Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft/Unisys Unix-bashing Site Runs FreeBSD
Several people sent in variations on this: "Kind of ironic to see that the the site, dubbed WeHaveTheWayOut from Microsoft and Unisys runs on an Apache Web server powered by FreeBSD. This could have made a great April Fools joke, unfortunately for Microsoft, you can verify it by using Netcraft." This is a follow-up to the original story a few days ago. Other readers noted that there's already a WeHaveTheWayIn site up. Wehavethewayout.com was returning Apache headers yesterday; today it's returning "Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0", so it appears they've dumped FreeBSD in a hurry, or maybe just changed the headers.
Wehavethewayout.com was returning Apache headers yesterday; today it's returning "Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0", so it appears they've dumped FreeBSD in a hurry, or maybe just changed the headers.
Somehow, I doubt it's a big conspiracy. As someone suggested in the Netcraft story this morning, they probably just moved the domain from their marketing firm's hosting farm to their own box or something.
Not that the fact that their own marketing firm won't eat the dog food isn't funny, but this isn't front page news by a long shot.
--saint
The people who generally could find out this information about the site are techies who for hte most part hate MS with no chance of Rehabilitation. MS doesnt care becuase the ppl comming to there site for legit use of THIER product have no idea they are running BSD or let alone know what BSD is.
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
The 404 Pages look like IIS. I dont think they would go through all that trouble of just making Apache look like IIS.
Liberty in your lifetime
Firstly, the ad campaign is about data centers and "big iron", not web servers (i.e. Unisys isn't really about selling low end web serving machines). As such the deployed HTTP platform becomes irrelevant.
Secondly, Unisys apparently contracted an outside vendor, and that vendor just happened to use Apache (and for static content it really, truly doesn't matter. Static HTTP is about as complex as notepad.exe). It's odd that there's a seemingly mixed attitude on Slashdot: One says that Microsoft is an evil beast bashing the world to conform to its ways, and another is a mocking when Microsoft isn't bashing people to conform to their ways. Which do you want?
Since the whole campaign is predicated on GETTING OUT of Unix...the fact that the "way out" of UNIX is hosted on a Unix computer is ... damn funny.
Shoots the whole campaign down the drain, which would explain the rapid spin control to change the server/headers in the past days.
P.S. Someone needs to get on irc://irc.slashnet.org#slashdot and let polaris know about this story. He'll be so surprised!
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
97.4% of slashdot users, the popular Microsoft bashing site, are using Internet Explorer.
Those figures just show that 97.4% of the people know what they are talking about from experience... errr, yeah, thats it. =)
sin(6cos(r)+5A)
Note that IE has long identified itself with an id string that starts with "Mozilla/ ...". I doubt that the Netscape folk ever seriously considered challenging this blatant infringement. Against a giant like Microsoft, it would cost you millions of dollars and a decade of time. You'd be bankrupt long before you won the case.
...
Anyway, it's funny; laugh
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
I use OmniWeb, thanks. If you configure it to identify as Internet Explorer, nearly every site will work just fine. However, if you leave it and let itself identify as OmniWeb, then you're denied all over the place.
Polling user agents out of the server logs is inaccurate, especially on a site like this.
..this IS news, and here's why:
:-)
Because there is no better product endorsement than to be seen in public "eating your own dogfood," or "putting your money where your mouth is." Conversely, there's nothing worse you can do to hurt a company's reputation than to work for them and be seen using the products of their competitor. This makes people wonder, "If Company A's product is supposed to be so good, how come a Company A employee, who probably gets it cheaper than Joe Schmoe consumer (or even free), still chooses Company B's competing product?"
This is why people who work at car dealerships are given demo cars for personal use. Would you want to buy a GM car from a salesman who drives to the dealership every day in a Toyota? Would you find his pitch about how GM cars are superior to all others very believable, when his personal funds went to buy a non-GM car?
I remember reading a couple months ago (and just Googled the article, 2nd from the top) that highly-paid Pepsi shill Britney Spears was photographed with Coca Cola products. Twice, in a rather short time frame. Pepsi publicly pooh-poohed this, but you can be sure that their PR people are chugging Pepto Bismol over it, because she holds sway over a nation of twelve year-old girls who want to be her-- which would entail them consuming Coke when they're not busy filming a commercial for Pepsi.
This is why it's news when Microsoft chooses someone else's product to run something, or when they fail when trying to replace a competing product with their own and end up proving that said Microsoft product doesn't live up to its marketing hype (e.g. Hotmail's original failed NT conversion). In this particular case, it's just a boneheaded mistake-- nobody thought to say, "Oh, by the way, let's make sure that our anti-UNIX site is running on IIS," but it's still noteworthy if for not other reason than because of the almost comical irony.
~Philly
Now that the domain's switched over, and the site's been slashdotted ;) the BSD machine's going to be serving a lot fewer pages. You'd expect it to be a bit faster.
97.4% of slashdot users, the popular Microsoft bashing site, are using Internet Explorer.
And 99.9% of visitors to the Libertarian Party website, the popular income tax bashing site, pay income tax.
Frankly, I think Microsoft sees promotion of FreeBSD as:
1) An opensource OS it can reap benefits from without giving back
2) A way of fragmenting unix/linux, thus hurting microsoft's biggest threat: linux. Just as keeping Apple just lively enough to keep the justice department off their backs, I think they realize that splitting unix/linux into factions will keep microsoft stronger, relatively speaking. Both of these are things right out of go strategy, and Gates is a go player.
In other words, I wouldn't be surprised a bit if we were supposed to discover that the site is running FreeBSD.