05.20.08
It’s Confirmed: Microsoft Went Down to South Africa to Fight ODF
We probably ought not to visit Microsoft blogs, so here it is ’second hand’ from MilkingTheGNU:
One of my most interesting trips was down to South Africa to talk interop, document formats, and yes…open source software.
[…]
South Africa has taken a most unfortunate position of late - the government has sought to put a political mandate in place for the adoption of open source software.
Of course Microsoft will now pretend that it’s the big kahuna of FOSS (King of SourceForge).
Maybe South Africa should have mandated a policy against convicted monopolists and not ‘for open source’, which Microsoft will just continue to fake, subvert, and totally ruin to sneak into contracts under its own twisted terms and conditions. █
For context see:
- South Africa Gets an Offer Too Hard to Refuse, Taken Over by Microsoft Lobbyists
- Big Set of Shakeups for Microsoft O[OXML]ffice, ODF Rises
- Microsoft Goes Visiting South Africa Shortly After Pro-ODF Policies (Updated)
- Updates on Microsoft OOXML in the UK and South Africa
- Status Update on Microsoft's Smear Campaign Against ODF (Corrected)
- Jumping for Dollars to Secure Microsoft Lock-in (Latest Possible Examples)
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.
Victor Soliz said,
May 20, 2008 at 7:59 am
Such an unfortunate position…
twitter said,
May 20, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Keep up the good work.