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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."
"
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.