The Halloween Documents

Where will Microsoft try to drag you today?
Do you really want to go there?

In the last week of October 1998, a confidential Microsoft memorandum on Redmond's strategy against Linux and Open Source software was leaked to me by a source who shall remain nameless. I annotated this memorandum with explanation and commentary over Halloween Weekend and released it to the national press. Microsoft was forced to acknowledge its authenticity. The press rightly treated it as a major story and covered it (with varying degrees of cluefulness).

The now-infamous ``Halloween Document'' contained references to a second memorandum specifically on Linux. Within days, copies of the second memo had been forwarded to me from two separate sources. I renamed the first annotated version ``Halloween I'' and set about annotating the second. While not as dramatic or sinister in its implications as its predecessor, Halloween II includes a lot of material at variance with Microsoft's public party line on Linux.

Before emailing or phoning me with a question about these documents, please read the Halloween Documents Frequently-Asked Questions.

Here they are:

Halloween I:   
Open Source Software -- A (New?) Development Methodology

Halloween II:   
Linux OS Competitive Analysis: The Next Java VM?

Halloween III:   
Microsoft's reaction on the 'halloween memorandum' (sic)

Halloween IV: When Software Things Were Rotten
Vinod Vallopillil's boss calls us `Robin Hood and his merry band'. We return the compliment.

Halloween V: The FUD Begins!
The Sheriff of Nottingham rides again. In this exciting episode, the things he doesn't say are more interesting than the things he does.

This page originally continued with an anti-Microsoft jeremiad. On reflection, however, I think I'd prefer to finish by thanking the principal authors, Vinod Valloppillil and Josh Cohen, for authoring such remarkable and effective testimonials to the excellence of Linux and open-source software in general. I suspect that historians may someday regard the Halloween memoranda as your finest hour, and the Internet community certainly owes you a vote of thanks.

Here are some links to press coverage:

Halloween I:
The Boston Globe; The New York Times; San Jose Mercury PC Week; TechWeb; C|Net; C|Net (again); C|Net (yet again) InfoWorld; The Register; Wired News; The Industry Standard; LinuxWorld; DaveNet; Salon Magazine; Reuters; The Guardian; CNN.

Unfortunately, the stories from the Wall Street Journal, and the The Washington Post seem to be no longer available.

Halloween II:
Detroit News; C|Net; Wired News; PC Week; Inter@ctive Week; ZDnet; InfoWorld; C|Net.
Other followup coverage: C|Net; Christian Science Monitor.

In other articles: the backgrounds of the contributors to Halloween I have been investigated; Robert Brown has written a witty commentary on the Halloween I memorandum; and Tim O'Reilly has responded with an open letter to Microsoft.

Here are some translations: Halloween I in Spanish; Halloween II in Spanish; Halloween III in Spanish; Halloween I in Japanese; Halloween II in Japanese; Halloween III in Japanese; Halloween I in Italian; Halloween II in Italian; Halloween III in Italian; the Halloween Documents in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions; the Halloween Documents in German.

Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>