Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an incarnation of a known (eet), pseudonymous, forever-nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.

You have provided some very valuable references that tell a great story. All I can add is the following related citation and story, whose shades return to mind.

Gates blackmailed Danish gv’ment

Microsoft boss Bill Gates threatened to kill 800 Danish jobs if Denmark opposed the European Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, reports today’s Danish financial daily Børsen, quoted by NoSoftwarePatents.com.

[...]

According to Børsen, last November Gates told Danish pm Anders Fogh and two ministers that he’d kill all 800 jobs in Navision, a Danish company acquired by Microsoft in 2002, unless the EU quickly decided to legalize software patents through the directive.

Microsoft will continue to play whack-a-mole with ODF and Free software. It’s like a totalitarian regime targeting any little seedling of revolt or opposition. The least we can do is keep our eyes open and have it all documented. Thanks for all the information. Information is our friend and with over 10,000 pageviews per day our message is getting out there.

It *IS* all about Microsoft.

I say this jokingly, but also quite seriously. Jokingly because technically, it isn’t about Microsoft… it could easily have been about Word Perfect if they were still the dominator in document formats. Truly, it is about perpetual access to data through the used of non-proprietary and fully documented formats. “ODF” isn’t here to stay… it might last another 10, maybe 20 years at most before something far superior comes along. But ODF is fully documented and could be translated into whatever the next great format standard will be.

But seriously, it *IS* about Microsoft because Microsoft has lost the trust of their users and customers. They have done this with amazingly consistent and persistent erosion. With every new release, with every security problem, with every denial, with every DRM addition, with every copyright protection service, with every Genuine Advantage(r), with every BSA audit, with every criminal conviction, with every attempt to evade or forestall punishment, with every shameless act for which they have become quite notorious in the IT community… the ignorant public has started to notice what upsets their nerds ever so much. And now they are starting to re-think the way they store their data because at any moment, they want to be able to change their operating platform. They trusted Microsoft for at least the past 10 years with their operating systems, applications and data. Microsoft had their, our and even my personal trust for quite some time. The trust is gone or disappearing and now people are taking action.

And is it really the best way for Microsoft to handle this problem? I mean to lobby and complain? Why not attempt to save their business by changing their course and direction!? What is so bad about change?! Is actual competition too much for Microsoft to handle? Can’t they just make a “better product” instead of playing all of these government games?

Perhaps the Microsoft apologists would care to suggest a possible reason why they can just serve the interests of their customers rather than fighting to save their business model? The customer wants ODF. Why shouldn’t Microsoft provide that to them?

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“And is it really the best way for Microsoft to handle this problem? ”
It is the only way they know how.

“I mean to lobby and complain? Why not attempt to save their business by changing their course and direction!? ”
They can no more change this course and direction than we can change our own DNA (excluding retroviruses, etc). Besides, they’d have to want to change. And they don’t. They pride themselves in this method and culture and approach.

“What is so bad about change?!
It hurts. It is unfamiliar. The outcome is not certain. Like Dell now trying to do retail. Don’t think that was the first thing on their list. They are having to play in a game in which they are newcomers.

“Is actual competition too much for Microsoft to handle? ”
Yes. They don’t know how to compete the normal way. With an actual salable product, on the merits.

“Can’t they just make a “better product” instead of playing all of these government games?”
This IS their product. It is what they do, what they are best at. What they do better than anyone else. Software is just the arena. They are not so much a software company as they are a “protect windows and office at all freaking costs” company. That is the bottom line to everything they do.

Will they fly Ballmer over there to lobby top politicians as they did in Spain in 2006 when the largest regional government (Andalusia) started to consider a migration to Linux? (He also did so with Munich, and simmilar dismal maneovers were performed in Denmark in order to get support for software patentability bills trying to be introduced in the EU.)

http://www.google.es/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.canalsur.es%2Fhtml%2Finformativos%2F-ArchivoNoticias%2F2006%2F10.Octubre%2F17%2F171006-bp-005-AND.htm&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=es&ie=UTF8
Original news (in spanish):
http://www.canalsur.es/html/informativos/-ArchivoNoticias/2006/10.Octubre/17/171006-bp-005-AND.htm

This is very much geostrategic politics. They are trying to avoid the “domino effect” a countrywide adoption of FOSS or truly-open standards (this excludes MSOOXML) and its endorsement by an important government would have over the entire international environment. By isolating the “rotten apple” and overthrowing any initiative by public institutions to adopt FOSS and open standards they try to avoid the growing awareness about the advantages of open technologies and its suitability to serve best the governments’ obligations to the citizens and the best use of taxpayers’ hard earned money. Word is spreading fast and high:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/opensource/cases/index_en.htm

But they keep trying to disinform and propagate FUD:
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2006/10/16/lobbyists-denigrate-open-source-in-leaked-letter-to-ec

The alternative is caving to Microsoft wishes. Ballmer’s is that all governments end up locked-in forever with agreements like the one they are trying to get in Chile:
http://www.google.es/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fayerwayer.com%2F2007%2F07%2Fciudadanos-chilenos-ahora-son-propiedad-de-microsoft-corporation%2F&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=es&ie=UTF8
http://www.fayerwayer.com/2007/07/ciudadanos-chilenos-ahora-son-propiedad-de-microsoft-corporation/

More analysis on these issues:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsubsonica.blogsome.com%2F2006%2F10%2F17%2Fpresiones-a-nuestros-representantes-electos-en-contra-del-software-libre-y-del-open-source%2F&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

It is our obligation to keep dennouncing all these maneovers against all of us and the public interest.