May 2007

FUD: was first defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company, Amdahl Corp. : “FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products.” [1] The term has also been attributed to veteran Morgan Stanley computer analyst Ulrich Weil, though it had already been used in other contexts as far back as the 1920s. [2] [3]

As Eric S. Raymond writes: “The idea, of course, was to persuade buyers to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors’ equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors’ equipment or software. After 1991 the term has become generalized to refer to any kind of disinformation used as a competitive weapon.” [4]

By spreading questionable information about the drawbacks of less well known products, an established company can discourage decision-makers from choosing those products over its wares, regardless of the relative technical merits. This is a recognized phenomenon, epitomized by the traditional axiom of purchasing agents that “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment”. The result is that many companies’ IT departments buy software that they know to be technically inferior because upper management is more likely to recognize the brand .

Well Microsoft has recently stated that Linux is in violation of 235 patents..  Personally I just think it is an attempt to extort money out of Canonical and Red Hat.  Microsoft is one of those companies that honestly patents anything under the sun.  For example they have a patent for tabbed browsing..  Everyone knows that tabbed browsing was made popular by Firefox.  Many people have different opinions in matters like this one thing is clear we do need patent reform.   Linus recently stated that Microsoft was actually in violation of 532 patens.  Linux is hear to stay and Microsoft should come up with a new marketing plan other than FUD and Extortion to deal with Linux.  Anyone who has actually used the latest Ubuntu build is well aware of what a slick and efficient operating system it is.  One thing is sure it would be ironic if Microsoft went the way of SCO…