30 May 2013

Some Azure ads, please?

I found this email too funny not to share, it was sent using the contact form of the Romanian Fedora community website and is genuine, from a real advertising agency (who does work for Microsoft), by a real person (with whom I share some common "friends" on social networks).

microsoft azure ads
Translated in English, it says:
Publicity offer request

Good day,

My name is [redacted] and I represent the digital media agency having Microsoft as a client. We wish to have a banner ad for Microsoft on your site, running for a month, 15 June - 15 July.

Please tell if this is possible, which banner format do you have available and what is the cost.
It would be appreciated if you can help with those details today, as soon as possible.

Thank you and waiting for your feedback"
When I stopped laughing, I decided to investigate further and learn if is a naive person, lacking basic clues about technology, FOSS and even her client or a sneaky maneuver from Microsoft trying to corrupt communities. I replied, expressing my genuine curiosity to learn why the website of a Free Software community and Linux distro would be a good place for Microsoft advertising and the answer was "we are promoting a new product, Microsoft Azure, which is intended for programmers and your website is in our target audience" (again, translation mine). I had to lecture again about how Fedora is in both ideological and technical competition with Microsoft and how we can promote only products released under a Free license (preferably GPL) and also free from patents.

Now my curiosity is, starting 15 June, how many FOSS communities (if any), in the country and outside it, will run an Azure banner ad.

Update: it looks like our Ubuntu friends have their share of fun too.

6 comments:

  1. We, the Ubuntu local community from Romania, have received the same message. We should give them an answer :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. my final answer, after a couple of clarifying emails, was "Va dati seama ca nu putem promova tehnologii pe care nu le sustinem din punct de vedere ideologic. Vom promova produse Microsoft atunci cind acestea
      vor fi publicate sub licenta libera, de preferat GPL si nu vor avea utilizarea restrictionata de patente."

      Delete
  2. Well, the Azure cloud *does* support Linux VMs, so it could be a solution for FLOSS fans. It's not such a far fetched proposition. --Adrian

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it does run Linux VMs, but that's not a solution for FOSS *fans*, since it's not Free software, it may be a solution for those calling themselves 'pragmatics'

      Delete
  3. i would suggest to see latest change on ubuntu bug number 1. Maybe Canonical decided to accept the ads...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i don't know about Ubuntu, but by definition "The Fedora Project is the name of a worldwide community of people who love, use, and build free software"

      Delete