2007: Microsoft in Review
,----[ Quote ]
| It’s no small secret. I hate Microsoft. I think they are the most vile and
| corrupt corporation in the tech industry. Their monopoly hampers innovation
| and they favor litigation, corruption and marketing tricks to maintain their
| position over simply creating great products. I have read and heard many
| people claim Microsoft is changing, improving, and the evil Microsoft of the
| pass is fading; I strongly disagree with this view, and it takes no more then
| a cursory look through Microsoft’s actions in 2007 to see why:
|
| Attacking Non-Profits Seeking to Help Children in Poor Countries
|
| Professor Negroponte wants to make the world a better place. His vision? An
| affordable laptop in the hands of every child. He founded a non-profit group
| and created the XO, an amazing machine targeted specifically at children
| living in poor countries, with features such as mesh networking to easily
| connect and share info, a screen viewable outdoors, tiny power consumption
| and a battery rechargeable through a solar panel.
|
| Microsoft earlier labeled this a toy and attempted to mock it, but in 2007 as
| the XO began to become a reality the real attack began.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft Threatens Linux with Patent Claims
|
| Microsoft loves to sling mud on others and then refuse to say where the mud
| came from. In 2007, Microsoft claimed Linux violates 235 of its patents.
| They, of course, refused to provide any specificity to the claim, for if it
| is true Microsoft is not interested in allowing Linux to work around the
| patents.
|
| [...]
|
| ISO AND MSOOXML
|
| Perhaps the worst story about Microsoft in 2007 is its unrelenting assault on
| ISO, the International Standards Organization.
|
| [...]
|
| Here is a quick list of some of the “Irregularities” uncovered so far:
|
| Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway,
| Switzerland, USA: Committee Stuffing
|
| Finland: chairman fired
|
| Hungary: rule bending (deadlines and majority rules bent to favor MS)
|
| India: astroturfing
|
| Malaysia: voted no, but overridden by government anyways and changed to
| yes
|
| Netherlands: voted no, but was overridden by Microsoft
|
| Pakistan, Sweden: members bought
|
| Poland: voted no, taken and given to another committee who rubber stamped
| it
|
| Germany, Russia: irregularity
|
| Spain: Microsoft spreads misinformation
|
| Ukraine, Venezuela: discrimination
`----
http://nazgum.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/2007-microsoft-in-review/
Long item. Good read. Model example of 'HOWTO B a Mafia'. It includes this:
The Vista Capable fiasco: to hell with system recs!
,----[ Quote ]
| Regardless of why it did what it did, Microsoft bears ultimate responsibility
| for its own actions.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080330-the-vista-capable-fiasco-to-hell-with-system-recs.html
By the way, Denmark changed to a "Yes". Were the likes of Jesper Stocholm
responsible in part? The whole thing is a steaming pile of sheer corruption
and people are cynical about it.
Related:
MS dirty tricks archive trickles back to life
,----[ Quote ]
| The 3,000 document archive from the Comes antitrust trial, which
| disappeared from the web abruptly when Microsoft settled the case last
| week, is beginning to trickle back into view.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/21/microsoft_archive_not_lost/
Tim Bray: Life Is Complicated
,----[ Quote ]
| Those with long memories might suggest a parallel between Rick’s position and
| mine when in 1997, I was sitting on the XML Working Group and co-editing the
| spec, on a pro bono basis as an indie consultant. Netscape hired me to
| represent their interests, and when I announced this, controversy ensued.
| Which is a nice way of saying that Microsoft went berserk; tried
| unsuccessfully to get me fired as co-editor, and then launched a vicious,
| deeply personal extended attack in which they tried to destroy my career and
| took lethal action against a small struggling company because my wife worked
| there. It was a sideshow of a sideshow of the great campaign to bury Netscape
| and I’m sure the executives have forgotten; but I haven’t.
`----
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/01/24/Mixup
EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder,
| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors. When
| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not
| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but
| statements promising to "cooperate fully."
|
| But at the same time, Microsoft is still a tough competitor. As Microsoft's
| Director of Corporate Standards Jason Matusow famously warned at his blog
| last year:
|
| Make no mistake; all parties are looking at the full picture to find
| strategies that will result in the outcome they desire. Provided - of
| course - that they do so within the context of the rules that apply to
| the process, this is exactly what one should expect to happen. It is
| going to be a very interesting next few months.
|
| Indeed, the months that followed proved to be interesting indeed. Microsoft
| said that some of its employees became over zealous, most flagrantly in
| Sweden, where marketing assists were promised to several business partners as
| incentives to join the national standards committee and vote for OOXM.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Gates Deposition Audio and Video
,----[ Quote ]
| Here is our local copy of the depositions of Bill Gates in the
| Microsoft anti-trust suit. We did our best to convert the
| original Windows Media files into an Open format, ogg. Your
| webmaster is responsible for the video transcoding, the
| audio-only files are contributed by a Groklaw member that
| requested to stay anonymous.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=GatesDepo
|
|
