One thing that made me so disgusted as to make me boycott Microsoft products was the story in the L.A. times around 1997 or so. It outlined Microsoft's attempts to mislead the public with a fake letter-writing campaign. If that wasn't dishonest enough, they initially denied it until presented with evidence.

It turns out that this was not an isolated case. This posting on slashdot summarizes the various Microsoft lies:

(2009 update) Well, youthful indignation aside, reality is that I have to use the things to pay the rent and feed the family. Times have changed, and proper antitrust regulation (at least in the EU) and increasing competition in the US has alleviated some of my concerns. I'm keeping it up regardless, as a lesson in what has happened in the past.

Re:This should be modded "scary" (Score:5, Interesting)
by phsolide (584661) Alter Relationship on Friday January 03, @01:21PM (#5009397)
Dude, do you honestly think MS tells its people to sit around on slashdot all day and argue?

Actually, yes. MSFT has an amazing history of shilling and astroturfing:

I'm sure there's more, that's just all I can scrounge up in a few minutes. I seem to remember another MSFT-funded think-tank ("Indepence Institute"?) white paper, and there was an interesting "Brill's Content" article on how MSFT tracks reporters and what they write about MSFT. Actually, isn't the above enough? 10 items from 9 different sources about all varieties of shilling and astroturfing in forums from small to nation-wide. Yes, I think it's prudent to believe that MSFT employees watch Slashdot and mod-up pro-MSFT articles, or even submit them.

I'd go so far as to say that the average person should be suspicious of any pro-MSFT article or viewpoint posted in a public forum. If you, the reader, are pro-MSFT, I'm sorry: if you lie down with pigs, you can't expect to wake up in the morning smelling like roses.


--
Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
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