless. For most users, there really is no need to shell out thousands of pesos for MS Office, or worse, break the law by using pirated versions of the software, when OpenOffice is available free.
MS Outlook. Need an integrated e-mail, contacts and calendar program in one? Evolution, which is already installed with Ubuntu, or use Mozilla Thunderbird, which is also available free.
MSN and Yahoo Messenger. You don’t need to be cut off from your MSN or Yahoo instant messaging buddies with Pidgin, a program that can handle accounts from both networks as well as AOL and Google Talk. Skype users will be happy to know that a Linux version of the popular Internet phone program also runs on Linux.
Nero Burning. The defacto CD burning software that is bundled with many CD writers is available on Linux but is free only if you are a registered user, and is not open source. Fortunately, there are many open source alternatives, including Brasero, GnomeBaker andK3B, all of which enable users to create data and audio CDs, VCDs and DVDs.
PageMaker, MS Publisher or InDesign. Desktop publishing in the Linux world can be done through the free and open source program called Scribus.
Photoshop. Gimp, short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free and open source image editor that does many of the things Adobe Photoshop does, including photo retouching and image composition. Photoshop users will need to get used to multiple docks and the different menu layout and terms, but there’s a lot of help available, including videos on YouTube that demonstrate how to accomplish certain tasks in Gimp. Like Photoshop, Gimp has a large variety of plug-ins that enable users to apply special effects and perform other operations more easily.
Winamp. The venerable MP3 player is not available on Linux, but Audacious or XMMS will make longtime Winamp users right at home. Both players support the same audio formats and even Winamp skins.
Windows Media Player. Nobody should miss Windows Media Player because there are many better open source alternatives for playing video on your computer. VLC Media Player is on top of my list, but Mplayer and Totem Movie Player will do the same job.
A few years ago, it was easy to dismiss Linux alternatives as inferior copies of programs available in Windows or Mac OS. Anyone who uses these applications today knows this is no longer true. And the truly amazing part is, all of them can be downloaded free of charge, with no danger of a virus attack—or a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Now if that’s not a great deal, I don’t know what is.
Column archives and blog at http://www.chinwong.com
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
US Army struggles with Windows to Linux overhaul
from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/05/us_army_linux_integration/
The greatest penguin migration of all time
By Austin Modine
Published Tuesday 5th February 2008 20:53 GMT
In multiple media reports over the past two weeks, the US Army has professed its love for the penguin. The Army eventually intends to move from a Windows-based infrastructure over to Linux for its new, roughly $200bn weapons program.
But the Army has largely been prepping new Linux-friendly weapons, vehicles, and devices before the completion of a software network to connect them to its existing Windows-based infrastructure — or blithely, putting the chariot before the warhorse.
When the Army began development of its next-gen hardware (dubbed Future Combat Systems, or FCS), they turned to Boeing and SAIC to develop the operating system rather than basing the software on its established Blue Force Tracking.
Blue Force is a Windows-based satellite tracking system designed by Boeing rival Northrop Grumman. It was used in combat in Afghanistan in 2002 and later in Iraq. Both the development of the FCS project and Blue Force are currently being funded at the same time. In 2008 the Army budgeted $3.1bn to the FCS program and $624m for Blue Force Tracking.
And while it seems both systems are being embraced by the Army, Boeing's OS and Blue Force may not share the sentiments with each other. FCS is going Linux.
"Boeing and the Army said they chose not to use Microsoft's proprietary software because they didn't want to be beholden to the company," reports The Washington Post. "Instead, they chose to develop a Linux-based operating system based on publicly available code."
That potentially presents a major problem for the first brigade of Linux-based FCS vehicles expected to be introduced in 2015. Linux-based systems have a limited ability to communicate with Microsoft-based systems. And interoperability issues aren't something you want to deal with in a war zone.
According to the US Army online pub, Defense News, they'll first try to patch things up using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
"Red Hat 5 will link Linux with Microsoft and allow FCS forces to link with other brigade combat teams," an Army official told Defense News. "This will be an interim solution because over the long haul, eventually all of the Army's networks will be Linux-based."
For a long-haul migration from Microsoft to Linux — the Army doesn't seem to be so sure what it will do. So they're bringing some 70 programmers, engineers and other IT professionals to Washington to brainstorm in four "Battle Command" summits.
The first two summits were held in September and November, with two upcoming sessions in February and April. According to Defense News, the Army says there has been "progress" in outlining time lines for the integration.
Works for us. ®
The greatest penguin migration of all time
By Austin Modine
Published Tuesday 5th February 2008 20:53 GMT
In multiple media reports over the past two weeks, the US Army has professed its love for the penguin. The Army eventually intends to move from a Windows-based infrastructure over to Linux for its new, roughly $200bn weapons program.
But the Army has largely been prepping new Linux-friendly weapons, vehicles, and devices before the completion of a software network to connect them to its existing Windows-based infrastructure — or blithely, putting the chariot before the warhorse.
When the Army began development of its next-gen hardware (dubbed Future Combat Systems, or FCS), they turned to Boeing and SAIC to develop the operating system rather than basing the software on its established Blue Force Tracking.
Blue Force is a Windows-based satellite tracking system designed by Boeing rival Northrop Grumman. It was used in combat in Afghanistan in 2002 and later in Iraq. Both the development of the FCS project and Blue Force are currently being funded at the same time. In 2008 the Army budgeted $3.1bn to the FCS program and $624m for Blue Force Tracking.
And while it seems both systems are being embraced by the Army, Boeing's OS and Blue Force may not share the sentiments with each other. FCS is going Linux.
"Boeing and the Army said they chose not to use Microsoft's proprietary software because they didn't want to be beholden to the company," reports The Washington Post. "Instead, they chose to develop a Linux-based operating system based on publicly available code."
That potentially presents a major problem for the first brigade of Linux-based FCS vehicles expected to be introduced in 2015. Linux-based systems have a limited ability to communicate with Microsoft-based systems. And interoperability issues aren't something you want to deal with in a war zone.
According to the US Army online pub, Defense News, they'll first try to patch things up using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
"Red Hat 5 will link Linux with Microsoft and allow FCS forces to link with other brigade combat teams," an Army official told Defense News. "This will be an interim solution because over the long haul, eventually all of the Army's networks will be Linux-based."
For a long-haul migration from Microsoft to Linux — the Army doesn't seem to be so sure what it will do. So they're bringing some 70 programmers, engineers and other IT professionals to Washington to brainstorm in four "Battle Command" summits.
The first two summits were held in September and November, with two upcoming sessions in February and April. According to Defense News, the Army says there has been "progress" in outlining time lines for the integration.
Works for us. ®
Saturday, February 2, 2008
French spit on Windows XP and embrace Linux
February 2, 2008 |
By Matt Jansen
French spit on Windows XP and embrace Linux Police in France have abandoned Windows XP, citing too much reliance on Microsoft and an interest in Linux’s lower price. Meanwhile Bill Gates was trying to hand out more “free” training on Microsoft products in Paris.
In France, the police force is governed by one central body and that branch of government uses 70,000 desktop computers, according to the Web in France Magazine.
Ubuntu Linux will be installed on all of these machines, replacing Windows XP by 2014.
Deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT department, Nicolas Geraud says “the reasons behind the move are tri-fold. First, to reduce the force’s reliance on one company and offer more choice by diversifying IT suppliers; second, to give the gendarmerie control and oversight of the operating system; and third — cost. This last might have been reason enough all by itself. The move away from Microsoft licensed products is saving the gendarmerie about seven million euros (10.3 million dollars) a year for all its PCs.”
Of course Microsoft thinks that’s a mistake, claiming that running Windows XP or Vista actually will save money because trained consultants are readily available, and asserts that Linux systems create more integration issues.
“With its 100,000 employees, the French gendarmerie is the largest administration to shift to open sourcing for its operating system, but not France’s first. The National Assembly adopted Ubuntu’s version of Linux for its 1,200 desktop PCs last year.”
That’s a lot of lost business for Microsoft, and it hints at growing problems for the company as it tries to compete with web-based software and an increasingly powerful Linux and open source movement.
Gates may be retiring just in time.
Picked up at Blorge.com
By Matt Jansen
French spit on Windows XP and embrace Linux Police in France have abandoned Windows XP, citing too much reliance on Microsoft and an interest in Linux’s lower price. Meanwhile Bill Gates was trying to hand out more “free” training on Microsoft products in Paris.
In France, the police force is governed by one central body and that branch of government uses 70,000 desktop computers, according to the Web in France Magazine.
Ubuntu Linux will be installed on all of these machines, replacing Windows XP by 2014.
Deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT department, Nicolas Geraud says “the reasons behind the move are tri-fold. First, to reduce the force’s reliance on one company and offer more choice by diversifying IT suppliers; second, to give the gendarmerie control and oversight of the operating system; and third — cost. This last might have been reason enough all by itself. The move away from Microsoft licensed products is saving the gendarmerie about seven million euros (10.3 million dollars) a year for all its PCs.”
Of course Microsoft thinks that’s a mistake, claiming that running Windows XP or Vista actually will save money because trained consultants are readily available, and asserts that Linux systems create more integration issues.
“With its 100,000 employees, the French gendarmerie is the largest administration to shift to open sourcing for its operating system, but not France’s first. The National Assembly adopted Ubuntu’s version of Linux for its 1,200 desktop PCs last year.”
That’s a lot of lost business for Microsoft, and it hints at growing problems for the company as it tries to compete with web-based software and an increasingly powerful Linux and open source movement.
Gates may be retiring just in time.
Picked up at Blorge.com
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