Good Guys and Bad Guys

A new article on /. about how MS seems to be working against itself by
using patents to close the office formats that it has submitted as open
standards reminded me of an important point that Lawrence Lessing made
awhile ago. Organizations like MS simply aren't monolithic. They are
made up of individuals with very different values and world views and
these diverse individuals speak for the organizations at different
times and places and in different contexts. In particular, these
organizations are often present themselves simultaneously through their
engineering and legal organizations.
Engineers tend to value collegiality and sharing or information while
lawyers are instinctively paranoid and secretive. Paranoia and
secretiveness are qualities that you want in a lawyer.

So we shouldn't be surprised if MS is seeming to work against itself
although in this case they might merely be trying to navigate around
European laws that mandate open standards in programs purchased by
governments. Even if that's what they are trying to, their actions are
liable to piss off the customer and loose the sale.

Microsoft is unified and disciplined compared to companies like Apple
and HP who contribute code, money and hardware to open source efforts
with one hand while simultaneously threatening other open source
efforts with lawsuits.

Of course the most extreme example is Sony, which is actually suing
itself over a DRM issue.