http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22460 By Guy Matthews 11 April 2005 HELL HATH NO fury like a Linux devotee scorned. An analyst, just doing her job by writing about open source software, has been the victim of a furious barrage of criticism, much of it personal, from elements within the Linux community. Yankee Group software analyst Laura DiDio put out a report last week daring to suggest, based on extensive research, that Microsoft Windows Server 2003 may be as good as, if not in some respects better than, Linux in terms of quality, performance and reliability. A virtual techie "fatwa" seems to have been the result. Her views have been repeatedly savaged by Linux apologists, accusing her of bias in favour of Microsoft. DiDio has hit back denying any such leanings, but the self-appointed Ayatollahs of open source have paid no heed. Instead DiDio has had to put up with being branded DiDiot on open source forums, and has even been telephoned at home after 11pm by people she has described as 'nut jobs' and "an extremist fringe of Linux loonies". DiDio says the Yankee Group end user study her analysis was based on is strictly independent, and not something she has any personal influence over. This is not the first evidence suggesting a strong streak of unreasonable insanity in the Linux community. Last year security analyst firm Mi2g claimed Linux was getting hacked more frequently than Windows, the resulting brouhaha leading it to declare on its web site that "any empirical evidence pointing to a high level of online Linux breaches is immediately shot down by religious zealots as if a church had been desecrated". Let's hope the BBC doesn't televise an opera about it, or we're all in trouble. _________________________________________ Network Security - http://www.auditmypc.com Free vulnerability test - How secure is your computer?
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