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The Anti-ODF Whisper Campaign
eldavojohn writes "Groklaw is examining the possibility of an anti-ODF whisper campaign and the effects it has had on the ODF and OOXML Wikipedia articles. In the ODF article, Alex Brown bends the truth to make it seem like no one is supporting ODF, and that it is a flawed and incomplete standard. From the conclusion, 'So what is one to do? You obviously can't trust Wikipedia whatsoever in this area. This is unfortunate, since I am a big fan of Wikipedia. But since the day when Microsoft decided they needed to pay people to "improve" the ODF and OOXML articles, they have been a cesspool of FUD, spin and outright lies, seemingly manufactured for Microsoft's re-use in their whisper campaign. My advice would be to seek out official information on the standards, from the relevant organizations, like OASIS, the chairs of the relevant committees, etc. Ask the questions in public places and seek a public response. That is the ultimate weakness of FUD and lies. They cannot stand the light of public exposure. Sunlight is the best antiseptic.'"
My response to this is exactly why I have bad karma because I'm not blindly on the linux bandwagon. This article itself is FUD and nothing but trolling and flamebait. Of course I'll get modded down for saying this because blasting MS is fashionable here. I've never been one for fashion. Seriously, enough with the "MS is the devil" nonsense. People who actually believe this are just following the /. heard. Linux is great for what it is - an alternative and something for super geeks to play with. But stop the madness that is MS trolling. It's just bad form.
This is a very badly written, badly reasoned article, nearly incoherent (guessing not everyone there is a lawyer), but if I'm understanding it correctly, is it saying that MS is producing statements that are anti-ODF, some objective, some not (hello, it's marketing, people), and then some Wikipedia editors are using that as sources to edit the ODF article on Wikipedia? And one guy from MS, who happens to be employed in the same field of document formats, edits the article too? And that's a super serious scandal worthy of posting to /.? Are you serious?
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Who cares about OpenOffice and ODF? OOo is the main factory of ODF documents around the world, but only GNU/Linux users use it, everyone else uses MS Office because OOo is slow and ugly, yet not as feature-complete as the competition. Get on to a standard tookit, like QT, cut out the Java creep (into Base and such), get a better interface, then we'll worry about the competition.
By the way, GNU/Linux sucks: it doesn't support most Bluetooth and wifi adaptors, webcams, iPods and other hardware. The Flash implementation sucks (yes, that is Linux's fault as it works perfectly on every other platform). Also, upgrades to the most popular distros lead to regressions in graphics and sound.
Get your own house in order before moaning about what everyone else is doing. Stop commenting on this article now! Go and help write some code: GNU/Linux sucks, and badly needs the help!
Earlier today I created the hAl Microsoft Topic Ban incident on Wikipedia's Conflict of Interest Noticeboard, highlighting some of the particularly troubling points in the contributions of a user called hAl (who reveals little beyond liking beer). It seems I'm not the first to stumble on this apparent Microsoft shill, but hopefully I'll be the last (at least on Wikipedia) as with any luck he'll land himself a topic ban having been blocked 4 times already.
Sam
Last week Wikipedia banned IP addresses associated with the Scientology, maybe they ought to ban IP addresses associated with Microsoft.