07.09.08
Microsoft and Citrix Celebrate Love After Vendor Capture (Xen)
“We will do some buying of companies that are built around open-source products.”
–Steve Ballmer
t was less than a day ago that we explained what had probably happened with VMWare. The story is similar to that of XenSource, which we have painted endlessly before as a victim of Microsoft and its ecosystem. It’s all about platforms, not virtualisation technologies, which Microsoft merely uses to defend its crown jewels. Virtualisation caught Microsoft asleep on the wheel and when it woke up it seemed too late. it has no choice but to play dirty to catch up.
Anyway, shortly after the grabbing of XenSource, Citrix and Microsoft celebrated with a big trophy. Citrix became Microsoft’s Partner of the Year. Now comes a vanity site which is similar to that of Microsoft and Novell.
magnify360 Brings Personalization to Citrix-Microsoft Website, OneGreatPartner.com
magnify360 (www.magnify360.com), the leading provider of 1-to-1 personalization technology, has been tapped to build OneGreatPartner.com, a Citrix community site for premier partner, Microsoft.
This orgy of influence and assets is part of Microsoft’s attempts to turn rivals into partners. With so many Linux companies and much GNU/Linux affinity out there, it’s hard to compete. If Microsoft could change the positions of its opponents, e.g. have VMWare favour Windows over GNU/Linux, then it gains great traction. Novell is another such example, not to mention Corel, XenSource, and even Xandros, which helps with OOXML. Turbolinux too showed off its love for Microsoft. Watch this video of Apple. It’s quite an eye opener. █
“Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand.”
–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO
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.