Microsoft confirms that Halloween Document is real

Microsoft executive Edmund Muth confirmed this week that the infamous"Halloween Document," which seems to be an official assessment of Linuxwritten by a Microsoft employee, is real. The document, which was authoredby Microsoft's Vinod Valloppillil, explains that the Open Source softwaremovement is a threat to Windows NT. Muth says that Valloppillil is "a closefriend," and that he agrees with most aspects of his analysis.

Open Source guru Eric Raymond, who posted the intriguing memo on his Website, was startled to discover that many people in the Windows community thought he wrote the memo himself.

"As you peruse your [newspaper Tuesday], the distant noise you hear willbe me--laughing my butt off at the people who leapt to accuse me of havingbeen hoaxed, or even of perpetrating the hoax myself," he said.