03.20.08
Microsoft Gold Partners and Their Sudden Awakening in Pakistan and Egypt
Gold rush, courtesy of last-minute ‘representatives’
Have a look at these new findings.
We got indications that 2 P-members countries were stuffed with Microsoft Business Partners. Those two countries applied for P membership in late August and voted Yes without any comments. Don’t be surprised if they are out of reach for the European Commission.
Romania was mentioned in a similar context just days ago, but in Pakistan’s and Egypt’s cases it’s not entirely clear when Microsoft’s partners actually joined in. The next post will show why regardless of the time of joining, this is just plainly wrong.
Why would Pakistan and Egypt support OOXML anyway? They get pretty much excluded, or at least discriminated against.
On the positive side, Red Hat appears to have added this new page about ODF. It’s aptly titled “Liberate Your Documents”. █
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.