Metrics vendor defends Windows 7 memory claims

'EVERYONE thinks they're a performance expert,' REBUTS Devil Mountain CTO

By Gregg Keizer
February 19, 2010 06:01 AM ET

Computerworld - Editor's NOTE: The person quoted in this story as "Craig Barth" is actually Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributor. Kennedy, who presented himself as the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, no longer works at InfoWorld. GIVEN that he disguised his identity to Computerworld and a number of other publications, the credibility of Kennedy's statements is called into question. Rather than simply remove stories in which he is quoted, we have left them online so readers can weigh his data and conclusions for themselves.

The Florida firm that on Wednesday said most Windows 7 machines exhaust their physical memory, and as a result take a performance hit, defended its data and conclusions after naysayers dismissed its findings.

"Everyone thinks that they're a [Windows] performance expert," said Craig Barth, the chief technology officer of Devil Mountain Software, a performance metrics software maker. "They look at their PC and say, 'My PC doesn't do that.'"

Barth was reacting to the firestorm of criticism over his claim that 86% of the Windows 7 PCs among the 23,000 tracked by Blue Mountain's community-based Exo.performance.network (XPnet) exhibit signs of severe and sustained memory exhaustion.