I dare to differ with the tuff Marine

Story: Key Ballmer adviser leaves MicrosoftTotal Replies: 17
Author Content
tuxchick2

Jun 21, 2006
9:50 AM EDT
"[They should have parted ways with him as soon as they saw how lame his campaign was - dcparris]"

I think he raised their anti-FOSS propaganda to the adult level. Their previous rhetoric was childish and stupid, calling it communist and a cancer, and similar garbage. Sure, we all know the "Get the Facts" campaign is a pack of lies, and their tame analysts will say anything for a paycheck. But it has a veneer of respectability, which is all most PHBs need to justify decisions they've already made, properly motivated of course by M$-sponsored trips to hooter bars and such.

edit: So the moral of the story is, MS really can't stand having grownups around. :)
richo123

Jun 21, 2006
10:30 AM EDT
Does it also mean that "Get the Facts" has failed? The farewell seems very abrupt and there is not mention of a new position....
dinotrac

Jun 21, 2006
10:52 AM EDT
I don't know that "Get the Facts" has failed.

It was an impossible mission: stop the growth of Linux. At best, "Get the Facts" could slow the inevitable.

It couldn't stop all the bad news about Windows, IE, etc. One security hole after another, costs, etc. Ouch.
grouch

Jun 21, 2006
11:05 AM EDT
What's this about hooter bars? Maybe I've been wrong about MS marketing all these years.

(Still couldn't pay me enough to actually use MS garbage, but I could *act* interested, with the right incentives).
richo123

Jun 21, 2006
11:11 AM EDT
Grouch, You mean like Enderle?
grouch

Jun 21, 2006
11:18 AM EDT
richo123:

Ow! Please, just beat me with rusty barbed wire and toss me in isopropyl; it would hurt less.
dcparris

Jun 21, 2006
12:20 PM EDT
TC2: I thought "Get the Facts" was childish. To me, it is the transvestite of marketing campaigns - barely passable (for facts).

richo123

Jun 21, 2006
12:42 PM EDT
From the Bloomberg article:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aOjZja...

"In 2004, he showed up at the LinuxWorld conference wearing a flak jacket and took questions from attendees."

Looks like he needed protection from another flak source. Hey Martin if you are reading this your real friends in the Linux community are dying to know what really happened with Steve.....
1c3d0g

Jun 21, 2006
2:37 PM EDT
"They should have parted ways with him as soon as they saw how lame his campaign was"

Agreed. This *bleeper* caused much damage to the Open Source community and Linux in particular (to those unfortunate enough that had to listen to his rubbish). I wish he'd just get out of the IT world and do something else. Nobody needs a loser like him working as a consultant. Go fishing or something...
dinotrac

Jun 21, 2006
5:11 PM EDT
>Agreed. This *bleeper* caused much damage to the Open Source community and Linux in particular

OK, make up your mind. Either the campaign was lame or it wasn't. In the case of an advertising campaign, lame requires that you fail to achieve the desired results, not that you look good doing it. If the campaign really damaged the community, it wasn't lame.
dtfinch

Jun 21, 2006
9:32 PM EDT
Get the Facts was the last straw that push me to Linux as my primary OS. I was a poor college student at the time, but I somehow made enough to buy a new no-OS PC to install Linux on 3 weeks after Get the Facts in January '04. I bought a new PC for Linux because my old one had video problems with every distro I tried, and in dos, and it was generally old.

If not for Get the Facts, their investments in SCO, and the rest of their dishonest marketing practices, I'd probably have an MSDN subscription by now. Programming-wise, just about all I'd known was Microsoft products. It wasn't an easy switch. To ensure they miss me, I give money I might have spent on MS software to open source projects I want to see improved.

I even got a Microsoft job offer 4 months later (from a third party recruiter, but for a Microsoft position), but they wanted me to quit my last term of college without graduating and relocate. Another 8 months later I got an offer from a company that primarily makes bomb, grenade, and missile fuses for the US military. I turned that one down as well.
dcparris

Jun 21, 2006
10:53 PM EDT
Here's a fact (o.k., maybe more than one) for Microsoft:

Cost of acquiring OpenSUSE or Ubuntu Linux = free Cost of Remote desktop software licenses = free Cost of office productivity software = free Cost of games, educational software, and advanced system utilities = free Cost of maintaining OpenSUSE or Ubuntu Linux = whatever time it takes to run the updates via Yast or Aptitude while I sleep (a.k.a., free)

Those were all the facts I needed. Ironically, I was becoming convinced when I was using mandrake 8.0 Pro - which I bought off a shelf for $80.
1c3d0g

Jun 22, 2006
2:34 AM EDT
dinotrac: I fail to see the purpose of making a smart-ass comment like you just did, so I won't be dragged into your mud-slinging flamebait.
grouch

Jun 22, 2006
2:37 AM EDT
dcparris:

Add to your list:

Ability to make a native-language OS without waiting for special dispensation from Bill == priceless.

Reference: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/63405/index.html
SFN

Jun 22, 2006
3:56 AM EDT
Quoting:I thought "Get the Facts" was childish. To me, it is the transvestite of marketing campaigns


Now you've done it, DC. LXer is going to have to hire extra staff to deal with the impending transvestite letter-writing campaign.
dinotrac

Jun 22, 2006
6:56 AM EDT
Gee, dog --

Sorry to hear that you can't handle rational discourse.

I was just making the mistake of being logical.

Either the campaign did its job or it didn't. If it hurt Linux, it wasn't lame.

It pays to remember who pays the bills. In the case of "Get the Facts", it was Microsoft.
tuxchick2

Jun 22, 2006
7:17 AM EDT
I don't think the 'Get the Facts' campaign was lame at all. It was canny and probably effective to a degree- it was precisely targeted and well-run. Compare it to their previous horrid efforts, like the big blue butterfly invading people's homes. Man, that was just plain sinister. Mr. Taylor is a smart, capable man, and according to my spies was canned/resigned over a personal dispute with his bosses. I'm just guessing, but my theory is he was asked to do something he simply could not bring himself to do, either distasteful or illegal.
SFN

Jun 22, 2006
7:32 AM EDT
Quoting:I'm just guessing, but my theory is he was asked to do something he simply could not bring himself to do, either distasteful or illegal.


"Come on, Marty. Throw the chair.

I SAID THROW THE CHAIR!!!!!"

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