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Microsoft to Give Away Software
dptalia writes "In an attempt to suck up to the European Union, Microsoft has announced that it will give away software allowing multiple operating systems to run simultaneously. Microsoft says this is part of their strategy to make more software available through OSS." From the article: "Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said he had not seen the details of Microsoft's giveaway but cautioned against assuming it was motivated only by pragmatism or a new spirit of cooperation. 'If Microsoft were doing this for altruistic reasons, it would be a first,' Greve said. 'I think they are probably trying to get more machines on the Windows platform, and they may also be trying to improve relations in Brussels.'"
At the very end of the article it mentions that IBM, Apple, and Sun are selling similar products.
Why buy theirs when you can get the same thing from MS for free?
With TCPA, Microsoft needs to be in control of the whole boot process. Any form of "untrusted" boot manager like LILO or GRUB to allow users to dual boot with Windows would probably break that chain:
BIOS -> LILO/GRUB -> Windows = No TCPA
With their bootloader you can either go:
BIOS -> Windows Boot Manager -> Windows = TCPA
BIOS -> Windows Boot Manager -> Other = No TCPA
The rest is just marketing fluff so this solution is adopted.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
...according to TFA is: "its Virtual Hard Disk Image Format - new software that will allow computers running on rival products like Apple's OS X or Linux, its chief competitors in operating systems, to simultaneously run Windows" (that's a PITA to copy with IHT's javascript).
Don't get carried away. I think I read here last week that MS aren't going to allow Vista to run inside a virtual machine - am I correct? And there's Vista messing up the boot sector too. It looks like this is not a two-way street.
Their intentions seem pretty straightforward to me. It's not about running other operating systems so much as running other Windows operating systems, with other OSes being a side effect that doesn't cost them any additional effort (except the struggle to put aside their lust for dominance for a little while).
The reason Microsoft stated for buying Virtual PC was so that they could build an emulation environment that would allow them to bundle enough of the old versions of Windows so that they could basically scythe out vast swaths of legacy code from their OS. I suspect this is the intent behind this effort as well. Why bother supporting all those 16-bit apps when you can emulate them in a VM? That's doubly important if they ever plan to support 16-bit code in 64-bit WIndows (which they currently do not).
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Essentially MS is giving away nothing of value (or very limited value) in consumer space in trade for EU goodwill?
Appears to be.
Virtual machines tied across virtual networks? The latest buzz.
And IF you want/need/could make good use of/ a VM would you want to build our from a MS base? Didn't think so.
Developers love the tech, of limited value in the server room and has almost no value in consumer space. [end item]
&& [end microsoft]
No, I would say it's nearly completely about controlling other OSes. How? Without allowing other OSes to run, any attempts to make TCPA mandatory would be instantly stopped by about every country. But now, they can provide VirtualPC for free, providing people with a way to run a free OS inside a sandbox fully controlled by Microsoft -- as they only way of using the new shiny hardware. And that's their master plan, full control over computing.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
I don't see why for certain kinds of software, that it would be unreasonable to permit the free use of older software. Microsoft's investment in any DOS version has been paid for many times over. I wouldn't be surprised that IBM would release OS/2 to open source if it could. The new operating systems, such as Vista, are driving the sales of bigger faster better hardware, but a lot of utility can be realized from used hardware and the copyright laws should encourage that by releasing legacy software, in at least binary form, for free use.
I am a former Microsoft employee, used to love Microsoft products, thought Windows 2000 was great and Windows XP moderately better, aside from the lack of an activation transfer feature. I thought it was great (well, once mks tools was installed for a proper shell), that is, until changes to the EULA came along with the service packs, and when Microsoft began suing their own customers. That is inexcusable.
Now, I was never against Linux, and in fact ran it from the beginning when you had to install it from floppies. The thing is, Windows had a huge head start on Linux and had improved rapidly (security issues aside) up to and including Windows XP and Win2K3, and Linux on the desktop, while a fun academic exercise, was a royal pain in the ass. One spent far more time tinkering, configuring, hacking code and applying patches than getting real work done. Around that time, when worms weren't so pervasive, I actually had a Windows box reach nine months of uptime when Win2K came out, and yes, it was a heavily used box.
Now the tables have turned. The OSS community have come together and they leapfrogged Windows in nearly every aspect imaginable. On the cross-platform front, there are vastly superior browsers centered around Netscape-derived projects (Mozilla/Gecko), vastly superior integrated desktop environments (KDE and to a lesser degree Gnome), and development tools are starting to gain ground on Visual Studio (Anjuta, Kdevelop).
It's to the point where I run Linux on servers and workstations at the office, and at home. Oh sure, there is the unavoidable need for a Windows machine or two, but they are by far in the minority. Why the switch? No worries about the BSA. No worries about tracking CALs, maintenance can be performed on a live system, PLUS Unix is herently far more secure. Not only that, but fire up Mandriva, Ubuntu, SuSE, Redhat, etc.and you have access to literally THOUSANDS of applications, all without having to worry about whether or not you'll have to hold ten minutes for re-activation, buy more licenses, or obtain the install disc. Lost or damaged your media? Microsoft will tell you "Go to the store and buy one" but with Linux I can just go download it.
Plus, have you ever used Konqueror? Compare that to explorer as a file manager, or to Apple's finder. Explorer is limiting, to put it very nicely.
When you come down to it, Windows sucks. What was it I liked so much about it? Everything works. Well, that is, you can get Windows drivers for everything. You can walk into CompUSA, pick ANY joystick, bring it home, and know it will work. Oh sure, the drivers in the box might be buggy, but just download the latest update. No problem finding drivers. No having to google for hours before you know which peripherals contain which chipsets, and whether or not the code projects exist and if they do whether or not they are mature enough and compatible with the kernel build you're running. (Oh Lord, I feel like I'm praising Microsoft. Well, they deserve it in this case).
I'm partial to Linux now, because Microsoft has stagnated so much. I cannot see the value in Office 2007 or even Office 2003 over Office 2000. I do not see any value in Windows Vista now that WinFS has been yanked. Oh sure, it'll be shiny, but who cares when OpenGL has been downgrated, your Fair Use rights are severely limited to the point where you might accidentally get DRM applied to your own media creations, let alone legally-purchased content you have Fair Rights to copy, and you can only activate twice, then after that hardwar5e drivers require re-purchase.
Microsoft has earned every bit of scorn they receive here, and I hope that the mainstream press reviews Vista and the conclusions come down to "WTF? DOn't waste your money upgrading. Upgrade to OS X or Linux instead."
Signed,
A former Microserf and diehard Windows fanatic who has come to the light side