09.03.07
OOXML Watch: Poland and Hungary Allegedly Influenced by the Microsoft Money
A quick update was recently added to indicate that not all is well in Poland. We’ve had nothing but suspicions from the start, but the protests which have just begun confirm this. This is terrible. Microsoft’s actions are now turning citizens against their authorities. By spreading their money and influence in attempts to change the outcome of the vote, trust was lost. This will be remembered as the OOXML “scandal in Poland”, as some people call it already.
Hungary, which is yet another country where irregularities were reported before, is one among several that are now taking action. According to Groklaw, Hungary was influenced and there are letters and notes to prove it. To sum it all up, Pamela says that “If you can’t do the math, I think the bottom line is, it’s looking like Microsoft won’t let the world say no to OOXML. It couldn’t ram it through the usual process, with the folks who understand the tech, even with some very odd technical committee chairperson goings on. This is the standard that couldn’t win on merit, in short.”
The latest from Andy leaves room for optimism. In his most recent update he says, “as I write this, they’re guessing 18 no votes, which would be sufficient to block an outright approval. A spreadsheet I received over the weekend from another group that has been following things closely was forecasting 16 No votes (on receipt also sufficient), and since then, one vote they expected to be a Yes turned to a No, and another to an Abstain.“
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.