Seems that Microsoft is having a tougher time buying off persuading officials in Europe of it’s rightousness than in the US.  The European Union slapped fines of 357m USD on the firm for not complying with it’s landmark ruling that should have forced MS to play fair in the server market.
What they ended up doing […]

In a feat almost unheard of Microsoft is listening to it’s customers and taking steps to support ODF.
They’re sponsoring a French partner company to create a connector software that will allow saving to and reading from ODF files in MS Office.  And offering it with a BSD license.
The only baffling part is why it took […]

It seems that Microsoft can’t violate the antitrust ruling against it from the EC.  They’re set to crack down with fines on MS for not following through on opening up their server protocols to competitors as part of an anti-trust ruling.
This one’s pretty pat really.  They were supposed to document their server protocols to allow […]

And as the quote below shows, they’re all about open.  They love the word.  As long as open means “runs only on, for, and by Microsoft” they’re as open as they come.
Where as robotics applications usually use stable and home-built apps to make the buggers do their automated thing.
Somehow I don’t think it’ll fly.  But […]

What would you call outpouring a donation almost equivelent to the cumulative total of your past five years of donating to one state on the eve of their voting to mandate open standards?
Trying to buy a state, of course. And who better to purchase off state senators with *ahem* charitable donations than Microsoft.
After all, […]

Following up a story about an undocumented flaw in Word, to which my reaction was “people still use that? ” Andy Updegrove has written an article about press stories and how they spread.
Really, you can put “stories” in the bunny ears of death there, because it’s more about the lack thereof than any […]

If you were looking for a format to store your document in, what would you look at?  Robust support for whatever it is you’re doing and maybe cross compatibility, right?
Not Microsoft.  They’re so divorced from reality over in Redmond that their number one priority is on a format’s performance.  Over here in CT, we’re not […]

Microsofts Word is now experiencing viral outbreaks on undocumented bugs.  All of you office worker types take note.
Chaulk one up for the crowd that thinks being locked down to a single proprietary format just might not be in the publics best interest.  Especially with text document formatting.  C’mon folks.  Does which set of instructions provides […]

Microsoft is pitching Nintendo’s Wii as the answer to the PS3. Why it would give the Nintendo system a shout aside it’s own kit is unclear, aside from Microsoft folks having the marketing sense of a roadside lemonade vendor.  I’m guessing they do their best when they’ve managed to crush all competition in a market […]

Massachusetts is just abounding with special interest groups that don’t want the government to use Open Standards.  They’ll do everything from stifle innovation to give you cancer (but only in the state of California).  Funny how these groups come out of the woodwork to oppose any kind of standards yet remained silent on the fact […]