Whitewashing, on to writing cheques

Discretion may be needed because there is some toxic stuff in the mainstream press at the moment. The previous post touched on one historical aspect of Microsoft dirty tricks, which Novell now embraces as well. It worries to see that Microsoft goes out of its way to make credible storytellers, including many of those who were directly harmed, evaporate or overridden by disinformation.

The BBC has been virtually impossible to trust ever since its deal with Microsoft and occupation by former Microsoft employees. A reader of ours has complained about what he calls "BBC on the breakthrough deal." He points to this new article, which is just one among several at the moment which glorify Gates in his press. A part of it says:

Summer and Autumn 1980 Gates agrees to produce the operating system for the personal computer being developed by IBM

"I kinda remember it differently," says the reader. "MS-DOS aka QDOS was bought by Microsoft from Seattle Computing, MS also hired on it's chief creator Tim Patterson to rework QDOS into MS-DOS."

As another example consider this one.

Sir Alan believes he got the better of it, buying MS-DOS for a pittance, a figure he's legally unable to disclose to this day according to the contract he signed with Microsoft

This is contradicted by the following antitrust exhibit.

Customer System Royalty Rate ($US)

Exhibit D1 $5.50 Exhibit D2 $7.50 Exhibit D3 $14,00 Exhibit D4 $16.00

This seems like a typical case of whitewashing, unless it's an innocent mistake. The same type of thing we already find in OOXML (post the corruption). Rewriting of history is a very dangerous thing to permit. Bear in mind that Bill Gates writes for the BBC sometimes. He does. That's just how close they are.

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

--Winston Churchill

Our reader expresses his frustration with what seems like corporate-serving press. "It really pisses me of the way they laud him as some kind of software guru that brought computing to the masses. The reality being that he skated in on the coat tails of IBM with the help of some rich and influential parents. He also ****** over so many people along the way that I've lost count.

"Finally I resent working for peanuts while Sir billie get[s] even richer .. Microsoft, a gigantic pyramid scheme, you know they work. In Microsoft's case, you get to fix my crappy computers and get to pay me for the privilege."

“Rewriting of history is a very dangerous thing to permit.”The BBC is just one example among others. Several similar instances were brought up in the IRC channel yesterday and some are still being found even weeks before Gates semi-departs to play more 'politics'.

Microsoft's long-time friend, David Kirkpatrick, seems to be doing Microsoft PR in Fortune at the moment (and yes, it's a pattern from him). He even makes incorrect claims and slams the potential of GNU/Linux and "open source" (no hyperlink as that would only feed him).

All in all, there is a lot of Gates glorification going on in his the press at the moment. It just shows how much he owns it (see reference to concrete proof at the top). Even Groklaw has noticed this. PJ, for instance, has posted a modified headline with a pointer to the BBC. It reads: "The secret of Bill Gates' success - according to Bill Gates"

She provides as an example a portion of the text where Gates attributes competitors' mistakes to their decline or eventual death, rather than malicious intervention and breaking of rules by Microsoft.

For credible information about Microsoft's history and 'success', the last source you want to consult is Microsoft itself (or its media/business partners, of which there are plenty). ⬆

"37 letters with exactly the same words. Some of the senders didn't even care to remove the 'Type company name here' text.
Simular letters has been circulating in Denmark as an e-mail from the Danish MD Jørgen Bardenfleth to customers and business partners.
I call it fraud, cheating and disgusting. If I wasn't anti-Microsoft before, I am now. Disgusting !"

--Leif Lodahl