Microsoft’s proposal to license internet users is a ploy to ban Linux users from the internet

Comment: If the government-approved mandatory antivirus software is not made available for Linux or if currently-available Linux antivirus tools such as ClamAV are not approved by the government, Linux users will be essentially kicked off the internet. This is not about fighting government-created malware. This is about a corporate monopoly using the government to eliminate its competition and stifiling the dwindling of its market share.

Big Brother Microsoft Proposes Government Licensing of Internet Access

• October 8th, 2010 2:01 pm ET

The latest megalomaniacal proposal by a top Microsoft executive would open the door for government licensing to access the Internet. This would grant governmental and corporate authorities power to block individual computers from connecting to the world wide web under the pretext of preventing malware attacks.

Scott Charney, Microsoft vice president of Trustworthy Computing, stated while speaking at the 2010 SSE computer security conference that cybersecurity should mirror public health safety laws, with infected PC’s being “quarantined” by government decree and prevented from accessing the Internet.

“If a device is known to be a danger to the internet, the user should be notified and the device should be cleaned before it is allowed unfettered access to the internet, minimizing the risk of the infected device contaminating other devices, Charney said.

Charney said the system would be a “global collective defense” run by corporations and government and would “track and control” people’s computers similar to how government health bodies track diseases.

FULL ARTICLE

Stick a fork in Xandros, it’s done.

Facts.

Xandros hasn’t released a new version of Xandros Desktop since November 2006 when they released Xandros 4.1. That’s almost four years without a new OS.

Xandros hasn’t released a new version of Xandros Server since May 2007. That’s over three years.

Xandros’ Presto OS pretty much came into the market with a whimper and went out with a sigh – most likely in the span of one month.

DistroWatch has declared Xandros Desktop to be a discontinued distribution.

Many former Xandrosians – myself included – have moved on to other OSes such as Ubuntu, Mint, and PCLinuxOS. Most abandoned Xandros when they sold out to Microsoft’s racketeering scam (the “patent agreement”). (I should note that I abandoned Xandros upon release of Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake LTS.)

And now it seems that CNR.com – the only reason Xandros bought Linspire – has been down for at least two weeks.

Over the last two years, it seems that Xandros has make empty promise after empty promise. They promised to keep Freespire, return Freespire to its Debian roots, and base the next version of Xandros on Freespire.

Last year, I speculated that reliance on netbook OSes would be Xandros’ undoing. Looks like I was correct. Shortly after Xandros and Asus teamed up to make Linux-powered netbooks (the eeePC), Asus and Microsoft signed a deal where Windows netbooks would be given priority over Linux netbooks. In fact, Asus no longer offers netbooks with Linux pre-installed.

Face it. Xandros is a dead company. It had a bright, rosy future in 2004 and 2005. It was a serious alternative to Windows XP. It was the reason I got into desktop Linux. (The first Linux that I used constantly was Xandros Desktop 3.0 Deluxe.) Unfortunately, all the reasons to use Xandros are no longer there. It’s no longer updated. It’s ancient technology. And its userbase is abandoning it in droves. Xandros no longer has anything to offer other than its brand name and assets which I forsee being bought by a rival company – Canonical, Redhat, Oracle, or perhaps Microsoft (or if you believe the rumors, former Linspire owner Michael Robertson) in the near future. Xandros CEO Andy Typaldos needs to either get his company’s priorities straightened out or just get out of the market.

Deceptive advertising in Microsoft “I’m a PC” ad?

GE-owned and Microsoft-owned MSNBC says using Linux makes you look like a jerk

Check out the blatant shilling.

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Gadgets that make you look like a jerk
Seven fairly common gizmos you might just look cooler without

Linux

Linux is great. It’s a free, open-source operating system (OS) based on work done by Linus Torvalds in the early ’90s. Again, it’s free, powerful and easy to …

Oh wait, it’s a pain to use. Let’s get this straight: Linux is very good, and leads the charge in an ongoing revolution in free software. However, a lot of Linux users out there give the whole thing a poor name. They forget that most people don’t know as much as they do about computers. Some people garden, write poetry, fall in love or … er, bloviate about gadgetry.

Please don’t confuse your fanaticism with superiority and, for the love of Jobs, stop telling us we’re sheep under the sway of Microsoft. No one likes Comcast either, but until it’s convenient to string our own fiber optic cable we’re sticking with it. (Msnbc.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.)

Cool if: You’re not heaping disdain on the rest of us, or maybe if you’re in charge of a server farm.

Not cool if: You feel your mastery of computers excuses your inability to control a neck-beard.

Get ready for the Microsoft taxpayer bailout: Microsoft Reported Its First Annual Decline in Sales Ever of the Windows OS

Microsoft raises specter of doubt on tech recovery
24 July 2009, by Alexei Oreskovic – San Francisco (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE56N09Y20090724?sp=true

QUOTES:

” “The problem is people have been running all stocks up, there’s hasn’t been any kind of differentiation at all,” said Dan Niles, co-Chief Investment Officer of Alpha One Capital Partners.”

“Investors have overlooked negative news from companies like Dell Inc, which sells its wares directly to customers and which warned last week of profit margin contraction and weak demand from corporate buyers of PCs.

Microsoft was a “reality check” said Niles.”

“…, after the software company reported its first ever annual decline in sales of the Windows operating system... “

Microsoft Reported Its First Annual Decline in Sales Ever of the Windows OS http://tinyurl.com/mw26fo

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I can just hear Obama the corporate stooge fearmongering and propagandizing for a Microsoft bailout:

“If we were to allow an American technological giant such as Microsoft to just disappear, it would have a ripple effect which would destroy the entire tech industry. I know many people believe we should just adopt the free software model, but the truth is free software is not beneficial to our economy. If we were to rely on free software, the tech industry would lose trillions of dollars and millions of jobs worldwide. The tech industry must be able to make money in order to fund future technological advances. If we were to allow Microsoft to go bankrupt, technology would not advance. In fact, technology would regress back to the early 20th century. I cannot allow that to happen. I WILL not allow that to happen. Therefore, I am calling on Congress to pass an immediate bailout of Microsoft. We MUST save Microsoft if we are to have any technological future.“