[plug] These journalists have obviously had enough!

[Leon Brooks]

    http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1615&Page=1&pagePos=2

    Chris Sharp, director for platform strategy for Microsoft in
    Asia-Pacific, said governments that standardise on open-source
    software are hurting their local software vendors as they can't
    make the money needed to invest in their own software products. 

    Sharp, who used to work for Red Hat before joining Microsoft,
    said building open-source software is a "waste of money" and
    that a company was in effect giving away its intellectual
    property, preventing it from getting future benefits.

    [...]

    Apparently undermining his initial assertion about open-source
    ruining local software efforts, he pointed out that open source
    giants such as Red Hat and IBM are still after a return on their
    investments. "They are not for the greater good of the
    community; they are also after the money," he said. 

    He then contradicted himself again, adding that without getting
    back any commercial returns, a software company will find it
    difficult to invest in developing new software products.
    Intellectual property rights fuel sustained innovation, was his
    point. "With open source, there is no way to make more software." 

    [...]

    Two months ago, Microsoft's Asia-Pacific CTO Paul Moore told a
    bemused audience that no Asian governments were going with Linux.
    "I believe there is no government that has a policy going beyond
    recommending open source," he said, immediately contradicting
    himself with, "If so, I believe that is not to their best
    interest." 

    [...]

    An earlier, also failed, tactic in September, saw Microsoft's
    director of government affairs in Asia, Tom Robertson, explain
    that a deal by the Japanese, Chinese and South Korean
    governments to build their own open-source software was
    anti-competitive. Bizarre in the extreme you would think for a
    company investigated across the globe for abusing its monopoly. 

    So, Microsoft is not at all worried about open-source software
    destroying its market control because they are damaging
    themselves and no one is using open source anyway. It is so
    unconcerned in fact that the software giant has produced two
    cut-down versions of XP in very specific local languages and
    attempted to charge less than Linux, and failed to do so. 

    It is so unconcerned that it has rewritten its cardinal rule
    about one price for Windows across the globe. And is so
    unconcerned that its execs have been touring the region's
    governments non-stop for three months telling them why they
    should buy Microsoft. Yep, Microsoft is very relaxed about
    open source in Asia. 

A prominent figure in the Australian Linux scene recently related an 
interesting tale to our LA Press group in which Asian companies and 
countries were refusing to buy a particular piece of vertical market 
software because it didn't have a fully functional Linux version.

Given that China plus India equals ten times USA, and there's a lot more 
of Asia leaning towards Linux than those two countries, I think I can 
see some writing on Microsoft's wall here:

    "Meanie, meanie, take it and shove it"

According to the the Book of Daniel in the Gospel According to Tux, 
chapter five, verse twenty-five and forward,

    "this is the interpretation of the thing:
        'Meanie; we have numbered thy income, and finished it.',
        'Take it; Thou art weighed in the courts, and art found
         cheating.',
        'Shove it; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Gnomes
         and Penguins.'"

(-: With apologies to the original author, translators throughout the 
ages and the painstaking scholars who so carefully preserved the text 
for this, uh, somewhat loose translation from the Hebrew :-)

Cheers; Leon

--
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Vice President, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Past Committee Member, Linux Australia
http://osia.net.au/             Member, Open Source Industry Association