Microsoft's Magical 'Myth-Busting' Tour

Mz6 writes "Microsoft has launched its 'Get the Facts' road show -- the tech equivalent of a political battle bus -- to tour the country and convince the wavering that Redmond is as at least cheap and as secure as its open-source rival and to spread the word that Windows is better than Linux. Nick McGrath, Microsoft's head of platform strategy, described the campaign as 'a reality check we're bringing out', aiming to tackle the 'myths' surrounding Linux. Microsoft's road show will be in Edinburgh on June 17, Manchester on June 29 and Newport on July 7."

Comments

Ah, more FUD.

[Roland Piquepialle]

This is a load of FUD.

Microsoft want you to believe that while, Microsoft software may be more in the purchase price department compared to open source software, it's less in implementation costs or maintenance costs, and its TCO will be lower.

This is, of course, considering the plentiful viruses, worms and other security issues, not the case in reality. The winner in this case is Open Source software.

Open Source software, of the BSD kind and the GPL kind, has totally changed the way we think about and work with software. One day, we will be able to scientifically determine what software we need to suit our needs. We will know ahead of time exactly what limits and what capabilities each piece of software has. IT managers will be able to sort through real facts based on real research, rather than a bunch of shallow articles and biased reports. Software will survive on its merits alone.

The whole industry is going to benefit by this, in a large, large way. The question one day will no longer be "Microsoft or Linux?" but "Which Open Source software should we use, and why?"

Microsoft is severely threatened and it knows it. Pay no attention to it and it will eventually go away.

Re:Ah, more FUD.

[riptide_dot]

I am in agreement with the parent that this is Microsoft being backed into a corner and doing their best to FUD their way out of it...

IMHO, there are two quesitons that we need to ask ourselves continually, about any new software (open source or not):

What does it do well?
What does it do poorly?

Answering those questions (honestly) about Windows should server to shed light on why Microsoft has the largest desktop market share - Windows is easier for non-techie people to use effectively. Microsoft OSes, no matter which side of the debate you take, do have their merits. I know there's no way my parents, for example, would be able to navigate a Linux desktop, as a lot of the cool functionality that I take for granted in Linux would not only be lost on them, but would probably also serve to confuse them.

All I'm trying to say is that while Linux is a great new trend that the desktop world is gravitating towards, us Linux fans need to not only keep in mind what companies like Microsoft have done wrong, but also what things they have done right.

Don't discount this because they say 'Myth'

[Sean80]

I think the important thing here is that, irrespective of whether or not we believe that Microsoft is spreading a little bit of mythology if its own, they're doing something that Linux really isn't capable of doing.

Every day, Microsoft employees are physically in CIO and CEO boardrooms trying to convince executives that Microsoft is a better bet than Linux. Even with a large body of evidence to the contrary, this is something Linux is missing - the financial warchest to use the media and "war buses" to convince people to the contrary.

There's no such thing as reality - there's only what you believe. The best ideas in history of gone down because nobody believed in them. The worst ideas in history have flourished because somebody sold it stronger than anybody else.

So yeah, they may be spreading their own version of the truth, but, as is obvious, I think we should be very, very wary of that truth being accepted as reality.

Re:Don't discount this because they say 'Myth'

[Apreche]

That's why we need to go out and do this. A big problem linux has is that all the geeks who support is usually expend their efforts preaching to the choir. I'm guilty of it as well as everyone here. Look at this, every day on slasdhot we sit around telling each other that linux is awesome. Anyone who reads slashdot already knows it and doesn't need to hear it again. Only I'll still read slashdot because of insightful posts like the parent.

Instead of posting on a linux forum about how great linux is go out and talk to people. Omg! going out of the house! Ok, well maybe you geeks with no social skills should stay in your mother's basements and wait for us to tall you. But the rest of you linux users should get out there and spread the word in a real way.

I work for a small company and the boss just hates paying for software. He doesn't really know so much technically about linux, but he knows that its free. Go find a small business that pays too much for MS licenses and make a "sales call" in your spare time. Heck, just converting random people to firefox is a step in the right direction.

Whatever your coding isn't that urgent that you can't wait to do it later :P

Linux is being sold now.

[Tantris]

Linux does have that now. Do you think IBM, Novell/Suse, and Redhat are just sitting around? IBM has gotten a bunch of big installations of Linux done. Novell/Suse just got McDonald's to test changing over it's POS's. Microsoft is not the only one doing this anymore.

Jihad

[br00tus]

From the article - "From the talk today, it seems that Microsoft have appreciated the difficulty of persuading the passionate Linux folk. One Microsoft exec described the anti-Microsoft feelings as a 'jihad.'"

Yes, that's subtle, comparing Linux advocates to Al Qaeda and Iraqi rebels. This is after Jim Allchin calling Linux a "destroyer", Ballmer calling it a "cancer" and so forth.

I take it as a matter of faith that Microsoft desires to destroy Linux. Part one is public relations, part two is getting the government to go after it.

It didn't escape my attention that the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution's Ken Brown is saying he's looking into the employment agreements of Linux contributors to see if any of the employers might own the copyright to off-hours work of Linux contributors. I remember a prominent case a few years ago where some developer wrote something after work and his employer sued him later saying it belonged to them even if it wasn't work related. The battle stretches from the workplace, to the government, to big business as far as I can see - the employment agreements wage slaves have to sign due to poor collective bargaining power helps lead to the destruction of Linux (or perhaps just a monkey wrench like the one that stalled BSD for years and years in litigation). It is already having an effect - Linus is spending time worrying about legal nonsense instead of developing the kernel. It doesn't just go away when ignored, Microsoft and company seem to desire some sort of primitive accumulation of the digital commons. The solution is to look into the OSDL and their Linux legal defense fund and that sort of thing. The travesty of employment contracts which comes in to haunt Linux has to be fought in workplaces. These people are playing for keeps. And it has already had an effect if you think about it.

Re:Insane

[ValourX]

They claim that Windows is more secure because they compare Windows 2003 (new product, not a lot of time to find security holes) to Red Hat 7.2, which has not only been around for years but it's been unsupported for years, having been replaced many times over.

You can prove anything through selective analysis.

-Jem

Re:Hmm ...

[bersl2]

Also, shouldn't ease of exploitability be taken into account? As I recall, there was a theoretical kernel vulnerability in Linux (in mremap()?) that remained unfixed for a long time, but no one could seem to demonstrate how to exploit it.

More harm than good?

[miyako]

Not that I particularly mind MS shooting itself in it's foot, but I really wonder if Microsoft is doing itself more harm than good by bringing so much attention to Linux. I know a lot of people who completely dismissed Linux prior to Microsoft making such a big deal out of showing it's competitive. I just wonder if microsoft is inadvertently drawing attention to the competition.

The reports are available in PDF!!??

[rayd75]

I find it highly amusing that Microsoft chose to use PDF files on this particular page when throughout the rest of their site they've pretended that Word documents are some sort of universal standard. Finally an admission by Microsoft itself that Word isn't the best format for publications you acually want EVERYONE to be able to read.

Go, but dont act like fools

[nurb432]

Go to the tour stops, and act responsibly while you pass out flyers, cds and hurl tough questions at the speakers...

Dont act like a bunch of idiots that came to heckle.

We all have a chance to make OSS look good and make a useful statment.. on Microsoft's dime!