02.08.08
Victory! EU Antitrust Officials Go After Microsoft for Fiddling with ISO
There’s hope left for ISO
Finally we have some good news, for a change. After many months (almost years) of protesting against ballot-stuffing, briberies, threats and lies, the European Commission is responding. Microsoft is now under investigation for its OOXML abuses.
European regulators are examining whether Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Corp violated antitrust laws during a struggle last year to ratify its Office software file format as an international standard, the Wall Street Journal reported.
EU antitrust officials have asked Microsoft for information about its activities in the standards-setting process - an early step in an investigation - and are stepping up scrutiny of the issue, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper.
Personally, I foresaw some legal action, but antitrust scrutiny would be even more effective. It might also have Microsoft’s well-document behaviour brought to the mainstream media’s attention, a la Netscape trial. █
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.