Chris Rhodes of the OMG group responds to The Register’s article

We contacted the Object Management Group about the recent press
OMG has had from the British tabloid, The Register.

The Register ran this article
about OMG’s alleged disapproval with Linux.

Chris Rhodes responds with this:

This is the first we’ve heard of this so I’ll try to address
some of The Register’s points here. We don’t know who this “source”
is.

It’s important to understand that the OMG has a membership of
800 independent companies, each of whom speaks for themselves. None
of these quotes have come from spokespersons who represent the OMG
as a whole. We suspect that the “source close to the group” in the
November 4th story is in fact someone at a member company who has
spoken to The Register, and that the Register has misconstrued
their membership as meaning that the opinions they are voicing
represent the opinions of the OMG membership as a whole. This is as
absurd as assuming that one US congressperson can speak for the
entire US government (or that one Linux user can give the
definitive answer on how to pronounce “Linux”!)

The two stories (November 4 and November 6) are pretty
incoherent so it is difficult to comment on particulars, however,
to address two specific points:

(November 6) We do not feel that the release “was and is a
mistake”. There will certainly not “be a high level meeting” among
staff and any members of the OMG this weekend “to investigate why
the press release was ever issued.” This is a complete
fabrication.

(November 4) Whoever wrote or said “Linux is freeware while
Corba (sic) costs money” simply hasn’t done their homework or even
read the release. We specifically reference three free ORBs in the
copy that was issued to the general media and reference even more
on our web page at this link. CORBA is a
specification and, as such, is freely available to everybody. Some
implementations are commercial products, others are free or open
source.

We’d never previously heard of The Register; it seems to aim to
entertain rather than to report accurate news. Since nobody here at
OMG received any calls or email to ask for any facts or comments on
this story, I question their fact checking process.

Best Regards,
Chris

*****************
Chris Vander Rhodes
Object Management Group
492 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, MA 01701 USA
Phone: +1-508-820 4300
Fax: +1-508-820 4303
Email: chrisvr@omg.org
URL: www.omg.org
********************