A YEAR and a half ago we wrote about an HP smoking gun or at least a deja vu that can help connect Microsoft and SCO. Groklaw has just found an interesting Comes vs Microsoft exhibit which shows how Microsoft responded to HP's embrace of Linux. From the introduction:
I have another Comes v. Microsoft exhibit to share with you, Exhibit 9542 [PDF], a November 22, 2002 email to Jim Allchin and Orlando Ayala from Mike Oldham. It has to do with a planned meeting on the 25th between the two companies, on their "Better Together" theme. I think it will explain some things we've sometimes wondered about. One thing is clear. Microsoft was seriously concerned about Linux. And HP? Somewhat flexible, I'd say. Note the part about "the HP plan of record" to "bring a new Linux powered device into the mid-range marketplace" regarding NAS devices (network attached storage devices) and how Microsoft was able to convince them not to do that.
“Microsoft recently used similar tactics against i4i and against OLPC.”That was in 2002. Interesting. We have more Comes material queued for posting, but not enough time to work on it. One exhibit [PDF] (full text here) that was shown to us by a reader is what Groklaw describes as: "Letter from Bill Gates to Robert Carr, GO Corporation, December 4, 1987 ("It is too bad that you never got a chance to make Framework into the mainstream product it deserved to be. In the objects we are building for the object oriented versions of our languages we will have a concept very similar to your frame.")"
It "looks like useful work," said our reader, who helped us see a similarity to Mono, .NET, and Java (former Java developers sometimes join Microsoft). "My point is to update the blank files on GR with brief relevant quotes," said our reader, "And, for instance in relation to GO, to create a narrative from the texts. In this case, billg [Bill Gates] gets a looksee at GO technology, then after sabotaging GO, incorporates it [into] Microsoft product and later on offers the GO CEO a job at Microsoft."
We have already gathered "GO" + Microsoft references, extracted the relevant quotes, and put them in chronological order, then inserted links to relevant original Comes exhibits. It's quite blatant. Microsoft recently used similar tactics against i4i and against OLPC.
Our reader also mentioned the movie "Inside Man".
He wrote: "Near the end there is a voiceover quote referring to the villain (Arthur Case), something like "he sold his integrity for money and spend the rest of his life trying to get it back". Just then the scene switches to a picture of a billboard, of Microsoft. Get the movie [trailer] and check it out.
"No shot in a movie is by accident, is this an accident or not?"
Another reader has sent us some articles on Microsoft -- old articles taken from different Web sites. "I’m sure you already probably know all this information," he said, but actually, no, there is a lot of material there which we will organise quite soon. "If Boycott Novell website could offer a download it all as archive version that is html based, it can be translated very eas[ily]," this reader added.
This reader also sent us parts of a book from a revealing account of the daughter of Pam Edstrom (of Waggener Edstrom). Steve Ballmer's wife comes from there and a lot of dirty secrets about the inner culture at Microsoft are being told there. Expect some interesting posts soon. This book is titled "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates". ⬆