07.26.08
Turbolinux Team Leader Becomes Windows Programmer
Selling out all the way?
Remember the story about Corel assimilating to Microsoft after a ’special’ deal and watch how Novell is moving to .NET (Mono), as well. Both of them happen to support Microsoft’s OOXML. That’s just what happens when one becomes a Microsoft partner. The folks from Redmond pay competitors to turn them into allies.
While it’s not clear how the timeline fares, this new report and mention of Turbolinux stood out
IE7Pro is an add-on for Internet Explorer, not a browser replacement. It’s the work of a “virtual” firm, a team of programmers spread around the world and ironically headed by Faniel Fang, a former team leader at open sauce firm TurboLinux.
Turbolinux began by helping Microsoft with OOXML and later they made it an entire software patents deal and bragged about it. This comes amid times when Microsoft recognises an OOXML defeat (although there is room for interpretation [1, 2, 3]) and, as further evidence, consider this new press release from Babya, which supports only ODF and PDF.
Compared to other similar products, E-Type 6 is under 1MB in size and supports both OpenDocument and PDF, along with RTF and text files.
Those who support OOXML often turn out to be simply sidling with Microsoft rather than addressing real need. Hey, GNOME, are you listening? █
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.