Apparently the pinheads at Redmond’s marketing division has forgotten the old rule that says even “bad press” is “good publicity”. If you doubt this, just watch what happens when somebody starts raising a ruckus about how bad a product is. Personally, I have a great desire to find out what all the ruckus is about. I want to make up my own mind. Oddly, this seems to be human nature.
Microsoft has launched a new smear campaign preaching the virtues of Microsoft products to companies who are contemplating switching over to Linux. Even though CEO Steve Ballmer stated “We can’t beat them[Linux] on price.” the new Microsoft campaign claims “WinTel Server 10 Times Less Expensive to Operate Than Linux Mainframe“. There’s several more instances where Microsoft now claims they can undercut free.
It makes no difference. Microsoft will accomplish, over the course of the next few months, what thousands of Open Source advocates have had difficulty achieving for nearly a decade–garnering publicity. Free nationwide publicity. Microsoft will likely run billboard campaigns, tv ad spots and magazine ads targeting consumers in order to spread misinformation and uncertainty about the Linux operating system.
What this will actually accomplish is to bring Linux awareness to a much larger demographic. People who, as yet, had never heard of Linux and will probably wonder what all the ruckus is about. They’ll probably want to make up their own mind. Oddly enough, this seems to be human nature.
Posted by Philip McClure in Linux Rants on January 06, 2004