[Cialug] Microsoft Paranoid

[Todd Walton]

Microsoft Believes IBM Masterminded Anti-OOXML Initiative
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/30/1930206

mahuyar writes "Microsoft executives have accused IBM of leading the
campaign against their initiative to have Office Open XML approved by
the International Organization for Standardization. 'Nicos Tsilas,
senior director of interoperability and IP policy at Microsoft, said
that IBM and the likes of the Free Software Foundation have been
lobbying governments to mandate the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF)
standard to the exclusion of any other format. "They have made this a
religious and highly political debate," Tsilas said. "They are doing
this because it is advancing their business model. Over 50 percent of
IBM's revenues come from consulting services."'"

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With a little thought, a person could easily recast computer industry
politics in the mold of Middle East politics.  Microsoft is Iran,
getting paranoid about suspected encroachments on its sovereignty.
Who knows what Microsoft is building behind those closed walls?

And why are they so bent on taking over all the little countries
surrounding them, like with their "Response Point"?  Why does
Microsoft have to be in *everything*?

-todd