02.07.08
Microsoft: Oops, We Did it Again (OOXML and Money)
Bribery: just “an unfortunate accident”
Spin doctors. Don’t we just love them? Have a look at another pointless and biased articles from Australia, which being a “No” country (on OOXML), has had Microsoft hijack its press with incentives and brainwash [1, 2].
When asked about a vote-rigging incident that occurred in relation to the upcoming ISO decision last year, Microsoft’s Thomas described the incident as “an unfortunate accident”.
And… the propaganda continues. Here you have another attempt to rewrite an embarrassing history. But we never forget. Neither does ComputerWorld which published the following at the time:
Microsoft admits Swedish employee promised incentives for Open XML support
Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format’s approval as an ISO standard.
How many other countries has this happened in without Microsoft getting caught red-handed (leaked and verified messages)? It seems like quite a lot, but there isn’t always a ’smoking gun’. Examples are appended at the bottom for your reading pleasures.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Microsoft’s Mahugh has denied ever making a damaging (and very frank) statement. About OOXML he said:
“It’s a Simple Matter of [Microsoft’s] Commercial Interests!”
The person who caught him on record insists that he did indeed say this. Is Doug Mahugh lying? What’s more, the same person draws attention to another outrageous statement from Microsoft.
However the latest whine from Microsoft blaming IBM for its misfortune of OOXML at ISO revealed something interesting. Read what the Senior Directors for XML Technology said:
“Let’s be very clear,” [Jean] Paoli said. “It has been fostered by a single company — IBM. If it was not for IBM, it would have been business as usual for this standard.”
Business as usual for this standard? If he thinks its usual to fast track a 6000 page document with thousands of criticisms and due for a huge overhaul after the BRM, he must be deluded. Unless he meant “Business as usual for our cash cow?” - the cash cow being Microsoft Office. Yes, conjecture I know, but that makes much more sense.
The vanity meter goes wild. █
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.