11 Documents Showing Microsoft Tried To Destroy Linux

Key Takeaways

nowadays it's pretty common to hear how much Microsoft says they love Linux and they love open source and this may be true or it may be a long-term marketing strategy I don't really know and nobody outside of the company really has any idea without having access to internal memos really all you can go by is the actions and statements they make but there was a time when it was really really clear where Microsoft stood on Linux all the way back in 1991 Linux first began it was created as a humble little project by a Young University student called lioness torvolds but very very quickly and likely far quicker than lioness ever expected it became much much more than that by 1998 the internet had gained considerably more traction no longer was it just about sending emails now there was all of these website where early videos being hosted and images and all this fun stuff but she needed something to run the web servers and Linux at the time and even today is a really popular way to run a server and while not being happy about this Microsoft was tolerating it what they weren't tolerating was Linux encroaching on the desktop space there was a time in the past where Linux legitimately could have taken over at least become a big part of the desktop that regular people use Microsoft was really really worried about this and we know they were worried because of two internal leaked memos leaked to Eric s Raymond and judging by the description Eric knows who leaked them starting on October 1998 this became what is known as the Halloween documents and expose on how Microsoft planned to destroy Linux not Embrace extend and extinguish crush it under its foot document One open source software a new development methodology released internally on August 11 1998. now if I read the entirety of every Halloween document we're gonna be here for a couple of hours I'm going to focus on the key takeaways and leave everything Linked In the description down below OSS open source software poses a direct short-term revenue and platform threat to Microsoft particularly in server space additionally the intrinsic parallel parallel parallelism and free idea Exchange in open source software has benefits that are not replicable with our current licensing model and therefore present a long-term developer mind share threat recent case studies the internet provide very dramatic evidence that commercial quality can be achieved slash exceeded by open source software projects and today that's truer than ever Critter is in the same conversation as clip paint studio and Photoshop basically every streamer out there uses OBS and blender blender needs no introduction let alone the server space which is primarily Linux Linux and other open source software Advocates are making a progressively more credible argument that open source software is at least as robust if not more than commercial Alternatives the internet provides an ideal High Visa ability showcase for the open source software World Linux equals best of breed Unix Linux outperforms many other unix's in most Major Performance category Network disk IO process CTX switch Etc to grow their feature base Linux has also liberally stolen features of other unix's shell features file systems Graphics CPU ports only Unix OS to gain market share Linux is on track to eventually own the x86 Unix market and they've absolutely done that moving on to document 2 Linux OS competitive analysis the next Java VM this one was also published internally at the same time August 11th and in many ways sings the Praises of Linux consumers love it most of the primary apps that people require when they move to Linux are already available for free you this includes web servers pop clients mail servers text editors Jesus this really has aged itself an advanced win32 GUI user would have a short learning cycle to become more productive under Linux I previously had ie4 slash nt4 on the scene box and by comparison the combination of Linux Navigator ran at least 30 to 40 percent faster when rendering simple HTML and graphics and Linux is emerging as a key operating system in the nascent thin server market now I know a lot of people love Eric s Raymond but some of the key quotes are a little bit misrepresented for example long term my simple experiments do indicate that Linux is a chance at the desktop Market what it actually says is but only after massive investment in ease of use and configuration the average desktop user is unfamiliar with to make this makes it seem like they're a lot more worried right now than they really are also the famous quote about thud open source software is long-term credible flood tactics cannot be used to combat it the actual quote is the other way round first we have a definition of how flood is used Loosely applied to the vernacular of software industry a product slash process is long-term credible if flood tactics cannot be used to combat it open source software is long-term credible but at the time Microsoft wasn't exactly in public favor we'll say and initially didn't want to touch this with a 10-foot pole the original author even said he refused to confirm nor deny the validity of these documents but they got a lot of attention they got a lot of public press and eventually someone had to make a statement you'd think that Microsoft HQ would make the statement no it was Microsoft Netherlands this became Halloween document 3. Microsoft's reaction to the Halloween memorandum it appears to be a document written within Microsoft in August with some annotation by others it's very true it is routine and appropriate for Microsoft and we would assume all other vendors to research write about and assess all competitors both from a business model point of view and from a technical point of view it is not an official position by Microsoft on Linux it is a technical analysis written by an engineer in a staff capacity and designed to encourage discussion and if I'm being completely honest that is probably the best thing they could have said because it sounds completely reasonable like any other business would say but they did make a statement on Linux sometimes Linux competes with Windows NT this is hardly news but it's not NT versus Linux dramatically demonstrates the wildly different business models of the OS Marketplace and the vigorous competition at every level technical alliances applications channels and business model that characterize the industry in addition how the Linux is an alternative to slash competitor for other versions of Unix especially risk Unix in fact this may be the more powerful effect in the marketplace the negatives are stuck however no long-term roadmap and no way to get one this has worked out pretty well actually back then you could say it was a bad idea but 23 25 years later it seems like it's played out pretty well individuals are a non-scalable factor in the development at various control points basically meaning there are some key projects that like one or two people work on and yes this is a legitimate concern but if something is incredibly valuable usually someone steps up to take it over if not we move to something different no intellectual property protection means that deep in Investments needed by the industry and infrastructure will gravitate to other business models isn't up to you to defend your own intellectual property not like the amorphous blob of Linux I'm not sure what's trying to be said there and unless Linux violates IEP rights it will fail to deliver Innovation over the long run I'll just leave that one there and from then on Eric used the term Halloween documents to refer to all manner of other things about Microsoft document 4 when software things were rotten this is a satire piece by Eric based on a quote from a Microsoft executive Edmund moth complex projects complex projects will require big teams and big Capital these are things that Robin Hood and his merry band in Sherwood Forest aren't well attuned to do I guess this is supposed to be insulting Linux but last I checked Robin Hood is treated as the hero document number five the thud begins this is a reply to Edmund moth in a zedina article from March 4th 1999 where he said the more I study Linux the weaker I think the value proposition is for consumers document number six the Fatal anniversary this is a response to five reports from the Gartner group where they slammed Linux and predicted that its appeal would end once Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000 came out now it's all well and good to put out a report like that and do that research the issue is um what it said in the small print at the end Microsoft web letter is published by Microsoft additional editorial material supplied by Gartner group and at the time was located at www.gartner.com webletter slash Microsoft but they claimed the research was in no way written or funded by Microsoft this was entirely done by the Gartner group they very quickly changed things around to remove this and uh move the document but you know people spotted what was happening but technically the report itself not funded by Microsoft only Gartner group themselves is funded by Microsoft and that takes us to document seven survey says while being based on a Microsoft document isn't based on a leaked internal memo this is a summary of results of a Microsoft survey describing reactions to Microsoft's shared Source initiative this is a really weird program you may never have actually heard of Microsoft will actually share internal source code for things like Windows and word and a bunch of other things to specific Partners the issue is sometimes that source code may get leaked um Microsoft is very picky about who they share it with and sadly for Microsoft the survey indicates that pretty much everyone is at least partially aware of Open Source software but basically no one had ever heard of the Microsoft shared Source initiative but another very interesting takeaway is Microsoft straight up admitting what they tried to do to Linux and the GPO messages that criticize open source software Linux and the GPL are not effective messaging the discusses possible Linux patent violation pings the open source software development process for lacking accountability attempts to call out the viral aspect of the GPO and the like are only marginally effective in deriving unfavorable opinions around open source software Linux and the GPO and in some cases backfire on the other hand positive open source software Linux and GPL messages are very effective both across geographies and audiences now document 8 is where things start to get really weird doing the damage control dance this is a leaked internal Microsoft email we need to more effectively respond to press reports regarding governments and other major institutions considering open source software alternative to our products we must be prepared to respond to announcements such as this one by Japan government or prior announcements in Peru Germany Etc quickly and with facts to counter the perception that large institutions are deploying open source software or Linux when they are only considering or just piloting the technology announcements by governments are quickly reported around the world and require more coordination in several instances our ability to communicate effectively has been hindered by a lack of integration across groups in Redmond and the subsidiaries Microsoft was very aware that Linux was taking up a lot of the back end use and a lot of major institutions were picking up Linux yes it's just a trail but a lot of the time those Trails go to full deployment now only three left document number nine it ain't necessarily the SEO this is a response by Rob landley and Eric s Raymond to the SEO group over its initial filings in SEO versus IBM this was a lawsuit where they were claiming that IBM was in violation of their Unix license by working on Linux what's far more interesting is document 10 follow the money this is a leaked email between Mike andera and Chris on tag from the SEO in March 2004 where it's very likely that Microsoft was at least partially funding this lawsuit I realized the last negotiations are not as much fun but Microsoft will have brought in a 86 million Force including base star the next deal we should be able to get 16 to 20 million dollars but it will be brutal as it is for go-to maker kit work and some licenses this is a horrible email by the way but the funny thing about it is in a conference call with SEO it was indicated they only have 68.5 million in cash reserves so they'd probably be 15 million in debt if Microsoft didn't fund them that may be a misunderstanding but that's the way it seemed and finally document 11 get the fun a response from Eric to Microsoft's get the facts campaign in 2004 a campaign fighting against even further growing use of Linux servers and even though in the years since it's been taken down we have the internet we have archive.org and it made fun one claims like Linux planning costs were five percent to 25 higher Linux training costs were 15 higher on average on average Microsoft had a fix available 25 days after security issue was publicly disclosed Microsoft was the only vendor to have corrected a hundred percent of the publicly known flaws during the studies time period Windows has the fewest vulnerabilities and the fewest highly severity vulnerabilities of any platform measured and with that that is the end of the Halloween documents since 2004 there has been no extra ones added into the list maybe one day there will be another one I don't know but I hope now that when someone says Halloween documents and just says it out of nowhere with no context you have some idea of what they are talking about maybe in the future I'll do like a deep dive on the individual documents but for now that's gonna be it for me so let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below did you know about the Halloween documents is this something entirely new to you I would love to know and if you like this video go and like the video and if you really liked the video and you want to become one of these amazing people over here go check out my patreon at scribes the libero pay linked down below I'm very hungry now this recording has been almost two hours long I'm gonna make some lunch so peace out [Applause] [Music]