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● 01.05.09

●● Hold on a Second, We’re Not the Bad Guys

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 8:14 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Besides — we’re the good guys!”

–Confidential Microsoft evangelism presentation

MARY Jo Foley has just decided to use the term “Microsoft haters” to describe those who talk about Microsoft’s demise (Rui for example). But hey, that’s not fair.

=> ↺ has just decided to use | Rui for example

For starters, those who doubt Microsoft’s future have a sound explanation that includes Microsoft’s overt reliance on desktop software in an age when desktops matter a lot less. In fact, almost everything else that Microsoft touches turns out to be unprofitable, but these losses are sometimes outweighed by massive profits (which nonetheless decline) in a couple of divisions. Moreover, according to the very latest report — among many previous ones — Microsoft layoffs are no fiction. One of Microsoft’s fanalyst firms, Goldman Sachs, believes this to be true and imminent.

=> among many previous ones | ↺ believes this to be true and imminent

Goldman Sachs believes the Redmond company is likely to reduce its headcount.

David Gerard tells us about this post as well.

=> ↺ this post

So going back to the beginning, it is not fair for Mary Jo Foley to label realists whose projections she considers inconvenient reality “Microsoft haters”. Bruce Byfield too has used this daemonisation term, “haters” [1, 2]; it’s a shoot-the-messenger-type strategy, which falls short of calling someone a “zealot” or “radical”. Microsoft and/or its partners even tried to label Andy Updegrove a “hater”, despite him being so exceptionally polite. This was noted in a blog last year.

=> 1 | 2

These labels sometimes come from inside Microsoft and what it calls “talking points”. For example, Jim Gray from Microsoft Research (now deceased) said that Linux is a cult. █

=> calls | ↺ said that Linux is a cult

“I have a hard time seeing the [Linux] Zealots as any different from terrorist… I strongly believe that if September 11 showed us anything, it was that zealots…” — Rob Enderle, Microsoft talking point

=> Microsoft talking point

Don’t hate us for saying the truth, Microsoft

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