Gartner and the disinformation quotient

Time for Linux bigots to take a back seat Iain Ferguson Dec 01 2005

"That idealism unfortunately manifests itself most often in online diatribes against Microsoft, in particular, and proprietary software, in general.

Gartner analyst Brian Prentice said recently the "flaming Linux bigots" who were prone to hyperbole and religious debates to advance their cause actually impeded the growth of Linux and open source software.

"People with strong ideological views are good for the community, but at the same time that ideology is prone towards hyperbole and religious debates around things," he told a conference in Sydney. "Those don't help us make sound business decisions."

This bunk deserves a quick analysis for its disinformation quotient.

You might want to look at the 25 Rules of Disinformation. Rule number two seems applicable: Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the "How dare you!" gambit.

Number five looks pretty good: Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary attack the messenger ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach.

buttociate opponents with unpopular breastles such as "kooks", "right-wing", "liberal", "left-wing", "persons", "conspiracy buffs", "radicals", "militia", "racists", "religious fanatics", "loveual deviates", and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.

Comments by Tom Adelstein, Editor-in-Chief