08.04.10
‘Be Careful’ Warning Accompanies Gavin Clarke’s Coverage of GNU/Linux
Summary: FUD warnings about particular writers from The Register (new Linux is out and Microsoft’s booster Gavin Clarke has to just say something negative and scary, as usual) and IDG’s ‘open source’ blog, which is being used by its writers to promote their businesses
THE REGISTER has declined in terms of quality over the years. We have expressed our disappointment with this publication (and gave examples [1, 2]) after it had gotten closer to Microsoft. One of their worst writers is the guy who runs their Microsoft audiocast (along with Mary Jo Foley). Sadly for GNU/Linux, this guy (Clarke) also likes to cover GNU/Linux, usually in a tongue-in-cheek type of way. We have warned about his bias and convictions since around 2008.
“This is probably intended to make people afraid of Linux, or at least to imply that there are technical issues with it.”A new version of Linux is out this week and rather than cover the good news, Gavin — on behalf of The Register — just published the headline “‘Be careful’ warning accompanies latest Linux kernel”.
This is probably intended to make people afraid of Linux, or at least to imply that there are technical issues with it. No other publication that we found (we look at two dozens of headlines) put a negative spin on this release.
A lot of mainstream media FUD affected Linux also when Novell made the unnecessary "bloated" remark. That happened in LinuxCon, which is organised by the Linux Foundation (heavily influenced by Novell).
Novell’s Markus Rex, who used to serve the Linux Foundation as a chief, gets a Novell/SUSE placement/spot at the Linux Foundation Web site. Rex is not a bad guy however; actually he’s one among the minority at Novell which actually cares about GNU/Linux as opposed to marketing ‘fluff’ like Fog Computing. To quote a portion of the post:
Rex: My prediction for 2010 is more Linux, more Linux, more Linux. We will see the continued march of the penguin as Linux becomes the de facto operating system across a wide range of technologies. Today, Linux can be found in almost every data center and is making progress across a wide range of consumer technologies, including smartphones, netbooks and car entertainment systems. Linux has expanded its ecosystem and is now being deployed in a variety of different environments, including physical, virtual and cloud.
If Novell went under (after selling), Rex would probably be scooped up by one the companies that can gain at Novell’s expense. Novell won’t be missed as its full-time employees too continue to smear (and assist other people’s smears) against Techrights. it’s quite blatant.
Going back to FUD, watch how OpenLogic still uses IDG’s ‘open source’ blog (syndicated in Google News) to promote its products, this time spreading Red Hat FUD to help its own support business (there is also a lot of marketing around CloudLinux, which is another RHEL clone with a better marketing name). OpenLogic’s ‘cousins’ from Black Duck (they also use IDG’s ‘open source’ blog to spread FUD and thus sell their services) are receiving money from SAP now. █
