Free Software Linux

Peter Suber has the relevant quotations - and the full rebuttals of the misinformation therein. No "surrender"....

I'm getting so many emails asking me what's happening with Google's patents and asking me to explain what is going on. OK. Nothing. Just a little legal FUD. Or some excellent advocacy, depending on your point of view.

Anti-Linux evangelists try to level many claims against the free open source operating system Linux. Arguments against the base cost (nothing!) or about the turnaround time to repair security exploits don’t work. But there is one item in the anti-Linux arsenal which often hits hard: lack of support. Here's why it makes good Linux techies groan when they see it.

The simple answer is 'yes' we could do it now and we will save the taxpayer millions of pounds. In previous posts I have documented the exponential rise in school ICT costs over the past 20 years. The articles focussed on costing ICT fully. This meant summing the costs of software purchase, software licensing, hardware replacement cycle, support costs and&nbs [...]

Microsoft returns intimidating error messages to those intending to open ODF; Notepad works where OpenOffice.org fails in Vista

Ladies and gentlemen, sit down. You have all been taken advantage of in the worst manipulative mental carnival imagineable. FUD. We all know the term. Wikipedia states it as: "Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) is a tactic of rhetoric used in sales, marketing, public relations, and illiberal democracies.

A roundup of software patent news that Free software watchers need to know about

The post highlights some of the latest disinformation you ought to watch out for

There seems to be a push to rewrite history about Microsoft's aggressive fight against ODF

Slashdot's front page contains slightly aggressive and grossly inaccurate GPL and open source FUD. An observation and rebuttal to it you can find here. (thanks for the headsup, Tracy).

Further progress for Microsoft's attempted assimilation with the #1 rival

"Despite having an open source strategy the South African government doesn't really understand how to benefit from OSS. This is according to Microsoft director of corporate standards, Jason Matusow." Stay tune for more FUD from Microsoft...

Here is what seems like new attempt s to justify the use of Mono at Java's expense

Regular readers will know that I've rallied against Microsoft's so-called "Get the facts" site for the last fortnight. Rather than give legitimate comparisons facing off Windows servers vs Linux options the site opts for bunkum and hogwash with sensational headlines that have no underlying substance. Here’s the state of play.

I'm at the Moscow airport getting ready to fly back to the United States. Before I leave, however, I figured it would be good to note (and then bury) three myths that I heard perpetuated by Microsoft at the Interop Moscow conference. They've been largely discredited elsewhere, but it appears Microsoft prefers to keep regurgitating the party line until abject ridicule sets in.