04.14.08
Microsoft Could Enter EMC from the Back Door
“The number of developers working on improving Linux vastly exceeds the number of Microsoft developers working on Windows NT.”
–Paul Maritz, Microsoft
Just over a month ago we brought back memories of Maritz, known (or notorious) for his role in antitrust investigations which predate the change of political parties in power (United States). There are certain individuals who can rightly be made liable for sheer abuse in the market and Maritz would be one of them. We covered this before and these resources say a lot more.
Maritz recently joined a Microsoft rival, which triggered worries about insiders, or influence (misguidance) from the inside. According to the Microsoft Blog (Mary Jo Foley), Maritz is not the only former Softie to have just occupied part of EMC.
Former Softie getting the old band back together?
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Fitzgerald resigned from Microsoft in January 2008 and neither Microsoft nor Fitzgerald himself would comment on where he was going.
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Wonder if any other former Softies will resurface at Pi/EMC, going head-to-head with Microsoft….
This is something to watch out for. We have already seen one Microsoft rival in the virtualisation area (XenSource) getting distracted by Microsoft deals and and then consumed by a close Microsoft partner to be used against a much bigger threat (VMWare). That’s just how it typically works — grouping of an ecosystem (or Trust) against ‘outsiders’ (more recent example in [1, 2]). A few days ago Citrix prepared us all for an announcement about a new Xen-based product, its focus being the desktop. Nothing about open source and nothing about GNU/Linux.
Speaking of anti-competitive behaviour, around the same time of this Maritz appointment we also saw Microsoft fined very heavily. YouTube now has a video covering this. █
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.
ZiggyFish said,
April 15, 2008 at 4:13 am
It going to be interesting to see how much the EU fine Microsoft for the OOXML episode.