Columnist’s corner: Linux is not the only concern Microsoft faces these days. Take the Open Document Format, for instance. “At the highest level, ODF vs. OpenXML is a battle between two business competitors, IBM and Microsoft, each of which views itself as threatened by the other,” Ephraim Schwartz begins in this week’s installment of Reality Check. You see, when high-tech companies go to war, technology is the weapon of choice, he explains. “What you shouldn’t expect is any meeting of minds between the two companies. However, while this may appear to be a battle to the death, I don’t see the fight over file formats as Armageddon. That will have to wait for another day.” Careers: In IT and elsewhere, success can depend on whether you work to grow, or just to get the job done, points out Nick Corcodilos in Learning to fail, a post inspired in part by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s work researching adults who give up easily and those who persist in the face of setbacks. “Reading it hasn’t changed my life, but it’s made me watch myself now,” Corcodilos confesses. “Am I getting along? Or am I learning something? Not enough of the latter.”Gripe Line: Replacing a motherboard in your PC means ponying up cash to Microsoft for the OS that came with your system. The problem is that Microsoft doesn’t make that clear at all. “Microsoft has chosen not to inform end users, not even in the darkest depths of the Windows EULAs, of this policy. Instead, computer manufacturers have just quietly been told that, hey, that’s the way it’s going to be,” Ed Foster reports in Motherboard replacement and Windows OEM EULAs. To be fair, Foster admits there are multiple angles to this debate. “But on one point there should be no argument: Customers have the right to know about any policy that might cost them money before they purchase a computer with bundled Microsoft software.” Software Development