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GNU/Linux Bashers and Microsoft MVPs Masquerade as “Linux Users”

One penguin



Summary: Not everyone who bashes GNU/Linux (or promotes Mono) is necessarily a peer

A lot of Mono and Moonlight coverage is still coming from the Microsoft-faithful crowd [1, 2, 3, 4] and "Ars [is] hyping moonlight again," says a reader who shows us this thread. Novell's PR department does this also, but a lot more amusing was this revelation about Microsoft most valued professionals who masquerade as lovers of GNU/Linux. Their advocacy often goes along the lines of, "don't get me wrong, I love Linux and all, but <Linux bashing goes here>." It's a familiar strategy.



“Im a hardcore Linux user!” – “Oh hang on, Im an MVP!”



[...]

Over on Microsoft Watch I've been having discussions about the MS faithful, here's another example of a questionable poster that I found recently. I have many on my books, some of which I have amassed a considerable of information and supporting evidence on. This chap is one of the obvious ones, who hasn't considered even the most basic rule, if you are going to link to your site make sure it doesn't seem to conflict with what you post! Since he's not really of interest, I thought I'd give you all a quick article on him.

[...]

And after 5 seconds of scanning his site, we can leave this article here. The personal description of him says:

I’m Hemanth, from Kerala,India. I’m a software engineer by profession ( Advanced Windows Installer or MSI technologies) and a webmaster of a number of websites.

I’m a Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) awardee in 2007 & 2008, for my contributions in the computer end-user support forums and newsgroups.


Yes, he calls himself a “hardcore Linux user” in public while basically dismissing the platform and disclosing nothing about his affiliation with Microsoft. Goblin has just found another mysterious (and maybe mischievous) pro-Microsoft Twitter user who repeats the words of Microsoft employees. Could this be a Microsoft hire [1, 2]?

"Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!"

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

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