09.19.09
Latest Examples of the Press Attacking Free Software and GNU/Linux, Promoting Windows Discounts
Summary: Failures of the commercial media are shown using five new examples, ranging from daemonisation of Microsoft competitors (including, notably, Free software) to news reports that are merely Microsoft advertisements
A LOT of incidents came to our attention yesterday and it would be best to tackle them one at a time because there are many.
“Open Source” Blamed for Malware
One reader mailed us about yet another new example where mere collaboration on code has turned into aggressive anti-FOSS FUD. The “FUD injection,” tells us the reader, goes like this: “get malware, criminal and open source in the same text.”
This latest FUD comes from silicon.com, which is generally FOSS-hostile and it is owned by CBS, just like CNET and ZDNet. Here is one punch line:
According to Candid Wüest, threat researcher with security firm Symantec, around 10 per cent of the Trojan market is now open source.
This connotates open source with crime.
“Don’t Mention Linux!”
The headline which caught many people’s attention is this: “Internet radio exec: don’t mention Linux!”
Here are the details about this incident:
Speaking at the launch of the touchscreen Pure Sensia digital radio, director of marketing Colin Crawford was pressed for specifics of the new device’s software. But after his CEO reminded him that the new radio was based on a Linux OS, Crawford remarked: “I don’t like the using the word ‘Linux’ on a radio.”
Why did the Scot in the sharp suit go queasy at the very mention of Linux?
Microsoft poisons people’s minds against GNU/Linux using misleading literature that it spreads to employees at Best Buy, Staples, and Office Depot [1, 2, 3, 4]. A lot of hostility towards GNU/Linux comes from Redmond.
MSNBC is Microsoft, GE
Here is another new reminder of what MSNBC is to Microsoft.
In God We Trust: the Story Microsoft-NBC will probably never run
[...]
You might have also noticed that I’m deliberately stressing the Microsoft NBC partnership here, rather than using the MSNBC shorthand Microsoft would much rather have consumers using. Many consumers still haven’t put together 2 and 2, and still don’t quite get Microsoft’s close relationship with the Liberal Democrats and the Democrat party.
MSBBC Bias Continues
The name “MSBBC” is a humourous twist on the name “MSNBC”. The BBC is run by so many former Microsoft employees that pro-Microsoft bias over there should not surprise anyone. They even promote shops that enable pre-orders of Vista 7 — all at taxpayers’ expense. Many reports are now suggesting that Sony is at a war of words with the BBC, which it believes to have slandered its important product, the PlayStation 3. The BBC uses its own platform to defend its actions (conflict of interests).
Sony has rebutted claims made by the BBC programme Watchdog that its PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles suffer from a manufacturing fault.
This is hilarious.
The BBC investigated not the Xbox 360 but the PlayStation 3 for “manufacturing fault”. Microsoft’s error rate is an order of magnitude higher than that of Sony, but who does the BBC go after? Not Microsoft. Why didn’t the BBC go after Microsoft’s outrageously broken Xbox 360? Could it be because the BBC is run by former/prospective Microsoft employees, to whom Sony is a big competitor? Maybe. Maybe not.
Microsoft Advertisements as Articles
Microsoft has apparently decided that it must capture the next generation of intellectuals, so just as usual, it is offering some discounts on an amateurish operating system. Why is this news? And why are Microsoft proponents who are disguised as journalists (yes, we recognise their names) making so much noise about it? It has become like a massive, Internet-wide advert masqueraded as “news”. Technical staff over here are even forced to wear shirts with massive Microsoft Office adverts (discounts) on their backs. How utterly direct is that?
Microsoft keeps changing prospective prices in order to generate headlines and thus free-of-charge buzz. Is the press really foolish enough to fall for it? Or does it really want to do this?
“Microsoft keeps changing prospective prices in order to generate headlines and thus free-of-charge buzz.”“What exactly in terms of usable applications do you get with your Windows 7,” remarks a reader who sent us this example advertisement (published as ‘news’). “Are there time limited disabled versions offered? If they do offer ‘free’ apps with the OS, how is anyone else going to make a buck?
“You need to do a ‘what you get for your money’ article. What exactly do you get for your £18.4. They must be really, really desperate to keep L**** off the desktop. How much of a financial are they prepared to take?”
Microsoft already suffers financially because of GNU/Linux. But to allow GNU/Linux to gain market share is something that’s inconceivable to Microsoft. People should keep track of the price of Windows (and number of giveaways), not just the growing market share of GNU/Linux on the desktop. Lack of profit will lead to implosion, eventually. As Microsoft put it (internally), “under NO circumstances lose against Linux.” This strategy won’t work forever.█
