More Responses to de Tocqueville Hatchet Job

akahige writes "Fresh from the debunking of the 'Linus couldn't possibly have written an OS without ripping someone off' book published by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Tanenbaum has published an email he got from the consultant hired to do the code comparison between MINIX and Linux. Among other juicy comments, 'pay no attention to this man.' (There was no stolen code, either.) In related matters, ESR was apparently sent a pre-release excerpt of the book which he completely eviscerates with his usual zeal. Another story on NewsForge." See our previous stories if you're coming to this late.

Comments

Hand behind the Hatchet?

[bendelo]

I think the main question that should be asked here, is who is behind the Hatchet Job? Best guesses are SCO and/or Microsoft.

Any further ideas?

Re:Hand behind the Hatchet?

[phearlez]

Never assume conspiracy when simple malevolence will suffice. Never assume malevolence when simple idiocy will suffice. Although SCO/MS may have a motivation, plain old muckraking has been a profitable institution even when there's no specific axes to grind.

Re:Hand behind the Hatchet?

[afidel]

A lone moron and his publishist trying to sell copy by being sensational about a fairly popular and current topic?

Re:Does anybody else find ESR's writing style odd?

[g00set]

I think that is what I like about this style. It is *unrevised* and raw. Note to email users? I don't think this guy is applying for a job. He is letting things flow to the keyborad.

Re:How long...

[Anonymous Coward]

Way before Linux was on anyone's radar, Eric S. Raymond was Usenet's resident expert on Unix opreating systems for the IBM PC and other personal computers. He published a FAQ regularly and reviewed all the personal i386 Unix systems of the day such as Esix, uPort, and SCO. Eric has been at it a long time, and really knows the his stuff.

Re:Does anybody else find ESR's writing style odd?

[finkployd]

I didn't read it that way at all. It sounds like he is saying "We know corporations legally use open source software, but is there any way to know that they don't also illegally use it?" And the answer really is 'no'. Unlike open source projects, (which are quite easy to audit the source of) we really have no idea if corporations are illegally copying open source code or not.

Finkployd

Free Publicity

[earthforce_1]

If you can't be good, be controversial. All this publicity is just going to sell more books.

I remember the controversy that existed over "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. The novel was proclaimed as blashphemous to Islam, and a fatwah death sentence was pronounced on the author. Of course, the book sold out as fast as they could print copies. A student friend of mine at the time was proudly showing off his brand new hard copy edition he just bought, even though he could hardly afford his next meal. (He considered this a real prize, as they were selling so fast, it was hard to find a copy anywhere) So I started reading. It was an awful, improbable piece of literature, that undoubtably would have sold no more than a few thousand copies if not for the controversy.

I also remember a story about a US art dealer who was tasked with unloading several thousand prints of a sitting nude from an obsure french painter nobody had heard of. So he displayed the original painting in the front of the store, secretly paid some children a few coins to stand and gawk at it, while calling up the leader of the then equivalent of the "moral majority" with an anonymous tip. He got himself arrested for displaying indecent material, and beat the rap in a high profile trial. Of course the prints all sold out quickly, and the original painting fetched a sizable fortune at auction.

If Brown was lying can't Linus sue for slander?

[dharma21]

If Linus's reputation is being harmed by patently false and uncorroborated information for the sake of selling books, does that allow him to sue for slander? If so, any lawyers want to take up this case? Brown is getting a lot of free publicity, and other than the messages on slashdot, I don't see articles on CNET or eweek etc. taking up the other side of the story. A lawsuit would shed light on the book's information gathering practices, or lack thereof.

This book: Much about nothing.

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

This is the kind of "book" that finds itself being sent to corporate execs by "consultants" hired by people with something to gain by the perspective pushed in the "book." You will not find this "book" on the shelves of any university library or Powell's Books, although in time, it might end up in the 50 cent box at a garage sale in some high end neighborhood. This is not a "study" or "paper" or any other kind of examination. It's a professionally written tome of FUD produced for a specific audience, and will be forgotten by next year.

By the way, the garage sales in the very upper-crusty 'burbs around Redmond make for great places to pick up fairly new tech books for cheap, and now's the season!