05.15.08
Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Novell, Deception, Office Suites, Mono, OpenDocument, SUN, Java, Open XML, OpenOffice, ISO at 9:14 am by Roy Schestowitz
Could Vote Rigging Get Any More Obvious Than This?
Many shameless deniers — spearheaded primarily through disinformation, which is notably disseminated by Microsoft — are out there continuing to rewrite history, badly. Let it be reiterated that the OOXML saga was so abundantly filled with corruption that setting up a page summarising it all is nearly impossible. There are literally hundreds of separate scandals that come to mind. One interesting new find is this one.
Microsoft Puppet countries are leaving the P membership. Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus, and Trinidad & Tobago have already dropped out. All those countries voted Yes without comments to OOXML.
Let’s clarify what we see here. Andy Updegrove was astounded (he even publicly complained) around August last year when several nations suddenly joined in to vote for ‘no apparent reason’ (it was obvious to a prudent observer that knows all about OOXML).
The countries stayed there not only for the September 2007 vote, but for the second one at the end of March 2008 too. Now that it’s all over, just a month after the announcement from ISO, suddenly they drop out again (”back to normal, business as usual”), having just accomplished their mission, so to speak. Assignment completed.
It’s mildly amusing actually because Microsoft’s puppet don’t even try hard enough to cover their tracks by lingering on and sticking around for a while longer. It’s very revealing. Don’t believe us? Ask the man who was in charge before being replaced by another Microsoft puppet. Here is what he said:
“This year WG1 have had another major development that has made it almost impossible to continue with our work within ISO. The influx of P members whose only interest is the fast-tracking of ECMA 376 as ISO 29500 has led to the failure of a number of key ballots. Though P members are required to vote, 50% of our current members, and some 66% of our new members, blatantly ignore this rule despite weekly email reminders and reminders on our website. As ISO require at least 50% of P members to vote before they start to count the votes we have had to reballot standards that should have been passed and completed their publication stages at Kyoto. This delay will mean that these standards will appear on the list of WG1 standards that have not been produced within the time limits set by ISO, despite our best efforts.
The disparity of rules for PAS, Fast-Track and ISO committee generated standards is fast making ISO a laughing stock in IT circles. The days of open standards development are fast disappearing. Instead we are getting “standardization by corporation”, something I have been fighting against for the 20 years I have served on ISO committees. I am glad to be retiring before the situation becomes impossible. I wish my colleagues every success for their future efforts, which I sincerely hope will not prove to be as wasted as I fear they could be.”
–Martin Bryan, ISO ‘Escapee’
Formerly Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 WG1
Speaking of ISO being hijacked, we mentioned this earlier today and it needn’t be doubted anymore. Many other strategic ‘forts’ got hijacked by Microsoft. Yes! Obey Microsoft or be bullied, even if you are a distinguished professor or a government official (probably several).
Another Clarification: OpenOffice.org Does Not Support OOXML
We stressed this before, but Microsoft and its apologists — even a few who are deceived inside the FOSS world unfortunately, trolls in this site included — continue to repeat the self-justifying nonsense. Let’s just say that again: OpenOffice.org does not support OOXML. Put more clearly:
Some others take a more pragmatical approach, but even that one is very much telling about the whole OOXML farce. In this category, we find the OpenOffice.org project. Despite what Microsoft will tell you, OpenOffice.org does not and will not provide OOXML « interoperability » . It will however provide an import filter that users will be able to use in order to import documents formatted in the format used by Microsoft Office 2007 and 2008 that bears the name of Microsoft Office Open XML(OOXML). What this means is that the OpenOffice.org project has to work directly on the files edited and created by MS Office 2007 and 2008 in order to provide compatibility and does not use the OOXML specification, as it is not implemented by MS Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 2008. So much for interoperability. The jury is still out, by the way, on the search for OOXML implementations. The ones that exist are either broken or else very limited (even the famous Novell plugin).
Once again you can hopefully see the role of an OOXML villain called Novell, which did a big favour to Microsoft in exchange for cash. Speaking of which, Mary Jo Foley disappointed yesterday with a headline suggesting that “Silverlight for Linux” is now available. There is no “Silverlight for Linux” and therefore it’s an inaccurate and deceiving headline that gives Web developers the wrong impression. Microsoft refused to support GNU/Linux, so instead it used Novell to make a clone that’s always behind and requires patent ‘protection’. It’s the perfect arrangement for Microsoft, which even Miguel de Icaza has denounced by now. Appended below are some new bits of information about Flash.
Why JavaFX (Maybe Flash) and Not Silverlight
Regarding Flash versus Silverlight, we have discussed this before.
In today’s news you might discover that Adobe was kind enough to finally treat GNU/Linux like a first-class citizen, at least as far as the Flash player goes (it made such promises back in 2006 but only in vain):
Once piece of welcome news is that Adobe is releasing the Flash Player 10 beta for all major platforms — Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe has even upped the Linux ante with a new installer specially tailored for Ubuntu users. Barclay says that Adobe considers Linux a major platform and will continue to make all Flash releases simultaneous across platforms.
This is important because the Web is increasingly becoming a semi-replacement for some native applications. Here is a new article about this trend, with focus on Adobe AIR.
Twhirl is built on Adobe AIR, which has a lightweight client library that allows Web developers to use familiar tools and languages to build first-class desktop applications. Software created with AIR is fully interactive and network-enabled, with a rich UI. But unlike traditional Web applications, AIR apps gain the immediacy and user engagement that come from running outside the browser window.
Also recent is the following article which suggests that an open source Adobe Flash player might be inevitable: (colouring in red is ours)
Both Otte and Savoye do see some limited good coming out of the Open Screen Project. Otte suggests that the growing openness of Adobe might help to reduce the reservations in the free software community about working to reproduce proprietary technologies, as well as “the general ‘flash is evil’ attitude” that prevails in the community.”
Moreover, both Otte and Savoye see the announcement as a hopeful sign. “I think Adobe will open up Flash in the end, or at least the Flash player,” Otte says.
It refers to the following recent announcement:
Software maker Adobe announced Thursday that it would drop many of the licensing requirements attached to its Flash technology, which is used to display video and audio content on the web.
Let’s not forget that Adobe is now in the Linux Foundation, but there’s still work to be done.
I would hope that Zemlin will encourage Adobe to now treat Linux as a first class citizen as opposed to an afterthought for release after Windows.
I hope Zemlin will pressure Adobe to finally actually make Flash — not just the player — but Flash CS3 Professional, (the core Flash development tool) available for Linux as a fully commercially available and supported product. It is somewhat ironic in my opinion that Adobe can join the Linux Foundation, claim to support Linux and yet not offer its flagship Flash development tool on Linux.
Last but not least, as far as RIAs go, be aware that JavaFX is GPLv2-licensed. It’s probably the one to promote at the moment. █
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05.14.08
Posted in Microsoft, Office Suites, OpenDocument, Europe, Interoperability, Open XML, OpenOffice at 10:49 pm by Roy Schestowitz
To those who think that Microsoft’s OOXML scandals are over, looking a little further is recommended.
Microsoft Penalises ODF
There are several examples of situations where Microsoft not only promotes OOXML but also actively works against ODF [1, 2]. By its very nature in fact, OOXML is a case against ODF and it’s anti-competitive. But there’s more to it. Watch this analysis which seems to confirm that Microsoft makes ODF look bad, whether deliberately or not [1, 2].
Can someone explain to me why Microsoft Office needs almost 10 minutes to load an ODF file that OpenOffice can load in 14 seconds?
Microsoft Plays Politics Against ODF
You might still recall the maddening situation in France. Groklaw has a little update (translation) on it. The article is here and it’s in French. Part of Groklaw’s translation (from Sean Daly):
The article explains how the head of the DGME in charge of editing the RGI was sacked and replaced following that visit and this letter. Lemaire points out numerous errors and omissions in the document and points out in particular how Microsoft claims to have always been neutral:
“Microsoft, in the name of pluralism and technological neutrality of the State, has requested that OpenXML, open standard, rights-free and documented, in the sense of Article 4 of the LCEN, be recommended also alongside the standard called ODF. Microsoft has always presented a position which is balanced and neutral, asking that equal treatment be respected.”
Speaking of sacking & replacing, be sure to learn how ISO got sort of shuffled and other people met the wrath of Microsoft. Examples include:
Referring to the scandal from France, watch what a government delegate had to say.
Microsoft Won’t Inter-operare
BECTA’s complaint has already been mentioned in [1, 2], but here is another decent article covering this latest debacle, which generated a lot of press coverage.
ODF on the Rise
In this interview with Louis Suarez-Potts it turns out that ODF is doing pretty well indeed, despite all of the corruption we have been tracking for over a year. Microsoft not playing by the rules is bound to make OOXML look bad.
Q: How has the OOXML’s approval affected ODF’s penetration?
Louis : Zero.
[…]
Q: What do you see for the OOo and ODF community in the years to come?
Louis : Glory. I mean it. What is the future, I could ask, of Firefox? Will IE7 kill it? No. People appreciate freedom and what it brings, for it brings innovation and the possibility of it. And it brings, implicitly, community—by which I mean a coming together of interests that are not only generated by and dependent upon marketing agendas.
Call for Real Standards (Like ODF) in Europe
Several large European nations have already decided to ignore OOXML and more backlash ensued. Now comes openparliament.eu where you are encouraged to drop your signature if you live in Europe. It can be summarised thusly:
Citizens and stakeholder groups should not have to use the software of a single company in order to communicate with their elected officials or participate in the legislative process.
All companies should be given the chance to compete freely for contracts to supply ICT services to the European Parliament.
Under the shadow of imbalanced press it may be difficult to see the full picture, but ODF is doing pretty well. Declining sales of Microsoft Office, according to Microsoft’s latest quarterly report could — just could — be an indicator of this. As we last stressed yesterday, Microsoft is playing financial game. █
“Unregulated, and illegal, monopoly domination of IT technology that affects virtually every sector of society is a VERY BAD THING, and worth taking a stand in opposition.”
–Linux Today comment
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Posted in Microsoft, Novell, Office Suites, Europe, Antitrust, Interoperability, Open XML, OpenOffice at 1:11 am by Roy Schestowitz
We have been citing some output from Digistan recently and Andy Updegrove has just published a good introduction to it. Remember that Digistan does not favour patent-encumbered interoperability that Novell promotes; instead, it’s all about open standards.
That pronouncement has been titled The Hague Declaration by the new international group, called the Digital Standards Organization (”Digistan,” for short), that crafted it. In this blog entry, I’ll talk about what the Declaration is all about, and what it is intended to achieve.
As follow-up to news that we mentioned here yesterday [1, 2], also see the following couple of new articles:
1. Britain complains to EU about Microsoft file system
A British watchdog agency said Tuesday it had complained to European Union regulators that Microsoft Corp.’s new file format [OOXML] for storing documents discouraged competition.
2. Agency says Microsoft hurts student interests
A government agency has told the European Commission that Microsoft Office works poorly with rival software used in schools, hurting the interests of learners, teachers and parents.
Ignore an erroneous report (from IDG) which suggests the EU has declined to deal with this complaint. There is disinformation out there.
It was also IDG that recently measured the capabilities of OpenOffice 3 (beta) using OOXML as a yardstick. This got Neil McAllister added to “The List”. He usually publishes good articles, but that last one was abysmal. █
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05.08.08
Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Office Suites, Standard, OpenDocument, Open XML, OpenOffice, FOSS at 10:40 am by Roy Schestowitz
ODF is the future and OOXML is the past, claimed Bob Sutor last year
There is a lot of disinformative fuss at the moment with people claiming that OpenOffice.org 3 “supports OOXML.” It does not. The word “supports” has an active — as opposed to a negative — connotation. In reality, OpenOffice.org is all about ODF. The OOXML filter/importes are intended to help with converting Microsoft’s garbled mess (Office 2007 is not OOXML-compliant) into something standard, into ODF — for good.
Here is a nice way of laying out this situation: ODF implementations are already ahead of the existing elegant-yet-incomplete standard, whereas Microsoft is behind, never intending to actually obey its own broken specifications.
So what’s the difference between Microsoft/OOXML and OpenOffice.org/ODF ?
The difference is, that Microsoft Office is behind OOXML. OpenOffice.org is ahead of ODF. According to the ISO rules, a specification can only be approved as an ISO-standard, unless it has been implemented.
OOXML is not a standard yet. One thing which it sure is: a scandal. █
“37 letters with exactly the same words. Some of the senders didn’t even care to remove the ‘Type company name here’ text.
Simular letters has been circulating in Denmark as an e-mail from the Danish MD Jørgen Bardenfleth to customers and business partners.
I call it fraud, cheating and disgusting. If I wasn’t anti-Microsoft before, I am now. Disgusting !”
–Leif Lodahl
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Posted in SCO, Novell, Mono, UNIX, SUN, Java, OpenOffice at 9:52 am by Roy Schestowitz
No-one’s killing anyone, yet
Recently, a few sources of tension between Novell and Sun were identified [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Examples revolve around Novell’s ridicule of OpenSolaris, exploitation (arguably so) of OpenOffice.org, and neglect of Java in favour of support for its biggest rival.
A couple of days ago, as we only briefly mentioned in one of the links digests, SJVN raised an interesting speculation about whether or not Novell can attack OpenSolaris using its ownership of UNIX. We recently discussed the possibility of Novell ‘pulling an SCO’, based on something that Novell said last week. SJVN may have taken it a little too far, but people carry on talking about his piece. In ZDNet UK, for example, you find this: Could Novell kill OpenSolaris?
Sun’s just opened its developer conference with the long-delayed launch of OpenSolaris, the open source version of its Solaris operating system. But after all this time, will it live?
It’s taken Sun since 2005 to turn OpenSolaris into a proper release, which Sun intends will stand alongside Solaris as a community operating system - like Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Bill Beebe jumps to Sun’s rescue and gives a reasonable explanation in defense of OpenSolaris, which he has been happily reviewing. He also comments about Novell.
Considering how Novell professed at the time that that they had no plans to sue anyone over Unix, you have to wonder how they’ll square that position with the current comments coming out of the SCO vs. Novell trial that just finished. They can’t have it both ways. Especially when it looks like the only reason they might consider revoking Sun’s agreement is as a blunt anti-competitive business weapon against a formidable competitor. You know, behaving like Microsoft.
These discussions and speculations might be worth returning to in the future. Below are some more articles that readers may find handy. █
Related new articles:
Enterprise Unix Roundup: OpenSolaris, Farm Team or Big League?
To make it big in the enterprise, a platform must be on par with the Unix operating systems, the current meme says. And — interestingly — in this world view, OpenSolaris is not in the majors.
Does OpenSolaris Matter?
I’m not sure.
Sun first announced OpenSolaris in 2005 but they keep finding ways to announce ‘first releases’. Yesterday was one such release.
OpenSolaris Wants To Compete With Linux - Oh Yeah?
Yesterday Sun Microsystems officially released OpenSolaris and suggested that it’s going to go head-to-head with Linux as a Desktop Operating System. Solarisx86 is nothing new and has been around about as long as Linux but it is historically proprietary and closed source. It was also very hardware-finicky and performance was slothlike.
OpenSolaris Just Wants to be Free
“Glassfish is dual licensed — CDDL and GPL. And as you’re aware, MySQL is GPL(2), as is the Java (runtime) platform itself. So three very big components of what’d be a complete OpenSolaris platform are available to the broader GPL community.
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05.07.08
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Novell, Office Suites, Fork, OpenOffice, xandros, Linspire, Turbolinux at 11:03 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Stuck in 2007?
As stressed many times before, IANAL, but based on the consensus of opinions in Groklaw, the GPLv3 is bound to bite companies that sold out to Microsoft in the rear. Several of these companies knew very well what they were getting into, or maybe they just weren’t concerned. Here is a lovely old quote from the CEO of Xandros: (highlighted in red)
Under the third version of the General Public License, expected to be published in final form this month by the Free Software Foundation, all such deals that were not inked by March 28 are forbidden. As a result, it would appear that Xandros will not be allowed to distribute open source code licensed under GPLv3 because of its relationship with Microsoft. Typaldos said he’s not concerned. “If you are a businessperson, you can’t worry about every eventuality.“
Priceless. To quote another old article which was discussing Microsoft’s scam at the time:
Then Microsoft offers the carrot of legal absolution. “Come with us” they say “We will protect you and your customers from our lawsharks” they promise. The poor scared sods believe them and sign a piece of paper that they think will protect themselves from the “Big Brother”. This of course makes Microsoft very happy and fits right in with their divide and conqueror plans.
Sam Varghese was a little more blunt when he advised Andy Typaldos to start selling potatoes rather than selling out. In any event, what does the licence upgrade of OpenOffice.org mean to he likes of Xandros?
It is a good time to raise this question because OpenOffice 3.0, which adopted the third version of the GNU GPL, has just been released as public beta. You can find some more details here.
The OpenOffice.org Community is pleased to announce that the public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now available. This beta release is made available to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.org, but is not recommended for production use at this stage.
The LGPLv3, especially in the context of Novell’s OpenOffice.org controversial ‘fork’ for SUSE Ballnux, was discussed before in [1, 2, 3]. Can Novell carry on doing what it does? If so, at what cost? █
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04.30.08
Posted in Microsoft, FUD, Standard, OpenDocument, Open XML, Ecma, OpenOffice, Africa at 10:15 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Hubris-infected anti-ODF brigadiers
The other day we mentioned South Africa because of its decision to embrace OpenDocument format. Shortly afterwards we spotted Microsoft’s plan to pay a little visit to this country. Coincidence? Maybe.
Look what comes from Rob Weir at the moment — or rather — what comes from Microsoft lobbyists at this moment, specifically in South Africa. Andy Updegrove spotted this rather bizarre press release from the home of Mr. “you are well paid, shut up”.
Another neo-colonialist press release from Microsoft’s CompTIA lobbying arm, this time inveighing against South Africa’s adoption of ODF as a national standard. One way to point out the absurdity of their logic is to replace the reference to ODF with references to any other useful standard that a government might adopt, like electrical standards.
Microsoft can never let things just rest, can it? Will someone be bullied again? We have already seen CompTIA and Microsoft doing their tag-team act in Malaysia, which is moving to ODF and OpenOffice.org. To be fair, even former Microsoft evangelist, Robert Scoble, is now dumping Microsoft Office, amid times of sinking sales for Microsoft’s cash cows.
My Microsoft Office trial is over. I am not spending $450 just to get Outlook. Gmail and Google Calendar win this game: big time.
South Africa is not just being approached by Microsoft’s lobbying arm. Sun has just offered South Africa StarOffice for virtually free (it’s already free in Google Pack).
As government begins its move to the Open Document Format (ODF) standard, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz has offered President Thabo Mbeki as many copies of StarOffice his office requires for a total cost of just $1.00.
[…]
Beveridge explains that the biggest implemetation project currently underway within the South African government is the move to ODF.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to choice — the choice between applications and vendors based on price and value. It’s not about choice of standards (which are about universality, not diversity of standards that basically beat their own purpose). The world already has a standard and it’s called ODF. Perception and marketing play a role here and the false belief that Microsoft Office is indispensable is only further perpetuated by blind (or blinded) journalists like our ‘old friend’ Rich Tehranim who sill writes for TMCNet. Consider this old story a nice analogy.
In the May edition of CTI (Computer-Telephone Integration) magazine, publisher Rich Tehrani paints a slick, simplistic view of the CTI industry. He claims that CTI is moving from a proprietary set of vendor-oriented platforms, to an “open” PC-based architecture. He praises this supposed openness, saying, “There’s open, and then there’s OPEN!” However, Mr. Tehrani is hiding the truth. That depends on what meaning of the word open is.
[…]
With devious publishers like Rich Tehrani dominating the CTI magazine publishing space, forcing out writers that support real openness and real freedom of choice, most buyers of CTI technology have no idea that they are being maneuvered and hoodwinked into supporting a closed, choiceless world. It’s coconspirators like Rich Tehrani and his TMC (Technology Media Publishing) that make Microsoft’s greed and power lust work effectively to kill consumer and business choice.
How little things have changed. █
“There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in Windows, GNU/Linux, Apple, Office Suites, KDE, Patents, GPL, Open XML, OpenOffice, FOSS, xandros at 12:03 am by Roy Schestowitz
“Hey, Steve [Jobs], just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo.”
–Bill Gates, Microsoft
For a company that possibly shelters software patents and also accumulates them at a high pace, the following report seems like a begged-for punishment. Apple should really know better.
During the first four months of 2008, Apple was named as a defendant in eight patent infringement lawsuits, up from five during the same period in 2007. Only one such lawsuit was filed during the first four months of 2006, on behalf of Burst.com. Apple settled that lawsuit for $10 million last November. The first four months of 2005 also brought just one patent lawsuit against Apple. In 2004, three patent lawsuits were filed against Apple from January through the end of April.
Microsoft, by the way, finds itself in a similar situation. They all ought to just join ESP and put an end to software patents once and for all, but that’s a Utopian suggestion. In reality, on balance, Apple and Microsoft have a lot to earn in this status quo of intellectual monopolies because they are both monopolies in separate areas of technology.
“Among those that suffer from Apple’s stance on software patents you also have GNU/Linux.”Has it not been proven yet that, other than exclusion of Free software, patents on algorithms are not economically or practically viable? Bear in mind that Apple is no friend of open source (relevant articles are appended at the bottom), so it has little incentive for demanding and actually bringing change. DRM, which is a wonderful tool and excuse for platform lock-in, is an excellent analogous case.
In a public relations stunt last year, Apple publicly protested against DRM (keeping up appearances, shifting blame to music labels). It probably ought to do the same to address software patents and the troll epidemic, or else it will carry on suffering [1, 2, 3].
Among those that suffer from Apple’s stance on software patents you also have GNU/Linux. Take for example this rant from KDE, or even Compiz-Fusion. Apple patents prevent them from implementing or at least ’safely’ incorporate features into GNU/Linux desktops.
To make matters worse, there is also Apple’s stance on standards. It would be frank enough to state that, as far as standards are concerned, Apple has never truly been better than Microsoft and not much as changed.
Apple’s incompatible filesystem
[…]
What I don’t get is why didn’t they just stick with a standard UNIX-like file system? Wouldn’t this have: (a) made less work and (b) ensured UNIX compatibility?
Or is that my answer? Did Apple not want UNIX compatibility? On a number of occasions (and with a number of devices), I have had to deal with incompatibilities on the part of Apple. And the more I deal with it, the more I start feeling like Apple is like Windows back in the 90s — when I was struggling to get any given version of Windows to talk with Linux. Ultimately, I won that battle. But the OS X battle seems to be one that might be more of a challenge, and that is disturbing.
Only days ago we mentioned Steve Jobs’ snub of Linux. At the bottom of this post you’ll find evidence suggesting that Wozniak wouldn’t have been more receptive than Jobs. In addition, Apple supports OOXML and Microsoft used this as a marketing tool to change people’s minds and discriminate against ODF. To give another recent example which involves BT and/or Asustek, this bundle of an OOXML Trojan horse isn’t helping.
BT bundles MS Office with Linux laptop
[…]
This week’s award for the Most Astutely Selected Software Bundle goes to BT after the teleco tried to hook potential purchasers of Asus’ Linux-running Eee PC 900 by offering to ship it with a copy of Microsoft Office.
BT is offering the 20GB 900 for £335.99, but if anyone out there is willing to buy it for £422.34, the telco will include a copy of Office Home and Student in the box.
So now you can have Linux along with some anti-Linux poison. What a bundle. Lovely! Curious minds might speculate that the Linux-powered Eee, which uses OpenOffice.org, has urged Microsoft to offer BT some discounts so that an OpenOffice.org-incompatible/hostile product (Office 2007) should be seen as enticing.
Incidentally, the following old article came up the other day and it’s centered around the misconception that Microsoft cared for standards in the past.
Serendipity No. 4: Desperately Seeking Standards
Corporate user’s reluctance to deviate from a hardware path once it is established carved a deep trench through which flows Microsoft’s seemingly endless supply of revenue. Despite the fact that DOS, and its follow-ups, Windows 1.0 and 2.0, were genuinely inept and insulting products, even by the standards of the day, Microsoft was always granted another chance to get it right.
No matter how awful, DOS running on a PC clone was the anointed “standard,” regarded as so sacrosanct that it hardly mattered what sort of grief people were forced to put up with to use it, how long a product was delivered after it was promised, or whether it even worked as advertised when it arrived on the market. Microsoft may wish to take credit for instituting an OS standard, but history suggests that this occurred despite their best efforts, not because of them.
[…]
As Paul Saffo of the Institute of the Future suggests, this explains why Microsoft is “a company that is desperately resisting change.” According to Saffo, Microsoft is attempting to “hang onto what it’s got: making the operating system important even though we’re moving into a world where the OS becomes steadily less important…. [e]verything it’s doing is going into that. It is a classic case of a change-hating company; it is desperately trying to retard change.”
It’s all quite interesting in retrospect. █
Older articles of relevance:
There is a cost for not being a good Open Source citizen and that cost is loss of goodwill in the community. That loss is more expensive in the long run than Apple realizes.
In the speech predicting how Apple would expand its market share, Jobs showed a slide with Safari dominating almost a quarter of the market–a market shared only with a single other browser, Internet Explorer.
Lilly says he doesn’t believe that this was an omission or simplification, but instead an indication that Jobs is hoping to steal people who use Firefox and other smaller browsers in order to run a “duopoly” with Redmond.
In an interview with eWeek, Woz said that there are always people who want things to be free and the open-source movement starts with those sort of people.
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« Previous entries ·
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.