Using a press release which is similar to one that Xandros quite recently published , Linspire cares to inform us that it will fight OpenDocument format adoption, together with Microsoft. The deal which those two companies agreed on said so explicitly, so we already knew this was coming. Is Mr. Carmony expecting us to be impressed by this? He has just paid to publish an item that promotes Microsoft Office lockin.

Remind yourselves of all the effort that has been put into making OpenDocument a reality. It is ironic that 3 Linux companies and Corel are the ones whose opinion gets 'bought' by Microsoft. They are then inclined to vote against the importance of a single unified standard which promotes real competition. They intend to waste money and effort making Microsoft even stronger.

Update: shortly after this announcement, the Inquirer had a go with the short article "Linspire pays the cost of Volish agreement".

Update #2: I suspect we are beginning to see the same strategy being used by Microsoft even elsewhere. They try to beat Sony at high-definition video formats, without duality. They now use 'allies' to artificially create and boost 'support' for their standard. Have a look at the latest news:

Amazon.com and Microsoft form alliance to push HD DVD

[...]

The jointly sponsored 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project from Amazon and Microsoft will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected "indie" titles.

It smells like a familiar old trick. Microsoft could not get OOXML accepted or adopted. It then paid companies to accept deals which resulted in pseudo-support for OOXML.

For context, here are some articles on this one particular topic. These are a bunch of recent developments which show Microsoft losing to Sony.

• Blockbuster to focus on Blu-ray



• Toshiba slashes HD DVD hardware sales forecast



• Sony claims more than a million PAL PS3s purchased



• Sony upbeat in DVD format battle

What about XPS? Is PDF a victim-to-be? ECMA and Microsoft are apparently repeating the same old routine.

Update #3: After heavy lobbying by Microsoft, including 2 CIOs that were supportive to open formats losing their jobs, the state of Massachusetts loses its 'religion'. Another case of gross manipulation. Write it down. Andy U. comments on this.