I heard recently, and could not really believe it until I saw it, that Microsoft was encouraging people to throw "Tupperware(R) parties" at their homes in order to launch the new version of Microsoft's products. That is right...plain old down-to-earth "homies" extolling the virtues of quickly going to Vista...er...ah...Windows 7.

The Free Software Foundation Europe has analysed the most important elements that a settlement should contain to allow real competition in the European software market. It has summarised those key points in a letter sent to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

"...The first thing we see is that the organization ducks the issue of users' freedom; it uses the term "open source" and does not speak of "free software". These two terms stand for different philosophies which are based on different values: free software's values are freedom and social solidarity, whereas open source cites only practical convenience values such as powerful, reliable software..."

Microsoft shows that patent law continues to be a single-edged sword hurting the small inventor; what software patents mean to Intel and Moblin

In Australia, the government and Microsoft rub each other's back and in the United Kingdom Free software is still discriminated against

Google creates more funnels to lead away from Microsoft software and formats/protocols; Microsoft takes aim at GNU/Linux

For years, Red Hat has happily sold Linux to Unix shops anxious to save money at equivalent or better performance. During this time, the company largely avoided Microsoft, which has tended to compete much higher up the stack. No longer.