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Novell Promotes an OOXML Web Equivalent on Behalf of Microsoft

Silverlight puke, barf



We have already seen on numerous occasions how Novell essentially markets Microsoft's OOXML while everyone else slams it. But OOXML may be just the tip of the iceberg.

We have not mentioned Microsoft's Silverlight in a while, but it's a seriously ill lock-in which needs to be tackled as soon as possible. Antitrust regulators are already looking into it, but they seem to be lagging, almost falling behind the curve. Novell is a major part of this problem.

“...OOXML may be just the tip of the iceberg.”Like Microsoft Office, which Microsoft might try to make synonymous with OOXML (for marketing purpose using "open" on the one hand while dissociating and hiding the tight relationship between those two), Silverlight supports Macs and Windows PCs but not GNU/Linux. This is deliberate, so it is not a case involving technical deficiencies or impossibility. Expect the same from Microsoft's XPS.

In many ways, therefore, OOXML (not ISO OOXML, but the 'thing' which Microsoft will continue to implement further, undocumented) can be equated to XAML. It's the same darn mess and a case against Free software. It also brings us to yesterday 'news' (vapourware morelike).

Microsoft has been trying to create Silverlight hype recently (self-fulfilling prophecies it would hope). It has been saying that Silverlight support would triple and it is now "teasing" people with what they call "big" deals to be announced. Reconsider the Nokia-Silverlight story and its effect on Linux.

From the news:

Microsoft teases mobile developers with 'big' Silverlight deals



[...]

Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division, told the company's ReMix 08 conference the goal is to run Silverlight "everywhere".

He did not name names, but promised more deals in the months ahead.

[...]

It sees ubiquity as key to Silverlight's success, and it is gunning for the player and its runtime to match Adobe Systems' Flash in market- and mind-share and on PC and mobile platforms.


"Ubiquity as key," eh? Novell to Microsoft's rescue! Once again.

"At Microsoft I learned the truth about ActiveX and COM and I got very interested in it immediately."
   --Miguel de IcazaScott Guthrie has a friend (almost colleague) at Novell, whose name is Miguel de Icaza. Miguel&Novell is [sic] helping Microsoft in its fight against Adobe, which happens to be a new member of the Linux Foundation. This ought to show you just how close Microsoft and Novell have become, despite the fact that Silverlight is a case against Linux and the GPL. Remember that Flash is not another Silverlight. They are very different.

Remember again and bear in mind that Microsoft does not support Linux but pretends that it does in order for Web developers not to avoid it. At the same time, Microsoft is likely to have already assigned an OSP to Silverlight and it excludes the GPL, by design. Even Miguel saw this and protested out in the open, yet he continues to work on the very same tool which is intended to sabotage GNU/Linux. From Ars technica (yesterday):

At LugRadio Live this past weekend, Novell developer Miguel de Icaza gave a presentation on Moonlight, an open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight web framework. During the presentation, he described the current status of Moonlight and showed some of the ways that it can be used to create richer applications for the Linux desktop.

The earliest work on Moonlight was done in a very short period of time by a group of highly dedicated Novell programmers and Mono community members so that it could be demonstrated to the general public at the Paris MIX 07 event. Moonlight later received Microsoft's backing as the official Silverlight implementation for Linux.


Of course Microsoft supports a case against GNU/Linux, which is done independently from Microsoft (i.e. no expenses), always playing catchup, and putting users at legal risk (or forcing them to forge software patent deals with Microsoft). It's the same scenario with Novell's OOXML translators. Novell believes it's a mutual relationship. Or is it? ⬆

"We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger….If you’re going to kill someone, there isn’t much reason to get all worked up about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Any discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger."

--Jim Allchin, Platform Group Vice President, Microsoft

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