"Open source is not a movement; it's a religion. It is a set of principles and practices that let everyone share non-existent or semi-existent intellectual property. Remember the Communist Manifesto: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." It is this generation's Woodstock."

--Howard Anderson Framingham
Founder of The Yankee Group (2007)

Several months ago there was a Yankee-VMWare confrontation (later mentioned in [1, 2]). For the uninitiated, the Yankee Group is one of the more notorious groups of people hired by Microsoft to publish 'studies' -- however flawed they may be -- against GNU/Linux and Free software. They are now on a warpath against VMWare. One of their recent 'studies' they were forced/pressured to take off the Web for being utterly false. Guess who still had a copy up for display to the public? That's right, Microsoft.

If you thought this Big Scam was over, think again.

Research firm Yankee Group Research Inc. released two separate reports Wednesday on the virtualization market that asserts that the industry's dominant player, VMware Inc., is facing tougher competition from rivals.

Palo Alto-based VMware (NYSE:VMW), a subsidiary of Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC), is "under siege" from rivals such as Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) and Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL).

What about Sun, Oracle, Virtual Iron, KVM and a few others? No, the Yankee Group only mentioned the Microsoft partners as a risk to VMWare. This smells like a self-fulfilling prophecy, trying to create the illusion that the market leader is in danger because of Microsoft, which stood at about 0% market share at the time. Might they try to kick-start adoption on behalf of a long-time funding source? ⬆

"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]