07.30.07
The OSI Invasion Merely Follows the Linspire/Xandros/Novell/Turbolinux Invasion
Embrace-and-destroy strategy — working from the inside
Several days ago we spoke about Microsoft’s OSI approach. We were suspicious. I then sent the following article around.
Head of open-source group says more than half of [Microsoft] licenses don’t pass muster
[…]
Michael Tiemann, president of the non-profit Open Source Initiative, said that provisions in three out of five of Microsoft’s shared-source licenses that restrict source code to running only on the Windows operating system would contravene a fundamental tenet of open-source licenses as laid out by the OSI. By those rules, code must be free for anyone to view, use, modify as they see fit.
This whole suspicion was not just ours. Others picked up that very same smell.
Groklaw sums up many of the key arguments, so there is no point in discussing it much further at this stage. The interesting part of this strategy, however, is the way it resembles all those Linux deals. Microsoft wishes to do to Open Source programming languages and companies just what it does to ODF. Speaking of which, Microsoft and its allies continue to play dirty. Bob has the latest.
I’ve heard several reports of supporters of OOXML trying to get national standards bodies to change their votes from “NO with comments” to “YES with comments” because “it’s the same thing.” The logic, which I’ll explain in a later post, is that any comments will trigger a ballot resolution meeting, so there is no need to be so negative and vote NO.
[…]
It would be hard to make this stuff up.
We’ll close off with strong words from Groklaw.
Let me please clarify something for you. Most of us do *not* want Microsoft to participate. I would like to personally barricade Microsoft out, until it alters its negative, rapacious and hostile behavior toward the GPL and FOSS. And so should you.
Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t invite them to speak at conferences or take their money. I know. That’s the hard part for some. I wouldn’t pretend the company isn’t what it is, because it *is* what it is. This is starting to feel like Wonderland, where Alice finds that up is down and large is small and nothing is the same or logical. Think tea party strange.Why would anyone want Microsoft to participate? Seriously. Why? And no, patent deals with Novell don’t make me like them. I despise them for what they did, and I know what it means. They intend to coopt Linux, destroy the GPL, and hop on board to make some money, honey. Oh, and kill it if it doesn’t wish to be ridden, while isolating and rendering pointless and helpless all developers who won’t go along. Why would you hope for that? Seriously. Why?
Read the entire item. PJ hits the nail right on the head. She took time to align and organise the arguments, which takes patience.
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.