Microsoft Challenges OSDL To Prove Cost Case

[LondoJowo]

You are incorrect. A strong business case argued in a logical, coherent fashion would be accepted by upper management and the stock holders. It is unlikely that someone would advance much past an entry level position, or accumulate significant resources without the ability to accept advice from others.

Some of the IT department went to corporate management to get certain servers shifted to Apache and they were shotdown before they finished their presentation. Corporate management has put out a policy that dictates that as a company we will utilize IBM/Microsoft only end of story.

[davebardsley]

LondoJowo wrote:

Some of the IT department went to corporate management to get certain servers shifted to Apache and they were shotdown before they finished their presentation. Corporate management has put out a policy that dictates that as a company we will utilize IBM/Microsoft only end of story.

Such a carte-blanch is foolish and closed minded.

I'm positive that a move to Apache would have been beneficial to your company, too bad. Perhaps your IT department's business case didn't speak well enough to the "bean counters," since technological savvy people have a notorious reputation for poor people skills. More than likely your IT folks didn't speak in terms that the bureaucrats could appreciate or were willing to listen to. Then again perhaps the executives to whom the presentation was given were simply brainwashed by MS media, wouldn't be the first time and it won't be the last. Big companies have much inertia, and are often very slow to change. In any case the result is most unfortunate. Your IT people know the merits of their plan, the trick is getting the business folks to buy-in... that sometime requires posturing and politics; yuck.

[LondoJowo]

I'll say it again, once OEM's embrace Linux and actively market the solution then you'll see more companies shifting. However as long as things stay the way they are with OEM's you won't see many companies making the shift no matter how good it looks.

[davebardsley]

OEMs shipping their products with GNU/Linux would mean that we've won the war but in and of itself isn't a requirement for a company to switch. Corporations are in the business of making money: show in no uncertain terms that choice A costs less than B then the executives will choose A. That is precisely why big software is so desperate to lure OSDL into agreeing to co-sponsor a TCO study, since they are gradually losing market share or perhaps to be more precise their rate of market share growth is decreasing, on that very point. So long as they (you know who) produce/sponsor (either directly or indirectly through their cronies) TCO analyses we can always pull the "fair and unbiased" trump card. It is a treacherous slope to climb since an improper response to the TCO challenge could be spun by public relations professionals as surrender and therefore damage the cause.

It would help wide-spread acceptance of GNU/Linux for OEMs to ship their products with it, but not necessary. Market forces and the law of natural selection will eventually do the job, then the OEMs will have a choice whereas now they don't since large companies like your own demand 'big software.' MS's TCO challenge to OSDL is a sign of weakness.

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

OEMs shipping their products with GNU/Linux would mean that we've won the war but in and of itself isn't a requirement for a company to switch. Corporations are in the business of making money: show in no uncertain terms that choice A costs less than B then the executives will choose A. That is precisely why big software is so desperate to lure OSDL into agreeing to co-sponsor a TCO study, since they are gradually losing market share or perhaps to be more precise their rate of market share growth is decreasing, on that very point. So long as they (you know who) produce/sponsor (either directly or indirectly through their cronies) TCO analyses we can always pull the "fair and unbiased" trump card. It is a treacherous slope to climb since an improper response to the TCO challenge could be spun by public relations professionals as surrender and therefore damage the cause.

It would help wide-spread acceptance of GNU/Linux for OEMs to ship their products with it, but not necessary. Market forces and the law of natural selection will eventually do the job, then the OEMs will have a choice whereas now they don't since large companies like your own demand 'big software.' MS's TCO challenge to OSDL is a sign of weakness.

i agree with what you're saying. MS know that OSDL will be suspicious and will be expecting them to back out. if they don't then MS will be selecting and pushing criteria that they know will show MS to be cheaper.

[LondoJowo]

It would help wide-spread acceptance of GNU/Linux for OEMs to ship their products with it, but not necessary. Market forces and the law of natural selection will eventually do the job, then the OEMs will have a choice whereas now they don't since large companies like your own demand 'big software.'

Here again do you see any of the OEM's offering GNU/Open source to the general public? No, all the computers that are sold by the Major OEM's worldwide the OS is Windows.

Most people that I know still consider Linux as a computer geek's operating system. Of the few that have tried Linux gave up because it required too much work to configure when Windows worked right out of the box. Also the vast amount of software/games are geared for the computers running Windows. Linux still has one hell of an uphill battle before it become a major concern for Microsoft.