LinuxHall presentation
I was
presenting the solution of Linux based terminals for
Czech Post (~15000 clients) at
LinuxHall conference,
INVEX
computer fair in Brno, CZ.
The most interesting (at least for me) was the presentation by two guys (very similar duo like "Bob
and Tom" from TELE TELE show in one Czech TV) from local Microsoft offices. Their presentation
started with the fact of comparison of security issues found in Windows 2000 operating system
(without database servers, without mail clients, without firewalls, without antivirus
etc. ie. completely unusable system) and complete distributions of GNU/Linux operating system
(e.g. Debian GNU/Linux with about ~10 mail clients, several database servers etc. ie. completely
usable system). Yes, comparing absolute values of issues in both entities, not relative values. And
I bet they would count XP SP2 as one fix.
I think this is either: bad communication strategy (read: both presenters were very bad at
Microsoft's "school") or the beginning of the end of Microsoft corporation. If lying (read:
misrepresenting facts as they want to present them) even before very knowledgeable public is their
tactics, they are on the way to loose their customers.
But to be fair, I have to say that I was pleased by the attitude of other Microsoft' employees. Some
of them are pretty fair and open and this is what the open-source community values.
Update: and to be completely fair: one Microsoft employee even acknowledged that the
presentation misrepresents facts.
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