Microsoft Ads Called Bogus
By Amit Asaravala
09:03 AM Jan. 07, 2004 PT
Open-source advocates are crying foul over a new ad
campaign from Microsoft that claims that Windows-based systems cost less in the
long run than Linux-based systems.
Ads for the campaign, which were unveiled Monday
and will appear in online and print publications, refer potential customers to a
section of the Microsoft website where they can "get the facts" on Windows and
Linux. There, visitors can view what Microsoft calls "independent analyses" of
the two operating systems.
Critics, however, say that the facts provided on
the site are misleading. And they claim that the analyses are anything but
independent, given that Microsoft paid analysts to produce most of
them.
"The point they're trying to make is really quite
specious," said open-source activist Bruce Perens. "If anything, this lowers
Microsoft's credibility and shows that they're losing ground to
Linux."
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N.S. Soundara Rajan, Freelance IT journalist, Columnist "Deccan Herald" - leading English
Newsdaily published from Bangalore, India, and Knowledge networker
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