Innerphaze

Lately I have noticed a pattern. Maybe it’s in my head, but it is mystery that keeps getting deeper and darker as I go along. It started with getting very tired of seeing “Windows only”, or “Windows and Mac Only,” or “Windows and Mac for now but Linux Support Coming Soon.” These annoying statements seem to be showing up in more blog posts, and more download pages lately. For a while there I thought the tide was turning, but something seems to have happened. I know these are probably not all related to some grand paranoid scheme from Microsoft to sabotage Linux, but sometimes I wonder. For instance, what made Asus, the makers of the Gnu/Linux eee-pc morph into Asus the “better with Windows eee-pc maker? Something big happened. Some type of deal, that is very shady and almost certainly anti-competitive. And before that there were the linux pc’s on sale at Walmart- that suddenly stopped being for sale, even though they were making money for Walmart. So I know Microsoft is scared.
Then there are all the blog posts lately on some of my favorite blogs that have suddenly gone to the Dark Side; even Mac fans have noticed this and are complaining. I have seen this trend develop over the last 2-3 months, and it is very irritating. What brought me to these blogs in the first place was their open minded and fairly balanced coverage of gnu-linux issues.
Another reason I liked these blogs was I liked to imagine what it would be like to be an editor for one of these ultra-cool sources of geek hipness. I know that sounds wierd or quaint, whatever, but I liked thinking about what it would be like to live and write in some big city with a cool arts and tech scene. Going to a bar and meeting people who were artists, writers, entreprenuers, or someone creating a cool web app. Having conversations with people who are smart, creative and interesting, even when I go to the corner store. Now I am not so naive as to think that my fleeting imaginings are real or even close to reality. But they are my thoughts and it adds a layer of enjoyment to my browsing.
But now in my geek fantasies a dark figure shows up, who “…just happened to overhear that you run a popular blog, and how ’bout I buy you a drink, or maybe dinner, hey take a look at this cool app from Microsoft I just found, or did you hear the rumor about blah blah blah.”…and so it begins…
I know, you’re thinking, wow, that’s paranoid. Well, let me show you the source of my paranoia. This is from a presentation by James Plamondon about how to be a better MS Evangelist:

Any time you can make somebody feel cool, that’s good. The sig leaders are very important people. They are people who choose. They choose who speaks and who doesn’t speak at these sig conferences. They set up the agenda. They have influence over twenty, thirty, a hundred, however many people come to this sig. And however many people are on the mailing list, which is also a valuable commodity. So those sig leaders are like consultants. They are very valuable people that you want to schmooze with.

He is speaking about conference organizers here, but you get the idea, he could just as easily be speaking of blog editors. But wait, there is more:

I don’t know if everybody recognizes that word “schmooze” there at the bottom. Schmooze is, I think, a Yiddish word. Basically it means suck up to, socialize with, take care of; love and so forth, go to dinner with, get drunk together, talk about your girlfriends and boyfriends and whatever. I mean, just socialize like crazy, and pump for information, and leak little bits of tidbits of information that think…make them feel special that they’re hearing it and work the crowd and so on. Schmoozing is a very important part of an evangelist’s job, and the better you are at it. the better, because everybody who meets you should think—you know. OK, I hate Microsoft like everybody else, I’m a good member of the Computing Society, I hate Microsoft, that’s what you have to do to get in. But, you know, I like the individual people I’ve met from Microsoft. You know, you’re all ambassadors of Microsoft, and they should…if we can’t help them hating Microsoft, at least we can have them like the individuals, and that’s a big step in the right direction.

And:

You know, that damned Plamondon, you know, he’s working for the Evil Empire, he’s seducing people to the Dark Side, but, you know, he’s such a hell of a swell guy…you know, I hate Microsoft, but he’s OK …so you just want to be a heck of a nice guy. Being a heck of a nice…this is…One of the things I like about evangelism is that it’s one of those few jobs where being a nice guy is valuable.

And:

So at independent conferences, or rather those controlled by the enemy vendor, just gather information. At independent conferences, subvert them. Find the people who choose who goes on the agenda and who doesn’t. Send that person all the free software in the world they want. Find out if their kids are in school, find out what school they go to, send them free software; see what kind of car they drive, send them a little keyring with that car’s logo on it, you know. Anything, anything. Love those people. Just suck up to them so hard your face collapses. I mean, those people…those people are so valuable to you, it’s beyond belief, because they control who goes on that session or not. At last week’s Macworld expo, I had a session added to the conference agenda called Windows95 Programming for Macintosh Developers. At Macworld! Can you imagine?

And this nugget:

So you want to love those conferences to death. I’ve killed at least two Mac conferences. First there was the Mac App Developers Conference. I was on the Board of Directors of the Mac App Developers Association long ago, and after I left I worked to try to turn it into a cross-platform developers conference, and I did. I managed to make it.. their last conference was very cross-platforn, both Windows and Macintosh, which of course turned off their Macintosh audience; half of the conference was irrelevant to them. They didn’t care about Windows. They were a bunch of Mac guys. Which diluted the value of the conference. And they didn’t know how to advertise the Windows guys when the Windows guys showed up. So they lost money that year and the group folded. Oh, well. One less channel of communication that Apple can use to reach its developers.

Another dirty trick:

Well, I sponsored a dinner and …because once you sponsor a dinner, right, you get to talk to them during dinner. You get to do a dinner presentation, OK, once the clatter of knives dies down. And we were there being so helpful. Apple was still nickel and diming its developers to death. And so we’re there handing out free software developers’ kits to everybody there, and free copies of the Explorer PD and other things like that for their kids, because, you know, they’d bring their wives and families along with us, and so we’d give them free games and stuff. And then I gave them this big presentation over dinner and so on. So it seemed like Microsoft dominated the conference. Well, Apple got so pissed off at this that they threatened the guy that ran the conference that they were never going to send anybody again, that they were going to schedule conferences that directly opposed it so that the VPs couldn’t go to his conference, they could only go to Apple’s conference and so forth. So by injecting Microsoft content into the conference, the conference got shut down. The guy who ran it said, why am I doing this? I’m losing money on it every year anyway. Screw Apple, they don’t need my help. And so the conference died, so that’s two. I’m working on two other Mac conferences now.

There is a lot more scumbag tricks too. You can read the whole thing  at Boycott Novell. Some of the stuff is almost beyond scuzzzy and borders on sociopathic, and the guy admits it! but I’ll let you judge that.

And all it cost me was some free software, and her husband had had a stroke and I sent her some articles about recent therapy and research in strokes, went to the library and looked it up. I had a problem with that one. I mean, that one was…you know, I care about her as a person, I’ve known her for years, you know, I was truly sorry that her husband had a stroke; my grandmother died of a stroke. I was kind of interested in the topic. I went to the library anyway, I found this information. I was about to fax it to her, and I said, “Wait a minute. This is, like, totally scummy. I know I’m doing this for a purpose!”

And he still sent her the info!
So, maybe I am paranoid, but like the man said, sometimes paranoia is just plain smart.

Then there is this from the Knoppmyth linux media center developers web site:

4-01-08

Normally, “What happens in Vegas, stays in
Vegas”.
But, I’ve been told it is ok to share this information. Last week, I was in Las Vegas. While at the bar in the Mirage, my friend and I were talking. He was asking how the my project was going and I was filling him in… Unbeknownst to either of us, our conversation was being listened to by the fellow next to us.
After a few minutes, the fellow sitting next to us introduced himself as Jeff Chaucer, Senior Manager of Windows Media Center Edition.
Jeff, goes on to tell us that he overheard what we were talking about and he is interested in learning more about KnoppMyth (I may not care for Microsoft, but my parents taught me not to be rude.). So, I tell him how I started the project, etc. “Interesting” he says.
Jeff then goes on to tell me that Microsoft is looking to make changes to MCE and if I’d be interested in joining the team. I tell him that I’m happy with my current employer and that if I were to be a Microsoft employee that I imagine my working on KnoppMyth would be
frowned upon. He says “No, not at all. Microsoft is looking to change it’s image and there would be no issues with me continuing to work on an Open Source project. The only stipulation is that it doesn’t interfere with an employee’s day to day duties.”
Interesting I thought, but I declined. Jeff insisted I think about it and to contact him in a few days. We exchanged information and he paid our tab.
I got a call from Jeff yesterday and he has sweetened the deal. Not only will Microsoft double my income, I can work on KnoppMyth 30% of my time. In addition, I’ll have full access to their hardware labs to test KnoppMyth.
So, starting April 21st, I’ll be a full time Microsoft employee.

Shiver down spine- activated.
Unbelievable. Well Jeff seems like a very nice guy- he paid their tab - he likes open source and he doubled his income! While I am happy for this guy doubling his income, somehow I have a bad feeling about this er, partnership.

All I know is that I am sick of being left out. Crossloop - still no support for linux- but its coming- yeah right- I will believe that when I see it. And Google Chrome- from the people who built their empire on Linux- well at least they came out with an Alpha version for linux, which pretty much sucks and shows how they feel about the importance of linux. There are many, many more similar stories but you get the idea. And don’t get me started on games (especially World of Warcraft). I know what some of you are thinking- There is no market for game-makers to sell to- when there is a market there will be games. Hello! did you just read all the dirty tricks MS uses. Its about power, control and dominance - not market. Market share is probably around 5-10%- at least as much as Mac usage- so why is there a Mac version of WOW, and Crossloop for that matter, but no Linux? The evangelists that’s why. Microsoft and Apple have deep pockets- its time for Linux to fight back- (paging Canonical), I am not saying do what the Evil Empire does, but do something! And where the hell is the Justice Department? this anti-competitive trend is so obvious I don’t understand how they could miss it. If the Walmart and Asus shenanigans don’t rise to the level of being anti-competitive what does?
One thing I am grateful for is that Linux and OpenSource is strong- it keeps rising from the ashes, better and more popular than before. So I have decided to take some small actions of my own to help it along. These may seem rather small, but they are a start. Lately I have changed my reading habits, and instead of automatically going to my usual sources of info, I go over to Hacker News and FreeSoftwareDaily, then Reddit, for my dose of internet news. At least I have a better chance of reading real info and not internet payola for Microsoft. But we should probably be on the lookout for MS infiltrators there too. I’m just saying, a little healthy paranoia might be called for now.

Tags: blogs, competition, culture, dirty-tricks, Linux, opensource, software, Ubuntu, Windows