Bonum Certa Men Certa

Googlebombing 'Linux' With Microsoft Public Relations

Microsoft loves Microsoft lovers (and apologists who facilitate entryism)

Swapnil Zemlin



Summary: Microsoft is fully engaged in "brand dilution" tactics*, associating itself and Windows with "Linux" even though GNU/Linux is its (and Windows') rival

SO, this morning I search for "Linux" news... and then I find this site called Linux.com ("The source for Linux information," according to its title/byline) linking to Microsoft's unofficial PR reps. It's linking directly to Microsoft PR reps from a tabloid of corporate media Microsoft is funding (CBS), with headlines like "Microsoft looks to 'do for data sharing what open source did for code'" (well, at least Swapnil is consistent).



“The LF is poo. Corporate toadies all about money, with no understanding of Linux and FOSS.”
      --Carla Schroder
Former Linux.com writer
I searched for "Ubuntu" some hours ago and got results like this one; this became very typical in recent months. Some readers tell us that most news they stumble upon when searching for Linux is actually Microsoft, not Linux.

"What saddens us is the degree to which Zemlin and his PAC actively participate in all this."The above pattern has sadly become rather common. It's the type of puff pieces Microsoft Peter did in another tabloid, where he hijacked the "Open Source" section to post nothing except Microsoft propaganda. Yes, their entire "Open Source" section is still just Microsoft lies! Even 2 months after Microsoft Peter was arrested (he had been raping children while Microsoft used him as a courier, for nearly one decade).

What saddens us is the degree to which Zemlin and his PAC actively participate in all this. Carla Schroder, who wrote for Linux.com, said yesterday that "[t]he LF (Linux Foundation) is poo. Corporate toadies all about money, with no understanding of Linux and FOSS." ____ * As per one example: "Brand dilution is when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in, like Reese’s Puff Cereal or Gerber’s baby clothes."

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