[odf-discuss] Linspire's MOOX initiatives

[Christian Einfeldt]

On 7/11/07, Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera at zmsl.com> wrote:
>
> Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> > So to a newbie like me, it seems as if the upside of even broken
> > interoperability between ODF and MOOX is greater than the downside.
>
> A lot of people would feel that way. I find it difficult to balance the
> pros and cons right now. Your position has a lot of merit.



I'm glad to hear you say this, because I have been feeling like Alice in
Wonderland recently.  Why in the world is Microsoft doing these deals?  They
don't make sense to me.  As I said in my most recent email, I am convinced
there is not legal precedent in these deals.  And even the
monkey-see-monkey-do precedent is not working in Microsoft's favor.  And
here's the really freaky thing ----->  MICROSOFT IS PAYING PEOPLE FOR
"VIOLATING" ITS PATENTS !!!  What kind of patent infringement plaintiff pays
people to infringe its patent?  No, if you have a clear patent violation,
you go to court to get an injunction to cut off your opponent's air supply,
like NTP did with RIM.  This is one reason that I started the "Sue me first,
Microsoft" list of people who are calling bullshit on Microsoft's patent
claims.  And, by the way, we now have 1,502 people who have signed up:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php?title=SMFM_list_page_12

So I am mystified as to why it is that Microsoft is entering into these
deals.  The only thing that I can suggest is that Microsoft is attempting to
extend, embrace and extinguish, just as they have done with every other
competing technology.  IMHO, they want to continue to hold court in Redmond,
and turn competitors into "business partners" who will come on bended knee
to Redmond, as is described in this article, which Lars Nooden pointed out
to me:

http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=741

By the way, if you have not yet dugg that article, please consider doing so
here:

http://digg.com/microsoft/Tips_on_how_to_drink_the_Microsoft_cool_aid_while_on_biz_trips_to_Redmond

As that article says, once a vendor gets into the Microsoft camp, Microsoft
continues to pressure that vendor to use Microsoft tools to the exclusion of
competitors' tools.  So, for example, Microsoft (presumably) paid Linspire
to use Microsoft Live Search in place of Google as the default search field
for Linspire 6.0.  I don't know that to be true, I am only surmising that
such a payment was made, because why else would any vendor chose Microsoft
Live Search, which sucks, over Google's immensely better search?  So I
believe that the borg believes that it can simply buy its way into the FOSS
business network which is fantastic news for us, because, in theoretical
terms, it is what Clayton Christensen refers to as "cramming".  Cramming is
the practice of a market leader attempting to deploy a disruptive technology
to serve its best customers, and as the case of RCA versus Sony shows, a
market leader can rarely win by deploying the market entrant's disruptive
technology.

So again, it seems to me as if the upside of building bridges is greater
than the downside of adopting this broken anti-interoperability
interoperability.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.opendocumentfellowship.com/pipermail/odf-discuss/attachments/20070711/c58a817a/attachment-0001.html