There are reasons to be repelled by Microsoft's attempts not just to deceive and freeze, but also to approach 'enemy lines', maybe maliciously.

On numerous occasions before, we wrote about and also showed examples of Microsoft’s vapourware tactics [1, 2, 3], which it speaks about openly (but in private). You might find the following exhibit [PDF] enlightening.

Microsoft is lobbying FOSS projects to waste their collective efforts on a port to vapourware (Windows 7)

Microsoft truly continues to amaze me. Over the years Microsoft has definitely been able to make my jaw drop at most of its brash business moves let alone some of its quarterly earnings. But Microsoft being Microsoft still continues to defy all logic because “hey they're just that rich”.

Your computer screen’s menus and icons disappear, slipping beneath a wall of funereal black. The computer still works, but it will not work for you.

If Microsoft so much as moves a finger, metaphorically, of course, someone is always there to claim it is a plot to destroy Linux and/or open-source software, or so it seems. Generally, I try to avoid commenting on these sorts of stories or promoting them at all.

A stacked panel in ISO (occupied by Microsoft employees) has open admissions of a scheme to hijack ODF

Microsoft's very latest moves whose goal is to vacuum people's personal information/profiles/medical records

In the past, Microsoft used to be untouchable. Today, things seem to be shifting drastically. Microsoft still has a monopoly on the desktop computer market but it is being threatened from numerous sides.