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Microsoft Apps Will Be Pre-loaded On Lenovo and Motorola Android Devices (betanews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: There was a time when Microsoft was seen as the enemy of Linux and Apple communities. Understandably, at the time, the company only wanted Windows to succeed. Nowadays, however, the operating system is sort of inconsequential. Microsoft seems happy to have its software succeed on 'competitor' platforms such as iOS, Android, macOS, Ubuntu and more. Today, Microsoft announces that it has partnered with Lenovo on a new mobile initiative. The Windows-maker's productivity apps will be pre-loaded on Lenovo and Motorola-branded devices running Google's Linux-based Android operating system.As of earlier this year, Microsoft had over 74 Android OEM partners. As for submitter's take on this, it's pretty simple. Microsoft is going where users are. If they are not going to purchase Windows Phones, Microsoft will go to Android and iOS.
My submission was clearer about this: https://slashdot.org/submissio...
Lenovo/Motorola aren't going along with this because they legitimately think customers want Microsoft bloatware. They're doing this to avoid the ~$10 patent tax that Microsoft extracts from Android OEMs so that SD cards will work out-of-the-box (their patent on the exFAT file system, to be precise).
See subject: It's in data/information which those apps/programs merely process & ride on the OS involved to do it...
* It's always BEEN that... & it doesn't MATTER where or HOW you go about it.
APK
P.S.=> It's the "end all/be all" & "raison d'etre" for all of it... apk
How about this: If I want a M$ product on my device, I'll install it.
They don't care if it's the OS or the Office apps, whatever the software they are trying to push they use the same strategy, make it default, force everyone to use their software, force vendors to ship it and nothing else, force schools to teach it and call it computer education so that kids grow up with with office and windows as the definition for "computer".
Because of this, they are still everyone's enemy, so don't pretend like anything has changed... especially after the secure boot shit they pulled on all of us non windows users.
I wouldn't put it past MS to use this to get a foot in the door, get some users hooked on whatever migration... then start belly-aching about how stuff is "locked down" and "incompatible" with what they really want in a device. Then we get the return of Windows Phone. Like Clippy, it will never truly die.
Not just preinstalled, but fraudulently flagged system so you can't uninstall them. Similar to Facebook and a host of other crapware on my Samsung.
dressed in yellow tunics, smiling, singing "Hare Krishna"
And then ending up sued by someone smiling and singing "dulang dulang dulang".
M$ has not changed its stripes, they are still antagonistic to Linux but do not want anything like a repeat of what is happening on smartphones. I'd believe it if they started supporting a version of M$ Office on a selection of Linux distros.
"There was a time when Microsoft was seen as the enemy of Linux and Apple communities."
Lol, "there was a time". And that "time" is "now".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Nope, they want to infect the market space of Samsung and Apple.
For the last several years I've enjoyed Motorola phones. Their version of Android is pretty darn vanilla, and the amount of bloat-ware was relatively little.
Oh well.
I don't think you can call it patent trolling when Android is a direct competitor to a line of business they've continuously had for a couple of decades
Microsoft didn't as much had "competitors" and they didn't "had a business line for a couple of decades", as much as they've "continuously struggled, trying unsuccessfully to get a foot in a market that they don't even properly understand".
Nowadays, when Microsoft tries to do something out of their Windows 10 Phone, they've in practice lost to iOS and Android.
Back then, in the Windows Mobile era, Nokia's Symbian and Blackberry were the dominant platforms.
Back before, in the Windows CE era, Palm's PalmOS was the better platform.
They never actually owned the market.
And somebody who :
- is abusing their patent portfolio to get a share of the dominant in a marker that they can't conquest
- for something as trivial as exFAT (hey, it's just like fat, except with an allocation bitmap instead) or LFN (hey, lets invent filenames that are longer than 8.3, and call them something like VFAT)
- which is actually mandatory for some industry standard (SDXC is simply SDHC with mandatory exFAT. Other wise you can trivially plug a 256 GB SDXC card into a "up 32 GB only SDHC" reader as long as you either install a FUSE driver for exFAT or reformat the card into something that your OS can read - like UDF - but there is no physical difference between SDXC and SDHC (unlike the older plain SD))
that qualifies as a patent troll in my book.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The problem is that Microsoft is adding ~$10 to the cost of every Android device with their patent trolling.
Its not patent trolling when you actually created the thing, others think that the thing would be beneficial to them, and these others are fully aware up front that this thing is covered by a patent.
... it's only value is compatibility with Windows desktops ...
Actually FAT is commonly used on USB sticks and SD cards by Mac and Linux users as well. FAT is the "I'd like to read/write this anywhere" option.
Microsoft forces SD card manufacturers to sell their cards pre-formatted only with Microsoft-patented file systems.
So you think SD card manufacturers would like to sell platform specific formatted cards instead of a common format that Windows, Mac, and Linux (and many embedded) users can all read/write?
You think Linux users would be happy with pre-formatted ext3 cards that cost a little more due to lower volumes, are a little harder to find in brick and mortar when you are in a hurry?
I imagine SD card manufacturers have a genuine interest in FAT, a common format.
Well firstly you would need to show that its only monopolistic weight that goes into the decision and not that market forces (i.e. compatibility between Windows, Mac, Linux and some embedded users) that is behind the decision to use FAT. For example you don't think camera manufacturers and others don't want to use a format that all desktop platforms can read? Things are far more complicated than you suggest.
"Microsoft No Space Left On This Devi"
Microsoft is still the same evil corporation it was before. The difference is Microsoft lost the OS wars in the end and are solving the problem through the threat of violence on OEMs who would rather not ship with Microsoft's offerings. They're utilizing patents and the courts/legal system (ie violence, theft, etc) to blackmail others into submission (or threat thereof).
Microsoft offers nothing of value to GNU/Linux users and those shipping with Android and similar operating systems. Those patents are all garbage. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to utilize a different file system if it were not for MS's monopoly. It was used (and some cases it wasn't even really used, like in the Tom Tom case) only to retain compatibility and that was because of Microsoft's monopoly which gave them the ability to refuse to implement support for other filesystems. Certainly this is monopolistic. If Microsoft had supported other filesystems like every other company we wouldn't be forced into utilizing it's shitty 'patented' filesystem. The patents don't actually provide anything of value. They are more or less a form of DRM. It's nothing more than a mechanism to force people to cough up cash to implement compatibility.
We should get rid of copyright, patents, and similar. The only one with some legitimacy are trademarks and that's an issue of fraud really. I shouldn't own the mark, just the right to sue for label, slander, and fraud should someone use it to deceive others into buying what they think is our product, etc. However I would argue that the case that patents are enforced in malicious ways against those not actually committing fraud. There is no reason someone should be prohibited from using a trademark provided it's not in a way to deceive. Utilizing it to criticize a company or on a product page linking to reviews or similar should not require permission. I'd even go so far as to argue patents should be limited to off-line scenarios and other systems of authentication should be implemented into the software to verify authenticity (we should never censor a site that sells fraudulent goods, but our technical systems should enable people to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate, or between what people recognize thereof, so if I start using a name/brand/etc I build up a reputation under that name then anybody else using that name should be in competition for said name would have to spend a lot to overtake its legitimacy, and that might even not work should the history aspects factor in, plus category, so penguin, a company that distributes ICE is as legitimate as penguin, a company that publishes book, is as legitimate as penguin, a company that sells computers with the GNU/Linux support, etc).
"Microsoft seems happy to have its software succeed on 'competitor' platforms such as iOS, Android" especially as Microsoft is extracting revenue out of Android OEM equipment manufacturers.
since I now wont consider buying any Motorola or Lenovo phones.
If I buy a Nexus device it will come pre-baked with Google crapware, 90% of which I'll never use. And then every 3 days or so notify me that 9 of those applications have been updated. Is MS Office inherently more evil than the Google suite if you want to open a Word attachment on your phone?
If privacy is your thing, buy a generic device, and flash cyanogenmod with f-droid.
FWIW, I use Outlook on Android because Google can't write an email client. first aosp, then GMail and now some concept interface with Inbox - they all suck.