Analyst Groups

Boycott Novell is generally critical of analyst groups for several key reasons: first, analysts have a conflict of interests inherent in their job; secondly, analysts are paid (rewarded) mostly by rich corporations that can afford it, which means that the status quo can be preserved. Experience indicates that proprietary software companies -- being reliant on a higher revenue stream -- are able to position themselves very well by putting out positive reports about themselves (and demeaning regarding the competition). They achieve this by paying the key analyst groups while transparency is only an illusion given leaked/unsealed E-mail correspondence. Several of the groups that we have looked at are as follows (with examples):

Gartner Group

Forrester

IDC

Yankee Group