FUD vs LINUX

[Secret Squirrel <secret_squirrel@nym.alias.net>]

MICROSOFT EXECS WORRY ABOUT FREE SOFTWARE MOVEMENT


An internal Microsoft memo written by one of that company's software
engineers indicates that Microsoft is concerned with developing strategies
for competing against free programs that have been gaining popularity with
software developers, such as the operating system Linux.  The memorandum
warns that the usual Microsoft marketing strategy known as FUD (an acronym
for fear, uncertainty, and doubt) won't work against developers of free
software, who are part of the O.S.S. (open-source software) movement that
makes source code readily available to anyone for improvement and testing.
The memo (http://www.opensource.org/halloween.html) says:  "The ability of
the O.S.S. process to collect and harness the collective I.Q. of thousands
of individuals across the Internet is simply amazing.  More importantly,
O.S.S. evangelization scales with the size of the Internet much faster than
our own evangelization efforts appear to scale."  


(New York Times 3 Nov 98)