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.
"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 US$10 million marketing while ignoring the other 99 pages. Why would OSDL want to participate in that?" Cohen added.
Silicon.com's Jo Best reported from London. For more coverage from Silicon.com, click here.
<snip>"Why would OSDL want to participate in that?" Cohen added.</snip>
...because of the other 99 pages? If anyone's going to use the outcomes from this paper for deciding the future course for their company's platform, they're not going to take MS's word for it, they'll read the whole paper.
Sounds to me that Cohen's another Linux guru who cannot bear to see the least criticism levelled at it, even when fully justified.
Get out of the coop dude, this is in the interest of both sides, and it's in the interest of the consumer, which Linux (more so than MS) needs to persuade more effectively.