On Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 05:07:59PM -0700, Monique Y. Herman wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 at 00:48 GMT, ben_foley@web.de penned:
> >
> > given the regular stream of ridiculous garbage coming from redmond
> > about linux, while new holes are found in their os and apps on an
> > almost weekly basis, this seems like the next stage in the campaign to
> > buttress the losses they've been taking all the while linux has found
> > favor. apart from the money issue, linux, and particularly debian,
> > represents the absolute opposite to their culture. this distro, as a
> > product of volunteerism on the part of people who have nothing to gain
> > apart from their own satisfaction in making the thing work, represents
> > a huge philosophical challenge to those who view the world in terms of
> > how much they can extract from it.
>
> I find this to be unlikely. I mean, look at the risk vs. reward.
>
> Reward: they cause a very temporary disruption to some trusted sources
> and cause some folks to maybe worry about how secure linux might be.
>
> Risk: getting caught funding black hats against the competition.
>
> This just doesn't sound like good business to me.
Well, I'm not gonna go all conspiracy-theory on you and say that
Microsoft is behind it, but I will say I find the idea ... reasonably
plausible.
The reward isn't much _if_ the incident is taken at face value.
However, presented as the "See, we have proof!" bit of a big push to
discredit Linux and the Free software movement, it could have some
serious pay-off. MS has always been all about the PR spin.
And considering the arrogant, awful business practices that have
characterized Microsoft's history, with the addition of the subtle ways
that a big corporation can move money around, I don't know if the risk
really amounts to much.
Cheers!
--
-------------------------------<<ScruLoose>>-------------------------------
I care less and less what people think.
- Ani DiFranco
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