07.02.07
Linspire/Lindows: Just Like Windows, Even When It Comes to Ill Stance of Standards (Updatedx3)
Using a press release which is similar to one that Xandros quite recently published , Linspire cares to inform us that it will fight OpenDocument format adoption, together with Microsoft. The deal which those two companies agreed on said so explicitly, so we already knew this was coming. Is Mr. Carmony expecting us to be impressed by this? He has just paid to publish an item that promotes Microsoft Office lockin.
Remind yourselves of all the effort that has been put into making OpenDocument a reality. It is ironic that 3 Linux companies and Corel are the ones whose opinion gets ‘bought’ by Microsoft. They are then inclined to vote against the importance of a single unified standard which promotes real competition. They intend to waste money and effort making Microsoft even stronger.
Update: shortly after this announcement, the Inquirer had a go with the short article “Linspire pays the cost of Volish agreement”.
Update #2: I suspect we are beginning to see the same strategy being used by Microsoft even elsewhere. They try to beat Sony at high-definition video formats, without duality. They now use ‘allies’ to artificially create and boost ’support’ for their standard. Have a look at the latest news:
Amazon.com and Microsoft form alliance to push HD DVD
[…]
The jointly sponsored 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project from Amazon and Microsoft will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected “indie” titles.
It smells like a familiar old trick. Microsoft could not get OOXML accepted or adopted. It then paid companies to accept deals which resulted in pseudo-support for OOXML.
For context, here are some articles on this one particular topic. These are a bunch of recent developments which show Microsoft losing to Sony.
- Blockbuster to focus on Blu-ray
- Toshiba slashes HD DVD hardware sales forecast
- Sony claims more than a million PAL PS3s purchased
- Sony upbeat in DVD format battle
What about XPS? Is PDF a victim-to-be? ECMA and Microsoft are apparently repeating the same old routine.
Update #3: After heavy lobbying by Microsoft, including 2 CIOs that were supportive to open formats losing their jobs, the state of Massachusetts loses its ‘religion’. Another case of gross manipulation. Write it down. Andy U. comments on this.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
John Drinkwater said,
July 2, 2007 at 6:13 am
You can’t be too harsh on Corel imho, they’re yet another company that is being pragmatic, because they rely on MS format support to get more customers. They’re also working on ODF (only ODT for now) support too:
“Beginning in mid 2007, Corel will provide open, view and edit support for OOXML and ODF as a first step towards a comprehensive set of functionality for both formats.”
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?c=Content_C1&cid=1153321430604&lc=en&pagename=CorelCom%2FLayout&pressId=1164741065876
I dislike the people working on OOXML support in OpenOffice because it’ll hardly encourage people to move to and use ODF. But it “has to be supported”, because of Office 2007, it’s fucking annoying. When can we leave this crap behind… probably when we stop accepting the importance of Microsoft’s formats.