Gartner's Advice on SCO, vs. the Real Story, per Netcraft
Tim O'Reilly
Aug. 02, 2003 04:32 PM
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I had an interesting email the other day from Mike Prettejohn of Netcraft, in which he contrasts the "go slow with Linux" advice of the Gartner Group in the wake of the SCO lawsuit with the tale of the tape as Netcraft sees it:
Have you seen the amount of mileage Gartner's recomendations
are getting?
"Gartner Group recommend that companies delay deployment of
critical Linux
applications, determine "whether Unix or Windows will provide
functions
equivalent to those of Linux deployments", and take a
"go-slow" approach to
Linux in high-value or mission-critical production systems."
(Quoted on Slashdot and in The Register.)
As it turns out, as far as their internet presence goes, big
companies are doing the exact opposite; over 100 enterprise
sites run by probably the very same Fortune 1000 and global
near equivalent companies that recieved the SCO letter have
switched to Linux since May, including Schwab.com.
It wouldn't be the first time that Gartner have been completely
ignored - remember eighteen months ago when they recommended everyone should ditch Microsoft-IIS [because of security loopholes], and so far I don't think many people have changed their behaviour. Basically people are less jumpy than Gartner expects."
I've thought for a long time that Netcraft represents a real revolution in market research. Firms like Gartner can tell you what they think people are going to do. Folks like Netcraft can tell you what people are actually doing. To be sure, Netcraft is just looking at what's web-visible, but as technology progresses, there is going to be more and more types of data visible, and this will lead to a revolution in market research.
Tim O'Reilly
is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, and an
activist for open standards. O'Reilly Media also publishes online
through the O'Reilly Network and hosts
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geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a
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Showing messages 1 through 9 of 9.
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"Who Owns Gartner?" article
2003-11-18 08:12:50
anonymous2
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Probably...
2003-08-03 10:47:42
bjohnson
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Gartner has history of cluelessnes
2003-08-03 10:08:44
anonymous2
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Gartner has history of cluelessnes
2003-08-04 13:17:22
anonymous2
[Reply | View]
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Gartner's message was clear as mud
2003-08-03 09:53:17
anonymous2
[Reply | View]
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Gartner's Motives Suspect
2003-08-03 08:45:28
intheknow
[Reply | View]
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SCO vs. Gartner
2003-08-03 06:37:47
anonymous2
[Reply | View]
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SCO vs. Gartner
2003-08-03 07:19:56
anonymous2
[Reply | View]
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SCO vs. Gartner
2003-08-04 11:54:32
anonymous2
[Reply | View]
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Showing messages 1 through 9 of 9.
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The article raises the *question* of whether the VC firm will influence Gartner's analysis, but it doesn't provide any answers. It's possible that the research will continue to be independent, but businesses are much more skeptical of these arrangements following scandals involving financial analysts who distorted research under pressure from their parent companies.
Who Owns Gartner?
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15800394