OSDL cries fowl?

ZDNet's Joe Brockmeier tries to explain that not having a joint research project between OSDL and Microsoft is a good thing. I'd say (usual disclaimers apply) that not having this independent research done is a bad thing for anyone interested in acquiring unbiased data on the comparison between Linux and Windows:

"The eWeek report notes that OSDL
had only confirmed discussing the idea with Taylor, but not a final
response from OSDL. After reading the eWeek story, I couldn't think of
any reason why OSDL should participate — and, for some reason, kept
thinking about the fable of the frog and scorpion — but I was curious whether OSDL was giving it serious consideration.

On Friday, I had a chance to have a
short talk with Cohen, and got a definitive answer. Cohen said that
"there is no way we would do a joint research project with Microsoft."
If OSDL were to participate in such a project, Cohen said that when the
report came out, no matter what the broad outcome of the report was,
anything negative about Linux would be exploited for marketing purposes
by Microsoft."

Puck, puck, puck, puuuuuuck!! ;-)

Update, 29 Aug 05: Not suprisingly, Slashdot picks up on the ZDNet story and gives it the run-around...