RSSWhy Devil Mountain Software will fail… big time
I thought there was something a little hysterical about Randall Kennedy's insistence in an InfoWorld column published last November that Chrome and it's ilk were doomed to fail when I cited it as an example of the unthinking gut reaction of traditional types to their first glimpse of the future. It seemed a little out-of-sorts, even for InfoWorld.
Now we know why. Turns out Kennedy had a conflict of interest he was going to great (crazy, even) lengths to conceal; his alter-ego "Craig Barth" of Devil Mountain Software, a firm specializing in the collection and analysis of (wait for it)… Windows performance and market share metrics. That first look at Chrome must have been pretty threatening to someone banking on the success of such a venture.
This is just a niche observation of the whole circus surrounding Kennedy/Barth and Devil Mountain Software. Turns out the whole premise behind DMS and its products and services is pretty sketchy, and that Kennedy/Barth has been using his publishing industry position and knowledge to publicize the company with fictitious claims and customers. ZDnet's Larry Dignan has the full story on the bizarre episode; it's an entertaining read, almost as entertaining as Kennedy's original Chrome article.
At any rate, it's been my observation that it is exactly people in that sort of position, where they have lied and cheated to get where they are, that feel the most threatened and are most likely to over-react when anything comes up that might disrupt all their illicit efforts. You can see the same thing in cases of political corruption; it's the old "the lady doth protest too much" test, and it's a valuable tool for sorting out lucid analysis from biased opinion. Regardless of what happens with Chrome, I think it's probably fair to say DMS will be heading for failure after this revelation.
