Allan Stern over at Center Networks is much more excited about the Microsoft conference call today than I am. A quick scan of the press release will tell you all you need to know, and that it's a big fluffy piece of PR being floated out there. I grabbed a buzzword bingo card online and had a bingo before I was finished with the first three paragraphs.

Make no mistake in my feelings about the proposed Microsoft purchase of Yahoo; Microsoft is still Microsoft, and a leopard doesn't change its spots. I'm a dedicated user of Open Source projects, from my graphics editor to my productivity tools to my IM client. And I have watched Microsoft fight each and every Open Source project tooth and nail starting with Firefox, and boiling down to the real issue behind today's announcement: they promise not to sue over Open Source technology. It sounds so magnanimous, doesn't it? Especially when you consider that there has been a great deal of confusion about Microsoft's Open Specification Promise, especially as it pertains to OOXML.

How convenient that Steve Ballmer hops onto the call today to extend his blessing to any developer wanting to make use of the OOXML spec. This is the same Microsoft who claimed three weeks ago that the Free Software Foundation had joined forced with IBM to form an axis of evil meant to discredit OOXML in Microsoft's attempt to have it approved by the ISO. Remind me again when the ballot resolution meeting is? Oh yes, it starts on Monday. Use the words "open" and "interoperability" all you want, but today's big move was nothing more than a blatant attempt at changing their perception.

Maybe next time, they could make their move a little more in advance and try for some subtlety.