“Microsoft’s habitual cloak-and-dagger campaigns against its
rivals — illuminated during the United States of America v.
Microsoft Corporation antitrust trial — were perfected long before
the advent of the Internet. Companies like Stac Electronics,
Micrografx, and even IBM have all felt the sting of Microsoft’s
competitive steel, but it is only in the last 18 months that Linux
has found itself in Microsoft’s sites.”
“Since 1998, when Linux first came on Microsoft’s radar, the
Redmond, WA company’s stealth campaigns designed to disparage the
operating system have been exposed and scrutinized with
unprecedented effectiveness, thanks to the galvanization of the
Linux community and the instant dissemination of information via
the Internet.”
“”Every single time Microsoft makes a press release or
announcement that spins their way, you’ll find various people on
the Internet dissecting it,” says Linux creator Linus
Torvalds. “This is not a planned effort on the part of Linux
programmers,” he adds. “The most orchestration that happens is that
people tell each other to calm down and not get too hot-headed,
and then the normal Internet channels act as a conduit to
journalists and analysts that would otherwise not have heard the
other side at all.””