06.26.08
Reader’s Take: “Botnet King Steps Down”
n recent days we have been sharing various examples of the never-ending whitewashing [1, 2, 3] which goes on in the media. Microsoft’s brand value has been sinking, as judged by several different and independent ladders, so the company is trying to use Gates’ departure and capitalise on sentimental value. A readers of our shares some insights on this and looks at the brighter future which lies ahead:
Waggener-Edstrom is filling the media with hagiographies of the man who made bad engineering acceptable, but here is something else to reminisce upon as the Botnet King steps down:
By 1995, two years after the launch of the first popular graphical web browser, the WWW was growing explosively and would continue to do so for several years. Nowadays the growth has leveled off, but is still growth. The WWW, built upon the Internet, is synonymous with e-Business and e-Commerce.
By 1995, nine years after the official launch of the Internet and about 20 years after the first Internet connections, it was still growing explosively and would continue to do so for several years. Nowadays, too, the growth has leveled off, but you now find Internet connectivity in everything from coffee pots (really) to Linux-based mobile phones.
By 1996, in the midst of ten and three years of explosive growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web, respectively, what was the Botnet King’s position? It was that the Internet was a passing fad and unimportant. █
See also:
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.