One for the govt.nz types. Nice little case study that covers the problem the German Foreign Office had and the solution they developed. The Open Standards/Open Source route they took has clearly delivered tangible benefits over other solutions on offer.

There was no loving feelings between Microsoft and IBM in a recent open letter published by Microsoft. IBM has been encouraging Governments to reject the Microsoft "Open XML" format currently under consideration by ISO. Microsoft are very upset, and threw a tantrum by releasing an open letter telling the world how fair they have been, and how bad IBM have been.

Peter Gutmann, security and encryption researcher at Auckland University has written an analysis of Vista which addresses the cost of the Digital Rights Management technology Microsoft have incorporated into the new Vista operating system. In Gutmann's estimation "The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history." He continues to describe the deliberate degradation of capabilities users will experience when DRM protected content arrives on your computer.

Many people have been asking the NZOSS for an analysis of the deal Novell did with Microsoft. It is perhaps tempting to dismiss the deal based on Microsofts history of illegal monopolistic behaviour such as its deals that excluded DR DOS from the market, or its bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows to undermine Netscape, or its bundling of Windows Media Players to undermine Real.