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Michels Letter to LI Board
Ektanoor writes "Found this today on "Linux Today". Michels "retracts" several earlier citations attributed to him and clarifies his position regarding Linux.
" Man - and I thought I have been misquoted (well, assuming Doug was, of course)! Hopefully, this will ease some of the furor regarding Michels supposed earlier comments.
I went back and looked at the original articles. It's hard to see this as Michels being "misquoted." Rather, it reminds me of politicians who say something really stupid (like, say, inventing the internet) and then try to pass it off as just being "misquoted."
FWIW, there were recently citations of quotes from Kernighan on linux-kernel. He was quite positive about his Linux experience--something to the effect of setting up a web server on it, and having it run flawlessly until he moved.
This sounds like a retraction. If he really said Red Hat acts fradulently, then he deserved it.
Hardly a point by point retraction. He is not saying (and has not said, as I have followed this closely) that he was misquoted in a way that suggests that he really was. For instance, he has not asked any publication to retract the quotes. This is standard. So standard that it leads me to believe that the was not misquoted. He may have been tired/annoyed/had a few martinis/whatever, but not misquoted.
I don't buy it.
Sure, you can be mis-quoted. We've all been there, done that, I'm sure. But I'm having a really hard time imagining a context in which some of Michel's comments would be acceptable.
What's Kernigan got to apologize about?
/me thinks you meant Ken Thompson?
That seems to be the largest and most current one. And the magic of Memorex makes it hard to deny. Of course, there is always "I never has sexual ralations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky," except, oops, that was on videotape. Damn. That electronic media again.
...
How much do you want to bet that the interview was Micheals spouting off for 45 minutes in a rambling and "unusually animated" (i.e., perhaps just a wee bit loaded) fashion INTO A REPORTER'S MICROPHONE? That would explain why the anger has not a)seemed righteous, b)been directed right at the publication and the reporter in question.
I have sympathy for the dude -- I have had friends who had similar "problems" and they would say some pretty interesting things, and at a mile a minute, and they would not have a proper memory after the fact. But most of them wouldn't talk to reporters in that state. It is a problem with C (E, F, T, O) Os that people rarely tell them to shut the fuck up, and so they get into the habit of not watching what they say. Add some chemicals and ego into the mix, and there you go
I buy it. It is not difficult to mis-construe, mis-report, and mis-quote something to sound entirely different.
;) If you want to get someone to agree with you, you have to give them a way to save face, then make it so they look like a fool if they don't take it. Otherwise, they will fight you all the way to the end. That isn't productive for anyone.
Given that, even if he wasn't mis-quoted, this could be taken as a very reasonable appology for saying something he shouldn't have, while maintaining some sort of dignity.
Like my mama always taught me...
Moving on to the next topic...
But on the other hand, we already gave him one chance (or didn't you get that lovely letter SCO mailed me a few months back)?
Like *my* mama always said, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
;-)
I only wonder who he labelled "punk kids".
/mill
Smooth of him to list that point and then not addressing it properly. Politician in the makings?
Maybe Kernigan would like to make a similar news release?
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Seems kinda strange that the only negative comments are AC postings, while posts by ppl with logins actually have something positive or constructive to say.
coincidence?
-Sean
Taking statements out of context can radically skew the tone of a comment, but is not strictly misquotation. I recall an article which took some of Linus Torvalds' comments way out of context (I think he called the distro companies "leeches," and there was the "we shall crush microsoft" comment that was blown out of proportion).
The SCO CEO probably did say those things, but they probably didn't have the meaning put upon them by the reporter. It's hard to say anything substational and not be vulnerable to stuff being taken out of context. This is why politicians seem to talk and talk and yet say absolutely nothing.
"Whatever happened to fair use?"
-- Duff-Man
WHy can't slashdot readers (or the majority of them) accept that he has made an apology and get on with life. He had nothing to gain by saying what he initially was quoted as saying (except a lot of bad press) so now he has retracted the statements and apologised can't we just have a big hug and get on wih life?
--
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My sometimes helpful blog
I think the long term result will be similar, if perhaps somewhat less dramatic.
I mean, not too many corporations are strangled to death by Darth Vader's use of the Force. :)
You're a suburbanite.
'Nuff said. Move on.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
(just a joke, folks)
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
At the end of the article there are comments from readers at linuxtoday. I see those as being reasonable compared to some of the things said here.
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/5788_flat.html
---- "It is never too late to give up our prejudices." --Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)