Boycott Trendmicro!

Trendmicro is suing Barracuda Networks who uses ClamAV a free and open source anti-virus software, for patent infringement. The patent in question is virus scanning at the email gateway, which might not stand as they were many prior arts before TrendMicro's filing in 1995.

You can read more here.

What does this whole episode mean to you? If you use ClamAV to scan your email gateway, you might be the next target to pay up. Even if you are not a ClamAV user nor a Linux user, but in the course of your work or home usage, you have most likely use some Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) such as Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird mail, some zipping utitilities, and etc. If the lawsuit is successful, it will encourage more "bogus patent abusers" who are not the inventor but patented some obvious and/or prior arts for the purpose of profiteering to do the same.

Stop this madness!

New HD 1080P TV

Just bought a brand new Philips HD 1080P TV. Didn't remember seeing any MS Vista certified logo on it. I am curious to purchase a HD movie online and play it via my Vista/Ubuntu notebook, see if Vista really block the HD content...

Wonder if Ubuntu will play the "DRMed" movie as well.

Why Linux? (part II)

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around. What do you see. Business men, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." Morpheus, The Matrix

You are probably 1 of the 90% (albeit getting less day by day) of computer users-- using Windows without giving much thought to it. You might think it is ok, I will pay whoever that gives me the best product, but are you really getting the best? And do you really have a choice? And what if the control and circle of influence by MS products expand to cover other areas of your life? Such as, music you listen, internet content you access, and movies you watch... and so on.

The success of MS is a legend, the combination of perfect marketing with strong arm tactics have created a giant that it is today. If you have started using computers about 15-20 years ago, you will probably remember Worperfect & Lotus 123. How did they vanish from the computer scene? Netscape, the company that popularized the Internet browser, where is it now? The list goes on and on... You did have a choice many years back, but MS inherent "advantage" or should I use their own words, "leverage on the monopoly", due to their control/ bundle of the operating systems have forced many out of the business. This practice dated as far back as the good old DOS days.

The launch of "Silverlight" makes me really wonder what is their real motive, why do they spend so much time & money to create an almost identical product as Flashplayer? A tighter grip over internet perhaps? It is not open source and who can guarantee that it will run on Linux and Macs when Flashplayer is dead? Too late by then? You can read more about Silverlight here and here.

When all competitions is gone, MS will have total grip, whether we like it or not, whether their intention is benign or malign, we are controlled. Chained. Continue to pay and upgrade through our noses even though we do not need it. You can pick many examples easily, and here is just one:

If you want to play the latest DirectX 10 games, you gotta upgrade to Vista since MS is not releasing DirectX 10 for Windows XP; compare to many years back when DirectX was new, you got all updated versions free! (even bundled with the games you purchased no matter which version of Windows you are using) Now MS has gotten all game developers into DriectX instead of the standard OpenGL, consumers are at a losing end! Some have also cited the MS Office incompatibility between versions as a ploy to force upgrade.

Do you really believe that MS is being forced by the media industry to include Digital Rights Mangement (DRM) in Vista? In time to come, who will control the media when MS DRM becomes widespread acceptance? You just need to look at the struggle between Apple and the music industry to see who will be the future "owner" of HD video content over internet. You can read Peter Gutmann's article if you have not done so.

We still have a choice today no matter how high the obstacles may seem to be, but will we even have one in the future? Most importantly, ask yourself: Do you want to be free?

Why Linux? (part I)

I will start this 3 part series by first sharing my own experience.

Micorsoft products came into my life about 18 years ago when I started using the IBM XT computers. Through these years, I have used MS DOS from version 3.3 through 6.0, and all versions of Windows from 3.11 to Windows Vista (skipped Windows ME).

Though I secretly despise the way Microsoft conducts its business, the perception of lack of viable choice has left me using almost exclusively their products. In my previous job, I even approved for full MS Office licensing, MS Project, Visio, and etc., without much evaluation of alternatives.

What really pushed me over to the light (or the "darkside" from MS perspective) was when I received my brand new laptop from Dell loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium.

The excitement of trying out the new OS turned out to be a nightmare-- incompatible software corrupted the OS, resulting in re-installation of the OS & drivers on the first boot. I was also very unhappy with DRM & WGA even though I do not watch DVD on my laptop, and I suppose the OS bundled with hardware is genuine. What right do they have to install spyware on my PC? The computer that you purchased is no longer yours the moment Windows Vista is loaded, it will control what resolution you can view your DVD, and decide whether upgrade of the PC is allowed, and god knows what other information will the OS feed to MS now and the future?

To add salt to the wound, the brand new Office 2007 really ticks me off. Darn, you don't have to change the UI radically to show that it is a new version!

Since I need to learn something new, I might as well learn Linux! Someone in Microsoft must be a Linux spy, they made the new Vista + Office 2007 to up the obstacles of upgrading from XP, and migrating to Linux looks more viable than ever.

I thought it could be a difficult step forward and might take me months if not years to get productive on Linux if I could persist long enough. To be frank, at that time I really thought Linux is mainly command base with some primitive GUIs... To my surprise, Ubuntu is easy to install and use, in fact, it took me less than a couple of weeks to become a 75% Linux user at home, and about a month to become a 90% user.

Today, after 5 months, I hardly boot into Windows anymore at home, I do not see a need to, except maybe to use the Canon digital camera software to stitch photographs, and use the Canon Selphy printer. The home is invaded by Linux, my daughter is happily surfing the net using PCLinuxOS which gives her stable wireless unlike the old Windows 2000, and I bet she still do not know that she is using Linux :-D

4 PCs: 1 running Ubuntu/ PCLinuxOS, 1 purely on PCLinuxOS, 1 Vista/Ubuntu, and another XP/Linux Mint. :)

Microsoft to take over Yahoo!

Microsoft is offering over USD 40 billion to take over Yahoo. This remark from the almighty Mr Steve Ballmer may end up as another hall of fame quotes from him,

"Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisitions...."

Hmm... how hilarious, wonder what will he say about the dominant position of Windows and MS Office, will he even accept a "credible alternative" in the market such as Linux, MacOS, and OpenOffice?