Open Source at Microsoft II
My personal opinion and comments in {orange}. Check the link for full context.
| Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV |
|---|---|---|---|
Kevin Johnson (President, Platforms & Services Division)
[Regarding a TCO report Microsoft commissioned from IDC.]
I like being able to show that a windows solution is lower tco than linux and be able to quantify it. I don’t like the fact that the report show us losing on TCO on webservers. I don’t like the fact that the report show us losing on availability (windows was down more than linux)). And I don’t like the fact that the reports says nothing new is coming with windows .net server. I would not release this report with the “sponsored by msft” on the cover. With that, we will have ibm and many customers pulling out quotes about windows 2000 being unreliable compared to linux and being more expensive for web servers. The analysis that linux is great in certain areas and getting stronger with isvs will fuel the fire.
[...]
Does the cover page on the report have to mention “funded or sponsored by Msft”?
[Kevin Johnson] I don’t like it to be public on the doc that we sponsored it because I don’t think the outcome is as favorable as we had hoped. I just don’t like competitors using it as ammo against us. It is easier if it doesn’t mention that we sponsored it.
Look at the facts based on some of the studies we didn’t pay for.
Q: What do you expect to happen to the Linux ecosystem? A: More and more companies will get into the business with a commercial view. They’ll have to compete with one another. They’ll want to have a unique value proposition, and that will create fragmentation of the different Linux solutions. At the end of the day, it has the potential to fragment like Unix did.
Brian Roberts (Vice President of Corporate Development)
For every acquisition, we identify very early what the key value drivers are. And we will design our due-diligence process and integration approach around these drivers. If we surface concerns that cannot be mitigated by a deal structure or an integration approach, we will part paths. And there are many examples of issues that can become deal killers. It may be our assessment of the culture. Maybe the talent is not as good as we’d hoped as we get to meet more of the team. The code quality could be poor, or worse, the code may be subject to the General Public License (GPL) often used for distribution of open source software.
{I just like the idea that Microsoft considers GPL code worse than poor quality code.}
John Conners (Senior VP, Finance and Administration, CFO)
Secondly, Linux and noncommercial software: We’ve shown you what we think the Linux share gains will be for ’04. If Linux gains more share, that’s an impact to us. If Linux gains share on the desktop, that’s an impact to us. If we execute well, we mitigate the risk.
Will Poole (Senior VP, Windows Client)
A second area is looking at open source. There have certainly been perceptions within the enterprise that open source is a less expensive solution for desktop computing. Through our Get the Facts and other campaigns, we’re showing that that is largely not the case. And we’ve fitted emerging markets, the phenomenon of what we call 24-hour Linux, where a customer buys a Linux-based PC, a small business or a consumer, takes it home and then walks down the street and puts a pirated copy of Windows on that PC.
{Would be the Get the Facts campaign that fell afoul of the UK Advertising Standards Authority for being “misleading”?}
Kevin Turner (COO)
And we are going to compete to win in the Linux and open source area. Tremendous progress has been made by the teams on open source and going against Linux
{Yes, Microsoft actually has internal teams that attack Open Source and Linux. Most people have a hard time imagining this – people tend to take an individual view of things (“That doesn’t directly affect me.” or “Hey, it’s a matter of personal choice”. Rest assured Microsoft does not take the individual view, they are working hard at removing that choice.}
[W]e’re really getting the message out about the fraudulent perception of free in the marketplace as it relates to open source.
Joachim Kempin (Senior VP)
[In an email to Bill Gates on Intel gathering OEMs to go to Linux]
On the OEM side I am thinking of putting hitting the OEM harder than in the past with anti Linux actions, in addition I will stop any go-to-market activities with Intel and only work with their competitiors….
{Again you see the idea of not just competiting with Linux and Open Source, but also retaliating against any company that steps out of line.}
Ed Muth (Group Product Manager)
You asked if [Linux] was a full-featured operating system in a way that Windows NT might be, and the answer to that is clearly no. It lacks an extraordinary number of features that you find in Windows, including transaction features, Web features, security features.
[...]
Open source means different things to different people. For some it means source-code access. For others it means giving up any intellectual property rights to code.
[...]
In order to move the ball ahead for the industry and for the consumer, you need to have consistency of purpose, which of course the Linux movement does not have. It has no long-term road map, and it can’t have one because it’s an atomistic, developer-driven movement rather than a commercially and customer-based movement.
The more I study Linux, the weaker I think the value proposition is to consumers.
[...]
People want more integration. They want to take a bar chart from Excel and put it in Word. On the server side they want strong queuing and security. This is all done through integration. Linux has a low degree of integration. Linux is basically a big step backward for those two reasons plus others.
[...]
We think the total cost of ownership of NT is lower than Linux, but it’s still hard to do good TCO studies because at the moment they’re so hard to compare since Linux supports so few applications.
[...]
I find it hard to believe that some of the best computer scientists in the world will want to do their work for free.
{And I find it hard to believe that anyone with a sense of decency would work for Microsoft, but I can assume it must happen.}
Q: Does Microsoft consider Linux a competitor?
A: Yes. Linux is a competitor on the client and the server. My analysis is that Linux is a material competitor in the lower-performance end of the general purpose server industry and the small to medium-sized ISP industry.
Peter Houston (Senior Director, Windows Server Group)
[On a commissioned IDC Linux vs. Windows TCO that was not as favorable as MS hoped.]
I hate to put it like this, but at this point, IDC is done negotiating with us. We have moved them quite a bit already, but they are now holding the line, saying that if we want the names of their ‘big’ analysts on the report this is it.
[...]
I can have the MSFT name removed from the report. I remain concerned that it will get out that we sponsored so I don’t know how much advantage we will get out of removing the name.
{This IDC report was one of several commissioned by Microsoft and formed the early core of the “Windows has a lower TCO than Linux” spin. It also shows that reports - at least from IDC – are tweaked in favor of who pays for them.}
PressPass: If Microsoft commissioned this report, how valid are the results for the IT community? Houston: Microsoft asked IDC to run a careful, detailed and objective analysis of TCO comparisons between Linux and Windows 2000 across common IT workloads.
{Just a little example showing how the PR, public-facing side doesn’t accurately represent the facts.}
Doug Miller
(Windows Product Group Manager)
[P]lease find attached the PR response plan for the anticipated OSDL announcement. As discussed in our PR meeting this morning, David & I have spoken with Maureen O’Gara (based on a go ahead from BrianV) and planted the story. She has agreed not to attribute the story to us.
[...]
Tactics
- Contact Eric Raymond, Tim O’ Reilly or Bruce Perrins to solicit support for this going against the objectives of the Open Source movement. Owner: dougmil [Doug Miller] Note that I will not be doing this. Maureen O’Gara said she was going to call them so it looks better coming from her.
{Maureen O’Gara also personally went after Pamela Jones of Groklaw in 2005, publishing what she said were Jones’ address, photographs of her house, and e-mails for Jones’ mother and son as well. O’Gara is currently the Virtualization News Desk editor for Sys-Con Media, where she is referred to as “one of the most respected technology reporters in the business”.}
Steve Winfield (National Technology Strategist)
Why Customers Choose Linux
- They were already a Unix shop
- It was recommended to them
- By another vendor
- By someone on team fresh out of college
- Can’t afford to upgrade their hardware
- It’s cheaper (not necessarily)
- They run a very narrow list of applications
- It’s more secure
- Apps are easier to pirate
- It’s not Microsoft
[...]
For example, Microsoft issued less security bulletins and cert vulnerabilities than Linux in 2002. The fact is, the challenge faced by Linux on security is equal to Microsoft’s, and it remains to be seen how well a decentralized community of volunteers can meet that challenge.[...]
Myth: Linux costs 2X-3X less than Windows
Reality: Windows costs ~30% less per year
[...]
- Price is what you pay, value is what you get – you get way more from Microsoft
- Better Security
- Better Integration
- Better Interoperability
- Far Greater wealth of Applications, Drivers, etc.
- Much better development tools
- Better Support/Quicker Fixes
- Safer Bet
- Well defined roadmap & constant investment
- Single point of accountability
[...]
Understand the Open Source Movement
Attack of the Clones
[...]
What to Do?
- Ask the partner to give you heads up on customer situations – bribe them!
[...]
Find and Lean on your insider friend, ‘the fox’. Having a trusted MSfriend in the account is critical. Some people (unix Bigots) can think of lots of reasons to not have a MS solution. MS folks may not be the strongest voice but they are true believers (Protect them, make them look good).
- The Best Damn Linux Presentation Ever !!!, a2003? “Highly Confidential” presentation
{This is a good presentation to read — even though most of it is structured as “Am not! Are too!”– because a lot of these slides show up in other internal MS presentations. There also a few good references about the backchannel competition Microsoft like so much: bribe someone, lean on an insider.
And, finally, it’s topped off with the “bigots” / “true believers” mentality. Another example of Microsoft being the one to view things in religious terms (but it is the vocal members of the FLOSS community that are painted with the “zealotry” brush.}
