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“Die Partei hat immer Recht”
,----[ Quote ]
| The fact is, nobody outside the Ecma and probably ISO knows how OOXML looks
| like now. It is particularly cumbersome, not so much because that could
| amount to one more irregularity against the JTC1’s SC 34, but also because it
| creates yet one more precedent in the long story of anti-competitive
| practices by Microsoft. At the time this article is being written, there is
| no sign of OOXML and according to the loosest estimations, we should have
| seen it on the 2 nd of May at the latest.
|
| [...]
|
| Now if you care to ask me, what in blazes does this linguistic considerations
| have to do with OOXML? The repeated and successful attempts by Microsoft to
| influence the outcome of the OOXML standardization process at the levels of
| the ISO’s JTC1 and of the national standards body was in itself unseen and
| the evidence that some large corporations are ready to do whatever it takes
| to fulfill their strategic objectives. Yet, the incongruous, unexpected
| behaviour of the standardization world has given way to a near total impunity
| for the Ecma and Microsoft. No matter how twisted a situation can be, the
| JTC1’s SC34 should always be followed, and when the rules do not fit the
| Ecma, then the rules are ignored or simply changed. At this stage, we do not
| know the reasons for which OOXML has not yet been published. I’m not even
| requesting the very final, ISO -stamped version of OOXML, but just the final,
| post BRM, consolidated version of OOXML. That too does not seem to exist. But
| worry not, some reasons will be made up, almost on the fly, cunningly lame
| and incredibly mediocre explanations that will show the utter submission to
| powerful interests of some inside the SC34 and the complete brainwashing of
| others.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/05/05/die-partei-hat-immer-recht/
US warns China about standards war
,----[ Quote ]
| THE FORMER English colony of Virginia has warned the glorious People’s
| Republic of China that it needs to follow technology standards and not impose
| them on the rest of the world.
|
| That's its job.
|
| US Under-Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla warned that if China went
| around creating its own technology standards then it risked "technological
| isolation".
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/09/warns-china-standards-war
Related:
Soviet Microsoft: How Resistance to Free Markets and Open Ideas Will
the Unravel the Software Superpower
,----[ Quote ]
| The New Soviet Union.
|
| Microsoft isn't evil for being Microsoft, but because its leadership
| values control above delivering good products or advancing the state
| of the art. Rather than competing in the market, Microsoft's
| leadership has pursued a strategy of repeatedly deceiving the market.
| The result has been decades of productivity losses that negatively
| impact the rest of the world's economy and distract humanity away from
| technical achievement to instead fiddle with shoddy software that is
| weak because it was developed outside of competitive pressure....
|
| However, the iron fist of resistance to outside ideas was as
| destructive to the USSR as the inbreeding of royalty was to Europe's
| empire nations before it. Microsoft is facing the same failure by
| arrogantly pushing old strategies and ignoring the potential of open
| source. Microsoft's anti-open rhetoric even sounds a lot like the
| Soviet's view of free markets, laced with fear-based propaganda that
| promises dire consequences for experimenting with the open source
| ideas that are already proven to work outside of the Red Square of
| Redmond....
`----
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/12/13/soviet-microsoft-how-resistance-to-free-markets-and-open-ideas-will-the-unravel-the-software-superpower/#more-1347
What's all the FUD about?
,----[ Quote ]
| My favorite, classic FUD comes from Steve Ballmer. "There's no company called
| Linux, there's barely a Linux road map. Yet Linux sort of springs organically
| from the earth. And it had, you know, the characteristics of communism that
| people love so very, very much about it." Here, Ballmer went to the route of
| the American psyche. How many Americans, to this day, still cringe a little
| in fear at the voicing of "communism"? If there's anyway to turn Americans
| off from buying a Linux PC, it's to emblazon the image of a big, red, Soviet
| Flag on the face of Linux, to conjure up an image of FIdel Castro reciting
| his communist propaganda from a speech he'd written on his openoffice,org
| word processor, to strike fear into our hearts at the thought of a Wisconsin
| Senator named Joe McCarthy barging into our houses in the middle of the night
| to send us away to prison for life because we owned an Ubuntu PC. I can't say
| if this FUD actually worked; it was so preposterous, and so few people give
| any credence to what Ballmer says anymore, that people might have just
| laughed at it. But it does show the depths to which proprietary software
| makers will go to keep the Linux and open source software threat out of their
| wallets.
`----
http://linuxhow2.com/Feature_Articles/What_s_all_the_FUD_about.html
Is Sharing Software Capitalist or Communist?
,----[ Quote ]
| And why is sharing so "Communist", anyway? Don't Capitalists pride themselves
| on sharing their money? Is it better to share money or software? Is it better
| to share money or food? Most 'conservatives' (and many 'liberals') recite the
| proverb, "it's better to teach a man to fish for himself." So again, how is
| sharing Communist?
`----
http://blue-gnu.biz/content/sharing_software_capitalist_or_communist
Microsoft's man in Europe carries communist-era baggage
,----[ Quote ]
| That report sparked a flurry of speculation in Czech media and online
| chat rooms about Muehlfeit's role under the communist regime, and it
| elicited a public statement at the time from Microsoft, which
| supported Muehlfeit's integrity.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsofts-man-europe-carries-communist-era/story.aspx?guid=%7BA26DE642%2DD6BC%2D4946%2DA2A7%2D158330F9E89B%7D&siteid=yhoof
Free software out of passion - or, the curse of capitalism
,----[ Quote ]
| I think perhaps they have been cursed by capitalism. Their arguments
| have the implicit and explicit assumption that capitalism drives
| all things. This is revealed by Mr. Anderson's statement, "People
| wonder how Wikipedia magically arose from nothing, and how 50
| million bloggers suddenly appeared, almost all of them writing
| for free". Mr. Green's thesis is based entirely on capitalism.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/the_curse_of_capitalism
Opening Up with Simon Phipps, Sun's Chief Open Source Officer
,----[ Quote ]
| In the past, you've claimed open source is "connected capitalism." Can
| you explain what you mean by that statement?
|
| PHIPPS: Yes, that phrase makes some people concerned when they first hear
| it, but in context it makes sense. Some people in the computer industry
| compare open source to communism. Instead, I suggest that open source
| is about people creating things they value, which is quite an
| entrepreneurial concept. And because open source projects aren't performed
| in isolation, the phrase "connected capitalism" seems to be a good way
| to explain the end result of the virtuous cycle of open sourced
| evelopment....
`----
http://www.sun.com/emrkt/innercircle/newsletter/0906feature.html
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