microsoft

A thought hit me this morning while I was reading through Microsoft's latest garbage-fodder (also known as "research") on OOXML and Sharepoint. Here is the world's largest software company taking potshots at open source, which maybe affects 0.001% of its revenues today. If that.

Now look at Oracle, SAP, IBM, etc. You won't find a single other company making a concerted effort to fight open source. Not a one. Larry Ellison (Oracle) says open source is not something to be feared, but rather something "to be explained." They clearly see open source as something to work with, and sometimes something to work through, but not something to destroy.

Sure, these and other proprietary-software companies occasionally dip into mudslinging against open source, but they don't regularly buy analysts, set up anti-open source sites, rattle patent sabres, and generally insist on making a fetish out of open source's demise.

Just Microsoft. Why?… Read more

Dana Blankenhorn over at sister publication ZDNet has a great analysis of the looming Microsoft Sharepoint threat. As Dana points out, it's a threat that open source is well-suited to meet and beat, but doing so will require some project coordination.

Interestingly, it's a threat that the proprietary Enterprise Content Management vendors have rejected as credible, even as Sharepoint boots them out of customer accounts. While ECM, operating system, database, etc. vendors sleep, Sharepoint is gaining ground.

If only open source could get its act together:… Read more

Wow. I guess when you have more cash than taste you can afford to buy research reports that say all sorts of nice things about you. Open-source companies have to rely on things like products that please customers; Microsoft can afford to ramrod research down customers' throats.

A great example, as Mary Jo notes on ZDNet, is two new Microsoft-commissioned research reports that (gasp!) find Microsoft Sharepoint is a better investment for systems integrators and that "Office Open XML (is) the format showing the most progressive adoption rates in the marketplace over the next 12 months."

The research is of dubious value given that it's bought and paid for, but what is fascinating is the target of the research: open source.… Read more

Arst Design has a probing article on Microsoft's Open Office XML 'standard.' Yeesh. OOXML is even worse than I thought. And to think I wanted to give Microsoft the benefit of a doubt. Fool me once....

Microsoft is trying to push new file formats that are using ZIP and XML. Are those new file formats any good for Office developers ? In other words, should anyone feel safe to make direct access to file parts, and start getting free of running instances of Microsoft Office and its COM object model, usually through VBA?

They insist on the fact that, provided … Read more

The patent-watchers over at Slashdot found this interesting submission: a patent application from Microsoft for an Adaptive heads-up user interface for automobiles. Reading through the obscure language of patents, we managed to glean that the engineers who came up with the system want to move all the information currently displayed on navigation screens, car stereos, cell phones, and instruments onto the windshield. The patent cites safety concerns with our current gadget-laden autos and selves, where people are constantly taking their eyes off the road to look at this or that screen. And instead of crowding the windshield with every bit … Read more

First it was China. Now India and Brazil. The rout of Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) standardization efforts is now essentially complete. When the world's fastest growing economies reject Microsoft, Microsoft has a problem.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about India's and Brazil's separate rejections of Microsoft's attempts to standardize its Open Office XML. Microsoft is holding out hope that if it resolves all 200 of India's complaints with its submission, it will have OOXML approved.

Yes, but this largely misses the point.… Read more

Wow. Double wow. I haven't seen Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols this worked up since, well, ever. He could almost be writing for The Register with the way he smacks around Microsoft for its top-25 (most active, mind you) open-source projects on CodePlex. It makes for very fun reading.

It doesn't, however, accurately portray the projects--there are some that actually sound useful and interesting--but I don't want a little (just a little, mind you) accuracy get in the way of a good ol' cage match between Microsoft and SJVN.

My favorite (and probably most apt) comment:… Read more

As Mary Jo Foley reports, Microsoft has pulled down its "Get the (wrong) Facts" website and replaced it with a "Compare" website.

Consider this the kinder, gentler version of getting the "facts." Unless, of course, you're Red Hat. The site doesn't talk about Novell or other Linux distributions. But it spares no criticism of Red Hat, the one vendor that hasn't bowed down to savor its toejam.… Read more

I read this Charlie Babcock (InformationWeek) interview with Peter Levine (CEO, XenSource) and Wes Wasson (corporate VP of worldwide marketing, Citrix), and I'm left with the feeling that XenSource really doesn't see Xen's future in open source, but rather in Windows.

Which makes me think it may be time to fork the project and move on. But then, the company already did that for us, didn't it?… Read more