When the FUD is all around (sniff).

[Luigi Genoni]

HI,

a couple of weeks ago, in Italy, on the review Affari e Finanza, that
comes with the newspaper "La Repubblica" ([e-mail])
one of the biggest newspapaer in
Italy, there was an article with this title:
"Also Linux goes in Tribunal"
(http://www.repubblica.it/supplementi/af/.snapshot/nightly.1/2001/06/18/primopiano/010nuatta.html)
In this article it's said that open source and Free Software (those
terms are used as synonimous in the article, with a lot of confusion), are
a good things, (also if there are bad episodes like Gracenote changing its
licenze despite of the developers, from Open Source [GPL??] to a
commercial one), but actually kernel developers are tired of Linux and so,
while Microsoft could soon put an end to its trouble with american
joustice
"The big enemy Torvalds could be called to tribunal because of his big
power and monopolistic tendencies".

Please note, from the Title and the tone any reader would understand that
Some of big kernel hackers are going to sue Linus.
(Alan, some of my readers thinked to you).

In 3 days i recevived about 50 letters from Linux&C readers (the review i
write for), asking if it were true.

I wrote them, of course, not, and many of them wrote to "la Repubblica",
asking the reason of this FUD.
As an answert they received "read some kernel mail list archive".

simply they took some letter from some troll proposing a fork, and so...

The funny thing is that on the next page there was another article, with
the tittle "And als Us will be a little open".
The president of MicroSoft Italia was telling that M$ is really open
source because of (nahh, i cannot even write those lies).

After a couple of mail to "la Repubblica" i received as an answert that
they would have soon published a correction of the article.

I am reading now the "revision"
"It is true that kernel hackers dislike Linus attitute, but in tribunal
they took Gracenote"....
Again, I guess that Gracenote developers have troubles with Gracenote
commercial choice, but how is this related to Linus, or to any of the
people writing on this mail list?

If, let's say, some oracle developers working of the db version for winNT
go to the chart with Oracle, then a newspaper could ever write a title
like: "And Bill Gates goes to tribunal"?

Obviously, no.

here is a case when the fUD comes, not from M$, but from a newspaper
that should write facts.
I suppose they received some pression from M$, but if people read of a FUD
from a M$ employed, then they can guess what is going on, if it is a
newspaper usually telling facts in a correct way...

The situation is going to be sad

Luigi Genoni