p2pnet - rss feed: MS anti-Linux ad ‘misleading’
p2pnet.net News:- A Microsoft UK “WEIGHING THE COST OF LINUX VS. WINDOWS? LET’S REVIEW THE FACTS” magazine ad has been nailed as misleading by Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Last year, Microsoft was pulled up in South Africa for implying that its software will bring about the extinction of the hacker.
The UK ad, by McCann Erickson, features a graph comparing the cost (US$) per Megabit per second of, “One Linux image running on two z900 mainframe CPUs” with “One Windows Server 2003 image running on two 900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs”, says the ASA.
Underneath it stated, “Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows” and, “a recent study audited by leading independent research analyst Meta Group, measured costs of Linux running on IBM’s z900 mainframe for Windows-comparable functions of file serving and Web serving. The results showed that IBM z900 mainframe running Linux is much less capable and vastly more expensive than Windows Server 2003 as a platform for server consolidation.*”
The asterisk led to a footnote reading, “Results may vary outside the United States”.
“The advertisement was misleading”
“The Authority noted the advertisers intended the advertisement to compare competing file serving set-ups that met the same needs and had the same function,” says the ASA finding here, going on:
“It noted the study was audited and was a fair comparison of the operating systems on different hardware. The Authority considered, however, that because the advertisement stated ‘WEIGHING THE COST OF LINUX VS. WINDOWS? / Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows’ it implied the comparison was between Linux and Windows operating systems only, and not about the performance of operating systems on different hardware.
“It took expert advice. It understood that the study measured the cost of Linux, running on IBM’s z900 mainframe, to a Windows Server 2003 image, running on 900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs, and was therefore a comparison that demonstrated the price and performance between IBM zSeries hardware and Intel Xeon CPUs. It understood that the price performance figures in the advertisement were a simplified and fair representation of that comparison.
“The Authority understood, however, that the measurements for Linux were performed on an IBM zSeries, which was more expensive and did not perform as well as other IBM Series and that the advertisement implied running a Linux system was, in general ten times more expensive than running a Windows operating system. It understood that it would have been possible to compare the two operating systems on the same hardware.
“The Authority considered that readers would infer that the advertisement compared Linux and Windows operating systems only and that the advertisement implied running Linux operating systems were, in general, ten times more expensive than running a Windows operating system. Because the comparison included the hardware, as well as the operating system and therefore did not show that running a Linux operating system was ten times more expensive than running a Windows operating system, the Authority concluded that the advertisement was misleading.”
Go here for the full Microsoft study.
“Microsoft software is littered with vulnerabilities”
In March last year, the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) ruled that a Microsoft ad “implying that its software will bring about the extinction of the hacker” was “unsubstantiated and misleading,” says a report in ITWeb here.
The ad features a picture of the extinct dodo bird, wooly mammoth, sabre-toothed tiger - and a hacker. “Its caption states: ‘Microsoft software is carefully designed to keep your company’s valuable information in, and unauthorised people and viruses out’,” says the story, goin gon:
“Which means that your data couldn’t really be safer, even if you kept it in a safe. Which is great news for the survival of your company. But tragic news for hackers.”
An objection was lodged by freelance journalist Richard Clarke, in his personal capacity, who complained that the advert was untrue. He claimed Microsoft software is littered with vulnerabilities.
