Summary: Despite Microsoft's habit of paying companies to ditch Microsoft's competition (be it GNU/Linux or Google), Serena says that rumours about it are wrong

MICROSOFT loves to suppress fair competition. A good example of that would be sub-notebooks. We wrote about that subject in:

• Russia's Antimonopoly Service Targets ASUS, Toshiba, H-P, Samsung and Dell for Potentially Colluding with Microsoft
• ASUS Enters the Slog Business
• More Suspicious Moves from ASUS
• It's Unofficial: Microsoft Pays ASUS (Kickbacks) to Block GNU/Linux. Will EU Commission Step in?
• ASUS: “Currently, We're Closely Tied up With Microsoft”
• What is Going on with ASUS and GNU/Linux?
• ASUS Profits Fall 94% After Getting “Closely Tied Up with Microsoft” at the Expense of GNU/Linux
• Microsoft Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing Sub-notebooks
• Does Microsoft Blackmail Sub-notebooks Vendors?
• What Microsoft's Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks

According to this report, Microsoft may be dumping 'free' (gratis) software on companies (sometimes it bribes users) which it then uses as "case studies" for abandonment of Google. It's a form of bounty. [via]

I heard that Microsoft gave Serena BPOS for free for three years, a claim Serena disputes.

The truth might be close to it. The exact phrasing of this dispute would matter a lot because there is wiggling room in plausible denial and this was done before. Microsoft is making some cases against the competition, often by paying to manufacture these cases. A good example might be LSE, which failed badly [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and ran away from Microsoft to GNU/Linux. ⬆