04.03.08
Gartner et al Fixing the Price for the Entire Industry?
“Microsoft did sponsor the benchmark testing and the NT server was better tuned than the Linux one. Having said that, I must say that I still trust the Windows NT server would have outperformed the Linux one.”
–Windows platform manager, Microsoft South-Africa
Reference: Outrage at Microsoft’s independent, yet sponsored NT 4.0/Linux research
Earlier today we mentioned some of the latest FUD from Gartner, which was directed at the GNU/Linux server/desktop in particular. Always remember the Gartner-Microsoft connection and also remember how Microsoft views analysts.
A couple of hours ago we cited this item, which contains a lot of information about Gartner, with which you are probably familiar if you have read this site for a while. One of our readers wrote in to request “a knock against Gartner Group for “unintentionally” setting desktop infrastructure pricing.” Watch the supporting statement from the article.
Suffolk told Gartner, “I think we have fundamentally failed on a worldwide basis as an IT industry to understand the cost of what we do. And I roundly blame Gartner for this, because you guys are the ones who come up with TCO [total cost of ownership] benchmarking. It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“So, I go out and I pick boring desktop infrastructure. What price do you think the suppliers broadly pitch? You will not be shocked to know that it is somewhere around the Gartner TCO benchmark.”
“Give ‘em a 1,” he said, referring to this index. It is now done (down from the rather arbitrary level of 2).
As we said before, Microsoft hopes to ‘reform’ open source, so it is more afraid of Linux and the GPL, which bear all the roots of the Free software movement, spirit and… well, licence of course. It all boils down to the licences, no matter how much we might hate lawyers or misunderstand law. IANAL.
Always remember that Microsoft’s #1 priority is money. Money, money, money. It’s a mindset. It’s hard to cure, if not altogether impossible. In his recent CNET interview, Steve Ballmer called Linux his number 1 competitor. Also see Microsoft’s latest SEC filing about Linux. Mind the part about IPR ‘education’ as a ‘battle plan’.
Remember that a lot is at stake and it boils down to one thing: perception.
This weekend we shall briefly mention an articles about a CIO from Australia, who had to face a little conflict with Novell over misconceptions. Jeff Waugh gave him a hard time as well, but he slammed vocal critics.
Gartner is among those used to deceive a lot on TCO, so we must remember it and keep track of the FUD. It’s just what these folks are paid to do and IDC is even worse than Gartner. Remind yourself again of how Microsoft views analysts, based on its own written words. Never forget this. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
paul said,
April 4, 2008 at 1:11 am
The credibilty list is an important tool for everyone except those that choose to market their products/services by using FUD. It also helps make the point that m$ has talking heads and survey and analysis puppets everywhere. My impression is that m$ doesn’t have a marketing dept in house. Their marketing dept exists in the form of groups like Gartner, IDC, etc. Make these people accountable and expose their distortions of data for all to see. If we show that they lack credibilty, the sources that do provide accurate info will stand out even more. Then we all gain the chance to be better informed.
And the thought for the coming week is…
ISO — the best standards that money can buy.
Hey, maybe we should add them to the cred list.