Linux Foundation sets record for stating bleeding obvious

Sam Varghese
Friday, 15 October 2010 09:34

Opinion and Analysis

Until this morning, I was convinced that the late Benjamin Disraeli had it down pat when he said that there are three forms of deception - lies, damn lies and statistics.

Now I think he should have added "and Linux Foundation surveys" as well.

The Foundation, the body that allegedly works to promote the take-up of GNU/Linux, has published the results of a survey which is, no doubt, designed to provide a boost to the take-up of the operating system.

But the one word that fits when one tries to describe the figures therein is rubbery. For one, the Foundation has teamed up with a one-year-old company called Yeoman Technologies to carry out the survey. What does Yeoman do? "We focus technologies impact on your sales and operations models, especially as it relates to online sales." Yeah, whatever that means.

Secondly, the survey itself says: "This invitation-only survey pool was comprised of The Linux Foundation End User Council as well as other companies, organizations (sic) and government agencies selected by The Linux Foundation and Yeoman."

That seems to somewhat contradict this open invitation by Yeoman Technologies to a web survey. But, never mind, as the Americans say, it's time to move on.

The survey, if one takes the trouble to download and read it - and boy, does the Foundation make one jump through hoops to obtain a survey about free and open source software - makes it plain that responses from 387 individuals were the focus of the survey. This, despite there being 1948 Linux users who were reportedly invited to submit data.

There is an element of confusion here. At the start of the survey, it says: "The Linux Foundation, in partnership with Yeoman Technology Group, recently conducted a survey of 1948 Linux users. This invitation-only survey pool was comprised of The Linux Foundation End User Council as well as other companies, organizations (sic) and government agencies selected by The Linux Foundation and Yeoman. This paper reports on the findings of that survey, with a focus on the 387 respondents who represent the largest enterprise companies and government agencies, identified as organizations (sic) with $500 million or more a year in revenues or greater than 500 employees.

But at the end of the survey, it says: "The results of this survey were based on responses from 387 IT professionals from organizations (sic) with $500m or more a year in revenues or 500+ employees."

So what is it - a focus on 387 or a focus on only 387? There is a difference, you know.