Once a cheater, always a cheater (irreparable mindset)

Oh, how many times we have mentioned Portugal, the context being OOXML. If you believe that OOXML-associated dirty tricks are over, be aware that they have only just begun. There are already signs of Microsoft returning to its wrongdoings (e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Here is the latest:

Portugal will send Microsoft to the BRM

Microsoft, as president of the Portuguese Technical Committee, is already controlling who will be at the BRM for Portugal. The Head of Delegation will be... Microsoft!

This isn't the first time that Microsoft fixes the deck in Portugal. Plenty of details about past events can be found here.

To repeat something which was mentioned before, here is a shocking report about Microsoft controlling the OOXML meeting in Portugal. It claimed that there were no chair available (for outside intervention).

In spite of various communications, we [IBM] are still locked out and will not be allowed to participate. Microsoft will be there, as well as a special Microsoft guest, as will various Microsoft business partners, and others.

Unsurprisingly, after all that dodgy (even fraudulent) activity, Microsoft bought the "Yes" vote it craved for.

Commitee presided over by Microsoft decides in it's favor 13-7:

It's with much disgust that I see that after an initial membership controlled by Microsoft of 7 to 1, it was only possible to add the participation of 12 more entities, 6 in favor of open standards, and 6 in favor of Microsoft.

If from the the first meeting it was clear that there was a favorable support for Microsoft of 7 to 1, the voting just an hour ago of YES WITH COMMENTS is sadly revealing.

If you wish to know more about OOXML in Portugal, here is a decent starting point. We will be seeing a lot more such stories in the coming months. As Microsoft correctly stated, it's all about its commercial interests.

You may find yourself asking, "what does this have to do with Novell?" Well, the following new article from Tectonic ought to shed some light, and particularly the following bit:

He [Microsoft spokesman] stated that the Ecma committee [favouring OOXML] included "competitors deploying competing platforms (such as Apple and Novell)....

Well done, Novell. Microsoft is very proud of you and maybe it will repay you for this favour with some SUSE support coupons ('permission' to sell GNU/Linux). ⬆