08.21.08
Quick Mention: Microsoft Accused in Poland (English Translation)
Yesterday we wrote about action against Microsoft in Poland. We are pleased to have an article in English now.
Poland’s Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) claims that selling laptops with obligatorily preinstalled Microsoft’s Windows operating system constitutes a monopolistic practice and is restrictive to competition.
The antimonopoly regulator (UOKiK) has conducted an independent investigation of the terms and conditions on which producers of laptop computers sell their products. UOKiK will submit the results of the inquiry before the European Commission and the investigation may spread around the entire European Community.
The investigation, instigated in December 2007, as a result of many complaints filed with the UOKiK by Polish consumers, has revealed that breaching antimonopoly principles in commonplace among computer hardware and software producers.
There has been a lot of legal powwow against Microsoft in just one week. Four nations. █
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.