2 ms·

"In light of all the recent links and the sheer cosiness of American corporations with the US intelligence this starts to look prescient." Hindsight is a hellu

"In light of all the recent links and the sheer cosiness of American corporations with the US intelligence this starts to look prescient." Hindsight is a helluva thing. If you remember back 15 years, not a single person knew of the recent revelations regarding the NSA. The "controversy" was about Microsoft's effort to curb piracy, and many (including myself) within the industry were weary of how authoritarian (or not) their approach was. Don't apply the knowledge of today to past events that did not enjoy the same. "I could easily see a local government selling that to it's local workers." What was kind of my point ... its sounds good to the locals but what actual results has it returned? Does Munich now have a robust Linux economy with local providers swimming in work? I can't say whether they do or not, only that the article lacked any proof of either. "Microsoft won't disclose that kind of information to anyone, there is still not a clear picture of what various Microsoft products (including these days Skype) do and do not do." I can't speak to this, as I'm not aware of how much or little MS has disclosed about what services within XP called home. I just found it hard to believe MS would exert such effort (how much did Balmer's time cost?), but fail to address the specific concern raised.

noir_lord 13y ago
If Microsoft where (and I'm not saying they where) they would never disclose it to a small local government in German. I always figured Ballmer flying in to save the day was more a "We really don't want a flagship successful transfer away from our products for the rest to rally around" defense than anything. Anecdotally I have a friend in local government here in the North of England and their IT internally is already heavily linux and open source (everything from CentOS on machines through to Alfresco) as what they need to do with the budget they have been given makes open source attractive especially when you can't reduce head counts to save costs (councils don't normally lay people off except as a last resort). I could see a Linux migration happening here in the next few years.
- brudgers 13y ago
  CentOS is of course downstream directly from RedHat and there's no evidence that RedHat is any less subject to pressure from the US government or that it is any less likely to make decisions motivated by some sense of patriotism. One might even make a case that as a company with a more Angolophone market orientation and vastly less global reach than MicroSoft, RedHat is more likely to see its interests aligned with US security policies. Keep in mind that Ballmer had just become CEO when this decision was made, and going out and collecting facts on the ground is the sort of thing a CEO should be doing in unusual circumstances. If MicroSoft had been on a wining and dining mission, they would have sent Gates because in the early 2000's it was "Steve, who?"
vacri 13y ago
If you remember back 15 years, not a single person knew of the recent revelations regarding the NSA. This is technically correct - the rest of the world thought it was the CIA that was spying on them and passing secrets to US corporations. Seriously, the idea of the USA spying on enemy and ally alike for commercial benefit was not birthed by the recent exposure of the NSA.
scj 13y ago
The Windows 98 NSA key controversy is about 15 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY

noir_lord 13y ago

If Microsoft where (and I'm not saying they where) they would never disclose it to a small local government in German. I always figured Ballmer flying in to save the day was more a "We really don't want a flagship successful transfer away from our products for the rest to rally around" defense than anything. Anecdotally I have a friend in local government here in the North of England and their IT internally is already heavily linux and open source (everything from CentOS on machines through to Alfresco) as what they need to do with the budget they have been given makes open source attractive especially when you can't reduce head counts to save costs (councils don't normally lay people off except as a last resort). I could see a Linux migration happening here in the next few years.

brudgers 13y ago
CentOS is of course downstream directly from RedHat and there's no evidence that RedHat is any less subject to pressure from the US government or that it is any less likely to make decisions motivated by some sense of patriotism. One might even make a case that as a company with a more Angolophone market orientation and vastly less global reach than MicroSoft, RedHat is more likely to see its interests aligned with US security policies. Keep in mind that Ballmer had just become CEO when this decision was made, and going out and collecting facts on the ground is the sort of thing a CEO should be doing in unusual circumstances. If MicroSoft had been on a wining and dining mission, they would have sent Gates because in the early 2000's it was "Steve, who?"

vacri 13y ago

If you remember back 15 years, not a single person knew of the recent revelations regarding the NSA. This is technically correct - the rest of the world thought it was the CIA that was spying on them and passing secrets to US corporations. Seriously, the idea of the USA spying on enemy and ally alike for commercial benefit was not birthed by the recent exposure of the NSA.

scj 13y ago

The Windows 98 NSA key controversy is about 15 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY