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The facts behind Microsoft's anti-Linux 'Get the Facts' campaign
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| Back in 2002, Jim Allchin was co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and
| Services Division and was, in his own words, "scared" of the momentum behind
| Linux, as noted in an email [PDF] sent to several of his direct reports.
|
| Why scared? Because Windows was starting to lose to Linux:
|
| My conclusion: We are net on a path to win against Linux We must change
| some things and we must do it immediately. The current white papers, etc.
| are too high level and they are not going to cut it.
|
| So what did Allchin do? As court documents in the Comes vs. Microsoft
| antitrust suit demonstrate, and as Roy Schestowitz points out on his blog,
| Allchin started to buy facts. Lots of facts.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10145332-16.html?part=rss
Front page of Digg too.
He thinks he ran away from the abuses, eh? As Cringely said, many guilty
Microsoft execs simply run away to Washington's suburbs and priaries, hoping
that they past deeds won't haunt them.
"We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger….If you’re going to kill
someone, there isn’t much reason to get all worked up about it and angry. You
just pull the trigger. Any discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need
to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger."
--Jim Allchin, Microsoft
"I am convinced we have to use Windows – this is the one thing they don’t have.
We have to be competitive with features, but we need something more — Windows
integration."
--Jim Allchin, Microsoft
"I don’t understand how IE is going to win. The current path is simply to copy
everything that Netscape does packaging and product wise."
--Jim Allchin, Microsoft
"We should dedicate a cross-group team to come up with ways to leverage Windows
technically more."
--Jim Allchin, Microsoft
"I feel we are much too smug in dealing with Novell. Perhaps they didn’t hurt
us in DOS yet — but it’s not because of product or their trying. It’s because
we already had the OEMs wrapped up."
--Jim Allchin, Microsoft
"LH [Longhorn] is a pig and I don't see any solution to this problem. If we are
to rise to the challenge of Linux..."
--Jim Allchin, Microsoft
Recent:
Vista Capable plaintiffs subpoena PC titans
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| Other notable names on the list include Intel and former Windows chief Jim
| Allchin.
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http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/135018.asp
Kickback Case: Retired Lawyer Sentenced
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| The law firm, previously known as Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, paid
| $11.3 million in kickbacks to people who became plaintiffs in class-action
| lawsuits against companies such as AT&T Inc., Lucent, WorldCom, Microsoft
| Corp. and Prudential Insurance, prosecutors said.
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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080128/lawsuit_kickbacks.html?.v=7
Microsoft tries to stop more ‘Vista-capable’ e-mails from going public
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| Microsoft is trying to put the kibosh on more of its internal (and
| embarassing) e-mail messages around its Vista marketing plans going public.
|
| [...]
|
| With every version of Windows, Microsoft has worked with hardware partners to
| find new ways to try to convince users they need more and more powerful
| machines to take advantage of more feature-rich software. If Microsoft and
| its partners were/are successful, it means more money in the PC makers’ and
| Microsoft’s coffers. With Vista, this pact really back-fired, as the already
| published e-mails around Vista-capable — and more, as-yet-unpublicized
| messages — will make evident.
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http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1254
Microsoft challenges 'Vista Capable' class action
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| If granted, the motion would also postpone any new disclosures of potentially
| embarrassing company e-mails.
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http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9067400
They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.
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| Act 1: In 2005, Microsoft plans to say that only PCs that are properly
| equipped to handle the heavy graphics demands of Vista are “Vista Ready.”
|
| Act 2: In early 2006, Microsoft decides to drop the graphics-related hardware
| requirement in order to avoid hurting Windows XP sales on low-end machines
| while Vista is readied. (A customer could reasonably conclude that Microsoft
| is saying, Buy Now, Upgrade Later.) A semantic adjustment is made: Instead of
| saying that a PC is “Vista Ready,” which might convey the idea that, well, it
| is ready to run Vista, a PC will be described as “Vista Capable,” which
| supposedly signals that no promises are made about which version of Vista
| will actually work.
|
| The decision to drop the original hardware requirements is accompanied by
| considerable internal protest. The minimum hardware configuration was set so
| low that “even a piece of junk will qualify,” Anantha Kancherla, a Microsoft
| program manager, said in an internal e-mail message among those recently
| unsealed, adding, “It will be a complete tragedy if we allowed it.”
|
| Act 3: In 2007, Vista is released in multiple versions, including “Home
| Basic,” which lacks Vista’s distinctive graphics. This placed Microsoft’s
| partners in an embarrassing position. Dell, which gave Microsoft a postmortem
| report that was also included among court documents, dryly
| remarked: “Customers did not understand what ‘Capable’ meant and expected
| more than could/would be delivered.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09digi.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2&oref=slogin
Microsoft knew of Vista shortcoming prior to release
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-knew-vista-shortcoming-prior/story.aspx?guid=%7B75BE59C7%2DEFA1%2D48B5%2DB4A4%2D90F5E01A52A0%7D&siteid=yhoof
Microsoft dropped Vista hardware spec to raise Intel profits
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/01/microsoft_intel_vista_capable_emails/
Microsoft 'Caves' To Intel
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/28/microsoft-vista-intel-tech-ebiz-cx_wt_0228vista.html?partner=yahootix
Has Vista lost all credibility?
http://apcmag.com/8344/has_vista_lost_all_credibility
E-mail: Microsoft 'botched' dealings with Intel, HP
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| Internal Microsoft e-mails revealed through a federal class-action lawsuit
| arising from the troubled launch last year of the Windows Vista operating
| system have provided a provocative inside look at the software giant's
| machinations with Intel, HP and Dell.
|
| The e-mails include an exchange in which one senior Microsoft executive
| described dealings with computer makers as "really botched." Another manager
| complained Microsoft was "caving to Intel" and "really burning HP."
|
| The e-mails are included in 145 pages of documents unsealed by U.S. District
| Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle late Wednesday. They include internal
| reports and some handwritten notes that offer a rare look inside at the
| famed "Wintel" partnership, and touch upon the alliance's dealings with
| Hewlett-Packard, Dell and other computer makers.
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http://origin.mercurynews.com/businessheadlines/ci_8417811?nclick_check=1
Related:
Debut and departure for Windows chief
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| Sitting behind a one-way mirror, a white-haired man [Allchin] struggles to
| access a shared music library within Windows Vista.
|
| "I'm lost," he says. "I'm in trouble here."
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http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6154171.html
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