The Open Source Consortium (OSC) is getting its knickers in a twist about the BBC's recent Windows 7 coverage.The OSC has started a complaint with the BBC's Fair Trading Unit claiming that the BBC are advertising a Microsoft product that "does not even yet exist." Obviously the OSC didn't attend Microsoft's recent PDC to pick-up their copy of Windows 7 that clearly exists.
An email, sent to the BBC's Fair Trading Unit, reads as follows:
"You may recall that Open Source Consortium expressed concern about BBC iPlayer and the Microsoft Windows operating system...
...moving forward, it feels like deja vu all over again.
On BBC News we see a two minute advertisement for Windows 7 - the replacement for Vista (link: BBC News item: A closer look at Windows 7). This product does not exist, even if it does come into existence, it will not exist for two years by Microsoft's own projections.[...]
Gerry Gavigan
Chairman
Open Source Consortium"
Not only are they wrong about the product not existing they even got the date wrong as it's likely to be a year until RTM. Last year the OSC slammed the BBC for their use of Microsoft's DRM with the BBC iPlayer.
The BBC's Fair Trading Unit has passed the complaint to the BBC News site and has yet to respond publicly regarding the concerns of the OSC.
















BBC News is reporting about some upcoming technology, what's wrong with that...?
+1
yeah..because the OSC has some real good OS's to advertise /sarcasm
the avg consumer doesnt know what open source is..nor do they care
The OSC complaint about DRM was justified. This complaint is not.
Agreed, this is getting a bit ridiculous in my opinion.
LOL! OSC definitely need a more refined procedure for making a formal complaint to anyone.
If anything, the BBC managed to point out that Windows 7 had touch-screen capabilities "like Apple's iPhone" - right, because that's where Microsoft got their inspiration for the Surface from.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jeff_ha...ouchscreen.html
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jeff_ha...ouchscreen.html
Microsoft has been working on the Surface for years, and the entire interface idea is nothing new or innovative by either Apple or Microsoft.
Are they trying to be funny here or do they not get the meaning of tautology?
(Very possibly the former, it's Monday morning and my humour is refusing to kick in! )
LOL
Did he actually take time to find this out, if he did, he better check he hasnt the wrong sugar in his coffee! Two years would be November 2010.... Microsoft have already said that they are aiming for a release of 2009 Christmas holiday.
What, for example, is wrong with BBC iPlayer? One has to weigh up so many factors when chosing to make streaming media available on your website. Flash has proven to be an excellent choice IMHO as almost EVERYONE has Flash, and it's available for a huge variety of platforms and devices. What were they supposed to use as an alternative?!
The BBC reports on Ubuntu quite frequently, and is also quick to criticise Microsoft when they make a mistake. I personally consider their journalism to be fair and balanced. Gerry Gavigan needs to get a grip.
No, it's just deja vu.
This grammar needs patching.
Complaining like this is lame. Just lame..
/me steps forward: "I use open source, and I do not condone OSC's actions."
Whoever is in this group must feel ****ing embarassed
Windows 7 however does have a massive interest, most the population use Windows, so the BBC have a good reason for discussing & showing it's new features even if we might not be using it for 12 months+
The fact is, whatever is popular will get coverage.
For example:
iTunes is possibly the worst source for music when it comes to quality, but it's coverage by the press makes the masses think it's one of the few online places to buy digital downloads.
Linux on the other hand brought up 9 pages of stuff (admittedly some old, and the most recent being September 200
As a user of both Firefox and Linux, I think they're giving themselves a bad name with this whining.
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