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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/opensource/0,3800004943,39151811,00.htm

OSDL shuns Microsoft's Linux collaboration offer
'My marketing budget's bigger than yours...'?

By Jo Best

Published: Tuesday 30 August 2005

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), home of Linus Torvalds, is unlikely to be accepting Microsoft's offer to jointly finance research into the Windows v Linux debate.

The offer, made by Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy Martin Taylor to the head of the OSDL Stuart Cohen, would have seen the pair working together to create what Microsoft termed "fact-based, independent" research into which of the two platforms had any 'total cost of ownership' advantage.

The OSDL's Cohen said following talks with Microsoft's Taylor, the exact details of what the pair discussed will remain out of the public eye.

He said: "Martin Taylor of Microsoft invited me to meet with him to discuss shared research and other topics at LinuxWorld and I accepted. Martin proposed that our meeting stay confidential in order to be as productive as possible and I agreed."

However, it seems the OSDL is unlikely to be taking up the offer due to how Microsoft could use the findings for its marketing drive on the Windows v Linux debate.

Cohen added: "As far as working with Microsoft on a study, I explained that Microsoft could probably find one negative line on Linux in a 100-page research report that it would spend $10m marketing while ignoring the other 99 pages. Why would OSDL want to participate in that?"