I just created a Java application that is needed on several platforms, one of which is the ubituitous and ill-designed Microsoft Windows XP.  In the project there are some classes that are auxilliary to the main program. Naturally enough I created a package for these called "aux". In …

This Ars Tecnica article talks about the story, which is fairly well-known by now; Microsoft security people loaded incompetent code into their anti-piracy server (gratuitously named "(MS)Windows Genuine Advantage", when it clearly gives the user no advantage, only Microsoft). The fiasco …

In the bad old days of computing - the mainframe era - it was common for IBM to try to prevent customers from using cost-effective third-party solutions in conjunction with expensive IBM mainframes by spreading "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt" about their smaller competitors. While it may …

My pal Lak recently resumed blogging and pointed to this piece on the 1999 verdict in U.S.A. v Microsoft. Back then Microsoft was the behemoth that crushed Netscape and nearly crushed Java, in the process diverting Java from the Applet to the Enterprise (where it largely beat out Microsoft for many …

CBR Online quotes senior Microsofthead Steve Ballmer speaking to analysts about their deal with Novell: "I would not anticipate that we make a huge additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly establishes that open source is not free," he said, "and open …

Microsoft Vista will be so expensive to buy and to run that you'll have to mortgage your company to use it? That's the implication of Microsoft's decision to enter the loan business in at least one Western country.

A school I do some work for is sponsoring a school in Africa, and they asked me to help them get a MS-Windows PC, but I didn't. I gently but firmly steered them to an open source *NIX, explaining both the technical and social advantages of open source and my take on African Debt. 'I can't solve the …

Tony Bove's Just Say No To Microsoft looks like a good tool for helping teach your friends and colleagues why they should stop using Microsoft products and how to go about doing so. I'll be doing a full review real soon now.

Right after my comments on David Wheeler's 'important essay detailing the reasons why it is important not to let your data ... get locked into proprietary formats', OpenOffice.org announced the final release of OpenOffice.org 2.0. Get it. Use it. Don't spend another penny on software that locks you …

David Wheeler has an important essay detailing the reasons why it is important not to let your data (or your citizens', if 'you' are a government department) get locked into proprietary formats, even Microsoft 'open' proprietary formats. Read this and find out why the State of Massachusetts, …