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LinuxOne CTO Interview
PraveenS writes "There's an in-depth analysis of LinuxOne and its IPO at linuxtoday.com. Paul Ferris of Linuxtoday spoke with LinuxOne CTO Dr. Peter Milford. Here's an interesting quote: "Our next version will have applications on it that no one else has." However, he said little else, making one wonder if they really do have something great. Also, it seems LinuxOne is not entirely unaware of the controversy surrounding them; they're holding a "Flame of the Week Contest."
"
Perhaps you don't understand. A program can be
:-). Claiming "open source" isn't
"open source" and still unusable in a commercial
environment due to software patents. Take RSA until later
this year--if you're a company using RSA in the USA
without paying a license fee, you can be taken to court.
And you fail to understand the strength of traditional
market venues--people buy what they see advertised,
discussed, and in stores. They buy whatever is bundled
on their machine, not what takes extra effort to install.
Witness the death of Netscape, the wide-spread
availability of Windows. Currently a number of companies
with influence in these venues are interested in Linux,
but if they changed their minds, Linux would return
to being "little stuff" instead of "big stuff".
The deciding factor for technology isn't how well-written
it is, how well-engineered it is, but whether it has
the install base, and popular media support. By this
definition, Linux is on the horizon, but hasn't gotten
to the finish line yet. Geoworks fell by the wayside, as
did DR-DOS, Desqview, and many other superior
technologies. And remember, the technology market
is a fickle place. They might love LinuxOne because
of a name, for the same reason they leap on Linux
instead of OS/2, the BSDs, BeOS, and even Mac OS X.
It's all in a name, or a leap of faith, or the piece of
paper picked up first. Why is Linux the unready
technology of the hour, as opposed to MacOS, which
has competed for years (with relative success) with
superior technology
the answer, as most resellers have been able to add
drivers, rebrand Microsoft products, etc, for years,
making them effectively open source for anyone with
market clout.
I know it would be difficult to get the "60 Minutes" gang interested in this, but it would be good if non-technical potential investers could be warned of this type of scam.
It would be very unfortunate if LinuxOne makes the quick buck off of this scam just because there are enough suckers who will be dumb enough to blindly invest in the IPO. I don't know if the SEC is empowered to investigate such scams...who do we call? Ghostbusters?
Later on, I wandered by again and asked the guy who was there - some Chinese guy - when the IPO was going to happen. He said he didn't know anything about an IPO! I don't work for a startup, but isn't an IPO pretty big on everyone's mind at these places?
I don't think they care about what anyone thinks and have that flame page just to spit in everyone's face. They just want to do their IPO, get their money and split.
If you look at their "About us" page, they don't even list a CTO! Just a marketing guy, a sales guy, a financial guy and a (new) CEO. Funny that a technical company has no techical people isn't it?
And when did they get a new CEO? Where's the "press release" on that? They have press releases blowing about their contract with a flea market vendor, but not about getting a new CEO? Also, don't they have to modify their IPO's S-1 (or whatever it's called) when they have a major change like that? Has that been done?
Let's face it - LinuxOne is a cheesy rip-off, and even the cheese is a cheap rip-off.
Yes, I know, having more distros is a good thing. That's very true, but even I could produce a better distro than that. IN MY SLEEP! With added value, FROM THE START! And minus cutsey satanic symbols, obviously aimed at impressing those "long-hair rebellious types that use Linux". Sod it! Nobody is impressed by cheap junk, however "rebellious" it looks. Though a few might send the CEO some "get well" cards.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Unlike Mandrake, all they did was re-label a buggy version of a Red Hat distribution and call it something new. If you're going to be filing off the name, you'd better be adding some real value- otherwise, leave the name on and do like CheapBytes does. It's not hypocrisy when you're complaining about someone literally ripping someone else off- which in this case, it would be Red Hat, the poor sots they sucker into buying their current distribution, and the investors they sucker into buying their stocks.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
http://www.hackphreak.org/~accipiter
This is a transcript (mp3 included) of a call I made to them.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
This is the German comment babelfished for other people like me who are interested.
My objection over LinuxONE LinuxONE had its saying, and this is meins. Which follows, a call is to the complaint on from us, which are interested -- large enough number for challenging vitriolic acceptance LinuxONE's over grade of transmission performance. I must protest to LinuxONE's use of bad Prudisharten to obtain its sadistic targets. This acknowledgment indeterminateness the demonstrability regarding an external to accompany objective reality is concerning a crisis our ability, to be known had that the only way, which is I LinuxONE perhaps forgive can, if it says the truth and forms returning. No matter how much discussion and analysis occur, an organization, which would like to receive in front, should tries, to understand the extensive consequences of its jokes. LinuxONE never had these training bodies. It always does, what would like to do and to figures it be able to do it at the moment to be situated even from all possible problems which develop. LinuxONE's cronies it seems to struggle that it cannot do injustice. I know, because I experienced that personally. LinuxONE's lackeys is frequently intercepted trying to stamp brutishwhinges. Of course they refuse this, but all we know full recess that LinuxONE is not capable to use the English language effectively or correctly. LinuxONE's maneuvers disbursed themselves: squalid wrongmoderated liars and cheat something success in their efforts, in everyone had to already interfere otherwise affairs. It is far away well-known that LinuxONE's philosophies are based on somewhat deep-rooted Funktionseigenschaftstoerung. But I have a tendency, over which more sensationalsachen the fact that LinuxONE to, is shocking the things, things to report as, like it would like to lead substantial documents hidden from the public, until they become politically contentious. And I carry out the difficulty, which has the average person when coming to the grasps with that, but it the case is literal, which we begin to witness the absorbed effects of its new interpretations of the historical cases. It is person suffering from a brain injury, so that LinuxONE regulates debt for social printing, economic loss, or loss of the political energy on a target group their debt designed, supplies a highly simplified assertion. Or possibly I should say, it am political false. If one needs a character the fact that LinuxONE is uncertain regards you that it forms a virtue of the not again-good-closing disturbance. Not too belabor the point, but LinuxONE states that its requirements are approximately hurt not worth receiving. I react that there is another page to the output. An old joke explains from the optimist up to now, which away from a building 60-story and, since it whizzes behind the 35th stick falls, " proclaims, so well! ", but such blind optimism, which henchmen LinuxONE's, is not over to think caused that they can animate a Arcadian behind that again existing ducks never. And that, in my opinion, is our real problem.
Perhaps they are working on a licensed DVD player for Linux :o)
like the guys who nailed a million dollars to a board and set fire to it...
:-)
That would be the KLF then!
The followup was even better, for the last few years, they have been auctioning small sections of the film of that event at various shows they have done.
I was extremely tempted a while back to try and raid one of their events and "kidnap" the remains of their film and ransom it back to them... but laziness got the better of me
A little planning goes a long way...
Meine Beanstandung über LinuxONE LinuxONE hat sein Sagen gehabt, und dieses ist meins. Was folgt, ist ein Aufruf zur Klage auf die von uns, die sich interessieren -- eine große genug Zahl zum Herausfordern von vitriolic Annahmen LinuxONE's über Übertragungsgüte. Ich muß LinuxONE's-Gebrauch von schlechten Prudisharten protestieren, seine sadistic Ziele zu erzielen. Diese Anerkennung des indeterminateness der Nachweisbarkeit hinsichtlich einer externen, objektiven Wirklichkeit zu begleiten ist eine Krise betreffend ist unsere Fähigkeit, zu wissen gewesen, daß die einzige Weise, die ist ich LinuxONE vielleicht verzeihen kann, wenn sie die Wahrheit sagt und Zurückerstattung bildet. Egal wie viel Gespräch und Analyse auftritt, sollte eine Organisation, die voran erhalten möchte, versuchen, die weitreichenden Konsequenzen seiner Witze zu verstehen. LinuxONE hat nie diese Lehrkörper gehabt. Es tut immer, was es im Augenblick tun möchte und Abbildungen es können, selbst aus allen möglichen Problemen heraus zu liegen, die entstehen. LinuxONE's-cronies scheinen, zu ringen, daß es kein Unrecht tun kann. Ich weiß, weil ich den persönlich erfahren habe. LinuxONE's-lackeys sind häufig abgefangenes Versuchen, brutishwhinges einzuprägen. Selbstverständlich verweigern sie dieses, aber alle wir kennen volle Vertiefung, daß LinuxONE nicht imstande ist, die englische Sprache effektiv oder richtig zu verwenden. LinuxONE's-Manöver haben sich ausgezahlt: bereits haben squalid falsch-gemilderte Lügner und Betrüger etwas Erfolg in ihren Bemühungen, in jeder sonst Angelegenheiten zu einmischen gehabt. Es ist weithin bekannt, daß LinuxONE's-Philosophien auf etwas tief-verwurzelter Funktionseigenschaftstörung basieren. Aber ich habe eine Tendenz, über die mehr sensationalsachen, daß LinuxONE bis, ist die shocking Sachen, Sachen zu berichten wie, wie es wesentliche Dokumente führen möchte versteckt von der Öffentlichkeit, bis sie politisch strittig werden. Und ich verwirkliche die Schwierigkeit, die die durchschnittliche Person beim Kommen zu den Griffen mit dem hat, aber es buchstäblich der Fall ist, dem wir beginnen, die selbstabsorbierten Effekte seiner Neuinterpretationen der historischen Fälle zu zeugen. Er ist hirngeschädigt, damit LinuxONE Schuld für Sozialdruck, ökonomischer Verlust regelt, oder Verlust der politischen Energie auf einer Zielgruppe deren Schuld konstruierte, liefert eine stark vereinfachte Erklärung. Oder möglicherweise sollte ich sagen, es bin politisch-falsch. Wenn man ein Zeichen benötigt, daß LinuxONE unsicher ist, betrachten Sie, daß es eine Tugend von der nicht wiedergutzumachenden Störung bildet. Nicht zu belabor behauptet der Punkt, aber LinuxONE, daß seine Ansprüche nicht wert das Erhalten ungefähr verletzt sind. Ich reagiere, daß es eine andere Seite zur Ausgabe gibt. Ein alter Witz erklärt vom optimist, das weg von einem Gebäude 60-story und, da er whizzes hinter dem 35th Stock fällt, " bis jetzt ausruft, so gut! ", Aber es ist nicht solcher blinder Optimismus, der LinuxONE's henchmen, um zu denken verursacht, daß sie einen Arcadian hinter der wieder beleben können existierenten nie. Und das, in meiner Ansicht, ist unser reales Problem.
Someone already put two and two together
Isn't that dot-net maina? After all Andover.net is proving that even the stigma of being a non-dot-com with non-dot-com sites (e.g. slashdot dot
Heck, I see a movie in it. The heart-warming tale of a DNS-dissadvantaged company that managed to strike it big against the odds. Excuse me while I go write the screenplay.
ob-on-topic-comment: So, is it possible that LinuxOne, while a PR nightmare is doing the right thing? If I wanted to build a Linux business right now, I could do worse than to IPO with 1/3-2/3 of my shares, use that to hire a herd of slick, young geeks and start building a company that gains some sales, stock price goes higher, then follow-on with another 1/3.... Oh wait! That's what Red Hat did!
"LinuxOne plans to distribute the Apache server software to its customers"
Get the hell outta here! Nobody bundles Apache. How in the world do they do it? Go go LinuxOne!!
or, perhaps, this
Geeky modern art T-shirts
I get the feeling that the people behind LinuxOne are some kind of avant-garde performance artists, like the guys who nailed a million dollars to a board and set fire to it...
Surely no-one could really be this supremely arrogant and stupid, to alienate their entire potential user base after all this hype, without seriously meaning to...
Yes, and all the good little Christian boys and girls should be using Jesux, remember?
--
E2 IN2 IE?
This is *not* an interview. This is Paul Ferris' *very* subjective report of a conversation he had with the LinuxOne CTO.
This is the worst bit of journalism I've seen in ages.
What's wrong with that? Isn't redistribution exactly what the GPL encourages!
I'm not saying that I trust them or anything and I hope their IPO falls flat on its face
just my 2 cents
I have just been reading through their SEC filings available on-line from www.sec.gov.
I think it is important that we look at their good points:
1) They have made a massive investment in infrastructure by way of property and equipment $18,273
2) They have a good knowledge of the Open source community including Linux Torvalds (their spelling)
3) They currently have four products, their OS was released in Spetember 1999 and with this their entire revenue to the end of October 1999 was $0
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
I have to add that this kind of thinking is from the dark ages of software distribution. It's the Microsoft model of software creation. It's the one doomed to extinction. As things like K Office, a free office clone, come on-line in the Linux distribution channel, people expecting to make money by strong-arming customers into decisions are going to be left in the lurch.
And that will include any company that doesn't get it, such as Linux One.
The motivation of why they are doing business this way is what puzzles me.
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
What is that little satanic symbol they are using anyhow? Is LinuxOne supposed to be Linux for non-christians?
I dunno, but the one it generated for me was pretty on the spot:
My complaint about Linuxone
"Although I have no criticism of Linuxone's memoranda, I have a few observations and comments to share. I want to share this with you because if history follows its course, it should be evident that opposing Linuxone's insecure disruptive publicity stunts actively and earnestly is the moral duty of every good human being. I'm not going to respond to Linuxone's writings beyond saying that flattery will get Linuxone nowhere. Linuxone is not just incorrigible; it's ostentatious, too. With friends like Linuxone, who needs enemies?
Well, let's get our facts straight. Linuxone needs a refill of its medication. If I understand Linuxone's manuscripts correctly, then Linuxone's inclinations stink of cover-ups, stalls, diversionary tactics, legal maneuverings, and other measures that turn peaceful gatherings into embarrassing scandals.
Linuxone's philosophies turn the stomachs of those who know even a little about the real world. "But I'm only one person," you might protest. "What difference can I make?" The answer is: a lot more than you think. You see, those who fight against Linuxone's solecism-oriented money-grubbing theories are inevitably branded as immoral and disreputable by Linuxone's cronies. The foregoing greatly simplifies the real situation, but it does indicate in a rough, general way that I don't need to be particularly delicate here. I leave it to more capable and intrepid folks to explore the full ramifications of Linuxone's effusions. And that's all I have to say."
"shop smart:shop s-mart" ash
Hey.... here's an idea! We start one called Goodtimes Linux. We send out millions of emails to AOL users that say something similar to:
OFFICIAL AOL WARNING: The Goodtimes Linux distribution is a large threat to the community and is being spread by email. If you receive an email that is titled "It takes guts to say Linux" do not open it! This Linux will automatically take over your system and replace your AOL 5.0 TCP/IP stack with a WORKING ONE and cause your system to become stable and secure. It can even cause any computers anywhere near the affected machine to start having long uptimes. We have also receieved word that the illegal DeCSS code is included which will automatically make you a criminal by having it on your computer. We consider this a major problem, and we are working closely with Microsoft and Network Associates to rememedy the problem.
BTW, I wasn't flaming Slackware, it happens to be my favorite distro. But whereas Slackware is a challenge to configure and maintain because you do everything yourself, LinuxOne OS is a challenge to configure and maintain because it is a fetid pile of crap.
It is vitally important for the future of Linux/Open Source that LinuxOne does not succed.
If they become even mildly successful (I don't have a good definition for that, though), then all the companies that are jumping on the Linux/OpenSource bandwagon will think "Hey, we can have the hype of Linux, and ignore the community".
That is exactly the way software companies operated before the Internet - there was very little community of software users, and so they could shovel crap at us, and we wouldn't know any better. The Internet has improved communication now, so people know of alternative products, and Open Source has been shown to be a way to produce (mostly) reliable software that the community will embrace as it's own.
If LinuxOne succeds, some companies will think "Screw the community - we don't need it. Look at LinuxOne - their community hated them and they are going fine"
That's my opinion, anyway. I'd love to hear what others thought about this.
The South Sea Company stock was very popular, and prices went very high. The company had no immediate revenue stream, but once the war with Spain over South America was over the potential for future profit was thought to be huge. Alongside South Sea Comany came other companies hoping to cash in on the boom. The most remarkable was one which was "A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is".
The parallels with the Linux IPO situation are truly remarkable.
BTW, although there are no links here, you can type that phrase into Google for a number of short histories of the SSB.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
The odd thing is, that even though they print the flames, they don't seem to have any valid responses for them -- almost like they're trying to stir up as much fuss (read publicity) as possible. Perhaps if we ignore them, they'll go away.
The way the CTO talks about their product being 'proprietry' as if it's a USP (unique selling point), scares me -- the thing is, if it's any good, it'll alienate traditional Linux users, but may actually do well commercially, making the current distro wars look like a walk in the park, kinda like all those rumours about 'MicroSoft Linux'.
Oh well, that's assuming they do actually have something of any interest, wouldn't surprise me if their major product anouncement was on April 1st.
--
After seeing the flame contest, there is no way these guys can be serious. My guess is that come April 1st, we're gonna see LinuxOne's IPO, along with an announcement that they've "reinvented" themselves (providing geek novelty items ala thinkgeek or copyleft, perhaps). I for one would pay for one of those "I Flamed LinuxOne" T-shirts :) LinuxOne is just going to become the OSS/linux community's big inside joke. This whole thing is a great way for them to (1) generate publicity, (2) agitate thousands of nerds, and (3) point out some of the craziness behind the recent "dot-com mania" (or whatever the media is calling it this week).
God, I hope I'm right....
---- I made the Kessel Run in under 11 parsecs.
They know how to get free advertising on slashdot.
Criminalize spam and telemarketing!
I wonder what the motivation is? It's sort of like John Rocker attending a NYC ethnic convention and wanting to be a keynote speaker. I really don't think they understand. This is going to generate horrible PR.
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
A great way to unwind on a Friday afternoon.
I wonder if they accept flames written by this complaint generator
Firstly, there are only a few, so I suspect that there is some degree of 'screening' going on.
This leads me on to the second thing: that the flames are generally lacking in well-considered criticisms of LinuxOne, and that they are generally contain a good deal more vitriol than fact (I appreciate that this is pretty standard for a flame), but bear with me for a sec
It seems likely that the purpose behind this little display is to give the impression that a lot of the (very vocal) detractors of LinuxOne don't really have much of merit to say- they are merely slagging off the company for being too close to Windows (the Linux in Windows theme of the flames seems to be getting a disproportionate amount of attention in these flames).
If the average newbie waltzes by and sees this flame gallery, he(or she) may get the mistaken impression that the now infamous venom against LinuxOne lacks any real ground.
I would bet money that the winning flames of the week do not draw attention to ANY of the (substantial) serious dodginess of this company ant its vacuous product.
Something to think about perhaps?
I wonder if all they got were DeCSS source code entires if they would post the winning entry?
-----
No Zen is good zen
I would be sceptical about getting one of these t-shirts.
Are they just Red-Hat promo shirts with LinuxOne overprinted on them?
Do they claim to have "Never before seen holes, for new cutting edge limbs." perchance?
They could make a mint selling these shirts to the community though.
In fact they'd probably be the most profitable Linux IPO based on the sales of that T-shirt alone.
I had a talk with one of the guys at their booth yesterday. I think it was their CFO.
At first, he sounded quite reasonable and said things like they had not been doing well on their side and "deserve[d] all the 'abuse' we got from the Linux community" aswell as that there was a lawyer that did not understand the spirit of the community, but he got fired, etc...
All the top management (/C?O/) has been replaced in the last two weeks and on their press material nowhere could the name of their doubious founder be found.
At first, I almost fell for their arguments, that they were "newly reborn", "got rid of the evil", but some indepth questions made me even more suspicious then before. First, he didn't want to answer my questions about how large their staff was, only that they had guys "here and there" like in Taiwan, where "guys at the Ministry of Something have guys working on Linux" (aha! for LinuxOne?) and some in California. Realizing that I was writing for a Japanese publisher he claimed "we have a very successfull Japanese version". Gotcha. After telling him, that I KNOW that that is an absolute lie, because I am at the center of the community there (board of linu.or.jp), his statement suddenly changed to "we are having an alliance with the largest software ditributor there", and named an absolutely unknown name, not even sounding Japanese. He said that their Japanesation Engeneer would get in contact with me the same day, but I have not heared from him yey.
Also their press kit is a JOKE. When this stuff appeared at the press root, most of the press (that has a clue) burst out in laughter. Now they are sellin Harddisks as "LinuxOne OS Easy Drive", 13.5GB for $169.95 and $17.3GB for $199.95. Also their "Partial List of Drivers" boasts about "USB UHCI support", "USB keyboard support", "3C507", "Infrared-port devices". Also it runs "with devices[...] such as ADSL and cable modems" (yeah, mine eat 100Base-T)
Statements like "When ready to resume Winows, simply type 'reboot' [...] and LinuxOne Win/Lite terminated" just make me laugh. Guess I have had an amusing afternoon reading this crap.
Because the CFO said, "it was a bad decision to announce intentions IPO, you simple don't do that" I asked him, wheter they were going to delay their IPO untill they repaired their reputation (which he promised to do), he was "not allowed to say" (quiet period?) but "it was every intention to IPO as soon as possible when the company was founded". So they havn't changed, though admitting what they do is wrong.
I am even more convinced that they indeed are a FRAUD, but were trying very hard to cover that up. Without knowing their history and being a community activist, I'd probably fallen for their arguments. The general public MUST be WARNED about this monstrosity.
PS: When Linus worked by, the guy asked to take a picture with Linus. After noticing that he was LinuxOne Linus explictly disallowed them to use this picture for marketing/PR purposes or post it publicaly. I have witnessed this dialoge from a distance of 1m and are willing to testify as a witness in any court, should they abuse this picture.