Scratching your head over that title? It is the reference to the Microsoft website, and the routine frequently seen on the many crime shows on television.

The Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft, as it is known, has been on my radar for a little over a year now. Visitations come sporadically, probably being on the order of twice a month. After this time it is not yet apparent what the real purpose of the site might be.

At first glance, it looks like most any other small blogging site. Some of the authors are well known, others are featured as being new, and disappear, to be never heard from again.

There is, now and then, some truly useful stuff here. Discussions of many things not otherwise easily found on the net. Infrequently there will be an article dealing with upcoming standards, and how those standards will affect the entire computing community.

Many times upon visiting, there is nothing more prevalent than the abundant praise of MS, and its profound benevolence, in working with the open source community. It does seem like this is the good cop, lulling the public [those who are aware of the site, that is] into a false sense of security, all the while setting the stage for the bad cop, FUD, to move in.

FUD comes in many forms. One recently seen was the puffing about Linux patent infringement, and pending lawsuits. The bad thing here, as in those well-known television epics, is that the bad cop gets results. The results of the latest FUD are the agreements entered into by Novell, Xandros, and just now Linspire.

Still the site is there, Sphinx-like, looking imposing, and daring the viewer to uncover its secrets.

[tags] port25, open source, Microsoft, Linux [/tags]