12.27.08

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Former Microsoft Shill Openly Confesses, Alleges Microsoft Still Does This

Posted in Fraud, Microsoft at 1:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“It could be argued that Microsoft’s unethical Technology Evangelism (TE) practices are “old news”—i.e., that Microsoft stopped using these questionable TE practices long ago. This is very unlikely to be the case, for at least three reasons.”

–James Plamondon, former Microsoft shill (aka ‘Technology Evangelist’)

Microsoft is very well aware that the beans have been spilled and its disgraceful AstroTurf tactics are now known to an increasing number of people. As a victim of Microsoft's tactics, I am neither willing to forget nor to forgive them. I intend to inform, to expose, and hopefully to make those responsible come forward or get sued.

James Plamondon is one of the key people behind it. You can find samples of his 'work' in several pages of this Web site. He explained in 2008: “Between 1992 and 2000, I was a Technology Evangelist (TE) with Microsoft, where I was widely considered to be its leading TE theorist and practitioner. For example, in the late 1990′s, I was the only Microsoft employee to design and lead TE training seminars that all of Microsoft’s newly-hired TE’s were required to attend.”

“As a victim of Microsoft’s tactics, I am neither willing to forget nor to forgive them.”By forcing dirty secrets into public knowledge, we forced people who had practiced these illegal tactics on behalf of Microsoft to come out and acknowledge them. Marshall Goldberg is apparently one of the high-level people responsible for it too. Is it he who rates Microsoft products 5/5 in Amazon? Either way, a Marshall Goldberg was presenting alongside James Plamondon, but there is not much information about this Marshall on the Web. Remember “Steve Barkto” [1, 2, 3, 4]?

There are several Web sites which seek to bring out the truth other than ourselves. There are other domains like slated.org, edge-op.org and even this Russian site, gotthefacts.org, which all expose the same type of illegal Microsoft tactics. Most of them just provide Web hosting (mirrors) for the evidence stamped by a United States court.

Several weeks ago we received a public message from James Plamondon, who said:

Roy, et al.,

You’re right. Some of the evangelism practices that I taught and executed at Microsoft in the 1990’s were unethical. I didn’t think so at the time — I thought that they were just hyper-competitive — but I agree now.

I am trying to change the error of my ways. I trust that you will agree that even the most hardened sinner can be redeemed.

We also obtained a copy of a private E-mail claiming to be from James Plamondon, but we can’t divulge it. Our source says: “Perhaps he’s on a fishing expedition to find out exactly what else is out there that might show him in a bad light. And wants me to do it for him. Remember all these Comes docs were supposed to stay buried.”

We’ve asked for permission to publish that E-mail too. Unless it’s fake (which is unlikely), this was sent to Groklaw too.

In any case, James now has his own blog where he’s disclosing some of the things he was doing at Microsoft. He even links to Groklaw and Slated.org. For example:

For eight years (1992-2000), I was the driving force behind Microsoft’s effort to make its Technology Evangelism (TE) efforts more efficient, effective, and ruthless, by studying both the practice and the theory of TE. After leaving Microsoft in 2000, I spurned the inquiries of numerous Microsoft competitors to testify on their behalf. As recently as year, I fell on my sword on Microsoft’s behalf.

So why come forward now?

Two reasons.

First, the global financial melt-down forced an epiphany. We at Microsoft always felt that we were on the side of free markets and unfettered capitalism—you know, the Good Guys. But so did the guys at Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie Mae, and all of the other failed financial institutions. Even Alan Greenspan, the High Priest of free markets, has had to concede that there’s “a flaw” in free market economics—a flaw that led directly to the current financial collapse.

My belief that I was one of the Good Guys was similarly flawed. This is now inescapable. I was wrong. Many of the TE practices that I developed, taught, and espoused were wrong. Anyone who continues to practice them is wrong. As a first step towards making amends for my past wrongdoing, I must make this clear, and widely known.

Second, Microsoft—where these practices were developed, welcomed, and endorsed as official policy—is this week launching its first public volley in the Mother of All Standards Battles, to control the de facto standards of cloud computing. For Microsoft, this is a life-or-death struggle. When Microsoft’s back is to the wall, can it reasonably be expected to refrain from using the TE tactics that it KNOWS will help it win, if its use of those tactics is unrestrained?

However, my concern is not just for Microsoft. These TE practices are very effective, and now that some of them have been documented in the public record, other platform vendors will be tempted to use them, too, when their backs are against the wall.

This problem can only be treated, I believe, by professionalizing TE, and thereby inoculating platform vendors against unethical TE practices.

That’s why I felt compelled to come forward now. Only now have I realized how wrong I was, and by coming forward now, in the opening skirmishes of the Cloud Computing Wars, I can begin to make amends for my past wrong-doing.

Our previous post discusses exactly that. Microsoft is on “a Slog” against competing virtualisation/cloud offers and also against GNU/Linux, which is facilitated by these. Microsoft attacks Google Apps via former employees; Preston Gralla, who some call “a Microsoft shill”, joined this anti-Google Apps parade earlier this week, twice in a row in fact (his blog is called “Seeing Through Windows”). He’s assisted by his IDG colleague, Eric Lai, in the “Regarding Redmond” blog. Need it be repeatedly said that IDG receives Microsoft money [1, 2]? This impacts coverage through biased appointments and editorship. Preston Gralla, for example, attacks GNU/Linux constantly by promoting Microsoft vapourware that involved bribing bloggers.

Going back to James, it makes a lot of sense. This former Microsoft shill (he insists on calling it “TE”) also says that Microsoft must still be doing it, and in fact it’s quite evident. He also wrote:

It could be argued that Microsoft’s unethical Technology Evangelism (TE) practices are “old news”—i.e., that Microsoft stopped using these questionable TE practices long ago. This is very unlikely to be the case, for at least three reasons.

[...]

The point is that this Judgment, by affecting only TE activities after the last major beta test release, does almost nothing to limit Microsoft ability to perform TE unethically, and indeed increases its incentive to put the hammer down before the last major beta test release is issued.

Secondly, to the extent that the requirements imposed by Section III.D of the Judgment had any salutary effect on Microsoft’s TE practices, those requirements are now irrelevant, as the term of that section of the Judgment expired in 2007 (although the requirements of other sections were extended). Microsoft is now free to practice TE any way it damn well pleases, without let or hindrance.

Thirdly, members of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community have asserted that Microsoft has used these practices in its recent evangelism as recently as last year (2007).

In summary, this aspect of Microsoft’s illegal behaviour is not a theory. It’s a reality. Even those who were involved in it regretted this after leaving the company and then divulge these secrets simply because they had already been leaked out to the public throughout class action litigation (2006, with further analysis in 2007). They want to tell their own story because the evidence is too embarrassing for them to cope with. They spin, spin, spin, but the truth remains too hard to deny. People should not be gullible and they can independently interpret the evidence [PDF].

“In summary, this aspect of Microsoft’s illegal behaviour is not a theory. It’s a reality.”This is worth keeping in mind — especially amongst victims of Microsoft’s ill practices — in case a lawsuit is filed against the company in the future. People should not just avoid the company for behaving in this way; entire countries should sue Microsoft or impose an embargo already.

This is not competition. It’s unhealthy market distortion, it’s corruption. Real people are hurt and Microsoft’s competitors who cater for their families lose their jobs so that Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates can hoard billions and funnel these into governments so that they will blindly procure Microsoft. It’s the kickbacks routine, which perverted procurement is a part of. It has mischief and manipulation written all over it and there are heaps of hard evidence.

These things are large and complex, but thanks to input from readers and fellow bloggers we are beginning to obtain and put together a comprehensive alta vista that explains how Microsoft operates internally (if not intimately). Those who are desperate to dispute it must stop attacking the messenger; this only legitimises the message, which cannot be countered directly. █

Related posts (more of Microsoft’s dirty tricks):

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33 Comments

pcolon said,

December 27, 2008 at 2:52 am

Most of his posts are on “live.com”. How long will it stay there?
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 2:53 am

I made a complete copy of these last night, just in case.
Christian Einfeldt said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:20 am

Roy, this is great journalism. You are doing a really good job of finding and following obscure threads to bring out a more coherent whole picture. Your work often meets sharp and sustained criticism, but in the years that I have been following your work, you are developing an increasingly deep knowledge of the industry in general and Microsoft in particular. I think that anyone who seeks to blithely waves off your work as that of a crank will have a difficult job of so doing, in light of your in-depth and sustained investigative work. Good job!

I don’t always agree with everything you say, as you and I have discussed at length, but that is exactly the point — the FOSS community is a big tent, and we can accommodate divergent points of view.

The bottom line is that, like Pamela Jones of Groklaw, you have come to the point where your investigative journalism must be taken seriously and followed seriously. If ever there was doubt about the gravity of your work, those doubts now have an increasingly heavy burden of carrying weight in the minds of anyone who will read Roy’s site with a sense of detachment and objectivity.

Christian Einfeldt,
Producer, The Digital Tipping Point
amd-linux said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:48 am

Why is he publishing this in a MS controlled environment?

If I wanted to distance myself from something my former company did and still does, I wouldn’t really use its tools and environment.

No, I dont think that we see a here an refined former “head of evil” at MS confessing his sins because it is christmas.

To me, this looks more like another try to admit the undeniable and obvious (Comes docs! ISO committee bribing) and show how much you NOW care in order to impress a coming government.

Who wants to bet that we will soon see a yet to be appointed head of Company Ethics and Compliance at MS after we have such nice guidelines of business conduct ready to be followed:

http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/buscond/default.mspx

(I am following MS tactics since 2 decades now, when they started to force Vobis, the then largest computer retail chain in Germany to drop OS/2 as the pre-installed system by threatening to raise the MS tax for Vobis clients and I really had to read this several times – this is so far awayfrom a reality that a real cynic like an inhouse counsel must have written this guidelines).
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:59 am

amd-linux,

For the record, this blog is definitely his. He is in Austin (Texas) these days and I was able to confirm.

Putting it in Live is possibly part of some bitterness or revenge (he explains there why he did this). I suppose he and Microsoft are not in good terms after Microsoft tried to dissociate itself from the memos by attacking his character. He explains that too.

If I am granted permission, more information will be published.
Andre said,

December 27, 2008 at 9:34 am

First of all it is also a cultural issue. If you look at the political campaigning in the US elections and would translate these pratices to Europe the result would be a bitter outcry. Likewise no one cares about “corruption” in Nigeria. What you perceive as “dirty pratices” is probably not considered “dirty” in the US but a common “smart” marketing method.

Problems often arise when you don’t adapt well to the local discourse style.

Your own tactics of unilateral war declaration and the communication of your blog might well be perceived as over the top in certain circles.

Which means it is not easy, thanks god there are no unviversal truth in communication. Which, I believe, it good.
twitter said,

December 27, 2008 at 9:50 am

It would be interesting see James write up the exact nature of the harm done by his “TE”. I have my own opinions about bribery and intimidation used to pervert academic and trade organizations, the harm done to the economy by the destruction of companies offering superior tech, but he’s the expert. His general opinion will be interesting and usefull.

Still, there is only a glimmer of confession here. Real confessions will include specifics that did not make it to Comes and other court documents. Stuff like, “We killed this conference by stacking that panel,” and “we bribed this professor with that grant.” The details may be old and tedious, but they are real crimes and real harm was done at the time. Victims of the crimes will know the difference.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 10:13 am

See James Plamondon’s comment here:

http://scripting.wordpress.com/2007/01/09/scripting-news-for-192007/#comment-34530

“The point being that Microsoft recognized that my presentations on evangelism theory, strategy, and tactics — of which only one has been entered into the public record, the others still being massively confidential — were, in fact, the best embodiment of Microsoft’s evangelism “policy” that existed at the time.”

There is apparently even worse stuff that’s not yet exposed, which is why “fishing expedition” was mentioned above. He may be trying to see if the really dark secrets have leaked as well.

It could be worse than Microsoft bribing professors.
Roy Bixler said,

December 27, 2008 at 10:20 am

It’s important to realise why Plamondon’s TE techniques are wrong. It’s not wrong that Microsoft recruits third parties to do its marketing. It *is* wrong that Microsoft does this in a sneaky, underhanded way so that the targets of their marketing do not know that those they regard as independent are, in fact, not independent. It’s the deception that matters. Plamondon’s TE techniques are akin to false advertising. I’m pretty sure that, even in the US, there are laws against false advertising.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 10:25 am

Roy B,

Early in the morning I received an E-mail emphasising exactly this point. I shall post a followup soon (people including myself are on vacation, so I pace myself down).
pcolon said,

December 27, 2008 at 11:19 am

There is a valid point in listening and watching what he (James) does from ‘confession’ to judging future fruits.

Microsoft and other technical monopolies have been doing business as usual. A lot of people working and doing business with these corporations feel current business ethics is OK. I see no one indicted, corporate or political (except madoff), where the financial fiasco at ‘fraudstreet is concerned.

James may help to identify where attacks against the consumer and FOSS may be coming from. We’ll see, and spread the news; main stream media is not going to do it.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 11:28 am

For almost a year I’ve been aligning these written Microsoft tactics with observations, mostly in order to show what was happening. For example, take James’ words on vapourware [PDF]:

“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”

Think about Vista 7 [sic].

“Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”

Microsoft does this to GNU/Linux.

“Analysts sell out – that’s their business model… But they are very concerned that they never look like they are selling out, so that makes them very prickly to work with.”

Self explanatory. That’s how Microsoft views analysts.

“Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!”

That’s what AstroTurfing is for.

Diversionary tactics, holding action, and retreats may each seem contrary to the achievement of the overall objective when considered solely in their own terms, but taken in light of the overall conflict, may contribute to overall success. In the Chinese Civil War that followed World War II, Mao Tse Tung’s Army ran away from every battle, until they won the war. They knew that overall victory, not local victory, was the objective.

Thus it is imperative to measure each action in accordance with its contribution to overall, not just local, victory.

Victory

“A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.” This is the mission statement of Microsoft itself; it is the definition of the conditions under which Microsoft itself can declare overall victory.

James is truly passionate.

pcolon said:

James may help to identify where attacks against the consumer and FOSS may be coming from. We’ll see, and spread the news; main stream media is not going to do it.

Here is why, to quote James:

“Working behind the scenes to orchestrate “independent” praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy’s, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. “Independent” analyst’s report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). “Independent” consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). “Independent” academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). “Independent” courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage.”

There’s lot more. Watch the whole thing [PDF] because it’s eye opening.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 11:45 am

Someone has just mailed me about this. It turns out that some “media” — whatever its distinction may be — covered the finding.

From a “Generalized Evangelism Timeline” admitted as evidence in Comes v. Microsoft, an ongoing Iowa state class action suit. The plaintiffs allege that Microsoft engaged in illegal monopolization and other anticompetitive conduct. Microsoft internal documents define evangelism as “the art and science of getting developers to ship products that support Microsoft’s platforms.”

Guerrilla marketing is often a long, hard slog. In the Slog, Microsoft dukes it out with the competition. Evangelism should avoid formal, frontal assaults, instead focusing its efforts….
Goblin said,

December 27, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Firstly Roy, what a great piece of journalism, and as always I am so pleased that I found your site all those months ago.

I am wondering if the poster Andre is the famous Andre Da Costa from the threads of MS-Watch, the guy who could put a positive spin on the end of the world.

He says “Likewise no one cares about “corruption” in Nigeria. What you perceive as “dirty pratices” is probably not considered “dirty” in the US but a common “smart” marketing method.”

Er, Andre, I care about corruption in Nigeria, and just because something is happening elsewhere does that excuse the behaviour? What a silly argument. It is NOT a “smart” marketing method, unless your intention is to deceive/mislead or tell lies. If you are prepared to do that to sell your product then I suppose it is.

Andre most people take pride in their integrity, not sell it for a buck to pimp a product range.

Id be amazed if this wasnt Andre Da Costa. Thats trademark Costa propaganda and ideology there.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 4:49 pm

No, Andre is actually one of the “Good Guys”, not as in James Plamondon’s “Besides — we’re the good guys!” (yes, he said exactly that about himself and his fellow AstroTurf recruits).
Goblin said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Ah.

Sorry then, I misinterpretted his post (can I make excuse of being tired???)

I took it as an attempt to justify the action by comparing it to other sinister practices in the world.

My mistake!
Best Wishes
Goblin.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:28 pm

My opinion differs from Andre’s. I view all corporate lobbying as illegitimate and I am opposed to many forms of advertising, which are — plainly speaking — about deception of minds. I also think that lobbying leads to governments which turn against their citizens, in favour of corporations (i.e. chosen few, or “elites”).
jo Shields said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm

Unless Sun do it, then it’s A-OK?
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 27, 2008 at 5:45 pm

What does that have to do with Sun?
Goblin said,

December 27, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Jo, going off topic for a second can I ask, are you the same Jo Shields that challenged a GPL violation some months ago? (It was mentioned in the “Linux Magazine”)

Or is it a coincidence of name?
jo Shields said,

December 27, 2008 at 7:31 pm

Jo, going off topic for a second can I ask, are you the same Jo Shields that challenged a GPL violation some months ago? (It was mentioned in the “Linux Magazine”)

Was it? Got a link?

For reference, YES, that was me. It’s nice to be recognised for something positive.

Unless you’re a hit-man from Compro. Then it’s not so nice.
Goblin said,

December 27, 2008 at 8:09 pm

Yep, I will find the issue number and page.
As its late, Ill look through my back issues in the morning. FYI the magazine is a UK one, and I believe your name was mentioned in an article in the general news section.

Like I say, Ill give you the issue number and page tomorrow.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 28, 2008 at 4:45 am

Here are some more responses to this:

“This is massive news, even bigger than the exposure of the “(Vendor) Recommends Windows” paid advertising cover-up.

“In many (personal) ways, this has been the worst year of my life; it’d be nice to think I could salvage something positive from it, and this news looks like it could be it. Finally … not only the inside scoop on the profoundly unethical ways in which Microsoft “competes”, but even an *admission* from their erstwhile *chief evangelist* that these methods were indeed diabolically wrong (update: and still are).

“Better archive that whole blog, ‘cos I have a feeling Microsoft is about to develop a very sensitive trigger-finger.”

That’s interesting. I checked M. Plamondon’s blog and apparently he started doing this 2 months ago. In particular, check out this comment, posted on 13 Dec., at the bottom of this post:

“The name seems familiar somehow. <sarcasm>I wonder who he means by “BoycottBoy”.</sarcasm>

“It’s amusing that Michaels seems to think that Microsoft’s platform evangelism practices don’t affect him because he was/is a Sun professional and Microsoft’s platform evangelism is primarily aimed at FOSS. The latter may be true now, but it wasn’t “back in the day”. Sun was also one of a long list of Microsoft victims. I used to be a Sun system administrator in the early ’90′s and a whole department of the company where I worked had Sun workstations set up to do CAD/CAM work. If they have gone the way of the market, then I’m sure the Sun workstations would have been replaced with white box systems running Windows. Sun has just managed to survive, but Microsoft has had a rather negative effect on their profitability. Between Linux and Windows, Unix has practically disappeared. A few years ago, Sun was even forced to make its AMD64 hardware certified to run Windows. Even earlier than that, they supported Linux on their AMD64 hardware. If Sun had their preferences, I’m sure they would still want to be able to sell their hardware at high prices with Solaris as the sole supported operating system.”

“I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Who’s left in the popular media that might pick up the story?

“Just be careful with information. It’s possible that they only pretend to come out of the cold. We have an in-house sales rep who is often snooping for info. He uses an act of trying to be helpful to first pump for information and second try to prevent things from getting done.

“The bottom line here seems that Microsoft is more a movement than a technology. So efforts to move forward with technology need to factor in neutralizing political and ideological interference from Microsoft people.”
Jose_X said,

December 29, 2008 at 12:57 am

I also think at times that what you show on BN would appear tame next to some of the other things they do.. that’s my cynical side speaking. If true, you can understand why they might want to “come clean” and help put everything behind them. But again, that is my cynical side speaking.
Dave Lane said,

December 30, 2008 at 5:26 pm

This TE stuff is interesting and appears pretty diabolical… I’m intrigued to hear that James Plamondon is on poor terms with Microsoft due to a personal attack. They’re definitely prone to character assassination if they can’t beat an opponent by outsmarting them. During the OOXML debacle, a group of open source advocates (who happened to know A LOT about office file formats, both ODF and MS Office’s non-standard formats) took part as advisors in the New Zealand standards organisation’s deliberations on whether or not to support OOXML. Because they were so well informed, and were quite successful in making a sound case for *not* approving OOXML, Microsoft sent down biggish gun Gray Knowlton from Redmond, presumably to cow the uppity open sourcers with his superior intellect and grasp of the material.

Sadly for Microsoft, Gray was roundly outclassed by the open source proponents who quickly revealed the substantial holes in his understanding and reasoning, and Standards NZ saw his involvement as disingenuous. To make it worse, however, Microsoft subsequently sent a letter to various participants in the process (later released to the open source proponents) which attempted to discredit one of the open source people, attacking him personally (and without basis in fact).

Thankfully, Standards NZ saw through this approach as well, and in the end, it appeared from my somewhat detached perspective that Microsoft utterly burned their bridges with their unethical behaviour, e.g. attempts at character assassination. Despite taking out full-page ads in all the major NZ daily newspapers (talk about old school) to support their cause (ironically, playing to kiwi’s sense of national identity in protecting “their data”…), Standards NZ voted resoundingly “NO” on OOXML.

Microsoft have always been a corporation prone to unethical behaviour if it will increase the bottom line. They will continue to be until such time as the market recognises their behaviour and shuns their products. Remember: “with Microsoft technologies, rather than working in the cloud, you’re living under one”.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 30, 2008 at 5:40 pm

We’ve covered the Matthew Holloway incident pretty well, in case you are referring to it too.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/0B47485921D44083CC2574110068B1B6
Dave Lane said,

December 30, 2008 at 5:59 pm

Yep that’s the one. It’s worth noting that Microsoft are obviously consistent in their game plan. Doesn’t seem to take them long to escalate things to character assassination… Their lack of honour is less than impressive.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 30, 2008 at 6:10 pm

The Matthew Holloway incident has been immensely valuable, to this very day. It is routinely used as a case study of smear campaigns that quietly percolate their way through from Microsoft’s mouths. You typically find yourself unable to find the ‘trail’ — so to speak — when you only see the insult coming from the mouth of people like Rob Enderle or Jan van den Beld. It’s also hard to find those responsible for the witch hunt against Peter Quinn.
yonnie said,

December 30, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Can the author actually get specific? The article does seem to ramble. What is very impressive about the article, the author, and the many comments is that it implies these tactics are somewhat new. WHAT DESERT ISLAND HAVE YOU IDIOTS BEEN LIVING ON for the past 30 years???? Microsoft has always been devious, from stealing other peoples work and presenting it as their own to suppressing the competition by any means possible including bribes and product placement. Come on folks! Don’t you read the newspapers? Listen to the news? It’s been every year since year one, some form of lawsuit against MS, I can’t remember them (MS) ever winning, they just run the suit till the suer gives up or goes broke, which ever happens first!
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm

@yonnie:

It’s not news, it’s concrete evidence. The same argument was made about this post from early in the month.

We all know that Microsoft is doing this, but lacking hard evidence, it may prove difficult to make a solid case to people who are new to this or journalists who must be careful about what they write. Having the evidence at hand makes all the difference in the world.
The Hand said,

December 31, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Hi Roy,
Very nice site and thanks for the hard work putting all this together. I do have a question for you that Goblin has already asked, sort of. But the question or rather the answer, was a bit confusing, I think. Rather looking for a yes or no type answer.

Goblin asked you if Andre, the guy who first posted a comment here, is the same Andre Da Costa that posts all the time at MS Watch, has a site that reads like a “just the facts” site ( adacosta.spaces.live.com) writes revues at amazon for MS software and its competitors, and posts articles for the MS MVP that runs the ActiveWin site, and supposedly live in Jamaica. He is a very very busy poster for MS on the web.

Most likely you may not know. But any information you might have on the this MS Shill would be appreciated, if you have any. And yes, its obvious that Andre does think he is one of the good guys. But we know how confusing life is these days, and how twisted logic come become, to the point of who is the good guys.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 31, 2008 at 1:40 pm

I haven’t kept good track of him, but I occasionally see him cheering Microsoft and we wrote about him before.
bigpicture said,

January 3, 2009 at 3:28 pm

MS seems to have no answer to the Apple adds that use their own tactic against them much like martial arts, and they have tried. These cast MS as the uncool lumbering out of touch giant. Which in in the view of of a lot of folks they are. The next step would be to compare them to fascism that uses Hitler’s propaganda methodology, which they do.

The disinformation thing is rampant at all levels, that is why I don’t watch TV, read newspapers or magazines. Or pay attention to any information that is likely to be manufactured or censored.