The latest web server stats are in, and Microsoft’s market share grew two percent, while Apache’s declined two percent more. At this rate, Microsoft might be number one by the middle of December. Just two years ago, Apache had a lead over 60%, now it’s going to drop to second place. Amazing. I still find it amazing that Google’s servers (just the ones the company uses to run its own websites) have managed to grab third place.
A participant in the Google Summer of Code (a software development competition run by Google) created a set of widgets that can be used to create Linux applications with an interface similar to that of Microsoft’s Office 2007, complete with the famous Ribbon. Microsoft allows developers to use the Ribbon, and they don’t seem to have banned it for Linux, so long as you don’t clone an Office 2007 app specifically, this should be fine to use.
Microsoft’s 2002 consent decree that settled the federal antitrust case against the company is expiring at the end of the year, and the federal government and various state governments are trying to decide what to do next.
The federal Justice Department and a number of states, including Maryland, Wisconsin, Ohio and Louisiana, call the 2002 decree a success and that it accomplished its goals. Other states, including California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Massachusetts and D.C., say that it was ineffective, and that it should be extended from a five-year decree to a ten-year one.
Their argument is that Microsoft still has high market share, which must mean it is still an evil monopoly.
Specifically, in the market at the heart of the antitrust case–that is, for Intel-compatible PC operating systems–Microsoft’s share has remained fairly constant, from 93 percent in 1991 to 92 percent in 2006, the filing said. In the Web browser arena, Redmond has seen its market share slip from 95 percent in 2002 to 85 percent in 2006, which the California group attorneys argue is “still well above monopoly levels.” And on the server operating system front, Microsoft has actually seen its market share climb from 55 percent in 2002 to 72 percent in 2006, the filing argues.
If you remember the antitrust case from when it was going on, you’ll know the “market share” argument, by itself, was never good enough, and that Microsoft was screwed on its business practice, not its sucess. The goal of the consent decree was to curb Microsoft’s evil ways, and it has succeeded more often than not. Microsoft has suffered the last five years, as:
Ask anyone at Microsoft if the government held them back these five years, and they’ll tell you how many ways the company has been hamstrung by it. Yes, Windows is still very, very popular, but Mac OS is growing like crazy, Apple and Google are juggernauts, Microsoft is struggling in a number of industries and many of Microsoft’s other competitors have been screwing up to much to even compete with them. Market share proves nothing.
The next hearing is on 9/11.
Ask anyone who regularly downloads movies, software and music without paying for any of it. Ask them what they find to be cheaper, Microsoft Windows or Linux. If they really think about it, they’ll tell you that Windows is cheaper, because both of them are free, and free Windows is coming in at a huge discount.
The fact of the matter is that, in the home, software piracy is rampant. It’s why software that sells to businesses continues to grow (Office, Adobe Creative Suite) while games sales keep dropping and Microsoft Works is given away for free. So many people use file sharing networks, get copies from a friend, or even buy $400 computers pre-loaded with thousands of dollars of software. They view it as a way of life.
Dave Gutteridge has a great article titled Windows is Free explaining how Linux has a practically impossible time competing with Windows because anyone who’d switch on price can just pirate Windows. For many home users, Windows is as free as Linux, and from a cost/benefit position, Windows is cheaper.
Does Microsoft condone piracy? Not in a public way, of course, but supposedly it’s really easy to pirate even Windows Vista (haven’t tried yet, I got a copy through official channels), and that should tell you enough. There has to be an impenetrable means of protecting Windows, but Microsoft, the biggest software company on the planet, hasn’t found it yet? Not only isn’t it a priority, but if Windows piracy were too difficult or impossible, Microsoft would be handing users to Linux.
Look at Microsoft literature on Windows Geniune Advantage. It isn’t about watching your kids, not using CD-Rs, avoiding file sharing networks, and stopping personal piracy. No, Microsoft warns against retailers that pre-load PCs with counterfeit copies of Windows, investigates and raids warehouses filled with thousands of pirated Vista CDs, and pretty much focuses on piracy cartels, not users.
Honestly, if you didn’t have the money, would you pirate Windows? If you did have the money, would you pirate it anyway, either for political reasons, out of laziness, or just because you never buy software? My current laptop came with Windows XP Media Center, and the first thing I did when I got it was download Office 2003. Earlier this year, I received a copy of Windows Vista and Office 2007, paid for at a reduced rate but bought legally from Microsoft for review purposes.
I didn’t pirate my current software, but I can’t say I wouldn’t have if I had to buy it full price. If I felt truly guilty (get some friends at Microsoft, then try pirating; it’s not so easy), I’d buy the OEM version of Vista off Newegg, but I’d certainly download Office, considering that the version I needed cost as much as four electric bills, and I need to pay my damn electric bill.
I can’t say I like piracy. I know how hard people work to make the software, and I’d hate to see them suffer in poverty (even though that’s a gross over-dramatization, it’s how I feel, not what I know). I am so grateful that I can give away my content for free, supported by advertising, but that option isn’t available to everyone.
Thankfully for everyone, piracy makes sense from a competitive standpoint. If Microsoft wants to keep its lead as an operating system maker, it needs piracy to discourage use of Linux, and increase the enormous gulf between the cost of Windows and the cost of Mac OS. In a perfect world for Microsoft, Microsoft has its operating system installed on every single computer, and Microsoft gets paid for it as much as the market will bear. Thanks to piracy, that is actually possible.
(via Slashdot)
Images from Flickr under Creative Commons by PixEmonkey, robotson, c3o, Irman Fauzi and Interrobang
After three years of stagnation and ten years of trying to catch Apache, Microsoft may finally be close to taking first place in the web server market. In just the last two years, according to Netcraft’s survey of 127 million websites, Apache’s lead over Microsoft has shrunk from over 50% to just 16.7%. Apache has more inactive sites than Microsoft, with active sites leaving the gap at a mere 12.2%. Under current trends, Microsoft will tie Apache sometime next year.
While Microsoft has been gaining strongly and stealing market share from Apache, it isn’t the only one. Google has been taking a chunk of the market share, claiming 4.4% of the web server market. Yes, Google’s web presence is so large that, even though they don’t sell a web OS, their own websites make up 4.4% of all servers. That’s freakin’ crazy.
(via Bink)
Miguel de Icaza writes about the intense coding work done by his team, working 12-16 hours over the last 21 days to build a version of Microsoft’s Silverlight platform to run under Linux. Calling the project Moonlight, the project was prompted by Microsoft France’s Marc Jalabert, who invited them to do it for the ReMix conference, and the team built the whole thing to run in Firefox under Linux in just three weeks.
They wrote 24,373 lines of C++, 1,367 lines for the C# binding, and 13,207 lines of C# class libraries. It looks like it runs standard Silverlight apps well, which means Silverlight now runs under Windows, Mac and Linux, and under Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. What’s taking so long with the Opera version?
(via TechMeme)
Microsoft security strategy director Jeff Jones has tabulated the number of bugs in Windows Vista reported after 180 days of availability (from the November business release through the end of May). He shows that Vista has had 27 security vulnerabilities, 12 of which have been patched, compared with (in their first six month), 36/33 for Windows XP, 273/214 for Red Hat Linux, 85/74 for Ubuntu Linux, 143/123 for Novell SUSE Linux, and 76/60 for Mac OS 10.4.
While counting security holes is an imprecise method, at best, and a pretty bad barometer at worst, it should help dispell anyone who insists Microsoft operating systems have all the security problems. Competing operating systems have plenty of security problems, as admitted by their makers when they are corrected, and acting like Microsoft is the worst is just ignoring the reality of the situation.
Read the full PDF report here.
(via Bink)
Joe Wilcox has significant criticism of the report.
Slashdot takes the pessimistic view that Microsoft has fixed less than half of the small number of problems.
Microsoft made a loud accusation, putting out a claim that Linux and other free/open source software violates 235 of its patents. Microsoft claims that open source coders have been violating its patents for years, causing a firestorm of criticism as Linux advocates fear another SCO-style lawsuit war.
OSS advocates really shouldn’t worry too much. Microsoft’s most important current corporate philosophy is that developers are the key to their success, that if they court enough developers Windows will succeeed, and they’d never risk the fallout of attacking so many small devs. Also, Microsoft’s said this before, saying about three years ago the same thing about Linux violating their patents, and they never acted on that to the extent people are worried about.
Robert McLaws has some good arguments against fears of a Microsoft patent firestorm, including that Microsoft has explicitly said that lawsuits would not serve its goals.
A big announcement from Microsoft and Novell late last week. In it, Microsoft and Novell agreed to a very interesting partnership involving interoperability, marketing and patents, one that could make Novell the only huge power in Linux. While Linux users have obviously said no to Microsoft, they would still be more likely to choose the Linux vendor that is far more compatible with Windows, and that is real bad news for all the other prominent Linux vendors, like Red Hat.
Todd Bishop summarizes the deal. The key points are that the companies will collaborate on marketing efforts, with Microsoft offering up Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Server as the Linux of choice for Windows-interoperable systems. Microsoft will even get 70,000 coupons for one-year subscriptions for maintenance and updates on Suse every year, to distribute to Microsoft customers running Suse.
Both companies agree not to pursue any patent infringement claims related to each other. Amazingly, Microsoft also agrees not to sue patent claims against individuals involved in open source projects. In addition, both companies will make upfront royalty payments to release any possible prior patent infringement, and Novell will keep making running royalty payments based on a percentage of its revenue from open source projects.
In terms of interoperability, both companies will offer virtualization technology to allow business customers to run Windows on Linux servers, and Linux on Windows servers. Microsoft and Novell will begin bridging gaps between various products so that they work together, including Windows and Suse Linux, Microsoft Active Directory and Novell’s eDirectory, as well as Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org.
Seriously, this is great news for anyone not producing a different version of Linux. Microsoft is slowly but obviously softening on open source, willing to deal with Linux in ways you wouldn’t expect an “Evil Empire” to even consider. I can’t way to start seeing results from this deal.
UPDATE: Google’s open source program manager, Chris DiBona, writes this message to his friend’s at Novell:
The Google Engineering Staff and Open Source teams are hiring.
Real Media, taking advantage of their settlement with Microsoft, has announced plans to release open source code for Linux that can play Microsoft’s Windows Media formats, specifically Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video. While some closed source solutions exist, as well as questionably legal solutions, this will be significant as it is totally above board, legal, sanctioned by Microsoft and produced by a major competitor. The code will be released for the Helix Community client project, which also aims to bring Real’s codecs to Linux.
(via Slashdot)
PC World has once again released its list of the top 100 products of the year, its always interesting and vaguely defined listing of “tech stuff that is good”. Google Earth is sixth on the list, with appearances by Google Search (#17), Blogger (#33), Google Desktop Search (#47). Oh, and Firefox, an open source project somewhat funded by Google and somewhat run by Google employees, is #12.
On the Microsoft front, the Xbox 360 shows all the way down at number 89. Ouch, and what? How is the hot and popular Xbox rated lower than the floundering and stagnant Blogger? Other Microsoft products: Windows Live Local (#39), and the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Keyboard (#54).
Other products of note:
Oh, and on their top companies of the year list, Yahoo was named Web Company of the Year, Apple the Hardware Company of the Year, while Sony was the Worst Company of the Year.
Hat-tip: Frank at the Google Earth blog, who writes about the list here.
Interestingly, Windows Live Local is listed number 39, Yahoo Maps is listed number 56. But, Google Maps doesn’t even make it on the list - which just doesn’t seem right.
Agreed.
Chris Avis points out some videos of a Linux 3D interface, one with far more graphical flourish than you’d see in Windows or Mac OS. I’ve grabbed some Google Videos for you to see it in action:
Here you get a good idea of the cube-based interface.
Here you can see some of the windows management and tranparency (which is overdone to the point of being useless.
This video has narration to explain some of the capabilities.
Here you can see that the windows are “rubbery”, so that they kind of bend and twist a little when you drag them around.
That last video is much longer, at it gets into everything.
So, what is this?
Compiz is built on a new X server, named Xgl, which in turn employs the OpenGL graphics layer Glitz. Compiz was released by Novell in January 2006 in the wake of a new Xgl version.
Confused? Now you understand why so few people use Linux for personal computing. Even the best stuff they have isn’t simple enough for the average person to try out, let alone consider using on a daily basis. Everytime I try using Linux, I run into a steep learning curve that makes me quit. There just isn’t enough of a benefit for all that grief.
Plain and simple: I have a Dell laptop running Pentium M and an ATI Mobility Radeon. Standard, popular parts. If there is a CD/DVD I can burn and run to install this, I’d try it. If I have to hit a command line or compile anything, I’m out.
Microsoft has decided to release as a free download Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition. At LinuxWorld, Microsoft made the huge announcement, turning the $199 product into a nice freebie, and dropping the $99 Standard Edition entirely. You can also order it by CD, if 29 megabyte downloads are too much for you. It’s even made its way into Ben’s Bargains.
When asked if the decision to provide the product for free was also a response to the fact that both Red Hat and Novell’s SUSE Linux were building the Xen hypervisor technology into their server operating systems, Ni said Microsoft had always planned to offer its Windows hypervisor technology for free with Windows “Longhorn” Server.
…
Another advantage of giving customers the Virtual Server products for free, he said, is that it opens the benefits of virtualization up to a broad range of customers, while giving them an upgrade path to Longhorn Server and the Windows hypervisor, which will use the same VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) format that the current Virtual Server product uses.
…
Microsoft will also use LinuxWorld to announce the availability of virtual machine add-ins for Linux, which until now have been beta tested only by a closed group of Linux customers.
A press release (via Digg) reports that GoDaddy is moving their hosted parked domains to the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based hosting. Considering that GoDaddy is a pretty big business, the largest domain registrar in the world, and makes every dime on razor-thin margins, the fact that they decided Windows was better for those margins than Linux (which is what they used to use) is a huge endorsement for Microsoft.
This was some good deal-making, however MS pulled it off.
The Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting supports GoDaddy.com’s low-cost, high-value strategy by providing a technology platform that is security-enhanced, highly scalable and easy to manage. Further, through a growing ecosystem of independent software vendors (ISVs) creating applications based on the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting, GoDaddy.com can introduce new services to its customers easily and cost-effectively. As an example, Go Daddy recently created delivery applications for both DotNetNuke and Telligent Systems’ Community Server that give Windows-based hosters the ability to create dynamic Web-based applications that seamlessly integrate with their hosting accounts. In addition, Go Daddy recently developed and deployed its Quick Blog tool that permits the aggregation of bloggers in one large Windows-based application, giving each blogger a unique domain.
“Microsoft solutions for the Web hosting industry have continued to gain traction in the market over the past several years. Go Daddy’s decision to migrate its domains to the Windows platform is a significant validation point of our strategy,” said Pascal Martin, general manager of Worldwide Hosting at Microsoft. “The industry has reached a point where Web hosting providers must rapidly deploy new high-value services, while simultaneously reducing operating costs in order to compete. Microsoft along with its ecosystem of partners provides the solutions to help hosters fulfill both goals.”
Ars reports that Windows For Legacy PCs, originally slated to drop this month, has been rescheduled for late 2006. Ars speculates that Microsoft realized Legacy Windows doesn’t have a lot of appeal in its current incarnation, and decided to hold off on it till the program can find a place.
Windows For Legacy PCs is a super-lightweight operating system, based on Windows CE, designed to run Remote Desktop (and thus run “real” versions of Windows) off other systems, as well as a few very basic applications. The idea was to compete with Linux on old hardware, some of which gets a new lease on life with non-Windows operating systems.
Legacy Windows seems like a good idea. Take useless hardware, install Legacy Windows, and then you can run Windows XP/Vista from a remote system. The problem is, it would only be available for Software Assurance licensing customers, a stupid idea that limits the marketplace.
Here’s what I would do. Besides offering it to enterprises through SA, why not release it in stores as a $10 USB dongle. The tagline: “Run your home Windows anywhere, even on really old computers. No software required, just plug and play”. Plug in the USB drive, Legacy Windows runs and connects with Remote Desktop, and bam, an old computer is useful again. And you could use this anywhere, from any system.
You could remote in from old hardware, from non-Windows PCs (like Linux and Apple) systems, and all you’d need is a keychain-size device. Hell, give it a serial port if you really want to talk legacy (although hacking a system to boot an OS from serial would be more difficult).
Well, we’ll have to wait a little longer to see how good the brains are behind Legacy Windows. Maybe they’ll get it right eventually, and come up with something to challenge Linux on all those old boxes.
I don’t know where this screenshot is from exactly (found it linked somewhere on del.icio.us), or what made it, but it is an implementation of the Windows Vista Aero interface in a Linux distribution. It’s not perfectly faithful, and certainly not as polished, but I’d like more info if anyone has it.
Slashdot reports that in 2005 Windows edged out Unix for the first time ever as the top server operating system. Manufacturers sold $17.7 billion of Windows servers while selling $17.5 billion of Unix servers. As reported by Cnet, this is the first time since IDC started tracking in 1996 that anyone has displaced Unix. Meanwhile, Linux server sales grew from $4.3 to $5.3 billion from 2004 to 2005.
Microsoft has announced it will expand its protections for device makers who use Windows in embedded products. In the future, if a device maker who is a Microsoft partner is sued over intellectual property rights related to the use of Microsoft code, Microsoft will pay their entire defense legal bill.
This move removes caps previously set based on the amount of business a company did. The program will also be expanded to all countries, including China and Japan. This follows a change last June that gave the same blanket reimbursement to those PC makers sued over their use of Windows software.
As rightly pointed out in the InformationWeek article by MS VP of business development for IP, this is an offer Linux developers can never expect from whomever they get their operating system from.
According to Microsoft’s Kaefer, stricter requirements for companies to disclose risks related to their intellectual property portfolios under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has contributed to CIOs’ heightened attention to managing intellectual property. Microsoft’s expanded indemnity for device makers also positions Windows more favorably in the market against Linux and other embedded operating systems, Kaefer says.
(via Slashdot)
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