Here is just a quick word of caution: Now comes the latest FUD from the Burton Group, Microsoft’s left-arm FUD buddy, which was only recently used against Google, VMWare and ODF. As usual, it all comes in the form of a report Microsoft can cite and distribute copies of. It’s now used against Free software, too.

News from Europe suggests that Microsoft still uses old tricks to ruin competitors' conferences and take away European sovereignty

It's a radical departure, this news from Microsoft (MSFT) that openness between its products and the rest of the universe is more than a hollow platitude. To take Microsoft at its Word, given this release, is to open an era of an entirely new Microsoft. But is it?

...when I see that one attorney thinks there's an "easy technical work-around" for Microsoft's patent violation in Word, my alarm bells go off. There is no easy fix here, and, short of waving the white-flag, Microsoft may very well have to stop selling Word, and thus Microsoft Office, this fall.

Microsoft Web site reveals a Microsoft lobbying arm trying to pass the notorious Community Patent

Microsoft was issued a permanent injunction against selling Microsoft Word products due to a patent infringement dispute with a Canadian company called i4i.

Microsoft claims to have embraced ODF, but a look beneath the surface should suggest caution.

“I’ve killed at least two Mac conferences. [...] by injecting Microsoft content into the conference, the conference got shut down. The guy who ran it said, why am I doing this?” –Microsoft's chief evangelist. So: Microsoft is trying to “kill” yet another event of its competitors by repelling attendees and changing the agenda in exchange for money

Both Microsoft and Novell can be accused of harming perceptions of “Open Source”. Novell seeks justification by clarifying that it really is a mixed-source company, whereas Microsoft shoves the word “open” everywhere it deems possible.