[Wylug-discuss] Open Source attacks.

[Shaun Laughey]

Hi all

I have a great little discussion starter here.

You all remember the "Get the facts" campaign by Microsoft trying to
make out that Windows was cheaper and more secure than Linux?

Well I've been seeing those arguments used more and more recently by
the "general public" or people posting comments on semi-technical
sites such as the one below.

http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/29647/Gartner-claims-open-source-will-rule

I wonder if Microsoft is now funding teams to repeat the company line
on websites or is Windows becoming so bad that people are obsessing
about it and repeat the standard excuse for why it's so bad "It's not
our fault we're so successful" much how smokers have excuses as to why
they want to die horribly of cancer (spot the ex smoker) and kill all
those around them despite all the evidence.

At the moment I'm porting a VB application to Ruby on Rails and the
.NET sites can be quite virulently opposed to open source and linux in
both their content and the comments.

So my question is what is the threat to Microsoft and by extension
their fanboys? Surely OSS runs on Windows too?

If they were attacking Linux I'd understand but the attacks seem to be
at Open Source Software.

Regards,
Shaun Laughey.