Both before and after the release of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, the Linux cult engaged in a relentless smear campaign aimed at IT pros. Linux, the open source rip-off of proprietary Unix operating systems, is popular amongst hardcore programmers and the scruffy, thirty-something man-children geeks who still play "Dungeons and Dragons" in their parents' basements every weekend with their high school friends. Because Linux is a free rip-off of Unix, cobbled together over a period of ten years by hundreds of coders and Dungeon Masters, it has no marketing budget. Linux basically thrives on its users who can create negative Microsoft publicity with the help of mushy anti-capitalists in the tech media (and there's plenty of them to choose from). For every bit of good publicity Linux gets, you can rest assured there are dozens of lies about the evil Microsoft Corporation behind it.

For example, let's look at Microsoft's initiative to drive down software costs by cutting down on software piracy. Microsoft, in an effort to curb illegal copying of their software, instituted an anti-piracy plan called Window s Product Activation (WPA). The idea of WPA is for every owner of Windows XP to register or "activate" it with Microsoft via the Internet or a toll free phone call. If Microsoft could keep half the professional pirates from copying their software, the company would no longer lose billions in revenue. By retaining more revenue, Microsoft would reinvest that money into their new products and pass that savings on to their honest paying customers. This is basic, common sense economics.

However, the Linux cult has made Microsoft out to be nothing short of Orwell's "Big Brother" by using WPA. With WPA, Microsoft will maintain a huge database of all customers' private information that will undoubtedly be used for nefarious purposes by Microsoft. According to the Linux cult, IT professionals will find WPA particularly horrible since support staff would be inconvenienced by constant calls to Microsoft every time a customer needed to have their Windows XP reloaded on their PC. Even worse, what if you were a PC hardware reviewer running benchmarks and had to change your motherboard, memory and CPU often during the course of the day? Microsoft's WPA would force you to call Microsoft every time you changed anything in your computer so they can keep track of the hardware you use in their monster database!

If you believe that Microsoft has a huge database filled with your private thoughts, personal emails and a log of every website you've ever visited; stop reading now. You are going to be extremely offended when I shatter your idiotic paranoid fantasy, in which a big corporation focuses all of its attention and vast resources on you, with the truth. The truth is that you have a tough time getting anyone to pay attention to you, so you need to concoct a crazy "Microsoft is out to get me" plot so ridiculous a Hollywood producer wouldn't option it for a cheap TV movie-of-the-week.

Microsoft is out to get you, huh? You normally say that Microsoft cares nothing about their customers. What makes you so special? If you have to swap out your customers' PC peripherals multiple times during the day, you must be very indecisive and unable to troubleshoot your customers' issues correctly. As a PC hardware reviewer, why aren't you following the standard practice of reloading your OS every time you run benchmarks? Is it because you have to cut corners and save time before the Microsoft Corporation catches up to you, or are you just so stupid that you are unaware that you can use Windows XP for a month without activating it? Who actually owns this huge database filled with your personal information? Is it Microsoft? Most geeks contend that Microsoft's commercial database software is a buggy, substandard sieve compared to Oracle's bulletproof open source-friendly database. Do those lonely paranoid geeks believe that Microsoft is using an Oracle database to track all of that double-secret personal information? Oooh, now THAT'S a conspiracy!

Most people would see the absurdity, but the Linux partisans will ignore it all, claiming instead that Windows Product Activation is a corporate plot to destroy individual civil liberties. "If you used a real operating system like Linux," explains the unshaven portly geek, "You would be free to install the OS on as many computers that you wanted. The so-and-sos at Microsoft force you to install Windows XP only on a single computer and then take all of your personal information." This is a lie, since the Microsoft Windows XP license allows for users to legally install XP on one desktop and one laptop computer. Microsoft has also gone out of their way to make sure that their customer's privacy is protected during the Windows Product Activation experience. Quoting from the Microsoft Windows XP WPA web page: "The hardware identification does not include any personal information, any information about software or data that may reside on your computer, or any information about the specific make or model of your computer. The hardware identification identifies only the computer and only for the sole purpose of activation. The Microsoft Activation Wizard can detect and tolerate changes to your computer configuration." Microsoft goes out of their way to make sure that your information is kept private. No such Linux assurances are given from Red Hat Linux's Product Activation web page. Like Microsoft, the Red Hat Corporation requires customers to activate their copy of Red Hat Linux before receiving any tech support or access any services. What makes the Red Hat Linux forced activation wonderful and civic minded, but Microsoft's WPA is tantamount to baby killing? Red Hat has enjoyed one quarter of profitability in the seven years they have been in business. You think a company who needs revenue that bad won't sell your information to anyone willing to pay? Even with their rank hypocrisy brought to bear, the Linux cult continually lies about Microsoft's "anti-privacy activation scheme."

Linux is more of an ideology than a technology. There's no reasoning with people who will lie to your face in an effort to further their ideology. The saying goes: "If it is too good to be true, it usually is." Nobody likes to get suckered by a "too good to be true" deal, but sometimes smart people get fooled by a lie. Often it is because the lie is one they desperately want to believe. For many IT professionals, that lie has been open source software like Linux. If you believe the Linux ideology is going to save your company, you are as pathetic as a single adult setting out cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. <>

Send me your comments: scott@worldtechtribune.com
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