07.27.08
Microsoft is Watching
“Gathering intelligence on enemy activities is critical to the success of the Slog.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
A good place to start this would be one news item from the Indian press. It shows how aggressively Microsoft is trying to steal employees from Adobe. It’s espionage.
Head hunters may like to call this intelligence gathering. Microsoft is in the process of engaging several executive search firms to conduct extensive talent mapping exercises focused on Adobe’s development centers in Bangalore and Noida. These two centers collectively employ close to 700 people primarily constituting product development specialists at various levels of seniority.
They tried this against Yahoo and perhaps Borland too. Inside interventions were explained here very recently. It’s vicious and brutal. We will probably come back to this in the near future. Until then, consider this older post about Microsoft’s dossiers on reporters. █
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.
Lol said,
July 27, 2008 at 4:15 am
Check this…
http://darksidefoss.blogspot.com/
Lol said,
July 27, 2008 at 4:44 am
@groklaw
it was updated ages ago or may even have been that way from the start. Certainly as of 27/02/08 09:38. I had a discussion with one of Microsoft’s lawyers who had been sent to monitor proceedings at the Open Forum Europe conference in Geneva in February. I asked
why the language of the OSP was so woolly and didn’t mention the GPL by name. He pointed out to me the paragraph above (which isn’t actually in the OSP, but in the FAQ) and he sent me an email with the text of that paragraph. I still wouldn’t touch it myself.
Lol said,
July 27, 2008 at 4:46 am
Check the website…
http://darksidefoss.blogspot.com/
Roy Schestowitz said,
July 27, 2008 at 5:13 am
OSBC wasn’t exactly hijacked. I was rather shocked when Matt Asay told me that it was Microsoft that pretty much created it. They try to turn Free software into this new monster called business/enterprise open source, which they wish to make liable through software patents and other rules they make up.