Is somebody keeping a list?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| SFN Jan 25, 2005 10:49 AM EDT |
Is there a page somewhere that identifies all of the larger groups that have migrated or started migrating to Linux? You know That sort of thing. |
| peragrin Jan 25, 2005 10:54 AM EDT |
I bet Billy boy has two or thre people working on it. After all his spam filter is people as well. Must be nice to pay someone to filter your spam for you. No wonder why MSFT thinks they have the lower TCO. They just pay people to do the dirty work. |
| PaulFerris Jan 25, 2005 11:31 AM EDT |
peragrin: you don't know the half of it. Wag-Ed (their PR firm) is great at keeping lists on journalists that don't tow the party line. |
| peragrin Jan 25, 2005 5:07 PM EDT |
Great if we can get that list, we have people to work with. |
| PaulFerris Jan 25, 2005 6:54 PM EDT |
Just look for journalists that were talking bad about Microsoft, and then suddenly were out of work. It happens. ;) |
| phsolide Jan 26, 2005 7:42 AM EDT |
Wag-Ed's "management" of journalists got exposed a few years ago in a now-defunct magazine, "Brill's Content". I have a copy of that issue at home, it had Bill Gate's Albuquerque speeding arrest mugshot on the cover. Sometime in '98 or '99, I believe. The article even used to be on the web. I never understood why this expose' didn't cause more of a ruckus. It seems like standards that we hold most corporations to (play fair, provide good products, not astroturf, not illegally maintain a monopoly) just don't matter when it comes to MSFT. The public at large, the business press, and the press in general just give MSFT a free pass. Basically, MSFT gives Wag-Ed so much money, that Wag-Ed can afford to track journalists individually. Coverage of MSFT one way or the other can cause Wag-Ed to reward a given journalist with an audience with Bill, or to get a journalist cut off, or in cases where Wag-Ed thinks that some remedial massaging might help, a slightly-con-MSFT article can get a journalist some special treatment. It all seems just shy of outright bribery to me, and if this practice became widely known, would cause the "journalists" in question to repudiate MSFT massaging. Come to think of it, that's probably why the expose' didn't get more play - the gravy train of free trips to Redmond, free advance copies of software, and pre-written articles would grind to a halt. |
| PaulFerris Jan 26, 2005 5:31 PM EDT |
phsolide: You need not tell me that, I was being sarcastic (big surprise there). I'm intimately aware of Microsofts' PR firm tactics. More than you, or most of the Linux community for that matter, are likely aware of. Joe Barr, for example, knows. Nick Petreley knows... This is probably as good a time as any to discuss this, so I'll expand on some things. I was speaking from experience. A few years ago I had an experience as a tech jounalist. I wish I could say it was all good, but the abrupt ending was rather public: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5218 Now (just about) the last thing I wrote on LinuxToday.com was this: http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001040101520PS Which many took to be a joke -- because it was, honestly, my usual attempt at humor in the face of stupidity. For the record, I'm not referring to my own stupidity -- I'm referring to the woman from WagEd that thought she could change my mind about the truth. You see, the truth behind that article above was that I was indeed at the time in contact with Wag-Ed, and the phony "retirement" of Rant-Mode meant to be the usual inside joke against them. I even joked with the representative over the phone about it the next day or so (she was laughing -- something about the people in the office saying "this isn't the usual reaction we get"). Smile when you pull the trigger, I guess... I swear -- I'm not making any of this up. Note the date: April 1, 2001. It was an April fools joke and one of the last articles I was allowed to publish at the time. Some editors of LT were having "issues" with what I called content. Yeah, I know I'm somewhat controversial at times -- but there was a serious method to my madness, and I'd argue that often it worked to great effectiveness. For example: http://linuxtoday.com/best.php3 Which got attention at the time from wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38845,00.html This simple cheap shot at an MSNBC polling technique did some serious damage -- not bad for a few lines of PHP -- eh? (try selecting Windows for a good laugh) Note the date on that article as well -- and note that some things for me changed right afterward. For example, I (in November of that year) was in contact with some higher-ups to change some "things" at the core of some "problems" I had identified... No, I have no total proof of anything -- just some dots, and some obvious lines connecting them. Wag-Ed wasn't just in contact with me at internet.com -- and they offered at the time to fly me to Redmond to chat with some people (I'm sure it would have all been friendly like). I'm sure advertising revenue was kind of tight... I'm sure there were some pressures from outside that I was not privy to. No, the issue is far more grave than most people recognize. By controlling ad revenue for the longest time, Microsoft was able to control much of the mainstream press. They kept "problem" journalists at bay and made things difficult for any kind of real mainstream publication of anti-microsoft viewpoints. The Internet has truly changed some of these things. Read "The Clue-Train Manifesto" for how things like community based web sites (this site is a prime example, btw) have changed and will change the market forever for tech companies like Microsoft. Clue-Train is about more than tech though -- it's about marketing in general and how no one is really going to control the truth the way they used to. Large PR firms are still at this kind of crap. It's standard issue. Big drug companies do it too -- it's all around us in the BS culture that we call American. I'd argue that the community in general lives outside of this kind of reality. That doesn't mean I can't make fun of it from time to time -- it's always fair game for some lampooning. It's one of the reasons I'm kind of careful now about the sites I call home. LXer -- news you can trust. --FeriCyde |
| tuxchick Jan 26, 2005 7:49 PM EDT |
Paul, how did Kevin Reichard get to be an executive editor?? We don't travel in the same circles, but I know a couple of folks who know him. Does he keep dossiers on people or something? |
| PaulFerris Jan 27, 2005 2:24 AM EDT |
He was a good friend of someone at the top of internet.com, and he had supposedly written a bunch of Linux books and technical books on Unix things. I have a lot more than this but it's not worth cluttering daves pretty forums with trivia. ;) |
| SFN Jan 27, 2005 5:32 AM EDT |
So, that's a "no" to the list? |
| dave Jan 27, 2005 5:50 AM EDT |
SFN, I don't think there is a list anywhere, but it sounds like a good project to do. I already have the code needed to produce the thing, and if you're willing to help maintain the list, I'll set it up. What do you say? dave |
| SFN Jan 27, 2005 5:53 AM EDT |
As a matter of fact, I was just starting to search through old lxer stories and copying names of cities, states, boards, etc. Once it's initially set up, maintaining it shouldn't be too difficult (I just crack myself up sometimes). So, yeah! I'm all for it. |
| dave Jan 27, 2005 7:15 AM EDT |
What field do you need in the database? I'm guessing you want the author's name, email address, plus the publication they write for. What else? Dave |
| SFN Jan 27, 2005 7:28 AM EDT |
I'm thinking just the headline. I could then change that to just the name of the body. (i.e. "Vienna to softly embrace Linux" could become "The local government of Vienna, Austria") I would think that field would be the link to the story. I'm totally open to suggestion from anyone though. This is certainly not going to be a "my page" thing. |
| TxtEdMacs Jan 27, 2005 7:56 AM EDT |
Before you get carried away, let a bit of reality seep in: many head line claims are no more than clap trap. Do not go by pronouncements, e.g. Sun, IBM, etc. See instead if you can find what number of Linux desktops have been installed and functioning. Remember even the most committed have had their setbacks and some of the loudest were no more than ploys to gain price discounts. |
| SFN Jan 27, 2005 8:09 AM EDT |
I agree. Fortunately, it looks like we are talking about links to articles about the various migrations or (I guess) planned migrations. The various articles I've read about lately seem to be fairly good about spelling out just how each body interprets "migration". Any info in those articles will still be available to the reader. |
| dave Jan 27, 2005 9:26 AM EDT |
SFN, Understood. Try this: http://lxer.com/module/db/viewby.php?dbn=12&uid=108 You'll find a link to add a new entry at the bottom. Let me know if you need any other fields added! best, dave |
| AnonymousCoward Jan 27, 2005 3:05 PM EDT |
They'll none of them be missed! (-: http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/mikado/html/none_be_missed.ht... |
| SFN Jan 27, 2005 6:49 PM EDT |
Very cool. Looks like a good Friday night project for me. Thanks! |
| MESMERIC Jan 30, 2005 3:06 AM EDT |
Steve Balmer always mentions Pernambuco - Brazil
and another city(?) where they actually migrated from Linux back to Windows. I know the details of Pernambuco - Brazil. A lot of money changed hands .. much like what happened in Newham Council - London UK. MSN is desperate for more PR they will bribe anyone to achieve that. Failing that - they will try and bully the Presidents themselves which is what is happening in Brazil |
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