The Windows Observer--Microsoft Spikes 'Get The Facts' Site for Less Hostile Comparisons

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Volume 4, Number 32 -- August 29, 2007

Microsoft Spikes 'Get The Facts' Site for Less Hostile Comparisons

Published: August 29, 2007

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

This week, Microsoft turned off the power on its long-running 'Get The Facts' competitive analysis site and replaced it with a new approach to helping potential Windows customers make better comparisons with Unix and Linux platforms.

The new site, called Windows Server/Compare, has the same basic mission: make the case for Windows over Unix or Linux. But rather than having a contentious attitude, the new Microsoft site (which is a lot slicker) has tools, whitepapers, research reports, and cases studies that make the individual arguments for Windows versus Linux and Windows versus Unix. The new approach focuses less on the religious wars between closed source software, exemplified by Microsoft and its Windows stack, and open source software, most famously deployed as the Linux stack, and more on how to make calm, rational purchasing decisions.

With open source software technologies becoming increasingly popular in the enterprise, arguing about open source is not productive for Microsoft--or any other company. And, by the way, neither is arguing for open source software just because it is open source. There are plenty of good, enterprise-class closed-source programs, and there are plenty of clunky and junky open source ones. The reverse of those two statements are also true. So, in the end, customers want to compare good programs with professional support options that run on popular server platforms, and that is really why Microsoft is changing the nature of its competitive discourse now.

Ryan Gavin, director of platform strategy at Microsoft, put it plain in a PressPass question and answer session, rattling off the three reasons for Microsoft's shift in tactics on the marketing front.

"First, we're continuing to work extremely hard every day to provide the best value for customers with Windows Server over the alternatives. Simply put, we believe that Windows Server provides greater business value and lower long-term costs for customers than competing platforms, including Linux. We always want Windows Server to be the operating system of choice," Gavin explained. "Second, we understand many of our customers operate in mixed environments. In the enterprise in particular, heterogeneous environments are a de facto standard, so we are committed to working together with our customers, partners and the industry to provide solutions that meet customer needs via interoperability. Third, it's important to clarify that we don't compete with open source software per se, but with some products or technologies that may come out of open source. There will naturally be products that compete with Microsoft products, from commercial or open-source companies. Open source is a software development model; it's a way of licensing technology, and it's something that Microsoft participates in. We have open source projects, an open source community site Port 25, and even an open source software lab here on campus that does a lot of work with the community, including looking at how we can improve interoperability."

Microsoft launched the 'Get The Facts' site, which is now gone, in January 2004 as it was under intense competitive pressure from Linux. As the market statistics have shown, Microsoft has done a brilliant job of blunting the Linux attack, because back them, Windows server revenue growth was slumping and it looked like only the Linux platform would be growing revenues in 2006 and beyond. Not so. After hitting a slump, Windows Server 2003 has caught a new stride, and it is probably safe to say that the delays in getting the "Longhorn" Windows Server 2008 version to market have helped rather than hurt Windows sales. The R2 updates of Windows Server 2003 addressed many security concerns; Patch Tuesday may be annoying but it works, and there is no shortage of certified applications on Windows Server 2003. This is, for most companies, the default, no-brainer platform of choice.