Okay, okay-- so The Register has seen fit to dash our conspiracy theories against the rocks of reason by reporting that the Wall Street Journal has admitted blame: MSNBC didn't edit a WSJ article to make it more Microsoft-friendly, which would have proven that Redmond keeps a chokehold on the editorial practices of its own puppet media outlet. Instead, it was the WSJ itself who screwed up, by initially sending MSNBC an earlier draft of the article, and then never sending in the final version. Of course, when a company is as rich as Microsoft is, reworking a conspiracy theory to include a massive bribe to a well-respected media outlet in order to divert blame is but a simple matter, and only adds to the overall effect-- so in a way, we're happy about this latest turn of events.

However, we're well aware that the more paranoia-challenged among you will probably consider this little fracas over and done with, so we figured we'd give you another Redmond scandal to chew on in its place. If you follow the exploits of Bill's minions at all, you're probably aware that in the past six weeks, Microsoft has launched a full-scale PR assault on the open source movement; indeed, that was the subject of the very article which MSNBC was accused of editing. Well, while we were waiting for Verizon to fix our obviously-cut-by-Bill's-operatives DSL line (and if you don't think Verizon's top dogs are all secretly on Microsoft's payroll, you're delusional), we stumbled across a ZDNet article which reveals a very interesting fact: even as Microsoft insists to the public that using open source software is the quickest path to communism and severe gum disease, it appears that the company has itself been using open source software on the QT.

For one thing, as faithful viewer Kevin McKaig pointed out, Microsoft is evidently using chunks of FreeBSD in various versions of Windows, including Windows 2000. That's not in the least bit illegal-- it is open source, after all-- but the practice seems just a wee bit at odds with the company's current "free software is the work of the devil" rhetoric. Oh, and as faithful viewer Mike Devlin reminded us, FreeBSD is still used in portions of the Microsoft-owned Hotmail free email service, despite Microsoft's claims to the contrary. For ages (and as recently as last Wednesday), the Redmond Giant has stated that Hotmail has been 100% Windows since last summer, but this past Friday, a company spokesperson admitted that FreeBSD is still in use "on numerous 'server' computers that manage major functions" at Hotmail.

Now, do these sound like the actions of a company who really believes that open source software (contrary to most available data) "has inherent security risks and can force intellectual property into the public domain"? Sure, Microsoft claims that it just hasn't gotten around to expunging all vestiges of FreeBSD from its systems, but "one employee of the Redmond, Wash., company said Microsoft has deliberately kept FreeBSD in parts of Hotmail because of its technical superiority over Windows in important functions and furthermore had decided to actually increase its reliance on FreeBSD." Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to claim publicly that open source software like FreeBSD (not to mention Mac OS X's core, Darwin) is tantamount to a flesh-eating virus. Gee, whom to believe?