Linux Today founder calls for boycott of his old site

The co-founder of Linux Today, Dave Whitinger, posted an editorial yesterday “calling on the Linux community to boycott my creation until its current owners stop accepting money from Microsoft to publish blatantly anti-Linux/pro-Microsoft ads.”

In his editorial, Whitinger asks, “Do we want to continue to support a Microsoft-friendly (and anti-Linux) Web site by continuing to read it daily? It’s easy to say that these are just ads, but the truth is, Linux Today is now being sponsored/funded by Microsoft, and they are cheerfully placing blatantly anti-Linux advertisements on their home page. This is an outrage that must be stopped.”

When contacted by NewsForge, Whitinger backed down a bit from the rhetoric in his initial posting. “I’m not really trying to organize a boycott as much as I am simply trying to raise awareness in the community about this kind of stuff,” he says. On the other hand, “if folks do boycott LT, that’s great because I’d love to see LT turn Microsoft away. That’s really the whole goal.”

Whitinger sold Linux Today to the company now known as Jupiter Media in 1999. He now runs LXer, which calls itself a competitor to Linux Today (and NewsForge).

Whitinger says he was moved to this action when he visited Linux Today and saw a big Flash ad touting Microsoft’s anti-Linux propoganda. “Most smart folks (read: Linux users) don’t see ads (neither GIFs or Flash) so they probably didn’t know
about it,” he says. “I have ads specifically enabled for Linux Today so I can keep up with what they are doing. It made me a little sick to see it.”

Linux Today managing editor Brian Proffitt doesn’t see the situation as a problem. “I personally don’t know which ads are coming or when, and I have zero
contact with the ad sales staff at Jupitermedia,” Proffitt says.

Proffitt says his company has no anti-Linux agenda. “Like many other commercial sites, Linux Today sells ad space in batches to services like DoubleClick. When the banner ads rotate through the site, we pretty much get what we get — a bunch of ads targeted for technology sites. Because the ads are coming through a third party, I am not even sure Microsoft knows they’re here.”

Whitinger isn’t concerned that the ads indicate an editorial bias on the part of Linux Today. “The first concern is what kind of impression is left in visitor’s minds. Suppose I am a sysadmin trying to convince my boss to let me replace Exchange with sendmail. I send him to LinuxToday.com for some stories about Linux. He arrives there and sees this site displaying advertisements telling him why he shouldn’t go with Linux. It just goes against the whole thing.”

But why shouldn’t a company stay in business by accepting money from anyone willing to make use of its services? “Linux Today is a member of a community. I wouldn’t want to force LT to change anything, but I think it is in everyone’s best interest if they would.”

Whitinger says he’d like to help Linux Today find a way to continue to post good revenues while not catering to Microsoft. “I’ve run profitable Web sites (pre and post the dot-com bust) so I know it can be done. If they wanted my assistance in doing that, I’d be more than happy to join their team, even if only temporarily, to see it happen.”

By the way, NewsForge and its sister OSDN sites run the same kinds of ads as appear on Linux Today, but Whitinger says he doesn’t have a problem with that. “I consider Linux Today to be a specific Linux-related member of the Linux community, where OSDN serves a much wider and larger audience. If Slashdot and OSDN were as visible as being purely Linux community Web sites, then I wouldn’t want anti-Linux ads on those, either.”