The Sikh Geek

Microsoft lost its anti-trust appeal with the EU Commission as reported by BBC News Online yesterday. It might still appeal yet to the European Court of Justice as the Genereal Counsel wanted to absorb the details of the ruling before deciding. So, Microsoft was convicted of breaking anti-competition rules in the EU to complement the previous conviction back in the US. I watched Microsoft’s reaction through Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and thought it was a very measured and humble response. He even thanked the Court of First Instance for their committment and diligence in considering the issues.

On the other hand the Blue Monster made it in to the FT and Hugh has got a range of the Stormhoek wine branded with the Blue Monster label and being discussed in that article.

I thought this was a bit of a contrast with on the one hand the thing that many people point to as highlighting the not so good aspect and the attempt by Steve Clayton and Hugh MacLeod to tell a different story of Microsoft.

The EU case has been going on since 2004 and to be honest I think things have changed since then. The Novell/Microsoft agreement has brought about an Interoperability Lab and an official Strategy by Microsoft on Open Source. The work by the Port25 guys is pioneering within the context of Microsoft and they are quite open in saying that product groups still view them with some suspicion as they go about Microsoft trying to promote the idea that Open Source presents opportunties rather than just threats.

So, it’ll be interesting to see which side will win the day!

UPDATE

After writing this post I saw this post from Adriana Lukas linked from Hugh’s Blog and makes the same connections as me between the FT Article/Blue Monster and the Anti-trust result.

… I also just saw the comment from Barry Dorans (I’ve met the guy at a couple of NxtGenUG meetings) and I have to agree with him, I just wasn’t brave enough to say it

“Ah but you highlight the problem with bluemonster in your quote from the press release, it’s not about MS, or their employees, it’s all about Hugh. That certainly seems to be the reaction from a bunch of people, and that’s a shame, it’s diminished the effectiveness because it’s seen as another vehicle for the creator, not the subjects. It doesn’t have teeth any more, it’s been defanged because it’s not about the brand, but it’s about the creative.”

Certainly most of the reactions are congratulating Hugh in getting the article into the FT and can we have some wine by the way! I’ve felt for a little while it was becoming too much of an elite, of having coffee in trendy London cafes and connecting with people who were from exclusive Marketing companies because they think Hugh is hip and cool. I have nothing against Hugh, I love the stuff he does and use one of his cartoons as my business card now. It’s just that I don’t hear the types of conversations I thought I would and if you’re the only one doing it, then people then just begin to think you’re mad or on an ego trip or attention seeking.