FUD

In the computer software industry, (and by extension, those who are connected with it) FUD is an abbreviation for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Table of contents

1 Defined 2 Recent developments 3 Other meanings 4 Footnotes 5 External links

Defined

FUD was first defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company, Amdahl: "FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products." (quoted in [1]) Eric S. Raymond speaks more about this in [1]:

\nThe idea, of course, was to persuade buyers to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors' equipment or software. After 1990 the term has become generalized to refer to any kind of disinformation used as a competitive weapon.\n

Opponents of certain large computer corporations claim that the spreading of fear, uncertainty, and doubt is an unethical marketing technique that these corporations consciously employ.

Recent developments

Recently, the term is frequently used in relation to Microsoft. The Halloween documents (leaked internal Microsoft documents whose authenticity is verifiable) use the term FUD to describe a potential tactic, as in "OSS is long-term credible ... [therefore] FUD tactics can not be used to combat it." [2] More recently, Microsoft has issued statements about the "viral nature" of the GNU General Public License (GPL), which Open Source proponents purport to be FUD. Microsoft's statements are often directed at the GNU/Linux community in particular, to discourage widespread Linux adoption, which could hurt Microsoft's marketshare. The SCO Group's 2003 lawsuit against IBM, claiming intellectual property infringements by the open source community, is also regarded by some as being an attempt at spreading FUD. In a delicious twist, IBM actually directly alleges, in its counterclaim to SCO's suit, that SCO is spreading FUD [3]. By spreading questionable information about the drawbacks of less well-known products, an established company can discourage decision-makers from choosing those products over its wares, regardless of the relative technical merits. This is a recognised phenomenon, epitomised by the belief of purchasing agents that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment. The result is that many companies' IT departments buy software which they know to be technically inferior because upper management is more likely to recognise the brand.

Other meanings

Fud:-Scottish colloquialism for female part of anatomy

Footnotes

1. Raymond, Eric S The Jargon File: FUD. [1]\n#Open Source Initiative. Halloween I: Open Source Software (New?) Development Methodology [1]\n#The SCO Group v IBM - answer to amended complaint and counterclaims (Undecided, US District Court - Utah, Kimball J, filed 6 August 2003) paragraph 23 [1]

External links

\n* FUD This article or an earlier version of it came from the Jargon File. Category:Propaganda