Vole rumbled in Linux, IDC bung fiasco

A TOP MICROSOFT suit wanted to hide the fact that it shelled out money to IDC to produce a report critical of the cost of using Linux.

Kevin Johnson who is now the head of Windows, worried that adding Microsoft's name to an IDC analysis for its "Get the Facts" publicity campaign would only fuel the fire from Linux supporters. He was also a little worried that IDC had not been as positive about using Windows as he would like.

As it was, the 2002 independent report was famous for claiming that Windows 2000 was cheaper to run than Linux in most cases.

According to IT News, Johnson's emails on the matter have shown up in an Iowa antitrust case. In an email dated 1 November, 2002, Kevin Johnson said that he didn't like it to be public on the doc that Microsoft sponsored it because he didn't think the outcome is as favourable as we had hoped. "I just don't like competitors using it as ammo against us. It is easier if it doesn't mention that we sponsored it", he said.

Peter Houston in a November 1 message pointed out that they would be unlikely to keep the lid on the sponsorship deal anyway.

Houston penned an email to Johnson indicating that pressure had been put on IDC to tweak the report to make the Vole look better. He didn't have much success.

He said "IDC is done negotiating with us... We have moved them quite a bit already, but they are now holding the line, saying that if we want the names of their 'big' analysts on the report, this is it."

Court evidence shows that the Vole approached Gartner to do the study and they said they wouldn't. The Big G said its model for TCO would work well with Linux and make Vole appear much worse. The Vole has since taken the IDC TCO study off its website. µ