December 2006

Peter Gutmann, security and encryption researcher at Auckland University has written an analysis of Vista which addresses the cost of the Digital Rights Management technology Microsoft have incorporated into the new Vista operating system. In Gutmann's estimation "The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history." He continues to describe the deliberate degradation of capabilities users will experience when DRM protected content arrives on your computer.

The NZOSS Newsletter has been published describing many of the events that occured throughot 2006. This includes the presidents report which details the vision for improving the NZOSS and executing projects in 2007.

Many people have been asking the NZOSS for an analysis of the deal Novell did with Microsoft. It is perhaps tempting to dismiss the deal based on Microsofts history of illegal monopolistic behaviour such as its deals that excluded DR DOS from the market, or its bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows to undermine Netscape, or its bundling of Windows Media Players to undermine Real.