05.01.08
OOXML-ODF Roundup: Chronic Deniers versus Developers and Consumers
“37 letters with exactly the same words. Some of the senders didn’t even care to remove the ‘Type company name here’ text.
Simular letters has been circulating in Denmark as an e-mail from the Danish MD Jørgen Bardenfleth to customers and business partners.
I call it fraud, cheating and disgusting. If I wasn’t anti-Microsoft before, I am now. Disgusting !”
To so many experts who have watched Microsoft lying to the press (as well as to everybody else in the OOXML process) about the level of corruption well… this has been rather tough. The truth is known and well documented though; its availability and reach remains a barrier. When Microsoft controls the press, it can, to a greater or lesser extent, control the minds too.
The following short new post explains just why we are merely witnessing a repeating pattern.
We watched MS kill off great software. We watched them promise new features to keep people from moving to other software, then never delivering those features. We watched them lie in the press and on the stand. Many of the “haters” on the internet were developers for companies that MS knifed, often using unethical means.
Remember “The Slog”? Whining about Microsoft would be pointless if only the abuse actually stopped. However, as things stand, the company appears more brutal than ever before, probably because it has difficulties and fears in mind (long-term in particular).
Glancing very quickly at the positives reported yesterday, here we have a post about ODF development using real programming languages.
In case you’re a developer and are looking for libraries simplifying ODF development with technologies like Perl, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, etc., you should check out this summary of ODF tools and libraries.
Also encouraging is the following expected next step. Java is coming to ‘boxed’ GNU/Linux distributions.
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), Canonical Ltd. and Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), today announced the inclusion of OpenJDK-based (http://openjdk.java.net) implementations in Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 Long Term Support (LTS) Server and Desktop editions, furthering the promise of Sun’s open source Java technology initiative.
Will Java still be demoted, dismissed and suppressed by those who believe that an ECMA standard (with RAND) means that developers are secured from Microsoft’s wrath and that development with .NET lets Free software have control on the Web? █
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.