Open source fanciers finger Beeb's Win 7 'sales presentation'

Takes a dig at the Rory and Rob show

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in Operating Systems, 11th November 2008 07:02 GMT

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The Open Source Consortium (OSC) has slammed the BBC’s recent coverage of Microsoft for providing a “sales presentation” about its forthcoming operating system, Windows 7.

A written complaint from the OSC about the coverage has winged its way to the Beeb’s Fair Trading Unit, which has already deemed the openista group’s grumbles as being classified an “issue of editorial choice.”

The BBC News website is now understood to be ~~shredding the letter~~ dealing with the complaint.

“The OSC has again had to remind the BBC News Unit that the 3-minute item appeared to be a sales presentation rather than the news review that the BBC claim it was, since the product [Windows 7] itself is not expected by its vendor to be fully defined and released for at least 2 years,” it said.

The item in question is a relatively dull and ploddy exchange between tech analyst Rob Enderle and the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones, who preview the “pre-beta” of Windows 7 during Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles a few weeks ago.

The OSC, which got its facts wrong about when Windows 7 is supposed to land, has claimed that the Beeb is “advertising” the OS at the expense of the UK’s TV licence payers.®

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