A "reasonable look"? [LWN.net]

A "reasonable look"?

Posted Jul 17, 2003 18:52 UTC (Thu) by taruntius (guest, #1140)
Parent article: Windows device development faster, cheaper than Linux? (Register)

I think embedded Linux is as cool as the next fellow, but I really must comment on this. Despite what we may think about Microsoft, equating use of Windows CE with "signing on with satan" is simply unprofessional journalism, and shows fairly naked bias. For LWN editors to then call this quote a "reasonable look" just compounds the problem.

Isn't the goal to conduct an dis-passionate, unbiased comparision of the two platforms, and then decide based on that? Frankly, if I were a consmer electronics company trying to evaluate the two platforms, the tone of what I read would make a difference. You don't hear pro-Microsoft people equating use of Linux with "turning communist" or anything, and yet apparently the pro-Linux mainstream press sees nothing wrong with calling Microsoft a bunch of devil worshippers.

Do you see the disconnect there? Do you see how it hurts the Linux cause? If not, let me spell it out for you: as someone trying to decide between Linux and CE, seeing commentary like that only makes me think "Ah. These Linux people aren't serious after all. They must not have any hard data to support their platform if they have to resort to ad-hominem ABM attacks. Microsoft, on the other hand, offers me nothing but dry, boring--but hard--data on their realtime performance, their memory footprints, and their lower cost of development. They seem pretty serious. Gee, I wonder which one will I pick..."

Cripes. Stuff like this really hacks me off. It's like we want to play with the big boys, in the professional spaces, but somehow we expect the very people who we're trying to impress to give us a pass on having to act in accord with standards of professional conduct.

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A "reasonable look"?

Posted Jul 17, 2003 19:30 UTC (Thu) by conz (subscriber, #4784) [Link]

If you excise that one contentious comment (which constitutes perhaps less than
1% of the article in question) you must agree that the remainder of The Register
piece is sound analysis, an rightly called so by LWN.

A "reasonable look"?

Posted Jul 17, 2003 19:31 UTC (Thu) by davidl (guest, #12156) [Link]

Because any embedded devlopment company worth it's salt knows this report is rubbish.

A "reasonable look"?

Posted Jul 17, 2003 20:22 UTC (Thu) by kfox (guest, #4767) [Link]

You must have been out of the country
when Microsoft was doing it's anti-GPL
smear campaign. That really filled
me with respect and admiration for
their leaders. How about everybody else?

BTW, when someone metaphorically refers
to deals with Microsoft as "signing
on with satan" that doesn't mean Microsoft
is a devil worshipper -- it means that
Microsoft *is* satan, um, metaphorically
speaking. The thing is, this almost isn't
a metaphor. Where's your lever if the
deal goes sour? How much do you know
about the long term effects? How much
does Microsoft know? Microsoft is
willing to take a huge short-term loss.
What's their motive?

The Register is trying to make lemonade.
Give them a break. I'm sure someone
interested in the cost-benefit equation
of embedded Linux can find a better
source of information than a Microsoft
funded report.

A "reasonable look"?

Posted Jul 18, 2003 0:45 UTC (Fri) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

Despite what we may think about Microsoft, equating use of Windows CE with "signing on with satan" is simply unprofessional journalism, and shows fairly naked bias.

If you read The Register more often, you will begin to realize this is just another example of their tongue-in-cheek attitude. Part of thier shtick is poking fun at big players in the IT industry, hence the slogan "Biting the hand that feeds IT" on their front page. This ariticle is consistent with their usual writing style, so don't take the MSFT dig too seriously.

A "reasonable look"?

Posted Jul 18, 2003 9:41 UTC (Fri) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

The Register is a UK based news site - 'Signing on with Satan' is just a piece of typical English sarcasm, which should be read with tongue in cheek. The Reg people are highly cynical about virtually every company in the IT industry (e.g. they call the Itanium 'Itanic' and are quite rude about Sun), so this is not just anti-Microsoft although it may look like it on this one article. Not so much unprofessional journalism as using colourful language to make an impact and entertain the reader. Given how dry IT news is, this is no bad thing IMO.

As someone else said, the Reg article seems to take the study in good faith - I'm rather more suspicious of whether the cases used were biased to Windows CE.