Who approached whom for the denials?

WE simply cannot trust IDG News Service due to Microsoft money that is on its table. There are many other reasons to lose confidence in the company and those reasons include very recent incidents.

IDC's shrewdly-disguised attacks on GNU/Linux and IDG's promotion of Microsoft (they give room to Microsoft evangelists) is another thing, but when defending the monopolist amid accusations of crime, it sure strikes a nerve. Microsoft's own needs for denials are magically transformed into articles now. The latest example is about Nigeria. Microsoft has a special relationship in the Nigerian government (the son of the former president is a senior Microsoft employee) and the same goes for some other African countries where Microsoft mercilessly fights Free software.

The latest 'denialticle' from IDG is titled "Microsoft denies paying contractor to abandon Linux" and it contains a reminder of Microsoft's influence.

Apart from the fact that Linux is freely distributed, it's functionality, adaptability and robustness has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. Governments in Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa have deployed Linux in departments and schools, but Hansen said that Microsoft has strong relationships with the governments in these countries.

What kind of brow-raising relationships? There have been other iffy affairs in Nigeria. For that matter, the OLPC story is worth revisiting too.

“The big papers are typically protective of mega corporations that make these papers relevant and sometimes also fund them.”The article above contains a headline that's hugely similar to one which was published in IDG several months ago. It had Microsoft deny accusations of blackmail from Microsoft in Africa (following by other curious moves). There were other accusations of Microsoft blackmail, so it's not a new thing.

Another company that earned 'placements' the press for its denialists to speak is Intel, whose crimes against OLPC it tries to erase using publications like the Wall Street Journal. The big papers are typically protective of mega corporations that make these papers relevant and sometimes also fund them.

By all means, the latest from IDG seems to be airing Microsoft denials as entire articles so that Microsoft can point critics at these pages ('articles') and have them serve as revisionism or excuses. ISO did this with Microsoft [1, 2] and the BBC does this too [1, 2, 3].

Here is an interesting new comment from LinuxToday.

Microsoft denied it paid of the Nigerian contractor to scuttle Mandriva's sale to his government by replacing Mandriva boxes with XP boxes.

But, readers of the article responded with their own personal horror stories of Microsoft abuse and intimidation. (Are you reading, Darryl?)

* Bob * 11/11/2008 * 12:26:14 PM

Oh really? They're certainly capable of doing it! When Microsoft learned of our "Linux where we can, Windows where we must" IT policy, they sent one of their authorized consultants in to persuade our executives that we were misguided. The result? Our shop was purged of all Linux proponents, and they were replaced with MCSE consultants and other far less qualified Microsoft quislings that ripped out Linux and VMWare servers, MySQL based applications, and any non-Microsoft piece of software they could find. It's an old-school IBM tactic that I had heard Microsoft used, but never really believed it until it happened to me. If you use Linux, do not let Microsoft find out!

- Bob

and

* Ed * 11/11/2008 * 03:14:17 PM

Yep, MS found out about how I was teaching linux in a school lab. A while later, the principal demanded that all the linux machines be replaced with windoze machines...appalling brainwashing of our children!

I recall reading that when Novell gets a shop to replace its RH servers with SUSE Enterprise Linux Servers there is one BIG difference -- the SELS boxes cannot be used as a PDC Emulator Master of an Active Directory even though SAMBA faithfully recreates PDC. Net effect: SUSE servers can be pulled at anytime and replaced by Windows servers without any problems, which is what their intent is to begin with. And Novell knows that.

If the stories above are true, this would not be the first time Microsoft pressured people from above. Ask people in Malaysia and also watch the story of Massachusetts, including that of Peter Quinn. Who would befriend or defend such a company? ⬆

Microsoft: spinning the story of Africa