05.09.08
Richard Steel’s and Microsoft Ballnux Frachise (Updated)
Only ‘Microsoft-approved’ (and Microsoft-taxed) Linuxes for the Microsoft-faithful CIOs?
Speaking of ‘Microsoft tax’, as we did just a moment ago, our old ‘friend’ (a Microsoft sellout/shill really) Richard Steel [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] seems to found interest in Free software only when he heard about Microsoft’s distribution of Ballnux. He has just posted the item “Microsoft’s Suse Linux franchise,” Yes, that’s right. It’s “Microsoft’s SUSE” and it’s a franchise. Oh gosh! Have a quick look:
I note that Novell has a local arrangement with Microsoft, which resells its version of Suse Linux to enable Linux exploitation on a Windows platform!
Based on something we heard but cannot publish in this Web site, Microsoft is doing some little ‘marketing tours’ trying to sell business its distribution of Ballnux at the expense of market leaders like Red Hat (or Ubuntu on the desktop). It’s truly a disgrace and something to watch out for. █
Update: a good comment has just been appended to the item above. It says (in part):
“Be warned, besides of the clear Microsoft bias in the article, it promotes SUSE. After the patent deal Novell and Microsoft have made, using SUSE makes you MORE LIKELY to get sued by Microsoft, I recommend you to research on the topic rather than just following this article.“
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.