Quote:
Microsoft Dismisses British Objections to Anti-Linux Ad: Microsoft sources said that a British regulatory agency's objections to an anti-Linux advertisement published as part of its controversial "Get the Facts" campaign are moot because the ad is no longer running.
The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decision issued Wednesday found that a Microsoft advertisement placed in a British spe[censored]t magazine claiming that open-source Linux was far more expensive to run than Windows was misleading. ASA called on Microsoft to amend the ad.
Tracey Pretorius, the manager for Microsoft UK, said the company had been working with the ASA to "understand and address their concerns about the advertisement in question.
"Our customers continue to value information comparing the various vendor technology offerings. We believe it is important to continue to provide this kind of factual information," she said.
A source close to Microsoft and familiar with the matter said Wednesday that Microsoft had worked with the ASA in advance and submitted all ads for general approval before they were run, as was its standard policy on advertising.
"The ad in question was cleared, in advance, by the ASA. Evidently they're going back on that based on anonymous inquiries challenging the advertisement," the source said.
The source suggested that the issue is moot because "these advertisements aren't even running now as they only ran from February to May of this year in the UK," the source said.
Microsoft launched in January the "Get the Facts" campaign, which is designed to give customers information about the advantages of using its Windows operating system versus Linux, its open-source competitor.
That campaign is the latest attempt by the Redmond, Wash., software company to counter the success of Linux and is in line with the strategy embraced by the company's open-source and Linux strategist, Martin Taylor. Taylor has said his personal mission is to publicize studies that showed Microsoft software beating open-source alternatives on return on investment.
But many of the statements and "facts" have been challenged by the Linux and open-source community. Source: eWEEK
lol. So Microsoftish. funny but true
