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Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge)
Every now and then, it can be educational to look at Rob Enderle's remarks
just to see how strange some people's view of the world is. Here's his
take on the TomTom suit. "Linux leaders have a problem. Ever
since Microsoft adopted the 'let's get along' strategy of licensing and
interoperating, it has been hard to get people to volunteer their time for
the platform, and interest seems to be waning."
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Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 0:08 UTC (Wed) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
Rob Enderle doesn't write anything for free. Reading what he writes, then, either tells you what somebody else wanted said, or what he suspects somebody might pay him to say more of. This latest is probably the latter. As such, it's even less meaningful than one might guess.
Who's the customer? Posted Mar 4, 2009 1:40 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] Good point. Looks like the client is anyone who wants to position any Linux company that doesn't sign a Novell-style "non-license license" as a bunch of smelly freaks. Of course, the number one server Linux company just signed an interoperability agreement with MSFT with no patent clause (Microsoft blinks first on interoperability with Red Hat) so it looks like a waste of carpal tunnels all around.
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 0:27 UTC (Wed) by kanewest (guest, #56943) [Link]
Only time will reveal if Microsoft just made a huge mistake in suing TomTom. For now it appears that Microsoft is betting on TomTom settling and hoping that all the other vendors see it as a win.
If TomTom does go through this suit without settling, I hope that Groklaw is around to provide as much transparency on the case as possible.
I just started a Linux blog. If you have a chance please visit and leave a few comments.
http://linuxdesktopnews.blogspot.com
Thank you,
Kane
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 2:22 UTC (Wed) by daniel (subscriber, #3181) [Link] Only time will reveal if Microsoft just made a huge mistake in suing TomTom. For now it appears that Microsoft is betting on TomTom settling and hoping that all the other vendors see it as a win.I for one am in the market for a new GPS device. Trying to decide between the Tom Tom, Garmin and Magellen. Hmm, I think my mind is made up.
TomTom devices Posted Mar 4, 2009 6:53 UTC (Wed) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]
TomTom has always had very good usability as a GPS device, with some nice collaborative features (submit your own updates via the device) in latest versions. It tends to win reviews, though it's not the cheapest - so I'd recommend their products in any case even if they weren't being sued based on their use of Linux.
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 11:55 UTC (Wed) by robert_s (subscriber, #42402) [Link]
The garmin ones have had their map format (semi) reverse engineered, allowing you to load openstreetmap onto it. Not that the OSM data is ready for day to day use in most areas yet. Garmin are also a big user of linux and the free software stack.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin
But I'm biased because TomTom now own the Teleatlas data (and they're trying to get you to do their work for them updating it without giving you any rights in return) and I'm an OSMer.
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 16:11 UTC (Wed) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link] I was in the same boat as you, but then I decided I was going to wait just a little longer for one of these. I'd love to support TomTom, but I always try to favour open over closed.
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 0:28 UTC (Wed) by richo123 (guest, #24309) [Link]
Don't feed the troll.
Typical Enderle Posted Mar 4, 2009 1:03 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]
Wow, that was a surreal article. I still have no clue what Enderle's getting at.
Didn't he predict SCO would win and crush Linux?
Typical Enderle Posted Mar 4, 2009 2:45 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
Probably. The guy is a maroon*.
What he doesn't understand is the fact that corporations that use Linux are part of the Linux community. It's more then just Redhat and hackers at home. Sure TomTom has had issues with the GPL in the past (which they've resolved), but that doesn't mean that going after them isn't a shot across the bow for the literally hundreds of other companies that provide embedded Linux systems.
Typical Enderle Posted Mar 4, 2009 7:30 UTC (Wed) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
He's not paid to understand. He's paid to insinuate.
My prediction is that MS will drag out the trial as long as possible, with endless delays, discovery, and filings, just like SCOg. As long as the trial goes on, they hope, it will spook other companies. TomTom will probably go along with the delays (as MS expects) because they have too much else to worry about right now.
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 7:50 UTC (Wed) by Russ.Dill@gmail.com (subscriber, #52805) [Link]
I thought this lawsuit was about patent infringement. The article does not once mention patents but instead talks about intellectual property and implying that TomTom is taking navigation technology from Microsoft without paying.
What an incredibly dishonest article. Add to that he claims that fewer companies have been signing licensing agreements with Microsoft (I assume here he means the patent deal Novell made along with others) is that people just don't want to spend the time.
Enderle links to a Linux is failing article from 2001! Posted Mar 4, 2009 10:48 UTC (Wed) by bawjaws (guest, #56952) [Link]
Enderle continues to be a great parody of himself.
When he provides a link claiming that Linux has "other things to worry
"The ideological purity of the open-source software business is being
Which sounds worrying till you realize that they're talking about the dot-
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-276056.html
How on earth he decided that was a good link to use to back up his argument
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 12:08 UTC (Wed) by ledow (guest, #11753) [Link]
Wow. Rambling, inconclusive *and* confusing. I don't watch out for people's names much - a few seconds of reading an article is usually enough to reveal any bias, but he is fast associating himself with the word "idiot" in my dictionary.
I don't see how any of the links he has are relevant (even the "TomTom is losing money" one actually states that out of a 900-million-ish loss, it paid 1.1bn in "impairment charges" to acquire a mapping company in 2007... that sounds like *investment* to me, not loss, carry-overs from previous years, and an optional thing in that they didn't have to take over the company or could re-sell it, not like people's wages).
I don't see how any of his advice works ("Open source should have a revenue model" Wow. Brilliant. Let's all abandon this open source thing, guys, and get paid to code instead... unless you already do, or you don't code for money in the first place, or...) and the greatest accolade assigned to his profile on that same site is that he heads a company with his name in the title. That tells you a lot right there.
Even the wording... "Linux leaders"... who would they be? Sure, there are people more respected than others but it's not like even Linus or Red Hat or anyone else can say "Right, we're going to do it this way and everyone must follow". Actually they *can* say that, but likely they wouldn't last long at all.
There's the whole "interest in OS waning because of MS offer of licensing/interoperation" thing too... I'd be phenomenally amazed if OS take up (if you could measure it in an accurate way) hadn't gone *UP* lately. Bad economy = why aren't we using cheaper stuff that other people have already made? Development is unlikely to have suffered at all, and I eagerly await the next round of "contributors" stats to disprove such nonsense. Only last week I read an article that says that coders are contributing to OS in order to boost their CV credentials to counter current economic conditions.
Please, if anybody's business actually takes this guy's advice in any way seriously, identify that business so we can avoid them.
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 13:28 UTC (Wed) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link] Please, if anybody's business actually takes this guy's advice in any way seriously, identify that business so we can avoid them. One would think that "analysis" like that provided by Enderle would be the first thing to get cut in an economic downturn, but sadly there are numerous executives who pay money to read such drivel as a substitute for actually having a clue about what their company's business is all about. Instead of listening to the people working for them who actually do the work, executives often live in a world of strategic idiocy populated by the likes of Enderle. But anyway, when Enderle writes this... The Open Source leaders need to find some other way to motivate the troops. ...I know that he's not writing about people in the Free Software community even if he doesn't understand or want to qualify the difference: the Free Software leaders have never needed Microsoft or anyone else as motivation.
Analyst business models Posted Mar 4, 2009 16:23 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]
There are many analyst firms who get paid by the IT customer (Gartner, IDG, The 451 Group) but Enderle's business model is more like the PR business model, paid by the vendor. The only reason he can get away with being cited as "an analyst" is that lazy editors don't bother to read Enderle's own web site.
There's nothing wrong with Enderle making a living as a PR flack. It might actually be useful, if you consider his efforts to get cited as an analyst as a form of fuzz testing for the IT media.
Analyst business models Posted Mar 4, 2009 21:19 UTC (Wed) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link] There are many analyst firms who get paid by the IT customer (Gartner, IDG, The 451 Group) but Enderle's business model is more like the PR business model, paid by the vendor. I've seen the vendor-sponsored side of analysts: it was more or less about paying to have your products placed in favourable slideware-style reports, although people stupidly paid to actually read such reports, too. I guess analyst firms in the IT business are about as trustworthy as the financial ratings agencies...
Analyst business models Posted Mar 5, 2009 1:31 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link] You make me laugh. Paid by IT customers? Their customers are the people who pay them to say what the customer wants said. They are all run on the PR model. Freelance flacks collect money from them whenever they get what is called a "placement" -- an article in a mainstream publication promoting whatever line the real customers have paid for. Gartner, then, gets to cite that publication in their own quotes.The value that Gartner provides its subscribers (who are not its main customers) is in identifying what the big players will be promoting, this quarter, by promoting it. The camp followers of the big players need to know which way to jump, and Gartner alerts them. IT purchasers, meanwhile, learn what will be safe to say in boardroom meetings, because it will be the same line everybody else is repeating. There is everything wrong with Enderle making a living doing anything but washing dishes, and I wouldn't trust him doing even that.
Not just the IT media Posted Mar 6, 2009 5:09 UTC (Fri) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link] ... a form of fuzz testing for the IT mediaThanks for the image of real-world fuzz testing. It explains so much of what I see.
Please add a warning sign! Posted Mar 4, 2009 13:21 UTC (Wed) by renox (subscriber, #23785) [Link]
I wish that links to a Rob Enderle article would be with a big red warning blicking caution sign: this would have avoided me starting to read the article, then think WTF the author is on drugs and then realising that it's Enderle..
I want my 30 seconds back!
Is Microsoft Targeting Linux Through Tom Tom? Oh Please... (ITBusinessEdge) Posted Mar 4, 2009 18:23 UTC (Wed) by oloryn (guest, #7408) [Link] Enderle's article sounds to me like another example of Bulverism. Instead of actually examining the arguments on the merits, you speculate on the motivations involved. Nowadays it may make you sound insightful, but it's more like an exercise in intellectual laziness.
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