11.30.07
Busted! Microsoft Offers Favours for OOXML Support
This just in [thanks to a reader’s E-mail]:
I am doing some corporate research these days to understand what it would mean if an entire company of 10,000+ employees chose to migrate to OOXML. OK, OK, I know ODF would probably be a better choice, but there are big bucks and corporate “friendships” involved here, so it runs out of favour.
”The question to Microsoft is this: who are you not ‘compensating’ (nicer word for “paying” or “bribing”) for assistance with OOXML?“Nice move, Microsoft. Trying to beat freedom using incentives, eh? Where else have we seen that before? Maybe the briberies in Sweden? Maybe the incident where you paid for Wikipedia edits of the article on OOXML? Or maybe it was the fake OOXML support from your business partners, whom you urged to go and vote for OOXML?
The question to Microsoft is this: who are you not ‘compensating’ (nicer word for “paying” or “bribing”) for assistance with OOXML? Frankly, Microsoft is getting plenty of people reason to be fed up. Why should anyone accept such corruption, which at the end of the day just defends Microsoft’s moneyflow, at the consumer’s expense?
Related articles:
- Evidence of Microsoft Influencing OOXML Votes in Nordic States
- Microsoft Memo to Partners in Sweden Surfaces: Vote Yes for OOXML
- The OOXML Problem
- Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
- Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
- Microsoft’s secretive standards orgs in Former Yugoslavia
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.