Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Brand Dilution Tactics: When 'Linux' Means Windows

"Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two "medicinal" ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Just how much cocaine was originally in the Cocaine molecule formulation is hard to determine, but the drink undeniably contained some cocaine in its early days."

--Snopes



Summary: The power of brands and some 'Kool-Aid' is well understood by Microsoft, which is actively working to undermine the identity of "Linux" (associating it with itself, with Microsoft)

MICROSOFT may be technically weak, but it makes up for lack of technical merit in other 'departments'. You know something is wrong when you search for "Linux" news (for example in Google News) and about half the search results are actually Microsoft news, along with feature images like "Microsoft loves Linux" (and those come from Microsoft and Windows sites, not GNU/Linux sites). There's a longstanding PR campaign; one of the tactics is known as "googlebombing" and is designed for revisionism and brand dilution, two of Microsoft's most dangerous weapons, which both target the minds. As we explained before and as recently as yesterday, a lot of people will ultimately struggle to understand the difference between "Windows" and "Linux".



Here's another new example from the weekend's news. A reader of ours sent it it over, dubbing it revisionism. "GEM was the only GUI ever seen back then, aside from Mac, mostly GUIs were super rare and it was plain MS-DOS or CP/M which was used instead in the x86 PC category of machine, or Apple DOS on the Apple II was a common combination," he explained.

"There's a longstanding PR campaign; one of the tactics is known as "googlebombing" and is designed for revisionism and brand dilution, two of Microsoft's most dangerous weapons, which both target the minds."Microsoft used to promote the false idea of Word being the 'first' word processor and Windows the 'first' operating system with windows in it (hence all other word processors and windowed interfaces are presumably just 'copies' or 'ripoffs' or 'knockoffs' of what Microsoft did). Last week it was reported that Microsoft hasd't abandoned such vain rhetorics (see ReactOS ‘a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel’ claims Microsoft kernel engineer). "Reitschin does add he is no lawyer," said a commentator, "but these claims do raise a number of serious concerns and questions about the ReactOS project. These claims alone will probably ensure no serious commercial entity will ever want to associate itself with ReactOS, and it will be interesting to see if these claims will ever lead to something more serious than mere words."

The cited article comes from Microsoft Tim, a longtime booster of the company and its lies.

"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]

Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
 
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024
Gemini Links 21/11/2024: Alphabetising 400 Books and Giving the Internet up
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: TikTok Fighting Bans, Bluesky Failing Users
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: SpaceX Repeatedly Failing (Taxpayers Fund Failure), Russian Disinformation Spreading
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Earned Two More Honorary Doctorates Last Month
Two more doctorate degrees
KillerStartups.com is an LLM Spam Site That Sometimes Covers 'Linux' (Spams the Term)
It only serves to distract from real articles
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: Game Recommendations, Schizo Language
Links for the day
Growing Older and Signs of the Site's Maturity
The EPO material remains our top priority
Did Microsoft 'Buy' Red Hat Without Paying for It? Does It Tell Canonical What to Do Now?
This is what Linus Torvalds once dubbed a "dick-sucking" competition or contest (alluding to Red Hat's promotion of UEFI 'secure boot')
Links 20/11/2024: Politics, Toolkits, and Gemini Journals
Links for the day
Links 20/11/2024: 'The Open Source Definition' and Further Escalations in Ukraine/Russia Battles
Links for the day
[Meme] Many Old Gemini Capsules Go Offline, But So Do Entire Web Sites
Problems cannot be addressed and resolved if merely talking about these problems isn't allowed
Links 20/11/2024: Standing Desks, Broken Cables, and Journalists Attacked Some More
Links for the day
Links 20/11/2024: Debt Issues and Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban
Links for the day
Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar), Magna Carta and Debian Freedoms: RIP
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar) & Debian: from Frans Pop to Euthanasia
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
This Article About "AI-Powered" is Itself LLM-Generated Junk
Trying to meet quotas by making fake 'articles' that are - in effect - based on plagiarism?
Recognizing invalid legal judgments: rogue Debianists sought to deceive one of Europe's most neglected regions, Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Google-funded group distributed invalid Swiss judgment to deceive Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: BeagleBone Black and Suicide Rates in Switzerland
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 19, 2024