Microsoft selling anti-Linux speech on CD

"Toxic Sludge is Good for You: lies, damn lies, and the Public Relations Industry".

IT IS NOT news that Microsoft would like to see the Linux airship go down in flames like the Hindenburg. In June 2001, the PR wizards at the Vole's Marketing Department created a document titled 'Partner Guide: Competing with Linux'. It was a training course for Microsoft partners who were obviously getting increasing competition from Linux.

That document was dissected and debunked at the time. But now some of our readers whispered to us that Microsoft is selling an updated -we guess- version of this marketing weapon of mass destruction, in the form of a CD-ROM disc to their "Business Partners" which is linked from the web page dedicated to the company's sales and marketing efforts.

The web page advertising the CD once read, according to Google's cache: "Make the Case: Training CD for Competing with Linux - Get the latest training to help you better communicate the business value of Windows solutions to your customers". But apparently the tone has been changed to the more radical: "Get everything you need to convince business and technical decision makers to build their systems on the Microsoft® Windows® platform instead of Linux.", perhaps hinting about the urgency of the brainwashing.

According to the Vole, "business partners" that pay around five dollars plus shipping will get the shiny little brainwash CD, chockfull of "Cost value Benefits, Case Studies, Interactive Demos, Workload Comparisons, and Analyst Reviews". The names of the "analysts" are not provided, but one is also supposed to believe that are some objective case studies in there, like one titled " Windows Wins Against Linux Every Time".

We'd love to read the contents and the analysts quoted. So you know where to mail one such CD to, if you have access to one. Below is the link to order your own personal Microsoft PR Brainwash CD. Be warned, it's like entering the Twilight Zone...

µ

L'INQ
The Tools You Need to Compete with Linux

*(In an ironic twist, the url path includes the phrase "competitivesellinglinux" ;)