“If Microsoft offers a superior product to Linux then why would they need a ‘Get the Facts’ campaign? Just about any time a major publication runs a story about Linux, Microsoft gets them to place a ‘Get the Facts’ advertisement nearby and often right in the middle of the story. That seems pretty suspect to me. Do you ever wonder if publications run Linux stories just to garner Microsoft’s ad money? Or have you considered that desperate times call for desperate measures? It makes me wonder.”
Could it be that Microsoft needs to combat all of the lies and propoganda coming from linux zealots and make sure that the public has the truth? I say YES!
Yea, sure, that’s it. You’ve gotta stop those evil zealots from convincing the suits that your stuff stinks…
Cause suits often listen to “zealots.”
Perhaps they’re hoping to compete with respectable publishers and authors who are writing things which indicate Linux is a very usable enterprise (and even desktop) platform? And when I say Linux, I mean LAMP and a few others as well. For example, O’Reilly.
But no, you’re probably right. They’re looking to stop trolls in internet forums…
It’s easy enough these days to give folks a live Linux CD and let them play with Linux themselves.
Microsoft ran the same kind of disinfomation campaign in the early and mid-1990’s while simultaneously avoiding any direct head-to-head comparisons with OS/2. It’s not a surprise that they’re doing the same thing these days with another competitor…
Four years ago the mention of using Linux made my employers furious, now we use it among other platforms. Microsoft has always used misinformation to deter people from using Linux, but Linux works and that what most people care about.
Aye nothing new here, sucked then sucks now, same old bully tactics, anything for a win.
Plenty of Linux users want you to know that technology drew us to Linux. We didn’t adopt this platform because we found it less capable than Windows. We didn’t adopt this technology because it was unreliable and prone to security risks. We didn’t adopt this technology because we love re-booting our servers every few days.
We adopted it because it provides a stable and reliable platform that doesn’t cause us many problems. It saves money and we can manage more machines and users with less people and resources. If you prefer shallow, slick advertising to a quality operating system, go for it.
The biggest fact missing from the MS advertising is that Windows isn’t always the best tool for the job any more than Linux is always the best tool for the job.
The kind of desperation you see when Microsoft obsesses about Linux indicates they have fears. They spend more money on advertising against Linux than Linux could possibly cost them.
I’m not sure this is true. MS has given some pretty steep discounts to companies that have used the threat of Linux. MS does seem to have concerns about Linux, but I would say that they are not unfounded. Linux has had an effect on MS revenue. How much? I don’t know if it’s been as much as what they’ve spent advertising against Linux, but I think they’re trying to be more proactive than reactive. Any good business would do the same.
Arguably, the thing that helped end the Soviet Union more than anything was the US getting the Soviets to try to outspend us on defense over and over, until they were broke.
Microsoft spending gobs of cash on advertising everywhere Teh Threat looms, alternately wheedling and threatening customers, with no formal competitor to bash… Sounds almost like the success we’re having with another war against an undefinable enemy.
Draw your own conclusions.
Trust me. Microsoft had ambitions in China, Korea and Japan. Those markets alone are huge. Also, they aren’t selling much new Office and XP sales are flat.
Linux has picked up the UNIX pie and moved Windows server and IIS out the door. MS Developers tools sales are hurting.
Gates got his cash out with that dividend.
I disagree with the author. Microsoft is getting it taken to them and they’re using the deferred revenue accounts to make their sales look even.
Heck, even Dell is starting to falter.
The dominant operating system until 2010? That guy at Gartner is nutz. Microsoft might not be around in 2010.
Linux has picked up the UNIX pie and moved Windows server and IIS out the door. MS Developers tools sales are hurting.
Gates got his cash out with that dividend.
I disagree with the author. Microsoft is getting it taken to them and they’re using the deferred revenue accounts to make their sales look even.
If you look at reality, you’ll see that Windows Server market share regularly increases and Windows has now passed Unix has the biggest server OS, Microsoft’s revenues AND profits regulary increase, Desktop Windows market share is stable at more than 90%,…
So reality is actually quite far from what you’re saying.
Not really. Their desktop share is flat, like he said. It’s not increasing enough to attract investors.
Their server market is increasing. However, they’re very much failing to gain the web dominance that they wanted from netscape (yes, IE, but that’s not where dominance pays, dominance pays on the server side; and IE has lost its dominance; cutting off 13% of users is enough to raise eye brows, 4% wasn’t).
//The dominant operating system until 2010? That guy at Gartner is nutz. Microsoft might not be around in 2010.//
You seriously think that a US$40 Billion company with 90% desktop OS share, and not a small share of server OS, will *not* be around in five years?
Pass me the crack pipe you’re smoking, dill-weed.
We all know where Comical Ali went after the Irag war now dont we?
“Get the facts” has the same ludicrous spin and ridiculous propaganda.
Let me correct some facts for you:
1) Suse is not the only Linux out there therefore you cant assert that Windows is superior to Linux from that test.
2) We dont know the conditions or the metrics used to quantify the comparisons (EG MS could hold off patching their systems in order to win the least no of patches comparison) therefore all the comparisons are unqualified and void.
3) MS sponsored reports will always set the test conditions to MS’s wishes.
4) MS wont tell you the whole truth – they just cherry pick the headlines they want.
5) All independent reports like the UK government schools one showed massive savings from dumping windows and using Linux.
Now, who are you going to believe – independent government analysis or that monopolistic propaganda machine?
Heh, yea, if you want to do a comparison of Enterprise Windows to Enterprise Linux is HAS to be:
RHEL4 ES against Win2K3 (w/e the enterprise version is called).
Why? Because RHEL makes up the majority of Linux enterprise OS sales…
I’m surprised they picked Suse though, maybe it was the buggiest they could find that’d pass for enterprise and mainstream?
Outside of the Web Server Arena there is almost no competition for Microsoft. Linux has been successful in a limited part of the server space.
A small number of people run Linux on their desktop.
It benefits Microsoft to pretend that Linux is a threat, Linux helps the government to forget that Microsoft is a monopoly that should be broken up.
Agreed. A sane argument, at last.
However, when talking about IT market, also consider that “integration” is a value for IT, more than it is for other markets.
And integration cannot be done properly by multiple competitors, as the Linux experience showed very well.
Linux actually has a much bigger stranglehold of the server market than you think… It’s been taking over *all* of the Unix market; it had the web market from “hello.”
Now, Windows servers are all over the place in other server markets as well of course.
But seriously, RedHat’s profits aren’t growing by 200% every year because of the web market, and you know it. 80% of those Linux web servers are going to be running on free of cost distributions… Even though probably 90% of their traffic will run over the enterprise linux solutions (big sites get so much more traffic than every kids home website).
Linux is also taking over SGI’s former holding: Movie making.
And the Linux desktop usage is growing more every year. Course, it’s not growing up as quick as Mac is… But I’d say it’s gaining momentum.
But the main thing will be: What do the people graduating today think? In my experience, most of the programmers like Microsoft, and so the desktop share will probably be solid for another half generation of programmers. But most of the IA kids… they hate Windows. They’re the ones who beg the boss to get rid of that Windows server and give them something that doesn’t go down so much.
8 years ago Microsoft was using Linux as an excuse. After the DOJ left them alone they stopped caring for 5 years. Suddenly along comes 2003 and they notice it again. Because they do have to compete with it.
All advertising should be suspect, no matter who is doing it. i.e: take it all with a grain of salt.
I wonder if this is why the “# of reads” and “# of talkbacks” have dropped so much for linuxtoday.com over the last while…
I find it strange for a site that is promoting Linux (or at least reporting about it) to have their front page generously sprinkled with ads from the monopoly that is attempting to squash Linux.
Trying to pound Linux into the Microsoft mold is bound to fail. It’s the nature of the beast. This “testing” was set up to fail from moment one, which I’m sure most people can see right through.
In the age of the Internet, this sort of blather just isn’t going to register on people the way it used to.
Regarding the # of servers: it’s no surprise that Windows is getting a “larger portion” of a growing market. After all, they dominate the desktop. What’s more interesting is that they aren’t completely dominating in the same fashion – when we all know that 90% of the desktops want a Windows server to connect to…
Also, it’s nearly impossible to quantify the number of Linux servers out there. Any attempt to provide an indication of the number of active Linux servers is going to be sheer bunk – the number is much higher than any published statistic. For example, I have downloaded one Debian net install disc – from which I have installed about 20 servers with, and I use apt-proxy to cache my update packages. There is literally no way to tell that I have ~20 Linux servers without asking me in person. And it’s quite unlikely that they would count my original downloaded ISO in the first place.
Microsoft needs to drop their skirmish tactics and concentrate on innovation, security and stability. They keep running their mouth about how innovative they are, but the only thing really being updated appreciably is their media player, which becomes more and more obtuse with each release (I fully expect them to someday force new content on their users).
It’a foolish campaign. Drawing attention to your competitors instead of placing only your product firmly in your customer’s mind is pretty unwise, imho. In addition, it makes Microsoft look small. Here is this mightly enterprise running tacky little ads all about Linux while claiming that somehow Linux really doesn’t matter to them. Yeah. Sure. I guess what all this really says is that Microsoft simply do no know how to handle open source or the threat open source may represent to their way of doing business. I guess a start would to be honest about it but that’s probably impossible given Microsoft’s contorted bureaucracy.
Plenty of Windows users want you to know that technology and usability kept us with Windows. We didn’t adopt this platform because we found it less user friendly than Linux. We didn’t adopt this technology because it had hidden ideological agenda and smelled like a cult at the beginning. We didn’t adopt this technology because we love re-compiling our kernels every few days.
We adopted it because it provides a stable and reliable platform that doesn’t cause us many problems- because we know how to use it.
It saves time by costing money, money that our employer pays for personal time that we save, and we can manage more machines and users with less people and resources when admin knows what he is doing. If you prefer overzealous, hate-you-morons-who-don’t-bend-to-Our-Savior advertising to a good enough operating system, go for it.
The kind of desperation you see when Linux fanatics obsessed about Microsoft indicates they still have fears. They spend more time on advertising against Windows than Windows could possibly cost them if they used that time to make money to buy it. In another life some people trained me to observe people’s reaction to certain stimuli. One thing I learned: Desperate times call for desperate measures.
To this trained observer, buying into Linux today could be a bigger mistake than you anticipated.
It is an AD people!!!! It is a marketing gimmick. Just like when you see a BMW ad right next to, or in the middle of a Mercedes AD. They are all trying to get customers. This is just another way they *might* be able to accomplish it.
If you turn off picture in picture you won’t see ads during other ads anymore…
Just thought this was funny….
http://www.msnnethosting.com/webhosting.html
Guess the guys at MSN didn’t get the “Get the Facts” memo. LOL…
Windows is easy to use but gee some things take way too many clicks. AD is nice and I dont mind it sure there are linux implementations but not everyone can use them. EG:australian uni in TAS. Symantec.. snaps into AD.
Fact:Windows cant fit onto one floppy
Fact:NAS-lite can
Fact:not many bios upgrades can be done from within a linux shell.
Since I am a IT student I dont like the microsoft licencing and all the rest jammed into my brain. Linux unix and the like are more effective in servers that serve php,perl,..
It might be that microsoft actualy created asp.net that is helping them come back into the server market. Although all the students in my class agree that linux has more tools to make remote administration easy.
Well this is actualy getting a tad old just like SCO…
Firefox adblock.. oh no more windows adds for me..
Edited 2005-11-18 15:35