Lol :D very true, would be nice though wouldnt it. Anyway, however they explain how a "toy" is controlling the vast majority of the worlds servers, the oil, aviation, car and defense industries not to mention gaining serious ground in the thin client desktop arena, ill never know.
<handwave class="jedi">This is not the operating system you're looking for</handwave>
Anyway: Microsoft's 'solution' to this is pretty simple: if you don't like the numbers, just make up new ones that make you look better.
They launched a "get the facts" campaign with acompanying roadshow, where they were actually traveling around with a big truck educating the public about the evils of open source and the vastly superior microsoft way.
http://catb.org/~esr/halloween/halloween11.html
Among others they were claiming that running linux was ten times as expensive as running Windows.
No, I'm serious.
Really.
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3414651
In August, the Advertising Standards Authority, a United Kingdom agency charged with monitoring fairness and accuracy in ads, ordered Microsoft to pull an ad based on a server test conducted by META Group. The ASA found that claims that Linux is more than 10 times more expensive than Windows Server 2003 wasn't supported by the tests. The study in question remains the top report on Microsoft's Get the Facts site. Morgan said she did not know whether the study was independent or Microsoft-funded, and that information isn't provided on the site.
What I find absolutely astounding is this: Microsoft keeps claiming that the free software is a lot more expensive than the microsoft solution, mostly because of all the extra training involved. (I don't know about you, but few companies I've come across actually do any formal training on things like office suites anymore)
However: Even if you already have a Microsoft Office background, the latest version of OpenOffice is actually a lot EASIER for those people to pick up than the latest version of Microsoft Office, thanks to the radical redesign and departure from their long-standing menu structure... But not a peep about training there, of course.