A group of Microsoft employees have launched what they are calling a “Worker Intifada” at Microsoft Main Campus in Redmond, Washington.

The “Intifada” group is demanding that Microsoft cut all ties with Israel, and pay reparations to the government of Gaza (Hamas)… an amount to be decided by later Hamas. Until Microsoft meets those demands, the “Intifada” is threatening to continue to occupy the Microsoft property.

 

Photo credit: https://x.com/thestustustudio/status/1957924513938620743

The “Worker Intifada” made the following statement today:

“We will not be cogs in the I​s​r​a​e​l​i​ genocidal machine: a call for a Worker I​n​t​i​f​a​d​a": in a company-wide email to workers and leadership, Microsoft worker Julius Shan shared reminders of the company's complicity and announced the establishment of a Liberated Zone at the M​a​r​t​y​red P​a​l​e​s​t​i​n​i​a​n​​ Children's Plaza. Julius also called on fellow workers to join the global Worker Intifada, by escalating against Microsoft everywhere until all demands from the Liberated Zone are met. Read the full declaration from the Liberated Zone at: http://noaa.cc/worker-intifada”

This “Worker Intifada Liberated Zone” is taking place at what is known as “Microsoft East Campus Plaza” — which the “Intifada” has given the name “Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza”.

 

It is worth noting that this is right in the heart of the development of Microsoft’s most famous software. Office, Windows, Windows Media, and more were all developed within a very short walk of East Campus Plaza.

There has been some police and Microsoft security presence at the “Intifada Liberated Zone” so far today. As of this reporting, no serious events to report.

 

Photo Credit: https://x.com/thestustustudio/status/1957921589628113380

The “Worker Intifada”, in their statements (both written and verbal), repeatedly make known false statements and blood libel regarding Israel — and repeatedly use phrases common among anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli terrorist groups.

What follows are images of some of the statements made by this “Microsoft Worker Intifada”. Presented, without comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two things that bring me an unreasonable amount of joy:

1. The discovery of long-lost software.

2. Running software on hardware it was never intended to run on.

This story has both. I am positively giddy.

Microsoft Office for PowerPC

It is a well known fact that Windows NT was developed (and, in some cases, released) for multiple CPU architectures beyond the common x86 — including MIPS, DEC Alpa, and PowerPC.

In addition to Windows NT, Microsoft developed and released versions of Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) for those hardware platforms. Not much good having the operating system for a particular CPU… if you don’t have some software to run on it, right?

We’ve had public archives of Microsoft Office for both MIPS and Alpha CPUs for quite some time… but the PowerPC version of Office has, for whatever reason, remained elusive.

Until this week, when Antoni Sawicki got his hands on the long-lost Office for PPC.

 

Antoni was alerted to an eBay listing of a boxed copy of MS Office 6.0. A box which, intriguingly, listed all four of the released Windows NT CPU architectures.

As Antoni said, “Since it clearly said PowerPC on the box I got it… and here it is:”

 

Check out that screenshot. Windows NT 4.0, running on a PPC 604 processor (with 32 MB of RAM)… running a native version of Microsoft Word 6.0.

The archive for the PowerPC version of Office is now hosted at VirtuallyFun.com. A major win for computer history preservation.

Now, buckle up, Buttercup. Because it gets weirder. And more awesome.

Windows NT For Wii & PowerMac

The archiving of historical software is, without question, important. But being able to actually run that software — on easily obtainable hardware — allows people to experience that part of computer history.

And, thanks to one developer, you can run Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 on Nintendo GameCube, Wii, & WiiU as well as PPC Macintoshes like the original iMac and iBook.

That’s right. Apple’s original, clamshell, “bondi blue” G3 iBook can run Windows NT 4.0.

 

Not emulated. Native. On “bare metal”.

In theory, it should be able to run the PowerPC native version of Office 6.0 as well. Something I will need to be testing, for myself, very soon.

Now, you may be asking, “Why would I install Windows NT and Office on a Nintendo Wii”?

And, while there are many valid reasons for undertaking such an endeavor — including that whole “experiencing computer history first hand” thing we talked about — there is one purpose for running MS Word on a GameCube that eclipses all others:

Because we can.

It’s been another wild week in the world of computing — and, of course, a number of news stories got ignored (almost completely) by those Brand X Tech Journalists.

Never fear. Lunduke’s got you covered. Below are the top stories which the other Tech News outlets are trying to ignore — impacting Open Source and Tech in general — for last week.

Note: All articles and podcasts are free for all (subscribers and non-subscribers alike).

 

Note 2: Links to the stories below are all to Substack. You can also find links to all other platforms, which The Lunduke Journal publishes to, at Lunduke.com.

 

Note 3: Most videos are subscriber exclusives. Subscribers on Locals, Substack, X, YouTube, or Patreon can watch all of the videos. Ad free. If you don’t have a subscription yet, you can snag one for 50% off through the end of August.

Linux Kernel Chaos

The world of Linux Kernel development had a crazy week.

No. The word “crazy” doesn’t quite do justice to the absolute chaos and insanity taking place around the Kernel.

We kicked off the week by learning that layoffs from Intel had caused a number of significant Linux Kernel Modules to become “orphans” (meaning, nobody was left to maintain them) — only to realize that the number of such “orphan” Kernel Modules has actually doubled in the last two years (article, podcast & video). Doubled!

Then, Linus Torvalds laid into a Google engineer for writing “garbage” code that “makes the world actively a worse place to live” (podcast & video). Which was just… entertaining.

And then, we learned that the BcacheFS file system might be removed from the Linux Kernel entirely. Why? Because Linus Torvalds doesn’t like the developer (podcast & video). Apparently the developer is too blunt and rude. For Linus Torvalds. Seriously.

But, never fear! The Linux Foundation is swooping in to fix everything! By… banning the word “hung” (article, podcast & video). That’s a real thing. It’s so utterly stupid you just have to laugh.

That’s all just this week.

Absolute insanity.

Non-Woke Software List

The quantity (and quality) of Non-Woke software continues to grow — The August edition of “Lunduke’s Non-Woke Software List” (article, podcast, and video) saw a few noteworthy additions.

One big takeaway (at least for me) is that we now have multiple Operating System options… accompanied by display servers, desktop environments, development tools, and web browsers. All decidedly Non-Woke.

In other words: It is now possible to piece together the majority of a computing environment in a way that is both Open Source and Non-Woke. And, importantly, of an exceptionally high quality.

Other Stories This Week

Here’s some other stories worth diving into. Some are pretty doggone wild.

• Podcast & Video: Android 16 Gets GPU Accelerated Linux Software

• Article: Tea App Clone Exposes Driver’s Licenses

• Article: NixOS Now Celebrates Pride Month… Year Round

• Podcast & Video: NixOS Now Celebrates Pride Month… Year Round

• Article: Funny Programming Pictures Part LXVIII

As always, thank you to all of the subscribers to The Lunduke Journal. Thank to you, we can remain 100% ad-free and Big Tech free. Couldn’t do it without you.

-Lunduke