02.15.08
Australia Potentially Corrupted by Microsoft (for OOXML “Yes” Vote)
Yesterday it was Britain (the BSI) and today it appears to be Australia also.
I am not head of delegation so I have no vote, of course. But I expect some people will not be happy that I am going at all.
From Groklaw (Jelliffe confirms he will represent Australia at MSOOXML’s BRM)
[PJ: Yes, folks. Rick Jelliffe, who just told us that Microsoft hired him (”As I have mentioned, one of my jobs this month is for Microsoft, to play Devil’s Advocate with the Ecma responses…”), is representing Australia at the BRM. “Political issues don’t come into it.” Don’t you just love it?]
How much more corruption will we be seeing and how many times need it be repeated that the BRM in Geneva will be a sad joke [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]? █
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.