02.15.08
Proxy Analysis - Bill Gates, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud and Acacia
Yesterday we mentioned the cash infusion that will refuel SCO’s legal battle against Linux. As we said at the time, people would attempt to find various links. The first such evidence (or possibility at the least) is mentioned here.
Not surprisingly people are already trying to work out where the money leads to. Groklaw reckons its found a link to Bill Gates via Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud. Dana Blankenhorn isn’t convinced.
I will publish an article about this on Monday, but it is hard to speculate much in press. McBride, by the way, is out. Here is one last glimpse at the man who received money from BayStar (after Microsoft’s recommendation).
TrollTracker continues to have its eyes on Acacia, which may be another Microsoft proxy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Here is the latest:
2) When Acacia (a California corporation) sued Apple (a California corporation) for the second time recently in the Southern District of Illinois, I asked out loud in one of my posts, why the SDIL? I think I may know the answer: because it’s faster than Texas. Document Generation v. Allmeds got an 18-month time-to-trial already - June 2009. In Texas, that case would have been slated for trial probably six months later than that, at least. What remains to be seen is if it’s a district that will transfer cases out, like WDWI.
Recall what we wrote about this attack on Apple. █
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.