According to Cohen, Taylor was at pains to say that everything would be very hush-hush and kept out of the press.

Next thing Cohen knew, he says, a story about him meeting with Taylor and Taylor's research proposal turned up in the press.

According to what Taylor wound up telling the press, "Customers have asked me for analysis on Linux. While we have done some research in our Linux and open source lab, there's not yet any substantial, fact-based research out there on Linux to help customers make value-based IT decisions."

A statement attributed to Taylor added, "At the end of the day, I want customers to have the tools they need to evaluate technology on its merit versus on hype and emotion. It helps all of us build better products and respond to customer needs more effectively." 

Cohen says he is waiting for Taylor to get back from vacation on Monday. Taylor promised Cohen he would get to the bottom of the original leak.

Cohen says that both OSDL and Microsoft are under pressure from the Global 2000 to get Linux and Windows to accommodate each other more.

(The original version of this story appeared at www.clientservernews.com)

• Microsoft Continues to Stalk Linux