Dealing with FUD#1 (exaggerations)

As I've mentioned before, this is the hardest to tackle. Some typical strategies:

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Agree with the guy, and then add caveats that neutralize the core of his argument

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Spin the weakness as a strength

For example, ``Linux is hard to use, I want to get something done, I don't want to fight Linux.'' Your response might be: ``Well, you're right, Linux is still harder to use than a Microsoft OS, I wouldn't want to put Linux on my mother's computer right now. But have you looked at the KDE project? It's a point-and-click front end for Linux that makes it look a lot like Windows, with icons and everything!'' Then, having neutralized the core of his argument, you go into other advantages that can offset the weakness (such as the remote management capabilities, etc.).

An example of ``spin'': FUD:``Linux is hard to administer.'' FACTS: ``Any competent person on your IS staff can learn how to administer Linux.'' SPIN: ``Well, it does take a competent administrator to run Linux, and like you say, any idiot can administer NT. But if you allow idiots to administer your mission-critical systems, you deserve what you get.'' i.e., the difficulty of administering Linux is actually being spun as an advantage here: it keeps idiots from screwing up your mission-critical systems. Tossing in a few examples (like the fact that almost no NT DNS servers have reverse DNS properly set up because it doesn't help to be able to point and click if you don't know what the bleep you're pointing and clicking on) and you're all set.