01.20.09
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security, Servers, Windows at 5:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The “Gartner|IDC Groups Corrupted by Microsoft” series
THIS IS almost the last part of a series that comes in 5 parts (see part 1, part 2 and part 3). It reveals the ways in which IDC and Gartner interact with Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and today we turn some attention to IDC.
Going a day back, IDG News Service, which is linked to its parent, IDC [1, 2], spread some more lies — as in “lies, damn lies, and statistics” — about GNU/Linux.
We won’t remark on this report in an elaborative fashion — a report which bears the provocative headline “Enterprise Linux? Not so fast.” Some people blindly fall for it, without a challenge.
“IDC has Microsoft as a major client and it counts only server revenue, not actual growth.”One need not wonder where it’s coming from. IDC has Microsoft as a major client and it counts only server revenue, not actual growth. It discriminates against GNU/Linux by definition and design. We saw this before, carried by a reporter who is now a Microsoft employee. They measure the wrong thing; That’s the ‘Microsoft standards’ for measuring things because it makes Linux (free) look bad; it assumes that the only thing in this world is money — short-term gain from direct sales, not even services.
As for the figures collected in this latest article, there is something familiar about it. We saw IDC in the EDGI scheme [1, 2, 3]. IDC was asking about GNU/Linux in a form of ‘survey’, but it was asking only Microsoft customers (talk about biased population sample).
Either way, this news brings us to today’s antitrust exhibit, Exhibit PX07175 (Sept 2002) [PDF].
Says one reader: “It’s my belief that this vendor meeting shows the beginning of what became “Get the Facts.”" On page 32 we find Microsoft’s Jim Allchin casually mentioning the as-yet unpublished IDC study.
We include half of the text (manually extracted from the scans) in the Appendix, with its second part coming in the next post (due to length constraints in the CMS). Here is a summary of key points:
In this roundtable, Allchin opens by inquiring with partners about Linux:
I wanted to do this meeting specifically. I asked for lt because I wanted to know what was on your minds. I mean, it’s a tough economy. I wanted to know how we could help you be more successful in your business. I — I’m very interested in what you see happening, what you see happening in the Linux base, what you see happening in terms of your customers, what we can do to improve things. You know, I’m — I build my organization, the technology, mun If you want to wander down into licensing, we can talk about that as well.
That was just before a big server software release. Says Allchin:
We have Windows .Net server coming up within the next few months. Have you seen that? Had an opportunity? Okay. So we’re not going to ship it until it’s ready.
This includes the lock-in known as SharePoint:
But the thing that we’re probably the most excited about is — yes, there’s a new version of Share Point coming on, which is also very cool. But I’m excited about the way the ASP .Net system works there. So how fast you can write applications and how well they’ll perform once you’re running in that environment.
Pushing people to buy new stuff is key here:
You know, we’ve got to get the people off NT-4. Can’t have — it’s a 1996 technology and the level of concern over security and the like at this point I really think is quite different than not.
Back in 2002, Allchin also talked about “Longhorn” (to be Vista), which was expected to come soon with all these features which were dropped:
And then the future, at least from the platforms area, the next wave is something called Longhorn. And Longhorn is a whole new generation that has some fundamentals of a new storage system, which is much richer than what we have today. And the client thinks about it as a data-basing file systems integrated together. So at actually would be a storage system on the client’s server.
Then comes more fantasy (vapourware) talk from Allchin:
And we’ll add 3-D graphics through managed interfaces so that you can do these folders I just talked about. Imagine, you can do 3-dimensional presentations of these clusters so you can see nice shading going on in the background. And also digital media is being further integrated in.
Allchin then asks:
What can we do — what’s the number one problem with Microsoft that you have?
The first reply?
MR. MARTIN: Security.
MR. ALLCHIN; Okay. Tell me about it.
MR. MARTIN: Just last week we were attacked from China. They were attempting to do a buffer overflow with closed Messenger — Messenger server.
Mr. Martin was clearly unhappy:
MR. MARTIN: Actually, from France Telco and from China. And like I said, there’s nothing we can do to -every time we try to — we got the FBI involved, but our hands are tied
MR. ALLCHIN: We’ve been there.
MR. MARTIN: I’m sure you guys are experiencing the same thing.
MR. ALLCHIN: And there’s no one home when you go to call.
MR. MARTIN: Yeah.
MR. ALLCHIN: And the FBI, although they will do certain things, it’s a hard problem.
Then come more promises from Microsoft that Windows will become more secure (false).
On it goes:
Last week I was at a seminar and I was speaking — I was talking with a gentleman from Cisco who mentioned to me that recently there was an attack in Japan on their 911 system through the cell phones, through wireless
devices. That a virus had actually infected wireless devices; in turn, all at the same time they called 911 in Japan. And so security’s becoming much, much more important, not lust on
operating systems and on applications, you know, desk tops, but also now on wireless devices as well. And I think that that’s something that our customers ask about. We’re working wlth
Microsoft technology. Of course, all the heat, press lately about Microsoft and the security packages -
Allchin speaks of ‘medicine’ (Linux/UNIX):
MR. ALLCHIN: Let me push on this just a minute. We said that we were going to get focused on this trustworthiness. Jusd what that meant was more transparency. Anytime that we found
something we were going to publish it. We’re now getting abuse -I mean, it’s not like Linux or Solaris or — you pick your system.
Mr. Ratajczak remarks:
At the SMB market, mostly the S, you know, when Microsoft comes out or people come out with security issues and Linux penetration, they save — you know, they don’t — they remember that about 30 seconds and then they go on. But they do
obviously know that it costs money to keep — keep it going, get the updates and all that kind of stuff. And that’s probably the hardest thing I’ve run Into.
Ms. Hutchison on the upgrade treadmill:
I can’t believe I’m going to be talking about XML. Correct me if I’m wrong. But say you’re in an application and this is an operating system – let’s say it’s Office for a moment here. You — you’re in Excel. You want to publish a pivot table as a Web page. Gee, it worked really great when we were running Office 2000. Now we’ve got Offlce XP. Guess what, the only people who can see this pivot table on a Web page are other XP users.
Later, 15 minutes from the end, they begin discussing “Linux”:
MR. O’NEILL: We have about 15 minutes left. I want to make sure if there are other topics -
MR. ALLCHIN: want to switch gears unless you have one last thing.
MR. VINOKUR: Well, one of the questions you had – part of the question you had was Linux.
MR. ALLCHIN: Yeah, I’m about to get there.
MR. VINOKUR: I will let you lead.
MR. VINOKUR: I will let you lead.
MR. ALLCHIN: – want to know first your — you guys are important partners for us so — and you’re out promoting our products.
We feel a huge threat from Linux. Maybe we shouldn’t, which is a question you could answer from your perspective, but we’re trying to — you know, there’s many characteristics of Linux. There’s Linux the community. We’re going to learn from Linux the community. Incredible what they aid. You know, our shared source effort, people on our news groups, our commitment to MVP’s. We’re on that one. We’re going to woodshed, woodshed. We’re going to practice and practice and practice.
Then Allchin mocks the GPL, saying it’s bad for the United States:
MR. ALLCHIN: — and improve. The second is GPL. GPL is the licensing model. We think it’s very bad for — on an education, telling the world why we think it’s bad. We don’t think it’s the same as public domain. Somebody wants to put in a free DSB, we don’t have a problem with that, at least on licensing. But GPL, we think it’s very bad basically for the world, but especially for the United States.
Third is the product and we’re going to go compete with Linux. So what I want to know is how, from your perspective, are our product not matching up today; what should we, in your opinion, be doing about it? It could range from, “Nothing. It’s not a problem. Don’t worry about it,” to, “Boy, you got a real problem here and you’d better do X.” So that’s what I would like
to hear about.
Then Allchin talks about the IDC study he’s preparing — the one he previously said he must have or buy.
MR. ALLCHIN: Don’t you think — just to push on that a little bit. For the whole discussion that we just had about that it’s a traction of the cost. And we know — there’s a study going to come out from IDC that shows that Linux costs companies more, but -
Allchin’s partner try to reassure or calm him down, but he is not easily convinced.
MR. ALLCHIN: Why do you think it’s going to get tougher and tougher? [for Linux]
They respond with myths and FUD:
MR. WATTS: Because as you start getting to where you’re going to be writing more and more code to make Linux capable of doing what
Using Linux requires writing code?
It then turns out that some of Microsoft’s partners actually use GNU/Linux (they kept quiet about it up until now):
MR. VINOKUR: We’ve set up a few Linux boxes, primarily…
And on it goes…
MR. VINOKUR: So with Linux when it came our, I can take a — I had one customer, just to show them what we can do, because he was trying to save money, really trying to save money.
We took a 486 DX266 with — I don’t remember how much memory, 64 — I don’t remember, I really don’t. I think he needed like 5 megs worth, because it’s primarily XML doctuments, Word documents. He was happy, 100 bucks later and maybe 6 hours of my time and the computer that he had sitting holding a door open. so there’s — there’s that – and I have more and more clients asking me about it. Two or three years ago nobody would ask me. Now they’re asking me. Now one of the clients who has two of those machines is asking me about work stations. Because all we do is documents and spread sheets. Star Office just came out — I mean Sun just came out with Star Office 6.0. I hate to say it, but for the honey — the $67.00, it’s incredible. Mac, Apple — I mean, Apple, Windows and Linux and Solarls.
I mean, it’s — so it’s — it’s it’s that competitive side. So is Linux going to be harder? I disagree with you. There are so many tools out today that are also getting to be — because the real reason why Microsoft is easier is because you have utilities that are graphics. Click, click, click you’re done. Same thing with Linux. Is it something to worry about? I believe so. The biggest — the way I have always — the reason I came back to the smaller market is because those 5 to 10 user companies will grow. If you help them, they will grow. And that’s a huge market out there that Microsoft just can’t seem to step in.
Desktop, okay, because a lot of it was not possible to get anything other than. Today, Dell, IBM, HP, they’re all selling other than Microsoft OS. So you can order a Redhead on the regular desktop and save 150 bucks or whatever the difference is. So it is — it is going to be harder. And the tools that are coming out, and then the Linux community is learning from Microsoft. We need tools, we need to make it easy. The idea ms the more techies cut there that can support us, the more Linux is going to be in the market.
Later on, the subject of Linux comes up again:
MR. VINOKUR: I actually have learned to — you know, you were talking about doing coding with Linux. It’s actually — I have been following it for the last three, four years, Linux, and for the longest time I’ve been saying it’s for those people who have enough time on their hands.
And in the last probably year or so you have documents
MR RATAJCZAK: It’s getting -
MR VINOKUR: It has got — and that’s what I keep saying. It’s going to get even easier. It will catch up with utilities and so on. And it’s already there. So I think it’s very close to being there.
It’s important to remember that these are all Microsoft employees or close partners.
There are some more eye-opening bits in the next part, which also contains the remainder of the transcript. █
Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft – exhibit px07175, as text – Part I
Part II here
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Novell at 5:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
WHAT are Microsoft and Portugal’s government up to this time around? Same old, same old on the face it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
One of our informants in Portugal argues that “Vortal makes the web site where most of the Portuguese public procurements are done” and “[he has] been told by many that you have to be a Microsoft client to run for any public procurement [...] here is the proof (screenshot below).”
The page says:
2.4 O que é necessário para utilizar as plataformas de contratação
pública electrónica da Vortal?
Para utilizar a plataforma, o seu utilizador necessita somente de dispor
de um computador e de um software de acesso à Internet (browser), não
sendo necessária a instalação de qualquer software aplicacional
adicional.
Os postos de trabalho (computadores) têm apenas de cumprir com os
seguintes requisitos mínimos:
* Pentium II, 300 MHz, 64 Mb RAM ou superior.
* Software – MS Windows 98, NT, 2000, Millennium, XP, 2003 ou Vista
e Internet Explorer 6.0. Outras aplicações que seja necessário
utilizar estarão disponíveis para download e instalação a partir
da plataforma vortalGOV, tais como o Adobe Reader ou o Microsoft
Silverlight.
* Ligação à internet (é aconselhável uma ligação de banda larga)
In English:
2.4 What is necessary to use Vortal’s platforms for electronic public
procurement?
In order to use the platform, its user needs only to have a computer and
an Internet access software (browser), without the need to install any
other application software.
Workstations (computers) need only to fulfill the following minimal
requirements:
* Pentium II, 300 MHz, 64 Mb RAM or superior.
* Software – MS Windows 98, NT, 2000, Millennium, XP, 2003 or Vista
and Internet Explorer 6.0. Other applications that need to be used
are available for download and installation from vortalGOV
platform, such as Adobe Reader or Microsoft Silverlight.
* Internet connectivity (broadband is advisable)
To receive this sort of insult from any government is a truly a shame; it’s more to be expected from suppressive regimes or Ryanair [1, 2]. Then again, Microsoft breaks laws in procurement [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], so it’s not particularly surprising. Will the European Commission take this into account?
Overall, Microsoft’s proprietary ‘extensions’ to Web pages are locking GNU/Linux users out and leaving them to complain about Monolight[sic], not Microsoft. At the same time, Microsoft fools developers, telling them that “Silverlight is cross-platform”. This is a lie that neglected individuals can also thank Novell for. █
“Another suggestion In this mail was that we can’t make our own unilateral extensions to HTML I was going to say this was wrong and correct this also.”
–Bill Gates [PDF]
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Posted in Antitrust, Europe, FUD, Microsoft at 1:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Guest post
Source: Microsoft internal memo [PDF], labeled “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL”
SEVERAL YEARS ago Wired Magazine published the following article:
The author of the email, posted on ZDNet in a Talkback forum on the Microsoft antitrust trial, claimed her name was Michelle Bradley and that she had “retired” from Microsoft last week.
“A verbal memo [no email allowed] was passed around the MS campus encouraging MS employee’s to post to ZDNet articles like this one,” the email said.
“The theme is ‘Microsoft is responsible for all good things in computerdom.’ The government has no right to prevent MS from doing anything. Period. The ‘memo’ suggests we use fictional names and state and to identify ourselves as students,” the author claimed.
“Bizniz® as usual for Microsoft,” says Slated. We wish to present his message regarding this incident because Microsoft is again under fire from the authorities, so it’s likely to be using similar tactics. According to this new article from Roughly Drafted, it currently uses talking points from Dan Lyons and Paul Thurrott:
Two notorious Microsoft shills, Dan Lyons and Paul Thurrott, have sunk to new lows of historical revisionism order to decry that “the media” is conspiring to uncritically fawn over a company other than the one they have uncritically fawned over as paid flacks over the last decade. They’re wrong, here’s why.
Below is the take of Slated on this former issue about Microsoft employees battling the government anonymously (or via pressure groups [1, 2]):
Note the carefully constructed and wholly evasive response, by Microsoft’s hired mouthpiece, Heidi Rothhauser of Waggner Edstrom:
“Microsoft has never had an employee by the name of Michelle Bradley,”
“Note that “not aware” is not synonymous with “does not exist”.”Well naturally, after all, Microsoft’s shills have been instructed to “use fictional names”.
“We are not aware of any memos or verbal directives of this nature.”
Note that “not aware” is not synonymous with “does not exist”.
“It is against Microsoft policy for any employee to misrepresent him or herself by email or any other means.”
Again, this carefully evades the truth. I’m quite prepared to believe that such a policy really does exist (after all Sweaty needs something to show the auditors), but it’s likely this policy document is currently being used as an “Out of Order” notice in a disused toilet somewhere at Redmond HQ. The “official line” and “working practises” are not necessarily the same, and given ‘s documented history of hired shills (i.e. “Technology Evangelists”), it’s pretty obvious this “policy” is just a sham.
Here’s the truth that Waggner Edstrom won’t tell you:
Here’s what happened. In January of this year, a newcomer popped up in
the Canopus forum named Steve Barkto. He said he was from Oklahoma City
and had been an IBM customer for seven years. He wasted little time
before attacking IBM, Dave Whittle, and your fearless reporter over
issues we had previously discussed with Rick Segal.
This Bartko character had a writing style which was so similar to that
of Rick Segal’s that it immediately caught my eye. In fact, I responded
to his first message to me by asking if he were Segal in drag. Nobody
(including myself) took my question seriously. At least not at first.
Then one of the forum Sysop’s noted that instead of calling from
Oklahoma City, where he claimed to be from, Bartko’s calls were
originating from the node closest to Microsoft’s headquarters in
Redmond, Washington. This led Will Zachmann, who ‘owns’ the forum and is
Wizop there, to look more closely.
What he found was incredible: Barkto’s account was in fact owned by
Microsoft. It had been opened with a corporate credit card belonging to
Rick Segal. Will sent a letter to the Microsoft Board of Directors
demanding an investigation and explanation, but no explanation has ever
been forthcoming.
And, of course, this:
Effective Evangelism
James Plamondon, Technical Evangelist
[...]
Our mission is to establish Microsoft’s platforms as the de facto
standards throughout the computer industry…. 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).
Apropos:
“Between 1992 and 2000, I was a Technology Evangelist (TE) with
Microsoft, where I was widely considered to be its leading TE theorist
and practitioner. For example, in the late 1990′s, I was the only
Microsoft employee to design and lead TE training seminars that all of
Microsoft’s newly-hired TE’s were required to attend.” ~ James Plamondon
So, which one of these two Microsoft representatives is lying (“it is against Microsoft policy for any employee to misrepresent him or herself by email or any other means”) … Microsoft’s hired PR firm, or their ex-head of Technology Evangelism?
Hmmm…
Note also that if they do astroturf for Microsoft, then they’re violating more than just company policy. In the EU they’ll be breaking the law:
The European Union’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (PDF),
enacted in May, 2005, already bars companies from “falsely claiming or
creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes
relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely
representing oneself as a consumer”
And (from that same page):
“Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make
anonymous posting online illegal. The bill would require anyone who
contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail
address with that site. Their full name would be used anytime a comment
is posted.
If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if
someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be
five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for
each offense after that.”
Soon nowhere will be safe for Microsoft’s shills.
[Ed: Also see coverage here]
This is why I’m so sceptical when (supposedly) ordinary Microsoft staff protest “but we’re not evil!”. Like this guy here, Charles Carmine, self-described “spiritual advisor to Channel 9″ [*] (transcript of minute 23):
So I guess, you know, one of the things that I find interesting is, is,
you know, what is it about Microsoft, I mean you mentioned, Miguel, that
your friends called you, like they said “gee, you can’t do that, it’s
Microsoft, man”? I get the same sort of vibe from people, you know, when
I say that I work for Microsoft, that they’re immediately like “oh
man!”, you know, and these are, again these are developer friends of
mine that don’t work on our stack, which, and they’re good friends of
mine. So what is it about the community out there, that you’re
definitely, you /know/ these people, I mean why are we so evil? That’s
my question, why are we so evil?
Answer: See above.
If Microsoft staff follow these off-the-record “verbal” memos, which naturally “don’t exist” because they are “against Microsoft policy”, then at the very least they are complicit in Microsoft’s “evil”, if not actually supportive of it. IMHO the two acts are indistinguishable, both in terms of morality and outcome. So clearly this “evil” extends far beyond the boardroom. That goes for de Icaza and friends, just as much as any “official” Microsoft employee. █
_____
[*] Referred to:
C9 started as a grass roots effort on a team of evangelists. It got
going with some help of a lot of people. Now that it is up and moving,
some people move on to new jobs and others come in and join us.
Charles and Scoble are the driving forces behind the day to day. You
have to love their dedication to this site. We love to hear what we can
do better, so keep the feedback coming.
As for me being a “kingpin” ?
Carmine … I prefer “spiritual advisor to Channel 9″
PS: Carmine’s constant “interesting, interesting” responses, delivered in a tone of perplexity and scepticism, to de Icaza’s crystal-clear definition of Open Source and Free Software, as if the concept of Freedom was completely alien to him (Carmine), is both frightening and hysterical. It’s right at the start of that video. I recommend you take another look, and give yourself a good laugh (or the shivers, whichever).
Also check out the bit (a few minutes later) where Carmine tries to redefine “open source” (“we recently open sourced the base-class libraries”), and later on protests (paraphrased) “Sometimes … you’ve got IP. It’s mine, it’s mine, I don’t want it to be yours. It’s my IP.”
LOL!
Want a bib with that dummy, Carmine?
Also note the sly little jibe he slipped in, after de Icaza’s protracted explanation of FOSS, spelled out in words of one syllable for Carmine’s benefit:
de Icaza: “…you are in control” Carmine: “Should you care to”
IOW in Carmine’s limited imagination, the only possible reason for the existence of Free Software, is to benefit those “few” with the necessary programming skills to capitalise on it. This is someone who apparently has no concept of the principle of Freedom, or principles in general. If someone asked him to vote for the reintroduction of legalised slavery, I wonder if he’d vote “yes” based purely on the fact that there was no one waving a banner and actually protesting against it outside his building (“Nobody cares to protest against slavery today, therefore, you know, I’ll, like, vote ‘yeah’ on this form thingy”).
It’s at times like this that I’m reminded of one of PK’s sigs:
“You’re not my type. For that matter, you’re not even my species”
What species is Microsoft?
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Posted in Deception, Finance, FUD, IBM, Microsoft, SUN, Windows at 11:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Clever marketing in suits, attacks on rivals
THIS POST is part of an ongoing series that includes:
This set of posts includes evidence that Microsoft uses IDC and Gartner against the competition by further corrupting their already-low integrity [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
Today’s antitrust exhibit, Exhibit PX02817 from 1998 [PDF], shows Microsoft stating that “[it] successfully lobbied and changed the Gartner Group TCO model to show Windows as providing the lowest overall TCO”. Note the financial details on the last page. The Gartner Group was paid almost half a million dollars this time around.
Based on this exhibit, we also show predatory FUD tactics and manipulation of journalists, whom Microsoft wants to poison against the Network computer (NC) competition, in order to generate negative coverage of this competition.
Here is how the whole 9-page document starts:
Some of the highlights include:
- We have been closely monitoring, attacking, and winning NC threatened accounts
- Successfully lobbied and changed the Gartner Group TCO model to show Windows as providing the lowest overall TCO
People at high levels have already complained about Gartner’s TCO figures, which they claimed were fixing the prices. Now we know that the TCO methodology came from Microsoft.
Microsoft had issues to address, e.g.
Even with this work, organizations are still in a state of confusion on the desktop. They have the issue of running multiple versions of Windows (Win95 Gold, SP1, and OSR1, 2, or 2.5, and NTW4, SP1, 2, or 3)
Like everything that we find in EDGI [1, 2, 3], they track risk and then attack, using ‘studies’:
4. Halt the NC from making any noise in FY98. Though the NC has failed to live up to its early threat of mass PC replacement, we are actively tracking threatened accounts and monitoring and attacking the NC constituents (IBM, Sun, Oracle) with high level TCO and Windows messages.
What we find below are FUD tactics against the competition, reciting the statement that “The NC is Dead.” This goes under “CORE MARKETING OBJECTIVES.”
4. NC Attack Plan – “The NC is Dead”
They needed case studies:
- PR References and Case Studies : In order to show momentum for NTW, we are driving the case study team and ECU in finding customers to act as PR references and to develop case studies. We aggressively targeting customers who fall into the following segments:
- UNIX to NTW switchers: This includes accounts like John Deere, Caterpillar, Morgan Stanley
Here is another way to pay/reward Gartner:
Utilizing our knowledge from.Win95 and NTW4 deployments we have contracted with Gartner Group and MCS to develop a “Best Practices” Guide to managing your desktop environment, and preparing for deployment of Win32 desktops.
So there is more Microsoft money on Gartner’s table.
Here are some subsidies to teachers, just like the ones found in EDGI:
We will also utilize the ATEC “train the trainer” model and subsidize NTW5 classes.
FUD tactics against NC:
4) NC Attack Plan-”The NC is Dead”
Though we have made great strides to ensure the NC does not gain footholds in any of our accounts, we can expect another big push from IBM and Sun in the 2nd half. IBM is already pushing theft NetStafions hard into accounts, and Sun is planning on releasing their Java Stations in the first half of CY98. Our focus will be to continue to expose the issues with the NC idea, while communicating the benefits of Windows and our thin client strategy with Hydra and the Windows-based Terminal.
More here:
- Expose the NC as Dead to the press and analyst: We will spend a considerable amount of our time focused on educating the press about the pitfalls of the NC in order to generate “the NC is Dead” press articles. This will cumulate in a press and analyst tour in March, coinciding with Interact World in LA. Prior to the tour, we will be delivering monthly Windows TCO wins to the press, as well as NC trial/rejecter case studies. We’ll leverage our Net.PC and WBT OEM and Partner successes, and utilize the web, onLine news banners, and other online delivery channels to get this information to our customers.
Sounds eerily similar to Microsoft's "technical evangelism". To quote some bits from it:
“Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
“Mopping Up can be a lot of fun. In the Mopping Up phase, Evangelism’s goal is to put the final nail into the competing technology’s coffin, and bury it in the burning depths of the earth. Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry.”
–James Plamondon, Microsoft
Later there is an assignment of roles which includes:
Noury Bernard-Hasan: NC Attack Lead & Evaluation and Deployment efforts
- Define and execute our NC Attack Strategy
Here are the bits about TCO and “Driv[ing] our analyst relationship”.
Bernard Wong: Demos and Demo Lab
- Define and create our Windows 98, NTW5 and TCO demonstrations
- Manage the demo lab and inventory
Clark Heindl: Technical Tools and Migration, Analyst Relations, Corporate Migration Issues
- Define and develop our technical migration tools for Windows 98 and NTW4 and 5
- Drive our analyst relationship and define and develop studies associated with Windows and TCO
- Manage our Year 2000 compliance
More NC attack groups:
Brain BJ Riseland: NC Attack, Technical Presentations, SE/MCS Swap
- Track and respond to all NC threatened accounts worldwide
- Create and deliver tools (competitive, proactive) to fight the NC
- Develop and deliver Windows technical presentations
For information on “attack groups”, see the Corel and Netscape equivalents.
It also appears in this table:
FEBRUARY 98
| CATEGORY |
DELIVERABLES |
| NTW4 Sustain |
Identify NTW4 PR references
Announce PSS support expanded to 90-days |
| Win98 Launch |
Win98 Preview Program
Windows 98 Beta Resource Kit |
| NTW5 Prep |
Finalize NTW5 pricing waterfall
Begin Platform 99 integration |
| NC Attack |
ZAW SWategy Video and CD
Gartner Group TCO Market Bulletin
IBM NetStation Competitive Response
MBNA ZAK Case Study |
| Events |
none |
What on Earth is “The NC is Dead Press/Analyst Tour”?
| NC Attack |
The NC is Dead Press/Analyst Tour
NTW ZAK TCO ad drops
European NC Tour |
This repeats itself in April, May, and June (under “NC Attack”).
It’s just like with VMware and PS3 [1, 2]. Microsoft attends competitors’ events to crash their parties like a bully or a spolied brat.
The last page is very interesting because numbers are contained in it.
These numbers show that Microsoft paid almost half a million dollars to Gartner. It also paid $50,000 to Forrester, which we already know is occasionally attacking GNU/Linux and Free software (Microsoft pays it precisely for that purpose). Microsoft paid similar sums of money (50k) to Meta Consulting. █
Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft – exhibit px02817, as text
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