08.06.07
Microsoft Shows Its Hand, Reveals ‘Puppet Strategy’
Image from Wikipedia (in the public domain). Also see puppet state.
A puppet state is a country that is nominally independent, but in reality, under the control of another power.
The term has two distinct but related meanings. First, it refers to a state whose government depends on a foreign power for its existence and which closely follows the will of that foreign power in key policy issues; sometimes economic, sometimes strategic.
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.
jcwarrior0866 said,
August 8, 2007 at 2:47 am
Its clear that Novell, Turbolinux, Linspire and Xandros are supporting OOXML because of their respective agreements with Microsoft. However, I don’t understand why Corel is supporting it too. Is it, like the picture suggests, that they have also some kind of agreement with Microsoft, or are they simply anticipating to the posibility that OOXML gets the ISO seal (regardless of the quality of the specification)?
Could you explain please?
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 8, 2007 at 3:34 am
Corel is a long and complex story that goes many years into the past. We have a lot of information summarised in http://boycottnovell.com/category/corel/ . Corel was actually among the first companies to say it would support OOXML. If you look at their history with Microsoft, you might soon realise why.
Igor said,
August 15, 2007 at 8:50 am
Hey, so that means that if my Microsoft Fan friend have a OOXML file I can only open it with Novell products?
Thats good news!!!
Stop being the Software Libre Talibanes… and in the end the only thing that matters is the Users right?… or you think that the philosophy is more important?
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 15, 2007 at 9:05 am
Actually, that’s not far from being true.
http://boycottnovell.com/2007/03/14/novell-openoffice/
Also remember that OOXML requires patent protection. More about this in tomorrow’s post (backlash in New Zealand).
[Personal attacks and stereotypes game ignored]