One month, one campaign, one goal: getting rid of non-free software advertisements on public websites. In four weeks, FSFE received reports concerning 2162 European institutions who advertise non-free PDF readers.

Ken Starks reported on his experiment with running Linux ads on the Kim Kommando radio show in Austin, Texas. Ken sounds a bit discouraged, but he shouldn't be-- it was a success and it proves that advertising Linux works. Let's take a closer look at what happened, and what the goals of any advertising campaign should be.

"The Free Software Community now has an ethical alternative to ad networks that promote proprietary software..."

The journey that begin during last football season with the realization that Microsoft paid Jerry Seinfeld $10 million for his appearance in their ads is almost over. The judging for the We’re Linux video contest has been completed and I’m pleased to announce the finalists.

Let's play identify an advertiser: "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person." Who is paying for that ad? Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft. I'll give Microsoft some credit for trying, but they just can't seem to get an ad right. In fact, their last few ads have looked more like parodies than real ads. This one is no exception.

The whole concept of behaviour-based targeting of online advertising is guaranteed to kick up a privacy stink wherever it appears. When that place is Google, though, the stink could quickly become something of a shit-storm.

Furious! This describes the response of a portion of the Dutch free and open source afficionados when hearing about the idea that OpenOffice.org might get advertisements as part of the binary package. Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems), who launched the idea on his weblog (and already retracted it), was aware the idea could cause a furor.

Ah! A fresh issue of the “Linux Format” magazine. I rip off the plastic wrap and open up to a random article. This article is about the newest piece of proprietary Grubby Games software. I immediately realize something isn’t right. My eyes slowly make their way to the bottom right side of the page. There is an advertisement for the Free Software Foundation staring right back at me.