| Too Close For Comfort |
by Malcolm Dean (July 5, 2002)
After our warning that Microsoft is playing a classic propaganda gambit, further proof arrives in the form of an article at LinuxWorld revealing that Microsoft has paid for a booth at LinuxWorld.
Peter Houston, Senior Director of the Windows Server Product Management Group, told LinuxWorld that "the audience that attends this show is very important to us," and "Microsoft sees their participation in this show as the first step towards forming an ongoing dialog with members of the Linux and Open Source community."
Somehow, we were under the misguided impression that Microsoft VP Craig Mundie's appearance at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, July 2001, was the first step. Or was it Linux Magazine's decision a month later to accept Microsoft advertising?
The reader is no doubt familiar with George Orwell's famous statement: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." But read his full assessment of a similar period, when the press and public were confused by current events, and the press failed to report the facts completely, and in context.
Since 2001, two of the biggest technology stories of this period have been Microsoft strategies to establish control of key technologies -- Hailstorm, and now Palladium.
Since Microsoft began this "dialog" in 2001, its attacks on Open Source, Free Software, and non-proprietary applications have continued quietly, but unabated. Importantly, many of these attacks have occurred in countries usually ignored or incompetently covered by American media, such as Peru, Europe, and China. The methods reported have included direct cash inducements ("investments") to Latin American and Asian governments. Even the Pentagon has not been immune. But countries like Taiwan and Finland are making formal moves away from Windows.
The public first became aware of Microsoft's intentions in a leaked 1998 memorandum . The memo pointed out that Open Source Software is "long-term credible," and "FUD tactics cannot be used to combat it."
As the Quaker Milton Mayer, who came up with the title " Speak Truth to Power," noted in another time, "What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little..."
Copyright © 2002, Malcolm Dean. Published by DesktopLinux.com with permission.
About the author: Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean is a writer and IT strategist based in Los Angeles.
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