Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s Linux hitman, Martin Taylor, just got whacked… or fell on his sword.

After only three months in charge of Windows (What The Hell Is) Live, he’s out, without so much as a “good luck in your new career” or even “he wants to spend more time with his family.”

Taylor is best known as the architect of Microsoft’s FUD-filled anti-Linux campaign, ironically dubbed, “Get The Facts.”

Notable among Taylor’s anti-Linux theories was a concept dubbed brittleness. He explained it like this to c/net’s Eileen Yu:

You can build it, design it, and it will work great. The trouble begins when you want to add things to it, add some services and things like that. Because of the brittle nature of the platform, when you do that, other things break. We see that in the labs all the time, and our customers see that as well.

As experienced managers have witnessed this phenomenon in every networking platform, one can only assume the man was aiming his argument at clueless pointy-haired bosses.

John Lettice figured “Get The Facts” was a classic case of misdirection. He quipped in The Register:

As politicians all know, really, when you say it’s a matter of getting the message across you really mean that the customers have figured out the product stinks. So once they’ve kicked you out you stop whining about the message and get down to fixing the product.

Taylor’s swill was apparently even too hard to swallow for knowledgeable Microsoft administrators. Windows networking guru Vlad Mazek advised:

First and most important thing to understand about Microsoft’s Get The Facts site is that those reports have been paid for by Microsoft and are to a large extent questionable at best and outright false in many respects.

The net result of Taylor’s anti-Linux crusade? Ultimately, Microsoft was forced to eat crow.

Now ’softies worldwide are exhorted by Redmond to actively support Windows inter-operation with Linux systems.

Taylor’s Windows Live efforts seem to have had similar effect, as eWeek’s new Google Watcher, Steve Bryant, points out that MSNWinLive traffic has been heading the wrong way.

That’s why Windows Live competitors, like AOL, Google, McAfee, Symantec, Yahoo, et al, have reason to be saddened by Taylor’s departure.

If Taylor had stayed on as corporate vice president of Windows Live and MSN marketing a while longer, he may well have done the the same thing for them that he did for Linux.

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