EDS' Secret Love For Linux Laid Bare

Ashcrow writes "'Only a day after flaming open source as insecure, unscalable and unfit for Australian consumption in its Agility Alliance, services vendor EDS has revealed it really does have a soft spot for the penguin deep in its heart.' Apparently the 'Linux environment provides a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere' which differs from that they had said earlier."

Comments

Awwww (tear drips from eye)

[Anonymous Coward]

Now let's all hug.

Re:Awwww (tear drips from eye)

[LifesizeKenDoll]

*hug*

*starts humping*

Rasmussen - Wilson

[ackthpt]

Only a day after flaming open source as insecure, unscalable and unfit for Australian consumption in its Agility Alliance, services vendor EDS has revealed it really does have a soft spot for the penguin deep in its heart.

Left hand, meet right hand. We'll introduce you to brain later.

In other news: EDS global vice president for Agility Alliance Rob Rasmussen was found not to be scalable.

An anonymous insider said, "We still give him rubber pencils and an Etch-A-Sketch for a laptop, he's getting better about drooling, too."

Re:Rasmussen - Wilson

[Anonymous Coward]

Etch-a-Sketch technology eh, sounds like most of the UK Government contracts they've developed. :-)

Re:Rasmussen - Wilson

[Apathetic1]

We'll introduce you to brain later.

You haven't worked there, have you?

Re:Rasmussen - Wilson

[demachina]

Agility Alliance is mostly an attempt by EDS in particular to form a consortium to counter IBM and its love affair with Linux. They offer Solaris Server's(SUN), Windows Desktops(Microsoft), and Cisco just wants to sell their Chinese made routers to anyone and will probably kiss up to IBM five minutes after walking out of the Agility Alliance press conference.

EDS is just trying to be anti IBM, and since IBM is pro Linux that means their competitive analysis team unwisely told them to be rabidly anti Linux whether it made any sense or not. Obviously it didn't make much sense. Big consulting companies might form preferences, and offer recommendations, but they are supposed to pick the best solution for job and be willing to be open minded enough to offer the technology the customer wants.

To put it another way by bashing Linux to this extent EDS has:

A. Shown to their potential customers they have a religious bias, which will preclude them from being a good consultant.

B. Shot themselves in the foot for any contract competition where Linux is prefered by the customer.

So EDS is a whore

[Dark Paladin]

They'll pretty much say or do whatever people pay them to say or do.

Wear the nun outfit and spank them with a floppy? Sure, they'll do that.

Call you "Mommy" while wearing a swimsuit? For the right price, they're yours!

And to say that Linux is good one day, and insecure the next, well, that's just another whore transaction. All in a day's work for EDS, I guess.

Maybe the level is *lower*?

[Andyvan]

In their case study, they state "Linux environment provides a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere". Maybe that level is lower, not higher? ;-)

To paraphrase another loser:

[Anonymous Coward]

"I was against Linux before I voted for it"

Jeez

[TupperTrenine]

Is it even necessary to try and make a joke at the expense of the article title?

Good, 'cause they run our Linux boxes

[bunyip]

We have many hundreds of Linux boxes in our data center, run by EDS. We have a cluster of about 150 4-way Opteron machines, as well as several other clusters. This is in the US.

I also need to say that our support for Linux & MySQL from the EDS team supporting us has been excellent.

I was disappointed by the comments earlier this week, doubly so as I'm an Australian. I thought my countrymen would have smarter things to say about Linux...

Alan.

Re:Good, 'cause they run our Linux boxes

[Art Tatum]

I was disappointed by the comments earlier this week, doubly so as I'm an Australian. I thought my countrymen would have smarter things to say about Linux...

Why? Just because you have nationality in common? I'm American and half of my countrymen are frothing idiots. I won't tell you which ones--just pick the ones you like least and let them be "it." I'm not that interested in letting you know where I stand. You'd probably hate me for it anyway.

Re:Good, 'cause they run our Linux boxes

[demachina]

"do you realize that telling other people that they're "wrong" for their choice in leaders is part of that?"

Chill dude, I was just curious why the election turned out the way it did and being personally disappointed with how the U.S. election turned out I was hoping the rest of the world would at least get rid of all the poodle's backing the wacky people who've seized power in the U.S. Just wishin' not like I actually seek to influence the outcome.

You want to see "Arrogant American" lecturing people on elections, someone who actually has the power to influence them, check the Donald Rumsfeld speech today when he bashed Spain for throwing out the right wing, pro Bush, government.

Or check how the U.S. pumped $50 million dollars in to the Ukraine with the express intent of influencing the outcome of their election. If some country overtly pumped that much money in to the U.S. to influence an election the targeted party would go ballistic. U.S. does it, its just business as usual, especially for the National Endowment for "Democracy".

In fact the U.S. government, especially the right wing U.S. governments like we have now have actually influenced or outright rigged countless elections over the last half century. Me wishing there had been a different outcome in Australia kind of pales by comparison.

Hey I think America was totally crazy for their choice of leaders too. I was just wondering if some Aussie could explain what the issues were that lead to Howard winning. I'll go first and set an example, in the U.S. the Republican's won due to ruthless exploitation of a wedge issue, gay marriage, and terrorizing everyone over national security.

Re:Good, 'cause they run our Linux boxes

[Evil Pete]

I was just wondering if some Aussie could explain what the issues were that lead to Howard winning

Well. Back in 2001, before Sept.11, Howard was losing popularity fast. He looked doomed. Then he decided to pump an enormous amount of money into the housing sector by subsidising first home buyers (a policy which their opponents had once used). There was an instant boom as all the budget surplus was funnelled into this. Then came Sept-11 and the flight of capital from the US. It appears enough Asian or other interests thought the starting boom in Australia was worth investing in.The basic economic fundamentals were good, but he huge amount of spending wasn't. In the end now 4 years later Aussies are in debt up to their eyeballs... In such a climate when Howard said in the last election campaign that interest rates were higher under Labor than his own party then you can guess who they backed. Since then there has been an interest rate rise and coincidently the week afterfor the first time labor is leading the Libs in the opinion polls.

My opinion. People aren't too bright. A basic rule I've learnt is : when an election is called decide then and there who you back because from that moment on all you will hear will be lies and distortion. People forgot the reasons they were about to throw Howard out, and thought him their best PM ever, don't be surprised if their opinions change again. The party is over, time for the hangover -- my opinion of course.

"Billable Hours"

[gvc]

EDS is a consulting firm. They sell "billable hours." If those billable hours result in an accurate study or a system that works it is strictly because the individuals whose hours were billed happen to do a good job.

EDS' Linux Strategy?

[geomon]

I wonder why anyone would listen to EDS about anything.

After all, they don't even listen to themselves.

EDS and stable software

[l0perb0y]

Just after reading about EDS bashing Linux, I read this article. about the myriad of glitches in EDS's software for the Colorado welfare office that is going to cost millions to fix.

Now, they do say that colorado pushed the go live faster than was recommended, but the point is that EDS might not be the one to talk about stability and flexibility.

I want to know

[labratuk]

I really want to know how these 'Alliances' and think-tanks get formed in the first place. Does Sun come to IBM and say something like:

Sun: Hey, wan't to go in with us on this joint think tank and study group? It will do industry analysis for all of us and we can get them to voice our opinons through their reports. I have a few friends I can pay to sit around and write articles.

IBM: Wait, whose opinions would these be? Yours or ours?

Sun: Does it matter?

IBM: Not really. Ok, I'm in.

Microsoft: Hey, my nephew's a philosophy major and is having trouble finding a job. He's quite a good writer - do you think you could get him a job in it?

Sun: Sure.

IBM: Wait, aren't we all mortal enemies?

EDS is so trustworthy--not!

[sribe]

Look what Colorado got from EDS for our $200,000,000 in taxpayer money:

Benefits plan assailed - Lawsuit targets benefit system - Benefits program hits predicted snags - Loss of aid to poor feared - Computer causing headache, heartache - Computer upgrade in works - Donate food, mayor urges - Judge: Keep system running - Company has other unhappy customers - Computer glitch costly - Food drives ramping up over weekend - Pressure to go online - Mixed results on rollout - Living on the edge - Glitch leaves poor out in cold - Benefits system lawsuit revived - Old system assisted payroll - Woman desperate to get meds for son - Needy could wait months for welfare benefits - Federal report blasts state welfare backlog - Benefits battle boiling - Letter blasts benefits system - Demand for food 'unprecedented' - Consultant derides new benefit system - Nursing home 'crisis' - Counties faulted on benefits - Mother deals with confusion on benefits - Lawyers wrap up arguments on benefits system - Judge: Clear backlog - Family in downward spiral -

Re:EDS is so trustworthy--not!

[dtfinch]

That has to be the most depressing thing I've seen all afternoon. A broken system is worthless, no matter how much it cost. Governments need to make that clear.

Aha! Mystery solved.

[jd]

Linux is "unscalable, insecure and unfit for consumption" but is the most scalable, secure and "fit for consumption" product out there.

Translation into Real English: Linux is as far below "perfect" as most other Operating Systems out there are below Linux.

Translation of Translation: Linux isn't perfect, but it's heavenly compared to any of the alternatives EDS has tried.

Translation of Translation of Translation: EDS need to see about getting on Prozac.

Oh no, not them

[Eternally optimistic]

An endorsement by EDS ? This could be the end of Linux.

Re:A smarter way:

[demachina]

"Seems it be much smarter for EDS to adopt Linux, thereby being able to legally "steal" all the "IP" that their feared competitor IBM is producing."

Kind of hard to build a consulting business on "stealing" Linux IP. EDS can use IBM's open source stuff no problem, but a potential customer is going to be faced with the choice of:

- Hire IBM because they are developing Linux stuff so they obviously have the expertise

- Hire EDS who is probably learning as they go because Linux isn't exactly their bag, and are now bad mouthing it to boot.

IBM isn't stupid. They know ownership of the IP in the Linux world doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is if your potential clients view you as savvy and expert and IBM obviously conveys that on Linux, especially with the never ending barrage of great Linux stuff they post on their developer site and the non stop advertising.

If you are trying to land a consulting gig it also helps if the potential customer sees you as getting Linux and are not trying to "own" things or do proprietary lockins.

"They way it is now, they just look incompetent."

Totally right. IBM's marketing strategy is to be pro Linux, and not overtly anti Microsoft or anti anything else. Everyone knows they have no love for Microsoft but if a customer wants Windows IBM consulting will do it in a heartbeat. They'd probably even do Solaris if the customer required it, though probably more reluctantly (the old proprietary UNIX religious wars run deeper than the Linux versus Windows religious war).

EDS on the other hand, at least in this case, is being anti something and that is a really stupid marketing approach for someone selling services. You need to be pro something versus anti something. But its hard for EDS to create much excitement being pro Windows desktop and Solaris servers. Its an ancient strategy and long in the tooth, especially since many people think SUN is half dead. IBM looks leading edge and trendy being pro Linux. If EDS tries to be pro Linux they just look like a "me too" compared to IBM. IBM really has them foxed.

Not sure where CSC falls in this. I imagine they will just whore their services based on the customer's desires and aren't religious about it.

Okay, a little perspective from an EDSer...

[Shoten]

I work for EDS, and I have to point a few things out. For one, it's a HUGE corporation...it's a world unto itself. We've got over 120,000 employees all over the planet, on nearly every continent and in every time zone. You always have to take what one guy says with a grain of salt; there are very few universal truths that cover all of EDS, and none of them have to do with a preference for a kind of technology, one way or the other. For gods sake, I'm sure there's a linux beowulf cluster somewhere, and a whole lot of Windows ME somewhere else.
I'd also like to point out that the previous article about the EDS "stance" was very likely taken somewhat out of context by the reporter. You've got a guy high up in EDS saying that in enterprise environments, linux doesn't match up to Solaris 10, and in a lot of ways he's right. If you doubt that, check out Solaris 10 and its new features. It rocks like mad, and I do prefer linux to Solaris.
No large enterprise on the planet is all of anything; even Microsoft got caught running linux and a BSD variant at times. So let's get over the notion that one guy out of 120,000 may not like linux so much yet still have it in his corporate environment?
Oh, and I use linux daily in my work at EDS, just to be clear on the subject, and rarely touch Solaris.

Re:Okay, a little perspective from an EDSer...

[CCW]

> You always have to take what one guy says with a grain of salt;

When that guy is a VP, like "Robb Rasmussen, vice president of EDS Global Alliances" he is presumed to speak for the company. That fact that what he said demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge in his supposed area of expertise does reflect poorly on EDS and all of its employees. Like any other large company, there are some good people working there, but if I were you I'd be looking for another position with a company whose management I didn't have to apologize for.

EDS...

[Anonymous Coward]

Eventually Deliver Something.