04.21.08
Funny Microsoft Business in UK Public Sector Just Got Funnier
You might still recall a post from the other day which deals with corruption in procurement. It focused on the British public sector. “Corruption,” you say? That’s how it seems anyway. Newham now rebuts, but the rebuttal doesn’t seem to lend much credibiily. (mind our highlights in red)
However, Newham has supplied the INQUIRER with internal studies that it says do demonstrate that its decision to commit to Microsoft was justified. The studies were performed by Socitm, a private public sector consulting firm of which Newham COI Steele is a vice president. the INQUIRER will report on these findings in due course.
Meanwhile, the original MOU is enlightening. As well as claiming the deal would enable Newham to achieve high rankings in Audit Commission assessments, it committed Newham to moving all “competitive technology” to Microsoft, regardless of the feasibility of such a move.
It also required Steele to promote Microsoft software.
See attached file: Memorandum of Understanding.doc
The Inquirer will continue to watch this, so future reports will be interesting. It wasn’t long ago that Andy Updegrove wrote about rocking procurement boats, referring to the Massachusetts fiasco. Those who ‘dare’ to intervene often get bullied and not everyone is impressed. █
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.