07.25.07
OpenDocument Disinformation — A Cautionary Note
The other day we mentioned a shocking article from LinuxWorld, which we now urge you to ignore. We’re investigating some possible ‘monkey business’. At this moment, take everything you hear about OpenDocument with a big barrel of salt. More details will soon be available, surely. We can’t comment at this stage though.
Red Hat has just released some wonderful artwork to promote OpenDocument format. We urge you to share and disseminate that message. For the benefit of all of us, the importance of a unified standard needs to be understood by more people.
Australia will soon weigh in on this issue. Meanwhile, here is a funny cartoon for your entertainment.
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.