Watching the competition...

[joel]

There's an interesting article on Linux Today, about Microsoft's latest move 
to steer the conversation their way. The full article is located at 
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-08-23-014-20-NW-MS, but I've 
attached the relevant portion, below:

Hi, 

I thought this might be of interest to you: 

I am currently working for a client with a Microsoft Premier Support 
Contract, Select Contract, etc. So every month, we receive a bunch of CDROMs 
ranging from service packs & beta software to the occasional CD filled with 
marketing mumbo-jumbo. 

Surprisingly enough, this month's edition contained 2 CDs titled: "Competing 
with Linux". 

One is a "Sales Training CD" aimed at resellers and solution partners. It 
primarily deals with how MS-zealots should deal with clients asking tough 
questions about Linux viability. As you can guess, it's really focussed on 
downplaying Linux as possible competition for MS-based solutions. From the 
tone of it, it looks like there is some serious concerns about Linux from the 
boys in Redmond. It talks about the threats Linux poses to MS solutions, but 
even goes as far as telling resellers & solution partners whom to focus on in 
a enterprise when trying to convince enterprises not to opt for Linux. There 
is even - and this is *really* hilariously stupid - a multiple choice game at 
the end of the CD where you have to answer a fictitious client's questions 
about Linux. You score points by clicking on the answers that dismiss Linux 
as a viable enterprise solution. I know some people here at the office (and 
those folks are primarily an MS-centered business) had a good laugh about 
this. 

The other CD is a "Power Tools CD", which contains a little more info, 
whitepapers and audio stuff about essentially the same subject. 

Really, now you have all the best MS FUD about Linux, bundled on two cool 
CDROMs ! Get'em while they're hot. Hours of great fun & entertainment :-) 

"...The Achilles' heel of Linux is its lack of desktop applications, and the 
lack of adoption of those desktop applications, particularly office 
automation applications, that do exist on Linux." 

"...Linux should be taken seriously as a competitor, but there are threats to 
its continued success. Encourage your customers to consider these as part of 
the complete Linux picture: 

*  The development model is likely to fail as Linux grows into a "real" OS. 
*  Fragmentation - it is already happening. 
*  Self-destructive license that may not hold up in massive commercial use. 
*  If the Linux pure plays fail, will Linux follow?" 

Responses to the "Linux is free" Argument 
Microsoft software is already essentially "free" in large projects-typically 
less than 3% of the hardware/software cost and less than 1% of the total 
project cost. 

Because supportability and integration are so important, Microsoft software 
and commercially supported software in general help customers where it 
counts: minimizing total cost of ownership and maximizing business value, 
making it less expensive for customers over the long haul. "Open Source Code" 
Customers want to have some influence over the direction of their computing 
platform. The lack of a single owner and well-known decision making process 
for open source software makes it difficult for customers to influence or 
guide the direction of features. There is no certainty that in the long term 
Open Source Software will evolve to meet the changing needs of the customer 
and the marketplace. 

The open source development model also depends on its users for testing. 
Windows NT® is tested daily on hundreds of OEM configurations, connected to 
thousands of peripherals, running thousands of different applications. Such a 
testing lab requires deep investments and strict discipline that cannot be 
easily reproduced through a loosely connected group of individuals on the 
Internet. 

"Reliability" 
Linux is being used for simple tasks such as file/print and static web page 
serving. Microsoft customers are using Windows NT Server for demanding, high 
performance, mission critical applications such as messaging, data 
warehousing, decision support and e-commerce. Less heavily loaded systems 
with less complex software suites have high reliability. 

"Linux has an extensive developer network" 
The Linux development community is comprised of technical hobbyists and UNIX 
enthusiasts whose idea of usability is a good text editor with which to 
modify configuration files. 

If the users are the developers, then the product will be shaped to suit the 
mind of a developer, with ease of use taking a back seat to flexibility. This 
developer focus also manifests itself in the way a problem is often resolved: 
posting a patch file that the user must apply to the original source file, 
then recompile and link it, and finally re-install it. 


--Joel