06.23.08
Microsoft Does Not Comply, Internet Explorer Under Antitrust Scrutiny Again
There is quite a lot of stuff going on at the moment. To bring you up to date, here are some of the more noteworthy reports. What was already mentioned yesterday is Microsoft’s goalposts-moving routine and now comes an interesting interpretation from Matt Asay.
I’d encourage you to sift through the report and Groklaw’s response. Microsoft feels more like Job Trotter every day: Outwardly smiling to hide a shifty internal countenance. In The Pickwick Papers Trotter eventually comes clean. Will Microsoft?
By the way, I actually do care about the answer, as interoperability with Microsoft is a big deal. I’m just not sure how to accomplish it on fair and level terms, given Microsoft’s seeming inability to engage openly on interoperability. If Microsoft treats the US government with this much disdain, how can a business partner possibly hope to be…
Unfortunately for him, his company needs to interact with Microsoft for documentation. Surely it’s no easy task, especially with the software patents trap. In order to cover the same topic, Linux.com is citing the write-ups of Microsoft Paul (along the lines of Microsoft Jack), which was a decision tactless enough to attract angry responses.
That disgusts me. It disgusts me that Linux.com is perpetuating the myth that “Open Source” is a hobby and not a business model.
I guess Linux.com doesn’t think we need software freedom in our businesses!
This is what happens when you call the operating system “Linux.” This is what happens when you ignore the GNU project. This is what destroys competition in the software industry.
[…]
Paul Thurrot is just another pro-American anti-everyone else idiot. What he fails to realise is that Microsoft would not have released any documentation at all if it wasn’t for the EU pushing them. Neelie Kroes deserves a lot of praise for pushing Microsoft. The US DoJ did nothing. They still haven’t got Microsoft to comply to one thing in what, 5-7 years!!!!
This hopefully gets the picture across. Microsoft never cared about standards and useful documentation. Its business model depends heavily on denial and deprivation when it comes to information.
Over at Slashdot, a sister site of Linux.com, someone raises the known issue of Microsoft’s incompatibilities with Mozilla Firefox.
An anonymous reader notes that Hotmail’s full version doesn’t work with Firefox 3. Users get the following message when they try to log in: You are temporarily on the classic version of Windows Live Hotmail due to an error encountered during login. Before trying again, please clear your cache and cookies.
As s side note, maybe it’s a case of flaming, adding ‘balance’ or aggravating for attention, but with new posts like this Microsoft ‘PR’, Slashdot continues to seem a tad suspicious.
With regards to that Firefox story, there are other similar examples. Only yesterday a reader sent us the following E-mail:
msOffice required to view website and it of course don’t work in Firefox .. 
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Would it be surprising that, according to Linux World, antitrust regulators are now scrutinising Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8?
Antitrust regulators are evaluating the forthcoming Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 as part of ongoing activities to ensure Microsoft is in compliance with the final judgment in two landmark antitrust cases that involved individual states and the U.S. government.
Microsoft is planning to integrate more and more in order to stifle competition. As a Wall Street Journal blog put it just a couple of days ago:
Microsoft to Internet: Drop Dead
Here you can see a microcosm of what has made Microsoft’s path just that much rockier and harder than it could have been, and why Silicon Valley considers the company to be the bull-in-a-china-shop of the technology world. The definition of death, in corporate America, is believing you don’t have any competition. The definition of being in a coma may be underestimating that competition.
There are many more dirty tricks that we find today. Stay tuned. █
“I am convinced we have to use Windows – this is the one thing they don’t have. We have to be competitive with features, but we need something more — Windows integration.”
–Jim Allchin, Microsoft
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.