First things first, yet another Microsoft commissioned and funded report has reached the amazing conclusion that Windows is more secure then Linux. I ask you folks, to cast your mind back over the years and see if you can remember any Microsoft funded reports that ever found that the Microsoft product being compared was found wanting compared to the competitor in one of these MS funded reports? That alone should give you some idea how much creditability I give this new report. Reports by business and government who are using or trialling OSS products like Linux are generally much more useful for comparison as the parties making those reports generally have no vested interest in either side.
Microsoft is having more troubles with the EC of late as well, their quest to have the powers of the trustee of their EC compliance limited has been thrown out as unacceptable. There is now also speculation that Microsoft have crippled some aspects of what they wanted to call “Windows reduced media edition” by changing or removing registry entries so that (for example) video embedded in Office documents would not play correctly or at all.
A patent (USP 6101499) that Microsoft was granted is also being questioned because Microsoft failed to mention that the technology they patented was already being worked on by the Internet Engineering Task Force and is very close to IPV6 which is the technology destined to replace the 20 year old IPV4 system that is behind the Internet now. This should give you the impression that when Microsoft tout their desire for interoperability, what they mean is that they want to own the protocols and will be interoperable with anyone that gives them enough money. That’s the impression I’ve gotten from all this anyway. Imagine if the guys that Invented the Web, TCP/IP and other such technologies had the same aspirations as Microsoft, if they had, it’s doubtful that Microsoft would be anywhere near as big as they are now.
