OSDL's Stuart Cohen - What are you afraid of?

  • Article

Is that Penguin carrying our flag?VERY interesting developments on the MS vs. Open Source battlegrounds…

https://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1854183,00.asp

Yes, perhaps I’m a bit biased, considering who signs my paycheck.  But to me, Stuart Cohen sounds scared.  This eWeek article talks about him and OSDL turning down Microsoft’s offer of a joint, co-sponsored “independent” research study.  And what were they afraid of?  Well.. Cohen pretty much accuses Microsoft of taking parts of studies and only selling the news that is good for Microsoft in the midst of overwhelming bad news.  He accuses us of lieing. 

“What do you think about that, Kevin?”

Bullsh**.  Yep… I’m getting opinionated here… probably not something I should do on a Microsoft-owned blog. 

Have you seen https://www.microsoft.com/getthefacts ?  Have you, Mr. Cohen?

The site has a HUGE amount of information.. white-papers and research (yes, many sponsored by Microsoft, but some not) on

  • Total Cost of Ownership
  • Reliability
  • Security 
  • Intellectual Property Indemnification
  • Interoperability
  • Performance
  • Partner Success
  • Small Business

These are not just snippets, either.  The complete studies are included when practical, and if not, they’re linked to and made available elsewhere.  Add to that the wealth of great case studies in categories of

  • Small Business
  • Medium Business
  • Large Business
  • .NET Success Stories

Perhaps we highlight the good points in our marketing.  That’s granted.  That’s what MARKETING does, afterall.  But we do not hide any of the findings.  If we did so, you would have a valid concern.  But your accusation is weak, defensive, and without merit.  And frankly, sounds a bit whiney to me, too.  Get the facts, Mr. Cohen.

What also infuriates me about the eWeek article is that it only gives Cohen’s side of the story.  I’d like to know more details about how Martin Taylor approached them, and what the specifics were.. but we’ll probably never know.  The original discussions were supposed to have been kept secret. 

No doubt someone posted about it on their blog.  Stupid bloggers. 

Thoughts?