In December of 2002, IDC released a report (long since removed, though the Dec. 17, 2002, press release remains) that was highly touted by Microsoft’s then-new “Get the Facts” campaign against Linux. The report compared total cost of ownership between Windows 2000 and Linux and determined that Windows had a lower TCO in four of five enterprise scenarios.
Kevin Johnson wrote, in an email dated 1 Nov 2002 [PDF]:
“I don’t like it to be public on the doc that we sponsored it because I don’t think the outcome is as favorable as we had hoped. I just don’t like competitors using it as ammo against us. It is easier if it doesn’t mention that we sponsored it.”
This came to light during an antitrust trial in Iowa, along with some other interesting tidbits. Peter Houston, then senior director of the Windows Server team, said:
“We approached Gartner about doing this study and they declined. They said it was because they didn’t know that their model for TCO would work well with Linux. I privately wonder if they want to take on this debate.”
“I hate to put it like this, but at this point, IDC is done negotiating with us. We have moved them quite a bit already, but they are now holding the line, saying that if we want the names of their ‘big’ analysts on the report, this is it.”
These are the ramblings of 
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