Slashdot Mirror
Ask the Author of the Latest MS-Funded Windows vs. Linux Study
Last week on Slashdot you saw a (Microsoft-funded) research
study on Windows vs. (Novell) Linux reliability by Dr.Herbert
Thompson. Novell disagreed
with the study's conclusions. So did most Slashdot readers.
Thompson's work been mentioned on Slashdot before, especially his
famous five-line
script that could change electronic voting machine results
and his novel, The
Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency. He's a real,
genuine-article computer security expert (and regular Slashdot reader)
who is happy to put on his flame-resistant
suit and discuss his Microsoft vs. Linux study with you. So
ask whatever you like, one question per post. We'll send him 10 of the highest-moderated questions and publish his
answers next Monday. He'll jump into the discussion then, which ought
to make it rather lively.
How can you stay neutral when one side is funding your research?
Good question. I'd be scared to post anything pro-microsoft on here, as a large number of /. users are pro-linux and anti-microsoft. I myself, am not too biased one way or another. I believe at this time that both linux and windows have their places, and aren't in 100% direct competition.
How many Microsoft-funded studies have been buried because the conclusion was "incorrect"?
How would Dr. Thompson ever know that? Has he been in charge for a lot of MS-funded studies lately?
What many of you miss to realize(Microsoft included), is that there are a large group of current Microsoft only customers that are unhappy with their current offerings. Just because someone is against Microsofts decisions doesnt meen they like Linux. Many just see Linux as a catalysator wich will free the market, push standards and make interopability more common between vendors. Its very rare with 100% Microsofts network still Microsoft refuses to support any standard that would make life for their customers easier. The constant steering towards 100% MS networks is pissing people off.
This really isnt about Linux its about making computers and their software be as standard as the internet.
HTTP/1.1 400
How is it that Diebold can make ATM machines that will account for every last penny in a banking system, but they can't make secure electronic voting machines?
Also, does the flame-resistant suit come with its own matching tinfoil hat? (don't answer that one)
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"Could you please explain why you decided to risk drawing your objectivity into question with insane paranoiac Slashdot readers . . ."
Corrected. I know it may seem like a troll, but I don't think it is. Something that a lot of the readers of this site don't understand is that not everyone thinks that Linux is the shit to the point of denying all evidence to the contrary. Don't get me wrong, I have one Linux-only computer that I use for work, my other is dual boot, and I like it. I love Linux both for its principles and because it allows me to do things that I can't normally do with Windows, BUT that does not mean that I believe its raw performance to be equal to that of a more heavily funded operating system. And you know what? That's OK. I'd still rather use it.
I think many here would disagree.
Hang on, you're saying you believe that you would trust a FSF or OSDL-funded study to be impartial? You're saying that if the FSF funded a study comparing GNU to Windows, and the study came back saying "Windows saves you money in the long term, and Microsoft's Shared Source is as good as Free Software for 99% of users", that the FSF would then be happy to publish that study?
I don't think so, and I suspect you won't either, if you pause to think about it.
Nonprofits are not driven by motives which could be considered the mirrored opposite of commercial corporations. There is not the tremendous pressure to turn a profit (or some analog to monetary gain), and in your examples they're run by mere handfuls of individuals receiving very little compensation with only their reputations to fall back on.
But that doesn't make them impartial! All it means is that the profit motive is replaced by other motives. And there are plenty.
Think about how much time the major contributors to free software projects put into those projects. Hours, days, months, years of personal time, freely given. Time that could have been spent earning money, or doing charitable work, or even just spending time with their families. Time that was wasted, if it turns out that the software they produced is not actually going to help many people do anything at all.
When you reach middle age, and the end starts to heave into sight on the horizon of your life, you start to get very, very uncomfortable about the idea that you might have devoted your precious time to an unworthy cause.
Being so dismissive of FOSS organizations as to just say 'well, eveone's biased anyway' really doesn't seem like an acceptable attitude.
What's dismissive about that? Microsoft really does think that everyone ought to use Microsoft software, and the FSF really does think that everyone ought to use free software. Everyone is biased. Pretty much everyone does have a pre-existing investment, either of time or money, in one of the options. And human nature does dictate that when you have an investment in something, you are biased towards accepting studies that support it and disregarding studies that don't.
What's wrong with telling the truth?