water cooler :: Microsoft's Strategy



On the DSL start page I decided to click one of the sponsored links at the side to help raise some money for the creators, and without immediately noticing it, I clicked on one that said this:

Quote
Technology News
.NET delivers 25% lower costs than J2EE/Linux - Examine Recent Data!
www.microsoft.ca/getthefacts


Microsoft seems to be targeting their advertising so that on pro-Linux sites it will link to their crap. I saw this on Tom's Hardware Guide, also.

So what do you think of this?

Meh. Who cares?

I, for one, will never go back to the cold, slimy clutches of M$.

I'd sooner move to OSX.

-J.P.

You have to admit, though..

Having a "clickable" link to some M$ F.U.D. on the DSL website
is NOT exactly kosher in my eyes...    just to generate revenues from traffic..

There was some heated debate at Distrowatch recently over this very thing,
and some sites that Distrowatch blacklisted for this very reason.

I saw a similar link to easylinuxcds.com earlier this week,
which sells DSL CD's in direct competition with this website.
(I'm guessing they don't send John or Robert any checks from proceeds.)

73
ke4nt

that's just friggin wrong. the depths that some people sink to is beyond my comprehension. M$ blows, and we know this. No big surprise at any tactics they would use. I also would go to OSX before going kicking and screaming to McGates of my own free will. AND and dirtbag who is selling DSL cd's BETTER be contributing to the developers. If not, they should be shamed in public.
It's perhaps not morally the best thing to sell DSL without contributing to the project, but is there anything in the distro to prevent this?  All the programs are GPL, which means anyone can do practically anything with them.  The additional DSL scripts are the only things I can think of which may prevent others from profiting from the work of John, Robert, etc, but what copyright limitations are in place for those scripts?
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