05.25.20
Gemini version available ♊︎‘Journalism’ in 2020: Far More Articles About What Computer Linus Torvalds Bought Than About Linux Releases
Journalista non grata and ad hominem (missing the true story to just sell ads and cause unnecessary drama), nothing about the technical project
Summary: Yesterday’s (or late Sunday’s) Linux announcement (RC7) is symptomatic of a broader issue we’ve long spoken about; it restricts people’s ability to express an opinion, which can cloud any meritorious and substantial debate about technical matters journalists cannot grasp or comment on (it takes more effort and research)
BY MY count, having observed the news closely for about 17 years, the level of news coverage speaks for itself. Yesterday and today (assuming it is still Monday) was no exception.
Not a single news site covered the seventh RC of Linux 5.7, but there were several discussions, articles, massive comment threads etc. focusing on some rather minor detail about Torvalds getting a new PC with a different processor on the motherboard.
“This is what we’ve come to expect from an increasingly shallow society that doesn’t like the F word (freedom) or any serious technical discussion (instead it’s about brands and “apps”).”In an interview dated about a decade ago Torvalds frankly and candidly complained about the media taking something small he said, then making massive story out of it, just like we’re seeing him portrayed as “rude”, with massive phony scandals spiraling out of control because of the tone of some E-mail message he sent in a rush (maybe not paying sufficiently close/careful attention to loss of communication nuance in writing; maybe just a little moody at that moment) instead of technical details. Linux is a technical project, but the media is reduced to little but an extension of the marketing industry, where so-called ‘journalists’ tend to lack the technical knowledge required to grasp programming, kernel science etc. So it becomes about personalities and brands (like “AMD”). For those who wish to see all the articles we’ve found (and will find; the page is updated regularly), have a look here (similar to what we have in Daily Links but restricted to one theme/topic).
If the technology sector suffers from bad “tech press”, perhaps it’s stuff like this…
LWN, to its credit, still does very good technical journalism. Of course it wrote about the release of the software (Linux 5.7 RC7) and did not obsess over ‘gossip’. The standards are higher in LWN.
In a similar vein, Dr. Stallman (RMS) can deliver a good 2-hour talk about the importance of software freedom and then someone will wind up obsessing over something like his beard. This is what we’ve come to expect from an increasingly shallow society that doesn’t like the F word (freedom) or any serious technical discussion (instead it’s about brands and “apps”). █
ᶃ Gemini Space
This post is also available in 
Content is available under CC-BY-SA