04.10.08
Erik Huggers (Formerly of Microsoft) Demotes GNU/Linux, Elevates Wii
Just the type of thing that happens when you put Microsoft
in charge of the taxpayers-funded BBC…
The systematic abuse at the BBC is absolutely clear to see. For those who are new to this story, check out these two recent posts. Long story put short — the BBC signed a deal with Microsoft and has since then become somewhat of its vassal, also guided or headed by former Microsoft employees. It’s about as bad as the British Library, which is another rather distracting story.
In any event, in order to understand the effect of Novell hiring many .NET developers — most likely with Microsoft/Windows background — while at the same time sacking plenty of its engineers, one needs only look at the BBC, whose media division is headed by a former Microsoft employee who reportedly attended the antitrust trials in Europe to defend Microsoft’s abuses, for which it got severely punished. He’s at it again.
Naturally, Erik will choose to ignore Microsoft’s #1 rival (by Microsoft’s own admission). Having brought iPlayer support to Macs, to the iPhones and now even to the Wii, the BBC continues to ignore GNU/Linux. It ignores many complaints, some of which are formal.
Eric Huggers, the BBC’s future media and technology group controller, said today’s launch underlines the corporation’s commitment to bring the iPlayer to as many devices as possible.
Readers ought to look at our old postings on this topic in order to gain understanding and better awareness of the context. This is a classic case of monopolisation using corporate or government control, by proxy. There are several other examples of this which come to mind, but that’s a topic to be addressed on a different day. █
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.