11.30.08
Stuffing It Up, Microsoft Edition
Fronts Galore
HAVE a look at this thing. A seemingly-innocent event has just ended and it was totally stuffed by prime cronies of Microsoft. It’s full of Microsoft lobbyists such as ACT, CompTIA [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], and the BSA [1, 2, 3, 4]. This is just one among a string of conferences that we highlighted recently due to Microsoft’s role in them, via pressure groups it sponsors. Even one of the chief cronies, Mr. Jonathan Zuck [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], was there.
Microsoft Education
Earlier today we saw South Africa falling prey to this disturbing trend. Watch how it happens, based on today’s news.
“There’s been a lot of room for growth here,” Reynolds said, adding that one of his 2008 highlights was attending the weakling Microsoft Technical Education Conference in Orlando, Fla., with Bill Gates as keynote speaker.
It was 2 years ago that this incident was documented and then filed by us.
Changing the Report, After the Vote
[...]
That agreement was nearly imperiled last weekend, though. Gerri Elliott, corporate vice president at Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector division, sent an e-mail message to fellow commissioners Friday evening saying that she “vigorously” objected to a paragraph in which the panel embraced and encouraged the development of open source software and open content projects in higher education. The paragraph read like this:
Yes, Microsoft sets the rules for education. This story in its entirety is even more fascinating and reminiscent of the tactics Microsoft used against ODF around the same time.
Microsoft Recommends?
The following analysis contains no ’smoking gun’, but a little investigation by Mr. Moody netted an interesting finding about something that’s called “2008 EuroSoftware100.”
And the aim of this is precisely what?
PricewaterhouseCoopers, in association with the European National Software and Associations: Europe (ESA), France (AFDEL), UK (BASDA) and Pierre Audoin Consultants as technical advisors, is pleased to present the 2008 EuroSoftware100.
[...]
Interestingly, all of the four “partners” of this whizzo scheme either have Microsoft as a member or customer (ESA, AFDEL, BASDA, Pierre Audoin Consultants), but open source companies are conspicuously thin on the ground. Just thought I’d mention it.
Analysts and Anal Yeasts?
The deposition of Steve Ballmer (another newer article about it here) had us mention his relationship with Rob Enderle, the poisonous character that attacks GNU/Linux in the press.
“Over at IDG, Eric Lai’s current tagline (in his blog) is “Regarding Redmond”, which is rather telling.”Over at IDG, Eric Lai’s current tagline (in his blog) is “Regarding Redmond”, which is rather telling. A couple of weeks ago he took a little shot at Boycott Novell. And now he’s defending Enderle in subtle ways, using his blog.
Speaking of sellout ‘analysts’, the Gartner Group has had a lot of fully-packed agenda recently and its insult to F/OSS has just reached India as well. There is a lot of poison to watch out for. We are thankful to 2 readers who brought to our attention 2 of the interventions detailed above. █
Weasel??? Who, me?
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.