“Some of Microsoft’s efforts to disparage open-source software
such as Linux have backfired, according to a recent memo by the
software maker.“Top Microsoft executives, including co-founder Bill Gates and
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, have long derided open-source
software as being everything from a ‘cancer’ to ‘Pac-Man-like.’ But
those messages have failed to diminish the popularity of
open-source programs such as Linux among developers and customers,
according to a Microsoft memo distributed at a strategy meeting in
Berlin in September…“Microsoft representatives declined to comment Wednesday on the
memo, but its authenticity was confirmed by a person familiar
[with] it…”