Microsoft Found Guilty of Misleading Advertising

gtoomey writes "The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints that Microsoft misled consumers by running advertisements claiming Linux is 10 times more expensive than Windows. The print advertisements used "independent research" to compare the cost of Linux on an expensive mainframe to Windows on a PC."

Comments

Marketing slime...

[kmmatthews]

From TFA:

The advert appeared in an IT magazine and was headed: "Weighing the cost of Linux vs Windows? Let's review the facts". The ad contained a graph comparing the cost in US dollars between a Linux images running on two z900 mainframe CPUs and a Windows Server 2003 image running two 900MHz Intel Xeons chips.

Hmm, who wants to help me do some "independent research" of our own? We could compare Linux running on a WRT54G versus the cost of, say, a dual CPU P4 XEON system with 4 gbs RAM, SCSI array, redundant everything, and dual 19" LCD monitors.

Lesse, that makes linux roughly 100 times cheaper (70$ vs. 7000$). Didn't I also see this ad on slashdot and in Linux Journal?

Not intended to be a flamebait, it's not just a Microsoft problem - all marketing people are evil. Perhaps we should enact the death penalty for marketing droids?

Re:Marketing slime...

[Epistax]

To be fair Microsoft does somewhat have a point as IBM, one of the foremost advocates of Linux, is pushing the virtual-Linux-on-a-mainframe concept, and a lot of people are buying. It seems that Microsoft was tageting that competitor rather than Linux-running-on-obsoleted-developer-PC.

Right, and Microsoft clearly states this whenever they make any outrageous claim.
... no wait

Re:Marketing slime...

[rben]

To be fair Microsoft does somewhat have a point as IBM, one of the foremost advocates of Linux, is pushing the virtual-Linux-on-a-mainframe concept, and a lot of people are buying. It seems that Microsoft was tageting that competitor rather than Linux-running-on-obsoleted-developer-PC.

In fact, what IBM is pushing is running hundreds of virtual Linux machines on a single IBM mainframe. This substantially reduces the cost of maintaining a large Linux installation. What would have been fair would have been a comparison between an IBM mainframe running hundreds of virtual Linux servers and hundreds of PC's running Windows.

Oh wait... That is the kind of comparison that IBM is using to sell such systems...

Re:Marketing slime...

[Mark_in_Brazil]

all marketing people are evil. Perhaps we should enact the death penalty for marketing droids?

Sigh...

Marketing is not the same as advertising. In fact, the most important functions of marketing are not from the company to the customer, but the other way around. A good marketing department listens to the market or the customer, determines what the market or customer needs, and helps orient production within the company to produce products that meet some identified need.
I am in the process of starting a company that will be heavily dependent on its marketing department. I expect the top marketing exec in the company (in Brazil, I think it's more appropriate to use the title of Director than VP) to be the second-most influential person in the company after the "big boss" (probably with the title of Director-President), who is writing this post. Some special things in our business model will allow us to do some marketing things in innovative ways. But you wanna know something? I think advertising might not end up under marketing. To me it seems that advertising, as communication from the company to the market/customer, belongs more with sales than with marketing.
I think of it this way: Sales is responsible for communicating from the company to the market in order to sell the product or service, and Marketing is responsible for the communication in the other direction, from the market to the company.
In any case, wherever advertising ends up falling in the company I'm starting, it certainly won't be the main activity for the marketing department.
Marketing people are not all evil. Competent marketing people can help companies provide the products and services customers want or need. That's not only not evil, it's good!
On the other hand, many advertising people are evil, and seek to mislead the customer. But a good marketing department can obviate the need for deceptive advertising, because a company with a good marketing department doesn't need to deceive the customer- it really is making what the customer wants or needs and simply needs to communicate that in its advertising.
By the way, I guess I should mention that my background is technical - I have a PhD in physics and had a career doing technical things (and the technical part of sales) in IT companies. So I'm not a "marketing droid" defending his profession. I'm just a person who has studied some marketing on his own time and understood how a well-run marketing department can benefit not just a company, but also that company's customers.

--Mark

Re:Marketing slime...

[Tassach]

But some fluke electrical event fries the mainframe, you're totally fsck'ed.

1. If it's a mission critical system, you don't just buy one -- you buy two and (preferably) have them installed in geographically seperated areas.
2. If one does buy the farm through some freak catastrophy, you're not the one who's fsck'ed -- the vendor and/or your insurance company is.

If you rely on a multi-million dollar piece of equipment to run your business and don't have redundancy, insurance, and service contracts, you deserve whatever happens to you.

Re:Marketing slime...

[akadruid]

Lawyers are like mechanics

(Not all mechanics are weasels)

A lawyer will not be like a mechanic until:
- You require a mechanic to do anything with car, including opening the door and driving it.
- It takes 3 months of study to understand opening a bonnet/hood.
- Your mechanic bills you for answering the phone, taking a tea break, and billing you.
- Your take a car with a flat tyre to garage, and pay the same regardless of whether the tyre is successfully changed.
- Anyone born into the right family is automatically assured a life of ease and wealth as they attend mechanic school for many years and graduate into a position in a top garage which pays a salary that would support a small 3rd world country for 10 hours work per week.
- I could go on.

The point is not that there should be all lawyers be executed and everyone else spend 10 years learning how to be lawyers, but that lawyers should not be necessary. Laws should be clear, simple and brief - otherwise how can the general population be expected not to break them to start with? These are good laws:
- No murder
- No stealing
- No copying anything written in the last 10 years
Laws like that are easy to understand.

Shocking News about Statistics

[stecoop]

Are you surprised that statistics can be bought and bartered? Everyone knows that the person paying for the data can make it show whatever they want.

Re:Shocking News about Statistics

[I confirm I'm not a]

Are you surprised that statistics can be bought and bartered?

No, we're surprised that a government agency saw through the bullshit and has done something about it.

Incidentally, the ASA is one of Britain's better agencies. It seems to have - some - real power, and doesn't seem to abuse it. Another poster has already mentioned Apple's tussles with the ASA (re: 64bit CPUs, IIRC) and other corporations have also been shouted down by the ASA. I'm sure they've made some bad calls in the past, but I'd be hard-pressed to recall any.

Re:What about back across the pond?

[Anita Coney]

In the US the government works FOR corporations, not against them.

Will Others Follow?

[grunt107]

Since it has been shown time after time (sorry Ms. Lauper) that EU != US, will MS get smacked here?
Probably the only outcome would be a forced disclaimer like the fast talking legal-speak in car commercials: 'Whencomparedbetweendislikesystemsbypaidresearchco nsultants.realresultsmayvarybasedonuseandhardwarep urchases.notresponsibleforvirusesandothersoftwarem alfunctions.seeresellersfordetails'

Only 1 Linux image on a mainframe is inefficient

[spookymonster]

The real cost savings in running Linux on a zSeries mainframe comes from consolidating multiple server images under one box - either 16 servers running in native LPARs or 20+ under z/VM virtual machines.

Still misleading...

[Lonewolf666]

They should have run the two operating systems on identical (PC) hardware. After all, the x86 platform is the original platform of Linux too, and probably the best supported. So this would be fair to both systems.
Thus, the hardware costs would be a draw and the cost comparison would actually be about software.

When will they really be punished?

[DrugCheese]

Most government have heavy laws to try and help protect people from corporations. Yet if a person is brought in to court on so many charges in a time frame the court adds them all up hoping to get a better view of how the person is acting in (and hurting) the society. But giant corporations, they can get hauled to court constantly even over the same charge again and again and courts treat them all as seperate cases. Why not look at the big picture and see what these giants are doing to society and pass judgement trying to change something rather then trying to say something the corperations obviously aren't going to listen to?

the Bikini thing

[Abundantes]

As my old math prof said:

Statistics are like a Bikini: showing interesting details but hiding the important stuff.

The Webserver Example

[Halo-]

The whole idea of generically computing TCO is fraught with problems. The "total cost" is going to greatly depend on what the platform is used for and by whom.

I think you've got to look at common examples where the profit margin is thin, highly competitive, and tightly linked to actual operating overhead. If you an price web hosting, a Windows/IIS solution is more expensive than a Unix-based one. The cheapest hosts are always Unix-based, and ironically they tend to also be the most "reliable" (according to uptime....)

I'm sure there are examples of where the TCO of Windows on the same hardware is cheaper than something Unix-based, but for most serious work, Unix still rules.

Re:Not surprising it came from the UK

[mccalli]

So are you gonna call the cops if I call you gullible to your face?

If you're doing it for commercial gain, yes. If it's your genuine opinion about me - nothing I can do except try to refute it.

That's the difference. This was commercial speech, not personal. It is not an advert's place to put a blanket insult pointing at a random person using a public space.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:What about back across the pond?

[LaCosaNostradamus]

We "guys" don't have a government, hence no government agencies. The corporations do. It's a free market for the masses, but rock-solid socialism for medium to large American businesses. As one poster said, we guys have to rely on "caveat emptor".

About 100 million Americans will demonstrate their lack of understanding of this in November, and will either cast their votes for the pro-business and anti-labor Republican, or pro-business and anti-labor Democrat. {sigh}

Re:Rate of posted Microsoft articles on Slashdot

[WNight]

As long as Slashdot carries all the stories about the Monopoly that owns Linux trying to intentionally build incompatibilities into Linux to keep it from working with any other products. The stories about Linus dancing around shouting "Developers! Developers! Developers!". The stories about how Alan Cox was being flown around the world offering sweetheart deals to huge companies in order to keep them from considering alternatives.

Oh, and don't forget about the exposes of how the Business Software Alliance performs unannounced searches of businesses, shutting down running machines and having untrained flunkies search for any unlicensed copies of Linux. Don't forget to detail how receipts for the product don't seem to count as proof of purchase - an unlicensed copy of Linux (one sold for different hardware doesn't count!) can cost your company $25k or more in "damages", which thankfully can be waived if you just sign the exclusive software purchase deal for the next ten years and agree to periodic audits...

Also, how during the middle of a federal anti-trust lawsuit the people in charge of writing Linux wrote about using any means necessary to kill the competition.

Oh yeah, Linus and Linux don't seem to generate that kind of news.

Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe Microsoft has so many negative articles written about it because they actually do these things?