Doas we say, not as we do ...

[Janina Sajka]

Microsoft Campaign Against Unix Uses Site Running on Unix --- Company Calls
Windows Rival `Inflexible,' but Key Partner Relies on the Software
By Lee Gomes,04/01/2002, The Wall Street Journal

A Web site funded by Microsoft Corp. urging businesses to avoid the Unix
operating system is itself running on Unix, the latest example of Microsoft
benefiting from the competitive software even while criticizing it.

The site is connected with a new advertising campaign called "We Have The
Way Out" that is co-sponsored by Unisys Corp. and Microsoft. The purpose of
the campaign is to persuade corporate computing customers to use computers
running Microsoft's Windows operating system instead of Unix, a rival
operating system. Ads associated with the campaign say Unix "makes you feel
boxed in. It ties you to an inflexible system. It requires you to pay for
expensive experts."

But the Web site that is part of the campaign doesn't use Windows for its
operations. Instead, it uses a free "open source" version of Unix called
FreeBSD, along with another piece of free software called the "Apache" Web
server. Both products compete with Microsoft offerings, and both are
extremely popular on Internet sites.

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for Unisys, which is
taking the lead in the campaign, said the Web site had been set up outside
of the company by a third-party Internet-service provider.

The fact that a Web site used by a key Microsoft partner would itself be
relying on Unix highlights the predicament Microsoft is in as it tries to
expand the dominion of its Windows products.

Unix, especially the free open-source versions such as Linux and FreeBSD,
are the biggest obstacles to Microsoft's expansion plans, and the company
mounts periodic campaigns against the software.

Last year, for example, Microsoft embarked on a public-relations campaign
trying to convince businesses that open-source software could jeopardize
their intellectual property, because of the licensing requirements
associated with the software. But that campaign was undercut by the
disclosure that Microsoft itself has been a user of various forms of
open-source software, including inside its huge Hotmail messaging service.

There are a number of standard Internet tools that can be used to determine
what operating system a Web site is running; the site www.netcraft.com also
provides the information for many sites.

The fact that the Microsoft-Unisys site is running on Unix was discovered
by Mark Fromm, a Unix system administrator at a Kirkland, Wash.,
medical-device company. Mr. Fromm, an ardent fan of Unix, said he was
bothered by the statements being made in the anti-Unix campaign, and out of
curiosity decided to check on the Web site.

"I was very surprised by what I found," he said. "I thought it was
interesting that Microsoft was saying that people should go to Windows, but
that they were using Unix to say it."

Guy Esnouf, a spokesman for Unisys, said the campaign is intended to
highlight a high-end Unisys machine called the ES7000 Enterprise Server, an
expensive system running sophisticated corporate-computing applications,
such as very large data bases.

"We are talking about using Windows for those kinds of problems; we are not
talking about hosting a simple Web site," he said.


-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org