Written December 2007
By Cliff Feldwick
One of the more perfect acronyms of the computer industry (which must be out in other fields as well – it’s far too good to be restricted) is FUD – short for “fear, uncertainty and doubt”. It’s sometimes also known as “fear, uncertainty and dread”, which has an even neater, more ominous tone. Originally restricted to disinformation about your competitors, it was the driving thought behind the old saying that “no one ever got fired for buying IBM”. By implying that while the competition might be as good, just maybe they weren’t and why take the chance, it was a pretty good sales tactic.
Of course, other fields have their equivalent. Lawyers have certainly used threats of lawsuits that they knew would fail, but defendants would just settle rather than spend the money fighting. Wall Street takeover artists also buy stock in a company with the hope that the board of directors will pay them to go away rather than cause problems.
Microsoft (MS) has taken up the mantle of chief FUD artist in recent years. Since FUD is also defined as “a manifestation of an appeal to fear”, it explains why people will often forgo a technically superior product, especially in large corporate environments, because their bosses are more likely to recognize the mainstream brand.
Combining the two elements, MS lawyers have tried to cow the open source (Linux) community by alleging that Linux violates 235 of MS’s patents. Which ones, of course, they won’t say publicly, holding that back for the threat of lawsuit.
In a famous personality’s words, “How’s that working for you?” Fortunately, not that well for MS. People like Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, have seen a lot and are not easily coerced. In fact, they have countered that if MS did in fact disclose what patents were being infringed, it would open MS to easily having their claims discredited, or worked around. Torvalds also noted that much of the original, pre-patent computer work (back in the days when patents weren’t being handed out like Halloween candy) was done by IBM, and that MS would probably be at risk for suits from IBM if they tried to take credit for it.
So open source software, though not likely to ever pose a serious threat to commercial versions such as Office, will continue to carry on and even make inroads. Interestingly enough, the Howard County Library recently announced that they were going to an open source version of their patron software, citing the increased cost and lack of support of the commercial packaged software they used in the past. In what is often the case, they will pay a third-party company to modify a free open source kernel to suit their needs and desires. The fact that the code at the heart of the program is available to anyone (hence “open source”) and changeable makes this possible.
How low can you go?
Remember my comments on the Ryan townhouses rising on the scorched earth of Dorsey Hall back in September? (OK, so it’s not a quiz). They started out in “the high 400’s”, went to “the 410’s”, then “the high 390’s”. It might have been easier to have the changeable neon signs like the gas stations. Anyway, the latest version is “mid 350’s”, a recent and severe drop. This keeps up and birds will start roosting on the ledges formed by the pasting of new price stickers on their signs. Still won’t bring the trees back.
What Holiday do they have in mind? Thanksgiving?
Is it just me, or are all the “holiday events” coming earlier and earlier? By the end of November, the Howard Chamber, the BWCC, and several private companies will have finished their celebrations. The Columbia Business Exchange is the only one that comes to mind in December. Everybody shifting like a herd does not prevent conflicts.
The Morning After
As I write this, it is the morning after the special session of the state legislature, which addressed tax hikes and budgets. Interestingly enough, both the Sun and Post stories highlighted the new sales tax on computer services, with confusion sure to ensue. For instance, “hardware or software installation, maintenance or repair” is taxable, but Internet access, computer training and telecommunications are not. So if a client calls and complains that they can’t get on the Internet and I discover it’s because of spyware, and install Spybot Search and Destroy, a free download, is it taxable? I’m sure the state will say it is, but at least some attorneys (many of whom are clients) will disagree. Ought to be fun. Just shows that computer dudes need to go lobby more – a lesson for everyone. It certainly was amusing that the original sales tax proposals included attorney fees. With probably 98% of the legislature being attorneys, what was the chance of that happening? They were just pulling a joke, obviously.
Cliff Feldwick is president of Riverside Computer Consultants, and does (for a limited time only) non-taxable data restoration, network setup and general computer troubleshooting for small businesses. He enjoys a joke as much as anybody, especially from politicians. He can be reached at 410-880-0171 or at cliff