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Linux Receives 20th Birthday Video From Microsoft
moonbender writes "The Linux kernel has received birthday wishes from an unexpected direction — a video animation from Microsoft. Quoting The H: 'The video picks up on the strained relationship between Microsoft and Linux by displaying the phrase "Microsoft Vs. Linux" and then showing Tux, the Linux mascot, turning his back on the offer of a birthday cake from Microsoft. After a brief outline of the history between Microsoft and Linux, the video ends with a conciliatory gesture: Tux accepts the birthday cake in his igloo and the video ends with "Happy Birthday" and the editing of the initial phrase to "Microsoft and Linux?' The Linux Foundation has more stuff celebrating the kernel's 20th birthday."
The Linux kernel has received ... from Microsoft.
Clearly this is an attempt to hide patent-encumbered code inside Linux kernel so that Microsoft can sue later!
Google+ vs. Facebook, and why Google+ will fail
n/m
Don't trust the M$ any farther than you can throw them.
In other words "Its a trap!" - AA
Wherever you go... There you are. B.B.
First Duke Nukem forever, then GNU/Hurd, now this.
2012, here we come.
You missed the ending, where the cake explodes, destroying the igloo and penguin.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
The cake is a lie.
With the way the Apple juggernaut has been steamrolling it would make sense to me for Microsoft and Open Source in general to find a way of co-existing. Say what you want about Microsoft, but Apple's heavy-handed, strict controls and policies makes Microsoft look like a pussy cat in comparison.
Is this the same Microsoft that is suing companies for using Linux in their Android mobile phones?
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
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That might have a BSOD easter egg in it!
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
Only a small (though loud) minority of Linux users believes in a Microsoft vs Linux fight. Linux was created in 1991 to be a POSIX compliant kernel, not to be a competitor to MS. The GNU tools were created to have a free Unix. GNU + Linux is a fine example of open source in the Unix world, and is definitely not a reaction/fight/whatever towards Microsoft.
European Linux user, living in Antwerp
No story about Microsoft and cakes is complete without this video :-)
Welcome to the Microsoft Enrichment Center, featuring GLaDOS, now running Windows 7!
yay! a trojan birthday cake!!! is the video ogg too??
A clever saying proves nothing.
The bottom line is, these are all big BUSINESSES, with an unwavering goal of maximizing profits for their shareholders. When you see all of this "back and forth" between competitors, where one month they're bashing each other and the next, their CEOs are on TV together acting friendly? Remember that NONE of it really means much.
I'm pretty sure that on a personal level, almost all of these tech company "higher ups" have mutual respect for each other. After all, people in similar income brackets tend to have a lot of common interests. (A Bill Gates type isn't likely to have a lot of fun going on the same discounted vacation cruises that your typical family signs up for in the summer, etc. Your idea of a "nice hotel" and his probably aren't the same, nor are your typical "good, yet affordable" restaurant choices, right?) And they share a common interest in furthering high-tech products or services for the masses in SOME manner, even if they differ on the details of exactly HOW they think the future should unfold with them.
By the same token, most of the employees of these firms are just software developers, systems administrators and Q.A. testers trying to earn a paycheck in their field of interest. Guys I knew who coded apps for Microsoft often used Linux or a Mac at home, even if they really liked what Microsoft was doing. (Hey, if nothing else, it's refreshing to come home to something different than what you've got to use at work all day long!)
I'm pretty sure a lot of this animosity we hear of between competitors is cooked up by P.R. and marketing/advertising types. If you've got a product you can get people to rally behind, it's very profitable to pretend you're at "war" with the competition -- even if the C.E.O. of the main competitor is one of your company's C.E.O.'s drinking buddies and they negotiate co-operative deals in the background on a regular basis.
Beware of Geeks bearing gifts...
In a not so distant windows release. We will eventually have standard apis across hardware & platforms, and the oses will compete purely on features and performance while all running the programs. They'll no longer have differing APIs if they want to survive. MS sees this and has plans to ride it as far as they can, across their whole spectrum of products - windows phone, xbox, windows for pc - while Apple, Sony, Android restrict themselves to the developers in their respective markets who don't want to write one app for multiple platforms.
Does this mean that they'll be making Direct X open source? :D
Where the hell it says that Microsoft send it!!?? It just says "User-submitted video"
I'm not sure I understand. Based on the summary, this video was supposed to have been created by Microsoft? It was posted by The Linux Foundation and doesn't seem like a video that would be produced by Microsoft (not so much the style or content, but the perspective; it doesn't seem like it's Microsoft telling the story at all).
Instead, it plays like some sort of lead-up to an announcement OSDL/TLF are planning to make...?
You want to be conciliatory? Skip the flash animation wankery and give us real ExtN filesystem support instead of making us rely on flaky third-party implementations or having to drop what we're doing and reboot to access a damn USB drive...
...besides beware greeks bearing youtube videos.
This video looks to me like they are making a friendly hint of things to come. I know it would sound like blasphemy to many, but I could imagine they might want to make a such a monumental change to compete in mobile, where they are currently all but non-existent.
The video says it's user-submitted. Even if it were created by Microsoft, they're not known to collaborate with anyone on anything. They make it a standard practice to buy out companies with good ideas, or like others have said, sue the pants off the competition that they can't buy out. Any possibility of a "Microsoft AND Linux" is just a fantasy.
Penguins are dirty animals
Was at kimble.org At least he had a cool cartoons http://ara.informatik.tu-freiberg.de/Vorlesungen/stuff/kimble_themovie.swf
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
a) Geek working at MS creates a cute birthday animation. For kicks, 'cause it's cool.
b) PR dept. gets hold of it somehow
c) Pr dept. thinks it would be a cute idea to show some reconciliation attempt.
d) Geek gets a pat on the back and video is now "officially MS property".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
expecting that cake to explode?
The cake is a lie.
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
This is fine, until Linux put the Cake in it's sauce code, then Microsoft sued for patent infringement.
Damn that Bill Gates and his fancy food! He's NOTHING like us!
I didn't know Tux was Australian.
Why does anyone think this video is from Microsoft?
The video itself isn't credited, and it was posted to youtube by TheLinuxFoundation with the caption: "User-submitted video from The Linux Foundation Video Site".
I don't think they can use a Unix-like kernel. Wasn't that one of the conditions that they accepted when they sold off Xenix?
I do not work for Microsoft, but this sounds like my daily life.
If MS really wants to cooperate with Linux, it should start by fully sponsoring the Mono project, just like Novell used to. Xamarin need this kind of support and it would be a huge plus for MS developers to start embracing Linux instead of rejecting it out of hand.
Actually, I just noticed it was posted to the Linux Video site by MicrosoftGermany. Wonder how much the mothership knew about this one?
...only if it's the Microsoft funeral cake.
Seriously? All friends now? Piss off.
What does it mean, 'truce' between MS and Linux kernel (or is it GNU + Linux distros)?
SCO, anybody? Is the memory supposed to be this short? Was GNU/Linux out to destroy MS the way MS is out to destroy any business possibility for GNU/Linux?
Once again: SCO.
If you turn your back to them, the way that penguin did in that animation, there will be a large ice pick that very moment, right in the middle of your spine.
You can't handle the truth.
Sounds about right..
In terms of internet numbers, I find it striking this article already has 90 comments while the video itself only has 337 views. In the entire world. I wonder what the rtfa ratio is...
Anyone scan it yet?
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
There may not be a Linux vs Microsoft fight, but there is definitely a Microsoft vs Linux fight. In their own words:
* OSS poses a direct, short-term revenue and platform threat to Microsoft, particularly in server space. Additionally, the intrinsic parallelism and free idea exchange in OSS has benefits that are not replicable with our current licensing model and therefore present a long term developer mindshare threat.
* OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market.
* They have paid for numerous "independent" studies to show that Linux and LAMP are inferior to Windows and IIS.
* Leaked emails have shown them to have been funneling money to SCO via Baystar.
* They continue to spread FUD about patent licensing, and have sued major Android manufacturers for patent royalties.
They clearly see this as an Us vs Them situation. We don't have to respond likewise, but it would be foolish not to acknowledge their intentions.
I believe that Microsoft is now interesent somehow in Linux success. Mainly because many virtualization options may run on Linux servers but having as Guests MS Servers. Also take a look at this article some days ago: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/07/16/2316251/Microsoft-Developer-Made-the-Most-Changes-To-Linux-30-Code
Entirely reasonable, they could sell an MS window manager as "MS Windows" and still sell office exchange, sql server, etc. At the same prices they have now. It would certainly be a loss in revenue compared to being one of many OS's but they would still be the 800 lb gorilla and people would still pay $100 to buy or demand their oem machines come with the MS window manager and applications set.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
You got an 8.5"x11" color laser printed certificate for your 10 year anniversary too?
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Microsoft doesn't offer you cake!....unless it's cake made from dog poo and knives. (will anyone get this joke?)
Where does the signature go?
can most definitely not be said, however.
With all the money Microsoft has been making from their Linux extortion campaign I'm not surprised that they are celebrating it.
I don't see this as a likely outcome, yet the very idea is interesting. Apple wouldn't be where it is currently without replacing the OS9 junk with BSD, replacing NT with Linux could make Windows actually usable for something more than rootkit-laden games.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
The cake is the IP. Tux brings home MS's supposedly free cake. But the cake is filled with patents, and now they are inside Tux.
Dont do it TUX! The cake is a LIE!
Oh oh I get it now! This movie is the M$ attempted reality-distortion-field of the movie "Antitrust" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/ ) and all the groklaw coverage of the M$-backed SCO trial ;D
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
the cake is a lie
d) Geek gets a kick on the backside and video is now "officially MS property".
FTFY.
I am officially gone from
Most changes != best contribution.
In fact, they were rounded on a bit because the changes were mostly crap and later reverted and all sorts.
Holy crap, can't you fanatics take one day off from your hand-wringing, the mouth-foaming, and the teeth-gnashing??
Ferchrissakes even the Axis and Allies took a day off FROM A WORLD WAR to play a football game!!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Tux eats a piece of cake, begins bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth then falls over dead.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
Probably nobody. I'd wager that this "MicrosoftGermany" account has no affiliation with Microsoft whatsoever. Unless creating an account with the word Microsoft in it somehow makes any further checks for authenticity unnecessary, and if that's the case, I'm off to register MicrosoftBillG right now.
I hate slashdot's login system. It always forgets my username/password combination!
I wanted to post something else, but I'm getting too tired from logging in again and again.
The most irritating part is that slashdot redirects to the home page after login, instead of staying on the page where you wanted to enter something.
1. Embrace
2. Extend
3. Extinguish.
"You made a fatal error, you trusted us." -- A Microsoft Executive to 3Com Founder Bob Metcalfe
People keep arguing about the merits and failings of the Linux desktop. But in server space, Linux is very strong. Where I work, we deal with a mix of about 80% Linux servers, 20% Windows, so the two have to work together. Even the staffers who specialize in Windows Server administration tend to say that they wish the Windows systems were as flexible and easy to work with as the Linux systems.
We will eventually have standard apis across hardware & platforms, and the oses will compete purely on features and performance while all running the programs.
How do you plan to have different features with no API differences?
Of course ... if you had a clue ... you'd know what UNIX actually is ... as well as Posix ... see ... what you're talking about ... happened 20 years ago.
Both UNIX and Posix certification specify a common API, but its so minimal that its useless.
Windows has supported Posix for the last 10 years, it does require additional installation (but included with the installation media) for servers, but its there and meets full Posix conformance requirements. The NT subsystems support everything but posix sockets and threads on a default install, Unix services for Windows adds those to components to the mix.
Pretty much every commercial OS you can think of supports Posix completely already.
So whatever you think you see that MS has only found recently ... well, they knew about it probably before you heard of Linux.
Its also note worthy to point out that Linux passes neither UNIX nor Posix certification, it comes close in some distros, but certainly not all, and some fair better than others. Its not unique to Linux, OSS in general fails at Posix support, some fail better than others. Which strikes me as funny, you'd think supporting a common API properly so portability was better on your OSS OS would be a high priority. Apparently reinventing the wheel is more important.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
After watching the video, I know I know almost as bad as reading the articles!, I had a few thoughts:
- Well done video.
- Kinda cute.
- And clearly designed to show MS as the adult in any conversation as well as making not mention about how freaking evil they are.
Every bit of that video was about as condescending as you can get. If they thought to win over anyone in the FOSS camp with that kinda crap they must really be drinking some very special KoolAid.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
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There, took me less than 5 minutes. Just supply the guts of the rename() function.
function rename(filename) {
return filename;
}
var FileSysObj = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var folder = FileSysObj.GetFolder("."), files = new Enumerator(folder.files);
for (var filename, ext; !files.atEnd(); files.moveNext()) {
filename = files.item();
ext = String(filename).split(".").pop();
var newfilename = rename(filename);
if (filename != newfilename) FileSysObj.MoveFile(filename, newfilename);
}
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The cake is a lie!
Well, seems like a decent gesture I suppose. Although I don't know how Linux and Microsoft can coexist any more than they already do. It's not like they can share code, after all. About the only thing I can think would be if they were to not intentionally break stuff for each other, but it's the leader that usually breaks stuff (like samba) by futhering development, and linux has to play catch up. Nothing bad there.
I bet the animation was done using Silverlight.... :)
think i'm gonna be sick.....
a different vision of Linux vs. Microsoft... an animation I did last year...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V32M10npL8
On your neck for today @ least, man... they're just TOO tight for the occasion!
APK
P.S.=> It's that, or have Grandpa Munster mix you up some "magic mellow out potion", ok?
... apk
Microsoft and Linux = Ubuntu ?
No. Of course not.
We only have black and white laser printers.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A lot of sites are reporting that this came from Microsoft but don't actually link to anything verifying this to be true.
Can anyone link to something that would back up this claim?
Just what is Microsoft hinting at? I can't imagine it would happen, but imagine what Microsoft could do with phones, tablets and personal computers if they adopted some open source elements as Apple did.
After watching this video my firefox and ultimately my entire Linux machine crashed, twice.
An attack from Microsoft disguised as a friendly gesture perhaps?
... how many tech guys here at MS have _heavy_ Linux and Java experience in the past. A lot!
In other words, Microsoft Windows supports a standard that has fallen out of common use and in your own words is "so minimal that its [sic] useless". Why so you feel supporting such an out-of-use standard would be helpful to any Linux distros? The world is moving toward Linux and away from UNIX and Windows.
BTW who pissed in your Cheerios today?
I can't shutdown this idea in my head after having read "Microsift and Linux ?" and by remembering the increasingly similitude between the Mango (Windows) and Meego (Linux) mobiles devices to be released by Nokia.
Maybe Microsoft have realized that the consequence of having imposed there OS to most of peoples for so long have the side effect, now that there is a choice, that there are going away from it, simply to have the impression to have made a real choice. Microsoft can't fight against this problem, so there only option is to take revenue from Linux, probably by using fear of patents legal actions. This is overall a bad sign, even if this explain there new apparently friendship with Linux.
Although I like the idea :)