Re: [tlug] How to Push Linux! .......................

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Josh" == Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> writes:

    Josh> I get a little worked up when I see FUD, whether it comes
    Josh> from Microsoft's PR department,

I still object to you calling the SF/LF? ads "FUD", unless you can give
strong reason to believe they're not backed up by real cases.
Remember, the FTC would take a very dim view of any such practice.

Providing such case studies is an important part of how consulting
firms (or the consulting wing of a company in a different industry)
market themselves.  It's an important service to their potential
customers, and because it's published, there are educational
spillovers to the general public as well.

This is very different from astroturfing (ie, their practice of
handing money under the table to "independent" research firms who
write the same article but pretend it's "objective").  These ads are
clearly ads and signed by Microsoft.  As long as nobody thinks of them
as objective Wikipedia articles, I don't see what the problem is.

-- 
School of Systems and Information Engineering http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.