Bonum Certa Men Certa

Yankee Group Busted for Microsoft Shilling Again, Forced to Destroy Lies

To those who are familiar with the Yankee Group, none of this should be surprising. We even covered this before and will continue to do so in the future.

For many years this so-called 'research' group has been carrying out anti-Linux studies (read: manufactured publications for clients) that had been commission by Microsoft. Even recently, The Yankee Group's founder called open source "a religion" and mocked it for some kicks.

At the moment the group is just trying to get rid of this stigma which it earned itself, but it's finding new targets. This time it's VMWare and it's already backfiring.

Yankee Group pulls 'inaccurate' report



[...]

Virtualisation vendor VMware objected to a number of inaccuracies in the virtualisation report, which seemed to favour its competitor Microsoft. The report still being carried on Microsoft's site, although VMware has asked Microsoft to remove it from there too - as yet, this requested has not been responded to.

VMware said it didn't "send the mob guys" around to Yankee Group and that the analyst had removed the report, Virtualisation Price War: VMware's Little Big Horn? from its website.

The complaint centres on the comparisons that were used. VMware said the report didn't compare "apples with apples" in technology terms, as it lined up Microsoft's hosted Virtual Server functionality and pricing with VMware's "bare metal" offering, instead of with VMware Server. The report also double-counted licencing costs on VMware implementations, and contained inaccuracies in its price list by failing to list VMware's bundle options and its á la carte pricing compared with those of its rivals, VMware claimed.


This sounds familiar, does it not? There are many other tricks that Microsoft is using against VMWare and it's quite safe to predict antitrust complaints, which VMWare has already warned about (speaking of pre-bundling specifically). In the above, mind the fact that the Yankee Group tossed out its 'study' (hard work, wouldn't you think?) without a fight and Microsoft got itself a copy very fast, which gives a clue about sponsorship. Learn how disclosure rules work (or simply don't work in the case of Microsoft).

Other analysts you need to watch out for at the moment for are people like Gartenberg, Silver and more recently Forrester (no direct citations here, but very much on purpose). They are close to Microsoft and they currently try to spread out the message that there is no point looking beyond and away from Windows to consider Apple Macs and GNU/Linux.

“Learn how disclosure rules work (or simply don't work in the case of Microsoft).”The Gartner Groups can even use headlines like "Windows is collapsing" merely to attract the readers' attention (especially Microsoft skeptics) and assure that the future is all Windows. They try to stop CIOs from doing the logical thing.

Regarding the attention-grabbing headlines, it's a viral marketing trick. We wrote about videos from YouTube before and Microsoft continues to pull these tricks, most recently with a stunt that attracted bloggers attention (fake 'internal' Vista ad, a corny 80s-style music video). Innocent bloggers spread it further and further. This helps Microsoft's image and promotes its products. We mustn't be fooled here.

I contacted Gartenberg the other day because in articles which praise or/and defend Windows he describes himself as: "Michael Gartenberg is vice president and research director for the personal technology and access and custom research groups at JupiterResearch in New York." Of course he won't tell you that he is a former Microsoft evangelist working for Microsoft very briefly (and getting paid by them). He later wrote some anti-Linux slurs and spread them to many networks. His response to me was not surprising (a denial) and it brought back to mind the latter part of the following quote:

“Analysts sell out - that’s their business model… But they are very concerned that they never look like they are selling out, so that makes them very prickly to work with.”

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



More from the same antitrust exhibit (a document from Microsoft):

"In the face of strong competition, Evangelism's focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X."

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



"Working behind the scenes to orchestrate "independent" praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy's, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. "Independent" analyst's report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). "Independent" consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). "Independent" academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). "Independent" courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage."

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



Be careful what you read out there. Microsoft has a large army of shills doing its marketing work on the Web and also in the printed literature. It's a fact. Even university professors can no longer be trusted due to Microsoft's academic kickbacks. All these practices make a corrupt industry, an academia that is not credible and an unpleasantly unethical society. Microsoft never changed its ways.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VII: Washing Their Hands After Corruption and Abuse
"Tragedy or comedy?"
Culling Bad RSS Feeds of Bad Sites
Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater
Live as You Preach
technology is fast becoming dysphoric
Computers Got Smaller, So GNU/Linux Got Bigger
Many people here recognise the lack of urgency (or need) to get expensive new laptops
 
Links 10/06/2025: Jaws at 50 and US Democracy Crushed Very Rapidly (Martial Law Seems Imminent)
Links for the day
If 'Microsoft v Techrights' is Dealt With by a 'Microsoft Court' (or a Court Outsourced to Microsoft)
More on that later
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 09, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 09, 2025
Gemini Protocol Turns Six in 10 Days From Now
If you haven't tried it yet, then give it a go today
Gemini Links 09/06/2025: Addition Addiction and Nitride
Links for the day
Links 09/06/2025: Science, Hardware Projects, and Democracy Receding
Links for the day
BetaNews is a Plagiarism and LLM Slop Hub, the Chief Editor Isn't Addressing This Problem Anymore
SS Fagioli is basically a parasite leeching off or exploiting other people's work
Links 09/06/2025: Chaos in Los Angeles and Hurricane Season
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Grows at Windows' Expense and Microsoft Trolls Infest and Maliciously Target Articles About It
Microsoft is - and has long been - organised crime
They Say I'm Mr. Bombastic
They didn't take good lawyers
Links 09/06/2025: Windows TCO and Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VI: Political Stunts by Former President Edyta Demby-Siwek and the Connection to Profound Corruption at EUIPO
it's like a money-laundering operation where one politician rewards another at taxpayers' expense
Gemini Links 09/06/2025: Pipelines and Splitgate
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 08, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 08, 2025
Links 08/06/2025: Tiananmen Carnage Censorship Persists, North Korean Goes Offline
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/06/2025: Love as an Ethnographic Method and Monitorix Gemini-Frontend v0.1
Links for the day
Links 08/06/2025: Exposure of More GAFAM Surveillance and Social Security Records Compromised
Links for the day
Linux Foundation is a Mediator for Microsoft et al, Not for Small Companies That Support Rather Than Attack the GPL
Many people still wrongly assume that because it is called "Linux Foundation", then it is pro-Linux and represents the same mindset
This Past Friday, Confirming What We Said All Along About Brett Wilson LLP: It's Shrinking, Has Considerable Debt, Loss of Net Assets Despite the Microsoft SLAPP Money
The documents only became publicly available less than 2 days ago
Some of the Many Reasons We Sued Microsofters for Harassment
perpetrators of harassment
For 20 Years Many People Were Sharecropping for Canonical's Oligarch, Now He's Deleting All Their Contributions
"Ubuntu has erased instead of archiving the trove of material at Ubuntu Forums"
There Was Always Too Much 'Crazy Stuff' Going on Around Freenode
What many IRC users lost sight of
Exposing Crime is Not a Crime (It Never Was)
In the eyes of rich and powerful people, those who speak about their crimes are the "criminals"
GNU/Linux Distros Abandoning Microsoft GitHub
Will curl be next to leave Microsoft GitHub?
Expect More XBox Mass Layoffs Soon If the Rumours Are True
From a Microsoft media operative
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 07, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 07, 2025
Europe Needs to Move Away From GAFAM; The Sooner, the Better
Europe - not just the EU - must abandon GAFAM as soon as possible
The Issue Isn't GNOME's Promotion of Diversity But GNOME Corruption, Abuse, Censorship, and Worse
So-called "Conservative" (republican, pro-Trump, bigoted) people want you to think the problem with GNOME is politics
When the News Sources Become Scarce and Increasingly Full of Polluted/Contaminated 'Content' (With LLM Slop and Slop Images)
Integrity matters
"Linux" Sites That Spew Out LLM Slop
We're lacking enough material for another "Slopwatch"
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part V: Breaking the Law, Just Like EPO
We'll hopefully cover some of the pertinent details later this year