Facts behind Microsoft's anti-Linux campaign
Back in 2002, Jim Allchin was co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division and was, in his own words, "scared" of the momentum behind Linux, as noted in an email [PDF] sent to several of his direct reports.
Why scared? Because Windows was starting to lose to Linux:
My conclusion: We are not on a path to win against Linux. We must change some things and we must do it immediately. The current white papers, etc. are too high level and they are not going to cut it.
So what did Allchin do? As court documents in the Comes vs. Microsoft antitrust suit demonstrate, and as Roy Schestowitz pointed out on his blog Sunday, Allchin started to buy facts. Lots of facts.
What facts? "Facts" about Windows alleged superiority as a preemptive kernel and asychronous I/O, facts that demonstrate that "Linux is old unix." Facts about Windows alleged security superiority over Linux. Facts that go to the heart of Red Hat and IBM's patent indemnification offerings and, frighteningly, Allchin seems to be foretelling Microsoft's later patent FUD against Linux:
We need to understand exactly the risk a customer is under if a patent lawsuit happens and Linux is challenged....There MUST be risks to customers that are being passed on. I want this understood precisely. We need to get the license from IBM given to customers and investigate.
To his credit, Allchin's e-mail constantly re-emphasizes that he's looking for facts, not tabloid marketing against Linux:
Bill [Veghte]/Brian [Valentine]: I need to ask you to take ownership of driving this ahead What I want to see is a package including ALL of these items that we can provide to the field within 2 months (MAX). I am scared....Please remember NO marketing. Facts. No anger toward Linux. Just facts.
But I have to wonder if in amid so much "fact" creation, the truth sometimes got lost.
As reported in 2003 by The Register, among others, Microsoft's incessant drumbeat on "the facts" against Linux displayed a curious infatuation with Linux. If Microsoft truly were better, why spend so much ink (and cash) on building a case against it, at least, one based on "facts"? It seemed a perfect Hamlet moment, wherein Queen Gertrude pithily dismisses a character's comments with "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
The Register wrote in 2003 of Microsoft's fact-buying campaign:
The study is apparently to be used by Microsoft's new kinder, gentler and more fact-based GM for platform strategy Martin Taylor in his campaign to convince customers that nine out of ten cats who expressed a preference reckoned that Linux is pooh. And in this campaign, he has the best facts money can buy.
Did Microsoft cross the line with its "Get the Facts" campaign? Almost certainly. Even so, I'm impressed by Allchin's desire to avoid marketing and stick to facts. The problem is that it's hard to hold to facts when only one side is presenting (and buying) them.
Microsoft eventually disbanded its much-maligned Get the Facts campaign. The former "Get the Facts" Web site is now a much happier place that invites customers to "compare" Linux and Windows, but is much softer in doing so.
Have the facts changed? No. But Microsoft finally came to the realization that its customers weren't stupid and could separate fact from fiction. Sometimes Windows is cheaper. Sometimes it's more secure, is a better technical fit for an organization, etc. But those aren't The Facts. They're site-by-site facts for specific customers, and arguably don't reflect the broader reality, one that has seen rampant, massive uptake of Linux over the past six years since Allchin ordered a directive to find and market "the facts."
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
At best, one could use some sort of statistical analysis to compare software - but even then the results are unlikely to be true 'facts' (lies, damned lies and ...)
Basically, evaluation of software is a very subjective business.
Bravo! It all depends on the individual. And that' why no one operating system is best for everyone.
Of course, the thought occurs that the GPU accelerated display could be showing up a lot more shonky memory controllers than the old pure 2D XP interface. All those block memory transfers demand a lot more solidity.
More precisely? Those are two words with completely different meanings. Ignorance is a state where information isn't possessed. Stupidity is when that information IS possessed, but the capacity for understanding said information isn't. People often equate the two but they aren't the same thing at all, and neither is a more general nor precise instance of the other. 'Ignorant' and 'stupid' aren't synonyms, though they are often thought of as such due to ignorance (failing to consider the distinction qualifies as ignorance and not stupidity). But there are times when they're equated due to stupidity.
When i replaced a burned out motherboard 9but not the hard drive with my Windows operating system intact, the OS recognized a replaced component and locked all my files (using Microsoft's proprietary NTFS). Until i paid Microsoft $99 for a hardware replacement fee, they would not give me the code to unlock the system.
Then, when my hard drive failed, the same thing happened. i had to buy an entire new OS if I wanted to even rescue my NTFS files on the crippled hard drive.
Windows Genuine Advantage is indeed a spy program, and it is only one of about 10 Windows modules that report back to Microsoft servers constantly. You won't know that unless you use a non-Microsoft firewall, by the way.
So yes, there is both spy programs and kill switches embedded in Windows -- there has been for several years now.
That's why I use Kubuntu, now.
As for sdwillie, you are a complete ******, everyone knows what I mean and my use of the word "stupid" was a reference to a part of the main article. Furthermore the words have similar meanings even if they're not identical, were they identical I would have left it at stupid. I can't believe you would even go to the trouble of writing a whole paragraph about that, does it matter? You had nothing to say about anything pertaining to the article or my post except for a tiny error in my English and nothing about the message of the post. I don't mind if you criticize the message of the post(with a decently educated perspective on the topic), but your post was completely irrelevant.
That is a fact.
I used Windows for many years and quite frankly I would rather go to the dentist and have teeth pulled without Novocain than switch back to Windows. I have used both Vista and the Windows 7 beta. While both are nice they both leave a lot to be desired.
That is a fact."
BWAAAA HAHAHAHAHA!!! It's called Monopoly, Microsoft won and bought the USDoJ to avoid getting broken up. Happy, productive my @!#&*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOh6Nh8w6f8
I am typing this on a machine running opensuse 11.1.
I just despise morons. Sorry.
In the mean time, enjoy your slavery. Walls, ceilings, whips and chains aren't for everyone, but I understand some masochistic sickos like that kind of stuff.
I took the uncooperative Windows box home. I booted it up with a live Linux CD. Then I saved all of her pictures to a DVD. With Linux.
Pretty sad when a monkey with free Linux has to rescue a commercial for profit o.s.'s data, isn't it? It's not the first and not the last time , I'll be asked to "rescue data" from an unreliable Windows system. What I'm seeing these days is that Linux installs run a lot more hardware "out of the box" than Windows. No hunting and installing drivers. I had Fedora 8 on my system. One day, after an "automatic" kernel update, an obscure USB wireless adapter that was not supported, suddenly worked! And it wasn't sporadic like it acts in Windows. Microsoft had better pray that Game software companies don't turn to Linux. If they do that will be the end of Windows!
Wait until companies realize how much $$$ that can save with Linux, in these times. As the economy tanks, so will "peer pressure" to use Windows.
That is a fact.
Shame on them.
Clearly this article is written to have an emotional -- rather than intellectual -- impact. Very amateurish.
Here you try to make your points by insinuation ("thou doth protest too much" -- oh and thanks by the way for sourcing that quote) rather than by anything concrete. And, oh the irony of sarcastically using the word "facts" in quotes! It blows me away as much as you using the word "pithy" to describe the tone of the other side.
Anyway, as a result of your tone this article alienates everyone who isn't firmly in your camp, and you've achieved exactly the opposite of what you've set out to do. I'll file this article with the other ten billion exactly like it..
(But seriously though, thanks for sourcing the Hamlet quote,)
BTW Matt, your reference to Hamlet was perhaps the best bit of writing I've seen on CNET so far, keep up the good work.
I've been a (happy,productive) GNU/Linux user for over 10 years. I've taught courses in which FOSS was a major component. That being said, I am not an advocate of Linux for everyone because I don't want to see good distributions diluted simply to appeal to a larger user base.
If you are unconcerned with privacy issues and have no desire to "own your means of production", so to speak, by all means stick with what makes you happy. If you are threatened by or hostile towards Open Source in general or GNU/Linux in particular, PLEASE stay in the shallow end of the pool! It warmer there (we all know why) and those of us in the deep end won't be forced to remove the diving platforms and put up a covered water slide to keep you happy.
I do not dispute the honorable history of *X and anytime I type at the terminal I acutely aware that I do pay heed to what once was a dream in AT&T lab of a few perhaps finest software engineers this Earth ever encountered. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, emotional and historical significance, why *X avoided being stymied in her cradle. If any business showed qualities that *X shown when it began attempts to come out on critical US market, it would of being sued to death not because of IP but because of poor service.
Windows is a lot better and will remain so in the foreseeable future.
Was it not for Get The Facts commitment from Microsoft we would be facing a different reality today. It was dead on timely, accurate, absolutely transparent and feared by people standing behind *X so badly that they in the end resorted to attacks on Windows and personally on people working on this fact finding mission.
This is such a piece of sorry history for *X community that I fail to grasp why raise this issue at all. Be happy that Microsoft softened stance due to internal politics. Not the least, say thanks to Novell for working with Microsoft on bridging the two OS's and giving the poorer OS at least basic support. Not lip service.
The ONLY thing better about winblows is the sense of slavery it inflicts upon it's victims. WGA is not welcome on any machine I use in a productive environment (it's suffered on my "game console", which is my nickname for the box that still has ex-pee on a partition, initially just to get access to MY FILES once again when M$ decided that they has some right to take over and lock up MY COMPUTER).
Whatever. Enjoy your slavery. Just don't expect any tears from anyone when your master starts beating you senseless.
4 of the top 500 systems are using Windows HPC 2008. Given the lead time on buildout of really big clusters that's not a bad showing for a new OS flavor (proposal to full build out is usually around 2 years for a major cluster). One of them, Akka at Umea University (Sweden) debuted at 39th - not a bad showing. Another one in China debuted at 10th this past November. I think the increased availability of certified infiniband drivers is helping out a bit.
So, what you're saying is that between MS and Apple, they make up the same number of supercomputers as Red Hat alone. Out of 500 supercomputers, 12 use Red Hat, Windows or OSX, the other 488 use what OS again? For a "minority" OS, that's a really good showing.
The vast majority use linux or some variant of it (CLN, SLES) but AIX and other OSes are in the mix. The point of my response wasn't to undercut the value of Linux in the HPC sector but to point out that the original poster was wrong in their assumptions. Both Apple and MS can claim respectable positions in the top 500 list. The people who build and run HPC equipment generally aren't wedded to a single OS - the changes in the OS make up of the Top 500 list over the years attest to that. They're generally just interested in finding what works best for their application - most right now find it to be Linux but if another OS provides a better solution they'll use that.
Wouldn't it make more sense to try writing about the *current* situation instead of blogging about history?
2. This is current news since these laughable emails are only coming out now due to MS getting sued yet again for its sleazy practices.
Its good he's gone, but the rest of the world has moved on.
not terribly surprised about this piece... I was actually almost excited to read the piece about zimbra... until I realized it didn't add any real value and tell me anything more than they've grown in adoption.... I honestly thought he might write an objective article which tells the pluses of Zimbra... instead he basically says "yeh! they've grown... now they just need to kill exchange". I didn't know anything about Zimbra and effectively after reading that article, I still don't.
Poor writing from a guy who seems to let his personal vindetta against MS consume a news column.
Its alright to write about Open Source and not let your emotions get the better of you on almost every piece.
I've read many articles written by this author and, from all the articles I've read on CNET, these are some of the most objective I've come across.
Of course, since you obviously disagree, how about writing your own articles? Let's get a look at your own ability to remain completely objective while writing an article about an OS. How about starting one about Linux? You could also write one about Windows 7 and another one about the newest OSX version available.
Or you could try reading the article without having an agenda for trying to belittle the author and realize that there are indeed facts available and in use in many, if not all, of the articles available from this particular author. I'm not claiming he's perfect, I'm simply saying he does a very good job.
Booting into Windows is just a click away when I want to do more things Linux doesn`t support like gaming. I had the first Replay TV in 1999 that ran flawlessly on Linux. The kernel of Palm`s WebOS is also Linux (Palm Pre is my next phone) My Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC allowing me to watch and record in HD I believe runs on Linux. Linux is very important in more ways than most people realize.
A. Asus Express Gate has nothing on real linux.
B. Who cares if you can boot in 3 seconds.
C. Everything does not run on linux.
D. Do you even know what LInux is?
E. Palms webOS is not Unix or Linux based.
F. My company has a mac pro that has about 60 os's installed on it. Does that mean it gets the best of 60 worlds?
Remember people want to create or manage things with their computers and not baby sit an operating system all day long. Its really that simple.
Entire cities, counties, provinces, even countries, enjoy less IT overhead, fewer IT techs required, now that they have switched to Linux. Look at China, Pakistan, Turkey, France, England, Cuba, and 124 others, and their stable Linux environments, FREE and Open for all citizens to review.
Linux does gaming, comes with several hundred games. But, with your head in the sand, you will not discover true freedom, and thousands of FREE applications.
True Freedoms exist in open systems, where there are no built -in back doors for the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other snoops. Get a FREE CD image from http://livecdlist.com or Ubuntu.org or LinuxMint.org .
All you have to lose are your shackles! Funy how the 'oppressive' governments are all embracing Open Source OSes!
Did you know Asus makes the MOBO`s for Mac books and iMacs ?
Why do you ask?
If all you are doing is browsing the web then that is a fine option. I tend to do more than just web browsing when I'm on a computer though. As such, these sort of minimal function sets aren't all that practical for me. If they work for you though, then that's great. I'm glad you found a solution that works for you.
Yeaaa.....massive and rampant, all the way up to 0.8% market share. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=9. Maybe your definition of massive and rampant are different than mine.
You clearly have never been to a barn-raising where the whole town gets together to build a farmhouse. For nothing. Because it's a community.
Many many communities on earth exist like this.
If Jon Rubinstein , head of Apple product development for 10 years (now works for Palm) , says it is Linux , it IS Linux.
- by jessiethe3rd January 21, 2009 7:47 PM PST
- Linux... the new Amiga.
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