Legal Ramifications of Microsoft Benchmarks?

imagi asks: "I'm interested in finding out about the legal ramifications of publishing benchmarks on Microsoft Products. I've noticed that many contain a clause forbidding you from giving out performance information. Is this legal? As a consultant I like to advise customers on the best solution for their needs, however without being able to backup recommendation with independent benchmarks, I'm having to take Microsofts word for it. After having read some of their previous FUD (for example Linux Myths) their claims ring hollow. My question then: Is this legal to forbid benchmarking and what would happen if I were to set-up an independent website comparing MS SQL Server vs Oracle 8 on Linux?" There are lies, damned lies and, of course, benchmarks. I find it silly that Microsoft could take action against you if you've shared information that they published and released, but I could be wrong. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Comments

Publishing

[Matts]

I think this rule is about publishing the benchmarks. You could as a consultant do the benchmarks yourself, and give your clients that information, but I don't know if they will believe them (because they're not independant).

Note though that MySQL publishes some simple benchmarks for some db's that may be of use to you.

Also don't be too quick to dismiss the MS SQL vs Oracle benchmarks. MS SQL has it's origins in Sybase SQL Server (back somewhere at version 5 of Sybase I think), which has always been quicker than Oracle at a lot of things (however Sybase's locking strategy often makes it a worse choice - something that carries on into MS SQL). Apparently MS SQL 7 is quite quick as far as RDBMS's go - I'd focus on something other than speed though - MS SQL's T/SQL implementation is in the dark ages compared to Sybase's, and Oracle is just a whole lot more powerful, with it's wonderful package support and it's amazing stability.