Microsoft Found Guilty of Misleading Advertising 608
gtoomey writes "The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints that Microsoft misled consumers by running advertisements claiming Linux is 10 times more expensive than Windows. The print advertisements used "independent research" to compare the cost of Linux on an expensive mainframe to Windows on a PC."
Marketing slime... (Score:5, Insightful)
The advert appeared in an IT magazine and was headed: "Weighing the cost of Linux vs Windows? Let's review the facts". The ad contained a graph comparing the cost in US dollars between a Linux images running on two z900 mainframe CPUs and a Windows Server 2003 image running two 900MHz Intel Xeons chips.
Hmm, who wants to help me do some "independent research" of our own? We could compare Linux running [slashdot.org] on a WRT54G [google.com] versus the cost of, say, a dual CPU P4 XEON system with 4 gbs RAM, SCSI array, redundant everything, and dual 19" LCD monitors.
Lesse, that makes linux roughly 100 times cheaper (70$ vs. 7000$). Didn't I also see this ad on slashdot and in Linux Journal?
Not intended to be a flamebait, it's not just a Microsoft problem - all marketing people are evil. Perhaps we should enact the death penalty for marketing droids?
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:4, Funny)
Douglas Adams had it right. I have my rifle ready for when the revolution comes.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft UK
Reading
Dear Microsoft,
Go stick your head in a pig.
Signed your chums,
The Advertising Standards Authority.
Re:Rate of posted Microsoft articles on Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and don't forget about the exposes of how the Business Software Alliance performs unannounced searches of businesses, shutting down running machines and having untrained flunkies search for any unlicensed copies of Linux. Don't forget to detail how receipts for the product don't seem to count as proof of purchase - an unlicensed copy of Linux (one sold for different hardware doesn't count!) can cost your company $25k or more in "damages", which thankfully can be waived if you just sign the exclusive software purchase deal for the next ten years and agree to periodic audits...
Also, how during the middle of a federal anti-trust lawsuit the people in charge of writing Linux wrote about using any means necessary to kill the competition.
Oh yeah, Linus and Linux don't seem to generate that kind of news.
Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe Microsoft has so many negative articles written about it because they actually do these things?
Silly Silly (Score:4, Funny)
OB Bill Hicks Quote (Score:5, Funny)
""You know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar, that's a big dollar, a lot of people are feeling that indignation, we've done research, huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scumbags, quit putting a godamn dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!" ~ Bill Hicks
Re:Share and Enjoy (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Insightful)
If we killed off all the lawyers, how would you expect somebody to sue me?? On their own? At least then we are on even playing ground and not paying out tons of legal fees.
Power-grubbing politicians are nothing without lawyers to stand behind. It would be different if they could actually agree with each other and get organiz
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Not all mechanics are weasels)
A lawyer will not be like a mechanic until:
- You require a mechanic to do anything with car, including opening the door and driving it.
- It takes 3 months of study to understand opening a bonnet/hood.
- Your mechanic bills you for answering the phone, taking a tea break, and billing you.
- Your take a car with a flat tyre to garage, and pay the same regardless of whether the tyre is successfully changed.
- Anyone born into the right family is automatically assured a life of ease and wealth as they attend mechanic school for many years and graduate into a position in a top garage which pays a salary that would support a small 3rd world country for 10 hours work per week.
- I could go on.
The point is not that there should be all lawyers be executed and everyone else spend 10 years learning how to be lawyers, but that lawyers should not be necessary. Laws should be clear, simple and brief - otherwise how can the general population be expected not to break them to start with? These are good laws:
- No murder
- No stealing
- No copying anything written in the last 10 years
Laws like that are easy to understand.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Insightful)
So, how is it different when gang-bangers blast off each other and you shooting an intruder in your own home? Maybe we should say "No murder, and by murder we mean...". What about self defense?
One-liner laws would leave us either wide-open, or with a code strict as hammurabi's...
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately it wouldn't do too well on the capabilities side of the equation. To be fair Microsoft does somewhat have a point as IBM, one of the foremost advocates of Linux, is pushing the virtual-Linux-on-a-mainframe concept, and a lot of people are buying. It seems that Microsoft was tageting that competitor rather than Linux-running-on-obsoleted-developer-PC.
I didn't bother checking, but mo
Still misleading... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thus, the hardware costs would be a draw and the cost comparison would actually be about software.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, and Microsoft clearly states this whenever they make any outrageous claim.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:4, Informative)
This is not uncommon to say the least - companies do this all the time. Notice that every movie is given awesome reviews by someone, that almost every book is on some best seller list, and that every brand is the "best" brand out there.
Marketers know what they are doing, and after they are done it goes through the legal department for checks and balances.
Also, since words like "best", "most effective", etc are vague, they can and do utilize these statements. So when Microsoft says "We have the BEST OS on the market" they are not wrong, they just didn't state who thinks they are the "BEST", and they do not have to.
To help give a real example, years ago Bayer got sued for slanderous advertising. They were accused of stating that other companies dilute their headache medicine with water in their advertisements. Bayer turned around and said - no we did not say that, we just said that we do not use water to dilute our headache medicine. - (paraphrase obviously). Their statement has a blatent hidden meaning, but it doesn't break the literal meaning.
Its marketing - kill the marketers.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, what IBM is pushing is running hundreds of virtual Linux machines on a single IBM mainframe. This substantially reduces the cost of maintaining a large Linux installation. What would have been fair would have been a comparison between an IBM mainframe running hundreds of virtual Linux servers and hundreds of PC's running Windows.
Oh wait... That is the kind of comparison that IBM is using to sell such systems...
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Informative)
our EDC over 1000 servers not huge but still large:
Windows uptime 98.65%
Unix uptime 99.998%
Linux portion of Unix uptime 100%
of course now that I'm braging about it something is going to crash. 18moths of over 75 Linux servers running several diffrent applications like tomcat, websphear, Oracle, plust several diffrent specialized apps. And now we get to add another 75 in the next 3 months.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, but how many virtual Linux machines can one z/OS mainframe run at once? (I beleive that even the mid-range boxes can run thousands without noticable impact) How many copies of Windows can you run simulatanously on a development PC? (I guess two or three if you go the VMWare route, but that drive cost up, and the performace would be the sux0r)
So if I was say, a webhosting company which gave out "full root access accounts" (or their Windows equiv) I suspect the price difference between a z/OS mainframe running a thousand Linux LPARs vs. a room full of a thousand commodity PC's running Windows would be pretty hard to calculate. There are so many factors. For example:
- You've got one very expensive , but bulletproof box vs. 1000 cheap, but all-too-failable PCs.
- If the mainframe never croaks, you've saved money. But some fluke electrical event fries the mainframe, you're totally fsck'ed.
I'm not even gonna try to guess at the difference in electrical and facilities costs because I don't know crap about the costs of either option, but I suspect they both would be interesting numbers. (1000 PC's is a lot of heat and electricity, but a z/OS prolly needs special power and the environment needs to be controlled as well...)Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Insightful)
- If it's a mission critical system, you don't just buy one -- you buy two and (preferably) have them installed in geographically seperated areas.
- If one does buy the farm through some freak catastrophy, you're not the one who's fsck'ed -- the vendor and/or your insurance company is.
If you rely on a multi-million dollar piece of equipment to run your business and don't have redundancy, insurance, and service contracts, you deserve whatever happens to you.Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Interesting)
Halo: I'm guessing you haven't done much enterprise-level computing. That same "freak electrical event" could fry 1000's of PCs too (I assume it's something that blows past your PDU-supplied redundant power and line conditioning... right?? I mean, that could happen...)
If that's the case, I'd rather restore -one- system at my DR site than 100, or 500, or whatever.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Informative)
TW
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Informative)
The UK's ASA is a government sponsored body that has the power to levy fines and issue orders that specific advertisements not be used in future.
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Informative)
Sigh. No, the ASA is an industry body whose sanctions basically amount to loudly saying that what you're doing is misleading, and by members possibly punishing a violator by refusing to do business with them. It's all clearly there on their own webpage.
Who They Are [asa.org.uk]
Sanctions [asa.org.uk]
"Results may vary outside the United States" (Score:5, Interesting)
Douglas Adams described the Vogons as "not being above bribery and corruption in the same way that the sea is not above the clouds" (something like that - I'm working from memory). For some odd reason that phrase popped into my head as I read the article.
Another interesting bit:
"...The results showed that IBM z900 mainframe running Linux is much less capable and vastly more expensive than Windows Server 2003 as a platform for server consolidation.*" The ASA said the asterisk linked to a footnote that said: "Results may vary outside the United States".
I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean: is Linux less capable in Abu Dhabi than it is in the US? Are the results are reversed in the southern hemisphere? One might think that - if the study were conducted properly (big if) - the figures would remain proportional even after pricing for markets and conversion of currency (exchange rates).
Re:"Results may vary outside the United States" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Results may vary outside the United States" (Score:5, Funny)
Because the higher the voltage at the outlet, the faster the electrons in the CPU go.
--Rob
Re:"Results may vary outside the United States" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"Results may vary outside the United States" (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft had a valid point (Score:5, Interesting)
BOTH OF THEM WERE CORRECT.
In the IBM case, they were looking at it from the point of view that you already had mainframes, and you wanted to make them cheaper to maintain and keep up with modern software trends. They were correct.
In the Microsoft case, they were analyzing what it would take to convert over to mainframes or start from scratch. They were correct.
Where MS went horribly, horribly wrong was when their marketing folks took this, perfectly reasonable, research and referenced it in ads to the general computing community without any indication that it was a comparison relevant only to a particular niche market!
MS did some good research here, but the applied it unethically. Let's be clear on what we're coming down on them for!
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketing is not the same as advertising. In fact, the most important functions of marketing are not from the company to the customer, but the other way around. A good marketing department listens to the market or the customer, determines what the market or customer needs, and helps orient production within the company to produce products that meet some identified need.
I am in the process of starting a company that will be heavily dependent on its marketing department. I expect the top marketing exec in the company (in Brazil, I think it's more appropriate to use the title of Director than VP) to be the second-most influential person in the company after the "big boss" (probably with the title of Director-President), who is writing this post. Some special things in our business model will allow us to do some marketing things in innovative ways. But you wanna know something? I think advertising might not end up under marketing. To me it seems that advertising, as communication from the company to the market/customer, belongs more with sales than with marketing.
I think of it this way: Sales is responsible for communicating from the company to the market in order to sell the product or service, and Marketing is responsible for the communication in the other direction, from the market to the company.
In any case, wherever advertising ends up falling in the company I'm starting, it certainly won't be the main activity for the marketing department.
Marketing people are not all evil. Competent marketing people can help companies provide the products and services customers want or need. That's not only not evil, it's good!
On the other hand, many advertising people are evil, and seek to mislead the customer. But a good marketing department can obviate the need for deceptive advertising, because a company with a good marketing department doesn't need to deceive the customer- it really is making what the customer wants or needs and simply needs to communicate that in its advertising.
By the way, I guess I should mention that my background is technical - I have a PhD in physics and had a career doing technical things (and the technical part of sales) in IT companies. So I'm not a "marketing droid" defending his profession. I'm just a person who has studied some marketing on his own time and understood how a well-run marketing department can benefit not just a company, but also that company's customers.
--Mark
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Marketing slime... (Score:5, Interesting)
Shocking News about Statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shocking News about Statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you surprised that statistics can be bought and bartered?
No, we're surprised that a government agency saw through the bullshit and has done something about it.
Incidentally, the ASA is one of Britain's better agencies. It seems to have - some - real power, and doesn't seem to abuse it. Another poster has already mentioned Apple's tussles with the ASA (re: 64bit CPUs, IIRC) and other corporations have also been shouted down by the ASA. I'm sure they've made some bad calls in the past, but I'd be hard-pressed to recall any.
Re:Shocking News about Statistics (Score:5, Informative)
The ASA is the industries own self-regulating group, and its "real power" is basically a loud voice. Self-regulating groups are usually setup with the intent of keeping the government out by implying that the industry needs no external control.
http://www.asa.org.uk/index.asp [asa.org.uk]
Re:Shocking News about Statistics (Score:3, Insightful)
The ASA carries a big stick in this regard. Because they are the official trade organisation for advertising, a referral to the OFT from the ASA is far more likely to be prosecuted than a referral from a private individual. This is where their weight comes from. Add into the mix that the ASA actually has the funds to investigate w
Re:Shocking News about Statistics (Score:3, Informative)
As I recall it, the claim that Apple was taken to task for was more like "First 64-bit desktop" -- which led to a lot of reasonable debate concerning what a "Desktop" was vs. what a "Workstation" was.
I'm an Apple fan, but they should have done a mea culpa on that one and blamed the different standards UK v. US for confusion and moved on.
the Bikini thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Statistics are like a Bikini: showing interesting details but hiding the important stuff.
Re:Shocking News about Statistics (Score:3, Funny)
Oddly enough, only 14% of people know this.
Yaz.
Re:Shocking News about Statistics (Score:3, Insightful)
Frankly I'm suprised it isn't ten out of ten. Aspirin is an anti-inflamatory. Acetomeniphin (Tylenol)isn't. Under the restrictions it's the clear choice.
I wonder what the results would be if the survey had asked what the doctors recommend for a headache while "stranded" in a pharmacy?
If you get to make up the questions you can also "make up" the answers, particula
What about back across the pond? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What about back across the pond? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about back across the pond? (Score:3, Insightful)
In the US the government works for the corporations that shovel the most money into the re-election campaigns (if not directly into the pockets) of the politicians.
Re:What about back across the pond? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about back across the pond? (Score:5, Insightful)
About 100 million Americans will demonstrate their lack of understanding of this in November, and will either cast their votes for the pro-business and anti-labor Republican, or pro-business and anti-labor Democrat. {sigh}
Re:What about back across the pond? (Score:3, Insightful)
Two things:
1) Please don't call it "pro-business". Pro-corporation is a better term. EVERYONE is involved in business. Being pro-business simply means allowing people to conduct their own business (whether financial or otherwise) freely, while being pro-corporation means taking a socialist
independent research? (Score:5, Interesting)
They should have also enquired into this "independent research" - Microsoft has a history of funding "independant researchers" itself, which coincidentally always come out in favour for Microsoft.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:independent research? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:independent research? (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, this isn't true. What happens is that when a private party funds "research" such as this it's a work for hire, the funding party owns the results and the researcher is bound and gagged by an NDA.
When the results don't come out as they like, which is fairly common, they simply don't publish those results.
It's pretty easy for me to prove that I can always flip a coin to land heads if each flip is taken to be an independant test and I only publish the tests that came up heads.
KFG
Re:independent research? (Score:3, Interesting)
Mind you, adding goatse to the query brings back 14 hits: http://www.google.com/search?q=drug+companies+rese arch+skewed+goatse [google.com], the first of which is http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/28/073253.shtml ?tid=109&tid=126&tid=163&tid=187&tid=98&tid=99 [slashdot.org] Microsoft-funded Linux Studies Benefi
Garbage in, Garbage out... (Score:5, Interesting)
The research may have been conducted indepenently and fairly, but the conclusion it came to should have surprised nobody because the test they were running didn't put the two operating systems on a level playing field in the first place.
Try running both OSes on identical hardware and then see what kind of results you get...
Re:Garbage in, Garbage out... (Score:3, Funny)
Link to adjudication (Score:5, Informative)
This is the same agency that has nailed Apple [asa.org.uk] to the wall several times in the past.
Re:Link to adjudication (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't see how you can claim they "nailed" Apple several times when a) there's only one case and b) two out of three of the complaints were rejected: The G5 was the world's first 64 bit personal computer and the first to break the 4GB memory limit.
nonsense (Score:5, Funny)
Re:nonsense (Score:5, Funny)
Re:nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
Re:nonsense (Score:4, Funny)
That depends if you use the smaller European CD-Rs as opposed to the larger African CD-Rs. :)
Re:nonsense (Score:4, Funny)
Why me? This is a result of an independant research
No real surprises (Score:5, Interesting)
If you didn't read the website the advert pointed you at very carefully, you would be led to believe that Linux needed much more expensive hardware than Windows to even match capabilities; in fact, the study made no such claims.
Re:No real surprises (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No real surprises (Score:5, Interesting)
The true benefit of Linux on the mainframe comes from server consolidation. Using an entire z900 mainframe to run just one Linux image at a time is a huge waste of resources. Running 16 images at the same time (native, so as not to incur a performance penalty from a VM) is far more efficient and cost effective.
Using a $1M(USD) CPU for a desktop replacement is indeed a waste. Using it as a server-farm-in-a-box isn't.
Fark (Score:5, Funny)
Will Others Follow? (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably the only outcome would be a forced disclaimer like the fast talking legal-speak in car commercials: 'Whencomparedbetweendislikesystemsbypaidresearchc
Re:Will Others Follow? (Score:3, Interesting)
Silly First Amendment coming back to bite us when in the hands of a megacorp again...
Surprising (Score:5, Funny)
In essence... (Score:5, Funny)
By my own similar method of comparison I can conclude Apples Mac OS X is 2000 times cheaper than MS server 2003*.
* Mac OS X running on a dual G5 Xserve. MS sever 2003 running on a quad quantum cyberdine systems X-9000 with gold plated tri-lithium cooled case and diamond studded cup holder.
But don't kill.... (Score:4, Informative)
If we had some of Microsoft's droids working for us, the open-source community in promoting open-source software, we may possibly have a big market share (as if we haven't got a growing one already).
Fine, Linux may be expensive in the short-term, i.e. upgrading and replacing some incompatible hardware, training staff, etc. but as ESR says [opensource.org], pay-per-seat Microsoft licensing fees are forever.Just my two pence.
The Adjudication (Score:5, Informative)
from http://www.asa.org.uk/ [asa.org.uk] [ironically running on IIS with
-- - - - - -
Microsoft Ltd
Microsoft Campus
Thames Valley Park
Reading
Berkshire
RG6 1WG
Date: 25th August 2004
Media: Magazine
Sector: Computers and telecommunications
Agency: McCann Erickson
Public Complaints From: Liverpool, Surrey, Wiltshire
Complaint:
Objections to a specialist magazine advertisement, for a computer operating system, that was headed "WEIGHING THE COST OF LINUX VS. WINDOWS? LET'S REVIEW THE FACTS." A graph compared the cost (US$) per Megabit per second of "One Linux image running on two z900 mainframe CPUs" with "One Windows Server 2003 image running on two 900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs". Underneath it stated "Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows? Serverâ 2003 in a recent study ⦠audited by leading independent research analyst META Group, measured costs of Linux running on IBM's z900 mainframe for Windows-comparable functions of file serving and Web serving. The results showed that IBM z900 mainframe running Linux is much less capable and vastly more expensive than Windows Server 2003 as a platform for server consolidation.* To get the full study and other third-party findings, visit Microsoft.com/uk/getthefacts." The asterisk linked to a footnote that stated "Results may vary outside the United States â¦". The complainants challenged whether the comparison was misleading, because the operating systems were run on different hardware.
Codes Section: 3.1, 7.1, 18.1, 18.2, 18.3 (Ed 11)
Adjudication:
Complaints upheld
The advertisers said they intended the advertisement to compare competing file-serving set-ups that met the same needs and were intended for the same purposes. They said they had prepared the advertisement in response to an advertising campaign by IBM in which Linux running on an IBM mainframe was tested for file serving and web serving. They said their advertisement was based on results from a benchmark study and the advertisement informed the public of the results from that study about the relative performance and cost of one Linux image running on IBM's z900 mainframe CPUs and Windows Server 2003 image running on two 900MHz Xeon CPUs. The advertisers said the benchmark study was a network load performance test that was neither hardware specific nor operating system specific; they said the fact that the hardware and operating systems were different was irrelevant. They pointed out that the client PC did not determine the server used and that the server workloads were the same and were functionally equivalent. The advertisers explained that each server was tested to deal with increasing numbers of functions from client PCs. They said they took measurements from the client PCs to assess how fast the server would respond. They asserted that the study was audited by Meta, an independent consultancy firm, who reported that the study was a fair comparison.
The Authority noted the advertisers intended the advertisement to compare competing file serving set-ups that met the same needs and had the same function. It noted the study was audited and was a fair comparison of the operating systems on different hardware. The Authority considered, however, that because the advertisement stated " ⦠WEIGHING THE COST OF LINUX VS. WINDOWS ⦠Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows ⦠" it implied the comparison was between Linux and Windows operating systems only, and not about the performance of operating systems on different hardware. It took expert advice. It understood that the study measured the cost of Linux, running on IBM's z900 mainframe, to a Windows Server 2003 image, running on 900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs, and was therefore a comparison that demonstrated the price and performance between IBM zSeries hardware and Intel Xeon CPUs. It understood that the pri
I remember seeing this ad... (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft used false advertising for Windows 98 (Score:5, Funny)
I've plugged in USB devices that prompted for a reboot.
Windows 98 setup also said that "Windows 98 is Year 2000 ready." But later Microsoft issued two patches to correct y2k problems in Windows 98.
Re:Microsoft used false advertising for Windows 98 (Score:5, Funny)
As Bill Gates said when demonstrating this, 'Well, uh, you just plug it in and uh-oh....' (enormous round of laughter from audience) '...well, I guess that's why we're not releasing it quite yet!'
Best-timed BSOD ever ;-)
Only 1 Linux image on a mainframe is inefficient (Score:5, Insightful)
Advertising. (Score:5, Interesting)
At that time, there were a few 'jinks' planned for the release that were not, strictly speaking, legal.
They knew that they'd get their wrists slapped, perhaps fined heavily.
The company take on it? They knew they may get caught up for it, and slapped hard. But these jinks would get the 'message' across in a spectacular way.
Nobody looked too hard at the slapdown and retractions, because they simply avoided the limelight. They had to look apologetic to the right people in private, and it was all forgotten.
But people at large simply remembered the original advertising stunt.
In this, it's the same thing again. They knew they'd be held up by the ASA, and torn down a strip, and forced to stop the advertisement.
However, they also know that the tech-unsure IT Managers and CIOs and so on will probably see it, and start saying "See, this Linux thing isn't so cheap after all! Stay with MS".
Advertising like that is meant to stay in the head along with the words 'survey' and masquerade as fact, so that in a future discussion that's on the subject, they won't say "I saw an advert that said Linux is more expensive than Windows", they'll say "I saw a SURVEY that showed how windows was cheaper to run than Linux".
Damage already done. Although the lie has been caught it's already spread, masquerading as fact.
They've earned their money, MS will pay any required fines (they've probably already been built into the pitch before it was released), and MS will be smiling all the way as the flung mud sticks, as it always does.
Re:Advertising. (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds fair to me.
advertising IS BAD ! (Score:4, Interesting)
advertisers calculate ~like this :
a lot of people are too lazy to do their own reserch
a lot of people are too dumb to do their own reserch
about the remained ~5%, we don't care
and the obvious conclusion - it don' matter what crap you tell them, make it sound nice and they'll buy
as about stigmatising MS for this .. i don' wanna say they are the nicest company, but ANY big company that ever did advertising, had at least one similar campaign
or think about this sample AFAIR, Carlsberg ran a spot saying "Carlsberg - probably the best beer in the world"
think about the uproar after a "Windows - probably the best OS in the world"
advertising is the real bad-guy here, not MS ... advertising takes away your freedom of choice by exploiting your lazyness or dumbness ... and they do it so good, most of people even enjoy it!
Americans (Score:4, Informative)
Duh! (Score:3, Funny)
Finally we have proof that government does watch TV.
Oh, right the Jackson thingy, well I guess now we have proof that the governemnt watches TV even when boobs are not on display.
When will they really be punished? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's simple really... (Score:3, Funny)
His lips are moving.
(Or, in this case, his fingers are typing.;)
Re:It's simple really... (Score:3, Funny)
I almost got a marketing degree, then I figured out I wasn't qualified, I had a conscience!
The Webserver Example (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you've got to look at common examples where the profit margin is thin, highly competitive, and tightly linked to actual operating overhead. If you an price web hosting, a Windows/IIS solution is more expensive than a Unix-based one. The cheapest hosts are always Unix-based, and ironically they tend to also be the most "reliable" (according to uptime....)
I'm sure there are examples of where the TCO of Windows on the same hardware is cheaper than something Unix-based, but for most serious work, Unix still rules.
Not the first time... (Score:5, Funny)
The Damage Is Done (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, the UK Advertising Standards Authority have no authority, and there are likely no repercussions for Microsoft. Many whom have read those false claims and erroneous statements (and especially the poor saps that bought into it) will likely never hear the truth. The lies have been perpetrated and spread. It's like the old man who climbs to the top of a mountain and releases a bag of feathers to a mighty gust of wind. Those feathers are like lies: they spread to the four corners of the earth and are impossible to retract.
Advertising Standards Authority? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't like the truth (Score:4, Insightful)
Advertising has always played around the fringes of the truth, like system specs. But lately it's gone from stretching the truth to inventing it.
I complained to OSDN (Score:5, Interesting)
I stated at the time that I thought they would be in breach of UK advertising law.
This Ad. was also hosted by Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
Only 10 times as expensive? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Statistics (Score:3, Funny)
"We are delighted with the increase of the usage of statistics, " said Chris Banana, the CEO of the ISC, "after the decline of previous year we have campained 150% more to encourage a 76% increase in statistics usage."
Independent inquiries with the goal of producing statistics have also risen 45% according to an independent study
Re:Not surprising it came from the UK (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, they were.
I've also had good experiences with the ASA on a non-computing related matter (well, only tangentially related anyway). There were adverts for an online gambling site's poker service put up in Tube trains, with titles like "Sucker", "Gullible" and "Greedy", each one having an arrow pointing straight down at whoever was unfortunate enough to be sat on the seat beneath.
Which included me.
Unwilling to be called gullible purely for the sake of some slimy gambling joint grabbing more cash, I went via the ASA website and complained. Apparently I wasn't the only one, and it took just three weeks for the adverts to be withdrawn. A good result I think.
Oh, and yes - you'll have heard of these cretins should you be unlucky enough to see pop-up ads still. I'm certainly not giving them any free publicity by mentioning their name here though.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Not surprising it came from the UK (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're doing it for commercial gain, yes. If it's your genuine opinion about me - nothing I can do except try to refute it.
That's the difference. This was commercial speech, not personal. It is not an advert's place to put a blanket insult pointing at a random person using a public space.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:No no no, this is good news (Score:4, Informative)
Just to clear up some misconceptions about the mainframe:
Mainframes don't just get their power from having faster CPUs:
- The z/Series I/O architecture is far more efficient, requiring significantly less CPU overhead than x86 designs.
- IBM implements bleeding-edge tech into their hardware designs, things that are a good 2-5 years ahead of the consumer market. Of course, you wind up paying a premium for the priviledge...
- The most recent designs are geared toward grid computing and server-farm-in-a-box implementations. Sysplex and the coupling facility (think Beowulf clusters), shared kernels, and so on.
For an interesting overview of the benefits of using a z/Series mainframe as a server farm, I'd suggest reading this article -
http://eservercomputing.com/mainframe/articles/in
False claims? (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps a little more than a year ago, I personally made the assertion that Linux is great...even unmatched on the server side, especially for the cost involved but even without costs considered, I think Linux does an amazingly good job. But I also said Liunx is not ready for the desktop as I found it slow, unstable and barely usable.
What has changed? I have better hardware though that shouldn't have been the difference. We have newer X releases, new Open Office releases, GNOME wasn't even 2.0 at the time was it?
In any case, what has changed is largely my lazy ass. One day I just decided it was time to learn to use the thing as more than a server. And without many failures (I have this little digital camera for which no Linux support exists), I haven't run into any task I couldn't complete with satisfaction under (currently) Fedora Core 2. (please, I know there are other distros and KDE "Kicks De Ess!" and all that, but I'm comfortable with GNOME and FC2)
My point here is that at this point in time, I truly feel it's ready for prime time. More than that, I feel it's NEEDED prime time. The net has been getting a lot of attention for being unsafe for machines with a Microsoft OS. There are too many holes to plug even for experts in the field so I cannot imagine how helpless end users feel (though from my view they seem like helpless children getting f*cked up the ass and don't yet realize that this is immoral and wrong.)
The only thing that needs to change at this point in time are the minds of users.
But like the adoption of USB technology, it's a kind of chicken-egg thing. And ultimately, it was the makers of hardware that brought realization of the potential of USB. I suspect it will again be manufacturers (of PCs this time) that will bring realization of Linux's potential on the desktop.
It's ready. It's just a matter of whether we can get the hardware people out there to support Linux better.
Re:took longer then expected.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows not only costs more to purchase, in my experience it also costs for more to administer. I ran a huge farm of servers (hundreds of 4-CPU servers) that could run both NT and UNIX, and it took 4x as many sysadmin's per server to keep the _same_ servers running under NT than UNIX. On top of that, we could tune the UNIX environment to the application far better than NT, so we also got 2x the performance on the same app's under UNIX than NT (so we had to run the same app on 2x as many servers). This meant that in large scale production, we consistently (several years) measured NT as costing 8x as much as UNIX to run. Of course, you also have to factor in NT's relative instability as a server environment (try running ASP's with DLL's), but that hardly helps NT's case.
So let's rephrase your statement as: "There is more to cost than the software. My time is worth at least $50 an hour. And so if I have to muck around with a commercial piece of software more than free it can quickly become even more "expensive" than its free counterpart.
Would you take a commercial car if it cost $1,000 for gas and maintenance?"
There, that's better.