Why Apple's and Microsoft's talk about "standards" is merely a shameful façade

"OpenOffice.org is one of the most popular products of the FOSS (Free/Open Source) community, and for many millions of people it is their first experience of FOSS. Key to OpenOffice.org's success has been its ability to compete openly and freely with competitors on any platform, and demonstrate that FOSS is a better choice..."

Tech companies are playing hardball on smart phones, yet Linux could gain the upper hand with Intel and Nokia going on the defensive with MeeGo. To get you on Facebook while on the bus, play a tune, and - oh, yeah - make a call, Microsoft and Apple are finding new ways to reign in the competition on phones: they're using patent threats.

Microsoft does not keep its promises regarding “Open Source” in .NET and its MVP Miguel de Icaza is trying to ram .NET into Web browsers

"All video codecs are covered by patents," Jobs said in the e-mail, according to Roy. "A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other 'open source' codecs now

Charlie Stross nail on the head with his analysis that Jobs sees the end of the PC world rockering towards us and he wants to keep Apple hugely profitable in a world where both computers and broadband are almost freely available. ... Stay tuned folks.

Further evidence that those supporting software patents are front groups of giant corporations (seeking to tighten a monopoly) and patent lawyers who treat software patents as additional income

Why, then, is Apple, in a letter full of talk of openness and standards, promoting this closed codec, a codec that will once again shackle the web to a proprietary technology, just as we're busy breaking free from Flash? ...
Jobs' letter talks about how it's bad for a platform if developers use cross-platform technologies... And yet, without any sense of shame, Apple ships iTunes for Windows.