Microsoft Against Open Source

We plan to collect here information on methods used by Microsoft to stop the spread of open source and free software.

Lower pricing

• "Microsoft recently slashed its prices in Thailand, offering a Windows/Office package for just $40 after the government there announced plans for promoting open source." This come from Vietnam embracing open-source products, by Ben Stocking, October 30, 2003, Mercury News.
• Microsoft donated hundreds of licences to Venezuelan administration in 2003-2004.

Influence standards

Microsoft Plays Hiring Hardball
By Darryl K. Taft, eWeek, July 28, 2003.
Provides evidence that Microsoft uses hiring practices aiming to influence the process of standards creation.

Finance like minded organizations

Initiative for Software Choice
An initiative to promote "neutral government procurement, standards, and public R&R policies for software". In other words they try to stop the increasing realization that free and open source software offer clear advantages to the citizens of this planet. The main organizations behind this effort are Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) and Microsoft.

MS leads lobby against open source
By Matthew Broersma, ZDNet (UK), August 13, 2002
"Microsoft and other software companies are ramping up a lobbying effort aimed at convincing governments to think again where it comes to adopting open-source software."

Additional resources:

The Halloween Documents
"In the last week of October 1998, a confidential Microsoft memorandum on Redmond's strategy against Linux and Open Source software was leaked to me by a source who shall remain nameless. I annotated this memorandum with explanation and commentary over Halloween Weekend and released it to the national press. Microsoft was forced to acknowledge its authenticity. The press rightly treated it as a major story and covered it (with varying degrees of cluefulness)."

We have separate pages for:

• Open Source Venezuela
• Microsoft In India
• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (ADTI) White Paper

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