Winning the Linux Wars (MCP)

Winning the Linux Wars (MCP)

Posted Jan 9, 2006 4:41 UTC (Mon) by gdt (subscriber, #6284)
In reply to: Winning the Linux Wars (MCP) by CyberDog
Parent article: Winning the Linux Wars (MCP)

Folks, when dissing a competing product you play to the customer's fears. This article doesn't mention the relative quality of the user experience at all. So it's pretty safe to assume that this doesn't keep corporate decision makers awake at night.

The article does have some wonderful FUD techniques. (1) Talk to the CEO, not the decision makers. (2) Talk financials last: this allows you to talk up the value of intangibles. (3) Leverage external information which supports your point of view[1]. And so on.

Once you know the major technique outlined in the subtext of the article -- prey on the customer's fears -- then it's easy to use it in reverse.

• Customers are afraid of lack of support -- well tell a tale about a customer with a critical flaw in Windows that was effecting their business and that Microsoft just wouldn't listen (and heh didn't we just have one of those with WMF). And with Linux all is rosy -- if Red Hat won't listen to you, then you can pay a small consultancy that will.

• Access to trained staff? Linux has real certification, based on knowledge. Do you really believe that all those shops displaying "MSCE" banners offer quality training? And you'll need that training, since you'll need to pay new staff to learn to administer Windows -- computer science faculties mainly use Linux now.

• Linux has no secret roadmaps. If a feature is running late you will know. Compare that to the new Window's filesystem that was meant to be in NT, then Xp and then Vista. Microsoft claimed it was "on schedule" and then suddenly it was held over to the next operating system. Do you want your business depending upon that sort of behaviour?

• Linux has no sales force. Microsoft will promise a multiuser MS-DOS if that will get them a sale. You've no idea if Engineering will deliver on Sale's promises (in the case of multiuser MS-DOS v5 they didn't). You can ask Linux developers directly and get a real person giving a real answer.

The other interesting subtext of the article is that the Windows MCPs quoted put Windows first, not the customer who is paying them. There's no need for consultancy firms to have a Windows versus Linux attitude -- it's your dime so they should have a "whatever works best for you" attitude. And so the article forms a list of firms that customers would do well not to employ.

[1] For example, take US CERT's list of software vulnerabilities on its face and say "The US government's prime computer security agency says Windows has ten times less security issues than Linux". The CERT should be slapped for releasing that data without a commentary noting the shortcoming of the raw data for use in analysis.

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