03.12.08
Quick Mention: Does Milan ‘Pull a Finland’?
Remember the story about the Finnish government selling its youngsters to fraudsters out? Well, check out what’s happening in Italy.
Here’s an extraordinary - and extraordinarily depressing - story from Stefano Maffulli about the Comune di Milano (roughly the Milan city council) pushing to its citizens some free services from Microsoft for, er, free…
When will governments finally learn their lessons about ‘free’ (gratis) Microsoft offers? They merely acts as agents of monopolisation. █
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
Related posts:
- Bill Gates' Retirement Merely a Political Lock-in Crusade
- Microsoft 'Buys' Dubai Away from GNU/Linux, Calls it “Charity”; Paris Also?
- OOXML Sins and “Charity” Against GNU/Linux
- It's Not Dumping Because They Call it “Charity”
- Boosting Windows Vista Sales Using AIDS
- “Let Them Eat Vista...”
- Mysterious New Moves in the Gates Foundation
- Microsoft Carries on Dumping to Make Its Products a 'Standard'
- The Takeaways from the Giveaways
- Microsoft Must Be Absolutely Terrified
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.