Microsoft's open-source point man Martin Taylor has expressed interest to jointly develop a study on deploying Windows versus Linux with the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL).
During the LinuxWorld conference in the United States earlier this month, Taylor had reportedly approached OSDL's chief executive Stuart Cohen to discuss shared research and other topics. Cohen last night confirmed, in an e-mail reply to ZDNet Asia, that the encounter had taken place.
Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy, said in a media statement that the joint research would help IT buyers to evaluate the Windows and Linux platforms. Microsoft has pledged to foot half the bill in funding the study.
"Customers have asked me for an analysis on Linux," Taylor said in the statement. "While we had done some research in our Linux and open-source lab, there's not yet any substantial, fact-based research out there on Linux to help customers make value based IT decisions."
"At the end of the day, I want customers to have the tools they need to evaluate technology on its merit, versus on hype and emotion. It helps all of us build better products and respond to customer needs more effectively," he added.
Cohen however, was coy on Taylor's proposal. "As far as working with Microsoft on a study, Microsoft could probably find one negative line on Linux in a 100-page research report that it would spend $10 million marketing while ignoring the other 99 pages," he said in his e-mail to ZDNet Asia.
"Why would OSDL want to participate in that?" he posed.
Microsoft has been taking an adversarial stand toward Linux with its "Get the Facts" campaign that puts forth the advantages of Windows over Linux in areas such as security and total cost of ownership.
To better understand competitive threats posed to Microsoft products by open source, the software giant has also set up a Linux and open-source software lab that houses various flavors of Linux.
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This idea would serve no one but Microsoft. Their offer to pay half is chump change for them, since they asked for the meeting they should pay for all of it, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds. They can make it a "true" public service effort, a way to assist companies to lower the TCO, helping US businesses handle soaring costs related to all types of technology & software. There is "no way" OSDL should accept an offer from Microsoft to work together on this study. Is there ANY doubt that Microsoft will handle the information with measures to keep it from being polluted with their "Windows everywhere" mentality. There is no place for a meeting of the minds, when the only results they seek are to eradicate the enemy. Further, any company who has ever shown any technology they built to Bill Gates, soon found their business harmed, by a hacked up, 2nd rate product that was bundled into Windows. Of course you can sue them, or hope they buy you out, but the whole consumer and corporate market suffers when Microsoft bundles more "junk" into the OS, rather than focusing on what THEY need to do, make a better, more secure OS, with less "stolen ideas" mashed in just to corner a new market opened by a more creative company. There is no good sense in showing Bill Gates your attack map, he will steal the ideas and mow over you with his legal hounds. Let them suffer in ignorance and get their facts somewhere else, they wouldnt know a Firewall, W3C standard, or secure and stable OS if they saw one.
Posted by Jonathan Swift on Monday, August 29 2005 10:51 PM