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“Did anyone ever get sage advice from a high-school guidance counselor?” the Lynx laughingly asked himself at last weeks LinuxWorld in New York. The Katt flashed back to when his mentor advised him to “explore” the world of shipping and handling, as he pondered the current Meta Group controversy.
Meta, the self-proclaimed IT guidance counselor, last month released a client advisory that said Microsoft will begin moving some of its proprietary technologies to Linux by the end of next year. Much of the buzz at the show, however, was about customers balking at the credibility of the report.
While supposedly based on informal client interactions, the report offered specifics about which products Microsoft would move to Linux, as well as time frames for the moves.
Further industry speculation was sparked when Dale Kutnick—a co-founder of Meta Group—suddenly stepped down from his post as chief research officer less than two weeks after the advisory was released. Spencer spoke with Tabby tattlers at Microsoft—since Redmond had dismissed the advisory as speculative—and they assured him that Microsoft had “absolutely nothing” to do with Kutnicks decision and had not pressured Meta on the matter.
A Meta spokesman told Spencer the speculation couldnt be further from the truth and said the company hadnt heard from any “unhappy customers.” According to the spokesman, Kutnick will continue as board chairman and will deliver the keynotes for all Metas upcoming global conferences.
The Kitty was shocked when Morgan Stanley told reporters at a joint keynote presentation at LinuxWorld that they could not publish anything said by Jeffrey Birnbaum, the companys global enterprise bigwig, without its prior approval.
With all the questionable behavior that Wall Street brokerages have been accused of lately, the Katt figures trying to suppress freedom of the press—at a public forum no less—must have seemed like a walk in the park.
His Hirsuteness questioned whether he had stepped into an alternate universe when LinuxWorld offered another shocker: Not only did Microsoft have a booth at LinuxWorld, it actually won the Best System Integration Solution award for its Services for Unix 3.0 product.
At that point, the disoriented Puss wandered out to the Javits Center loading dock to see if they were hiring.