Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) is a sales or marketing strategy of disseminating negative (and vague) information on a competitor's product. The term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry and has since been used more broadly. FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear. Sales, or the activity of selling, forms an integral part of commercial activity. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Look up marketing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware. ... An appeal to fear (also called argumentum ad metum or argumentum in terrorem) is a logical fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for his or her idea by playing on existing fears and prejudices. ...

Definition

FUD was first defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company, Amdahl Corp.: "FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products."^[1] The term has also been attributed to veteran Morgan Stanley computer analyst Ulrich Weil. Gene Myron Amdahl (born November 16, 1922) is an American computer architect and hi-tech entrepreneur of Norwegian descent, chiefly known for his work on mainframe computers at International Business Machines (IBM) and later his own companies. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... Amdahl Corporation was founded by Dr. Gene Amdahl, a former IBM employee, in 1970, and specializes in IBM mainframe-compatible computer products. ... Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is an investment bank, retail broker, and credit card provider headquartered in New York City. ...

As Eric S. Raymond writes: "The 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 1991 the term has become generalized to refer to any kind of disinformation used as a competitive weapon."^[2] Eric S. Raymond (FISL 6. ... Disinformation, in the context of espionage, military intelligence, and propaganda, is the spreading of deliberately false information to mislead an enemy as to ones position or course of action. ...

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 recognized phenomenon, epitomized by the traditional axiom of purchasing agents that "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment". The result is that many companies' IT departments buy software that they know to be technically inferior because upper management is more likely to recognize the brand. Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)is: the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ... This article is about brands in marketing. ...

Recent developments

Although once it was usually attributed to IBM, in the 1990s and later the term became most often associated with industry giant Microsoft. Said Roger Irwin:^[3] Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ...

The Halloween documents (leaked internal Microsoft documents whose authenticity was verified by the company) use the term FUD to describe a potential tactic, as in "OSS is long-term credible … [therefore] FUD tactics cannot be used to combat it."^[4] More recently, Microsoft has issued statements about the "viral nature"^[5] of the GNU General Public License (GPL), which Open Source proponents describe as FUD. Microsoft's statements are often directed at the GNU/Linux community in particular, to discourage widespread Linux adoption, which is gaining market share off Microsoft. The Halloween documents are a series of confidential memoranda on potential strategies employed by Microsoft relating to open-source software and to Linux in particular; and a series of responses to these memoranda. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... GNU (pronounced ) is a computer operating system - consisting of a kernel, libraries, system utilities, compilers, and end-user application software - composed entirely of free software. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family. ...

SCO vs. IBM

The SCO Group's 2003 lawsuit against IBM, claiming $5 billion in intellectual property infringements by the free software community, is seen by many inside and out of the open source community as FUD. IBM noted in its counterclaim, that SCO is spreading "fear, uncertainty, and doubt".^[6] The SCO Group, Inc. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... On March 6, 2003, the SCO Group (formerly known as Caldera Systems) filed a $1 billion lawsuit in the US against IBM for allegedly devaluing its version of the UNIX operating system. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (movie). ... // The free software community is also called the open source community or the Linux community. ...

There has been no evidence presented that IBM violated SCO's intellectual property rights by distributing a Linux distribution with copied code. A months long study commissioned by SCO before the legal action "...found absolutely *nothing*. ie no evidence of any copyright infringement whatsoever."^[7] and no published accounts uphold SCO's position of stolen code.

Judge Kimball wrote in her order limiting SCO's claims: " The court finds SCO’s arguments unpersuasive. SCO’s arguments are akin to SCO telling IBM sorry we are not going to tell you what you did wrong because you already know...SCO was required to disclose in detail what it feels IBM misappropriated...the court finds it inexcusable that SCO is...not placing all the details on the table. Certainly if an individual were stopped and accused of shoplifting after walking out of Neiman Marcus they would expect to be eventually told what they allegedly stole. It would be absurd for an officer to tell the accused that “you know what you stole I’m not telling.” Or, to simply hand the accused individual a catalog of Neiman Marcus’ entire inventory and say “it’s in there somewhere, you figure it out."^[8] Categories: Stub | Retail companies of the United States ...

The fact that there is no substantiation of the claims didn't stop SCO from launching a very public fear campaign in 2003.

Darl McBride, President and CEO of SCO:

1. "IBM has taken our valuable trade secrets and given them away to Linux,"
2. "We're finding...cases where there is line-by-line code in the Linux kernel that is matching up to our UnixWare code"
3. "...unless more companies start licensing SCO's property...[SCO]may also sue Linus Torvalds...for patent infringement."
4. "Both companies [IBM and Red Hat] have shifted liability to the customer and then taunted us to sue them."
5. "We have the ability to go to users with lawsuits and we will if we have to, “It would be within SCO Group's rights to order every copy of AIX [IBM'S proprietary UNIX] destroyed,"
6. "As of Friday, June 13[2003], we will be done trying to talk to IBM, and we will be talking directly to its customers and going in and auditing them. IBM no longer has the authority to sell or distribute AIX and customers no longer have the right to use AIX software"
7. "if you just drag this out in a typical litigation path, where it takes years and years to settle anything, and in the meantime you have all this uncertainty clouding over the market..."
8. "users are running systems that have basically pirated software inside, or stolen software inside of their systems, they have liability."^[9]

The campaign evidently worked as SCO stock skyrocketed from under $5 a share to over $20 in a matter of weeks in 2003. It has since declined to around $1.20 as it has posted losses of nearly $40 million since 2003.^[10]

Non-computer uses

Main article: appeal to fear

FUD is now often used in non-computer contexts with the same meaning. For example, in politics the tactic is often used to attempt to alter public opinion on a particular issue or on an opposing group. Often, one group will accuse another group of utilizing FUD. Many critics of George W. Bush accused him of using a FUD-based campaign in the 2004 U.S. presidential election.^[11] Bush supporters likewise accused their opponents of using FUD by spreading rumors about a possible military draft should Bush be re-elected.^{[citation needed]} An appeal to fear (also called argumentum ad metum or argumentum in terrorem) is a logical fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for his or her idea by playing on existing fears and prejudices. ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ...

See also

• Appeal to fear
• Fanboyism
• Chewbacca defense
• Embrace, extend and extinguish
• Propaganda
• Tin-foil hat

An appeal to fear (also called argumentum ad metum or argumentum in terrorem) is a logical fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for his or her idea by playing on existing fears and prejudices. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Fan (person). ... Johnnie Cochran using the Chewbacca Defense against Chef in South Park. ... Microsoft, like many other companies in their heyday, has publicly stated that it aims to embrace and extend popular standards and existing work. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One U.S. propaganda poster, which warns against civilians sharing information on troop movements (National Archives) The much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You! poster Swedish Anti-Euro propaganda for the referendum of 2003. ... A tin-foil hat in use. ...

References

1. ^ Gene Amdahl, quoted in Eric S. Raymond, The Jargon File: FUD".
2. ^ Eric S. Raymond, "The Jargon File: FUD".
3. ^ Irwin, Roger (1998). What is FUD. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
4. ^ Open Source Initiative. "Halloween I: Open Source Software (New?) Development Methodology"
5. ^ Press release from Microsoft which has viral nature of open-source quote
6. ^ The SCO Group v IBM - answer to amended complaint and counterclaims (Undecided, US District Court - Utah, Kimball J, filed 6 August 2004) Section E, paragraph 22
7. ^ SCO internal email from Reg Broughton to Darl McBride, dated August 13, 2002
8. ^ The SCO Group v IBM - ORDER GRANTING IN PART IBM'S MOTION TO LIMIT SCO's CLAIMS (Undecided, US District Court - Utah, Kimball J, filed 6 August 2004) Section IV, paragraphs 33,34
9. ^ McBride, Darl. Show Person. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
10. ^ SCOX: Historical Prices for SCO GRP INC (THE). Yahoo! Finance.
11. ^ The Anti-Kerry FUD. The Blog That Goes Ping (2004-10-30). Retrieved on 2006-12-30.

Gene Myron Amdahl (born November 16, 1922) is an American computer architect and hi-tech entrepreneur of Norwegian descent, chiefly known for his work on mainframe computers at International Business Machines (IBM) and later his own companies. ... Eric S. Raymond (FISL 6. ... Eric S. Raymond (FISL 6. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... Yahoo! Inc. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ...

External links

• FUDZilla (archived project on Libervis)
• FUD (or the original page on the Internet Archive)
• The FUD FAQ (particularly as applied to the Linux operating system and the modern-day open source software movement)
• A Brief History of a Microsoft FUD

This article is based in part on the Jargon File, which is in the public domain. Libervis is a latin adverb meaning most freely and continuing from liberv meaning freely to libervor meaning more freely: Liberv = freely; libervor = more freely; libervis = most freely Libervis. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family. ... An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... The Jargon File is a glossary of hacker slang. ...