The Legacy Prolific Writers Leave Behind Them
TAKING a rather long (patient) glance at this very old (more than 15 years!) "Free Software Credibility Index", it's easy to conclude that almost everyone who wrote about Free software back then it no longer active or barely active. Swapnil Bhartiya became clickfraud spamnil (almost all "views" are fake), Michael Larabel is still around (sans his former credibility), Sam Varghese became part-time Spam Varghese (trotted out on occasion for bland puff pieces), Thom Holwerda is less visible, and almost everyone else (dozens of people) has vanished or died. There are some who are still active online, but in other areas (Egan Orion, Glyn Moody, Doc Searls come to mind) or similar areas (e.g. Dan Goodin, Jack Wallen).
Many years ago Nicholas Petreley contacted me, asking to be added to that list. Online information says he "is the founding editor of LinuxWorld magazine [and] helped establish LinuxWorld Expo," but both are gone now and almost nobody remembers him (or his accomplishments). 25 years later all we have left are old photographs and less than a year ago he wrote in Cisco Blogs (lots more there), so he hasn't retired yet. It says he is "currently a technical consulting engineer for Cisco Systems, Inc."
Writers "come and go" all the time. Those who persist and endure the test of time will dominate the direction and narrative. We must admit that the number of Microsoft moles inside the media collapsed this past year (mass layoffs; budget cuts) and for over a week already we found almost no Linux FUD on the Web. That's a massive improvement. █
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila. - Mitch Radcliffe