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The Upcoming LinuxOne IPO
AlphaBrav sent news that LinuxOne is planning to
up their IPO price range. For those who don't know who LinuxOne is, don't feel bad: read this amazing article that point by point shows that there are more problems with this company then I can list in this space, although my favorites include their CEOs questionable past, GPL violations, and a corporate web server that not only doesn't run their own distribution but offers to sell you a (binary only) CD if only you send your credit card unencrypted to them. Best of all, their ticker symbol is set to be LINX.
is *anyone* going to partake?
More crap to make linux look bad when will it end..
Sounds like a winner to me!
But of course, PT Barnum will still have his say at the IPO, and I certainly wouldn't turn down some shares...
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
I dunno... To me, there is just something wrong with people making money off of a free operating system.
=======
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
Read the SEC report.. This guy is trying to give make a quick buck and give Linux a bad name.
Dont you think they could prevent them from using that ticker symbol... it seems too generic. After reading that list... it just makes me shiver.
So there.
It almost seems like this whole LinuxOne thing embodies the atmosphere of hype and ridiculous Wall Street clamoring for anything related to Linux. Here we have a company that, as far as we can tell, has nothing whatsoever to offer, and seems to be IPO'ing for the sole benefit of adding flame to the fire.
I will probably be ill if this IPO takes off. At least VA actually has products, and RedHat makes a pretty good distro. But who has heard of anything from LinuxOne?
I want to publicly speak out against companies adopting ticker symbols that make it look like they ARE Linux. It is a deceptive practice clearly intended to fool some investors into thinking they are buying stock in Linux. In fact, they are only buying stock in a company that either (1) sells hardware with Linux installed or (2) supports Linux.
Think about it. The average investors remembers seeing Linux mentioned as a hot thing in Time, Newsweek, or Fortune. They see ticker symbol LNUX or LINX and they think they're buying stock in "Linux".
There's no reason for this. VA could have done something like "VALX". LinuxOne could maybe use "LNXO". What if Dell's ticker symbol was "WNNT"?
hmm...The article says that LinuxOne has reserved shares for "fellow" open-source developers. Two questions:
/. knows that linuxone sucks. Does anyone in the "real world" know? Like, do bankers, and mutual fund managers, and people like that know how bad this company is going to fail? If not, does Slashdot (or Andover) have enough clout to talk to the folks at cnn.com, abcnews.com, or some other mass-media place to get the word out?
1. Did anyone get "the letter"? If you did, are you going to buy shares?
2. What open-source development have they done? Did they GPL the big scam that they're putting on here?
Now, it's great that everyone here on
Juiced? Or Not?
I predict a new fad in the markets of do it yourself IPOs. (no underwriter). Watch... The banks will be scared. I mean why pay Millions and Millions to a stupid underwriter when you stock is going to fly anyway.
Up from $6-$8 per share to... *gasp* $8.25! These guys just OOZE confidence!
l w-11-linuxone.html) is a great place to start.
Hrm. The only thing that makes me feel better is that a quick check of techstocks.com, fool.com, and ragingbull.com shows that nobody has even started any message boards for LINX yet. For those of you that frequent these boards, do your best to educate. The link above (http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-11/
People whine about Red Hat going corporate, and Corel GPL violations, which is fine. Let's keep them honest. But if you really want to defend Linux's integrity as it enters the corporate world, debunking LinuxOne is probably a great place to start.
----
It's true, I read it on their web site!
Their 'Lite' version runs under windows!
Argh.
Feh.
Boo.
*BOOM*
Doesn't anybody fear that people buying stock in Linux companies are doing that just because it's hot and they heard the name "Linux" in some tech news? And that when they discover that it is free software (understanding "free" as in "free beer"), they could sell their shares back right away, long before they realize the benefits? These companies' stock could plummet down to oblivion...
Couldn't he sue these carpetbaggers to get them to drop the name?
I realize that might set what some see as a dangerous precendent for other Linux-related software, but I think in this case everyone would understand. This company is so obviously just trying to make a fast buck.. And if nobody stops them, they probably will (a fast $100 million bucks, probably)!
I saw an article on cnn today that the hubble's brain was replaced by i486's.
running...any guesses? my guess would be one of those elite RTOS...QNX or something.
I smell a non-IPO related news-for-nerds story coming up...oh well, there goes my karma. it sucked anyway.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
The funny thing is that no matter how many different sources bring this kind of stuff to light, wall street won't allow their "linux/internet" ipo to be encumbered by pesky things like "facts" and "reason." A small group of brokers is about to grow a bit richer on the wild, unresearched speculation that the technology ipo.
Although it seems that any Linux company will make a killing with their IPO (Look at VA Linux), I'm a little concerned with placing my money with this company. It appears even they have no faith in their product, they have RedHat 6.0 running on their webserver! They have all sorts of hokey features that come bundled with their disto, one of which is called LinuxMac(TM) - software that makes reading and writing Macintosh format files viable, whether on disk or CD. Easy to install and use, this industry-leading software should be invaluable to Apple computer users that need to access their files on a Linux system. Jeez, last time I check I was able to do this with ANY disto!
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
Not really suprising that there would eventually be a company that comes up trying to get in on the cash feeding frenzy that seems to go hand in hand with Linux IPOs.
:)
IMHO, any linux company that wants to survive several years past the date of their IPO probably will need to have at least a reasonable amount of goodwill from the community. As I see it, companies like VA and RedHat have that. LinuxOne probably doesn't. (And if they do, they probably won't for long)
There are enough daytraders out there that lost their asses on both redhat and VA (buying at the very peak and then watching it slide down to something more reasonable) and those were good companies. I think that LinuxOne in the IPO market has the real potential to make a few suicidal drunk wifebeating daytraders.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
To quote the cliche... it's free as in freedom, not free as in beer.
ESR is right: "Open Source" is a way, way better term than "free software".
---
Based on his previous record, i don't think this Chiou guy's company is too promising.. His last IPO, NetUSA, went from $7 to 63 cents a share?
It is really too bad that people like this can try to cash in on something as wholesome as Linux. Also, it is very regretable that they got such a great ticker symbol, which could fool unaware people into thinking they are buying 'Linux', becasue there are a lot of heathens out there who think this Linux thing is a company they can buy into.
I can't say for sure. He could have some great software in the making, he really could be developing those great 'propietary device drivers' and Chinese and Japanese versions, or this could be what it seems like it is : a scam to take advantage of the interest in IPOs like Red Hat's and VA's. I don't think someone should be filing for an IPO before they even have a product - what is it that we would be investing in? A plan to someday make a Distro? Their website does seem like they are serious, I suppose.
But a Linux distro that runs under Windows misses the point entirely!!
Juln
slavery. Someone else garnering obscene profits off the hard work of another individual. "Woohoo.. I can work all day on this great new OS for no pay in my spare time at my REAL job and watch as yet-another-lame-linux-startup takes it and incorporates it into their distro and makes an IPO worth $8 billion."
Gamers' Linux, the Linux distribution devoted to games (specifically, RedHat Linux 6.1 with Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament installed), has filed a S-1 and will be offering shares at the end of Q1/2000.
The Distribution will be available any time now, and you can also get the source code for only $45 (sorry we have no FTP site yet).
We expect to open up at $.25/share and rocket up to about $.75/share before either K-Mart buys us up or Linus Torvalds sues the bejeezus out of us for GPL violations...
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
You may have heard the saying "all publicity is good publicity." What is going to happen if LinuxOne turns out to be a terrible company and a ton of investors get burned on a shoddy distribution? LinuxOne is going to get bad publicity. Most of it will be from the traditional media, many of whom still think all Linux is the same thing, and therefore the bigger a flop LinuxOne becomes, the bigger a black mark against "Linux/OpenSource."
This blanketing attitude is changing, though; even CBS can tell the difference between a RedHat and a VA. And if LinuxOne burns some people, it will be our opportunity to turn bad news into good. We need to represent LinuxOne as the Yin to our Yang. We need to say, "This is what happens when you do it wrong," in addition to, "This over here is what happens when you do it right."
Over time, this will add news media credibility to our store. It will make it possible for people to tell the difference between a good Linux distribution and a bad one, and as a point of comparison it will clarify some issues in peoples' heads over why Open Source is a good idea, and why it is successful.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Everyone's gonna try and capitalize on this 'hype' thats going on. Many see it as JUST hype, though we all know that Linux is real, rock solid, and worthy of investment.
:)
If this IPO goes through and there's a fallout afterwards, this may suddenly undermine confidence in Linux, with Microsoft jumping on board and saying "SEE!? I TOLD YOU SO! IT WAS ALL HYPE!" and people who dont know any better, yet have their cash tied up in RedHat, will panic.
This could spell trouble.
I think there needs to be an overall 'consortium'
contributed to by all distributions (RedHat at the forefront) to provide information to potential investors and users about linux. There should be a united group promoting linux in general to the benefit of the whole community. It should do reviews of the liscences developped by distributions, and review their practices to ensure they're abiding by the liscences of the software contained therein (most of it under the GPL).
This will serve to keep the industry clean, and not undermine linux in general. Havintg a consortium responsible for this would avoid people claiming there's a redHat agenda or whatever. I think its time Linux invested to ensure the quality of ALL linux products -- at least until Microsoft files for BANKRUPTCY!
Math.
I'm thinking that this would be a great stock to short the afternoon of the IPO. There might be enough eager people to shoot the price up in the first day. Once the fundmentals of the stock leak out to the general public, sit back and watch it tank. -noah
Ticker symbols are owned by the stock exchange and can be revoked or changed at will. There have been many cases of ticker symbols of penny stocks being re-assigned by nasdaq or nyse when a bigger stock (IE trades on the big boards) needs it.
Really, guys, THE TICKER SYMBOL IS NOT THE ISSUE.
You can keep the Redhat but I'll take the source code to Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament for $45. :-)
Connected to rinoa.LinuxOne.NET.
Escape character is '^]'.
Welcome to LinuxOne! This is rinoa.
Red Hat Linux release 6.0 (Hedwig)
Kernel 2.2.5-15 on an i686
login:
Riiiight.
There's nothing that you can do, really...
I don't understand why people think that having "close ties" to the Linux community will neccessarily help a company.
LinuxOne doesn't need anything from the community, thanks to the GPL. They can purchase a copy of redhat, get the source CD, rearrange the files a little and presto! a brand new distro. And there's nothing that anyone can do about it.
So long as Linux continues to be developed with under the GPL (meaning as long as Linux exists) we'll see more and more of these companies. There's no rule that says they need to contribute anything back to the community. There's no rule that states they need to give shares to anyone. And even when someone does give shares (Like Redhat and VA) they do it out of the kindness of their hearts, because the developers can't hold anything back from them.
So, as angering as this may be for some of you, there reallyt isn't anything you can do but grit your teeth and wait til the next outfit surfaces...You developed under the GPL... This is one of the consequences. Sorry!
How is LINX more generic than LNUX ?!
I think everyone has the right to do a distribution. Of course sending only the binary code is a break from the GPL model. After reading the article I can see that they have very great problems and apparently are hiding information about their company.
As we live in a capitalist society everyone has the right to open a business and go IPO. But everyone also have the right to know the economic health of a firm and his credentials. But we don't live in an ideal world. This year the stock exchanges got mad in stocks of high technology, computer, software and Internet comnpanies.
Companies who are betting in the open-source model are now the golden eggs of the investors. But investors and economists don't know well the
computer and software world(this is not a shame, not everyone in the world must be a geek like us!). Usually they put money in any company
wich has the word Linux attached to it.
The best thing that can be done is if some people who works with free software could warn the investors about the dangers of companies
who hides their operations and in the case of LinuxOne point them to the great article in LinuxWorld. Many may think that this is not of our concern, but if an hipothetical company who bases its products on GPL software eventually breaks, we will see a run of capitals from other companies like Red Hat and VA, because of the fall of trust that wil be created by this. And this event will trigger a vicious circle of bad public opinion to the open-source world.
We must be vigilant...
"Learning, learning, learning - that is the secret of jewish survival" -- Ahad A'Ham
SCAM!
This is clearly an attempt to rake in a fortune and run. There's no product there. If there was, and it was any good, they'd use it. They don't. If they knew enough to -make- a system, they'd have secure e-commerce. They don't. If they understood the licence, they wouldn't be doing binary-only distributions. They are.
IMHO, we'll see the board cut & run to some tax haven that has no extradition treaty with the US or Europe within a year, probably months, possibly even weeks, after the IPO.
This probably won't be fatal to Linux. In fact, the sooner they run, the better for Linux, as it'll be clearer that it was crooks and not simply computer geeks pretending to be business nerds. It -will- be damaging to Linux, though, if the pretense keeps going long enough for people to believe that the guys are genuine, because then that could provoke a backlash against the whole Open Source concept. ("Look at Bill Gates! Now -HE- knows how to run a company. These wannabe's, with their high ideals and no business sense are just wasters and loosers.")
The sooner LinuxOne explodes into a corruption scandal, the better it'll be for everyone. IMHO, it'll happen sooner or later, whether that's tomorrow or 50 years from now. I'd just rather it was early enough for it to not take down the entire Open Source movement with it.
IMHO, if these guys want money, will some rich twit give it to them, and tell them to go away? Far as I'm concerned, they're going to get the money anyway, but it needn't senselessly destroy everything that the Linux community has worked to build. The Linux community is incidental to LinuxOne's aims, so it doesn't harm or benefit them if it survives or vanishes. There's no reason for them to work for either end. I'd rather it survived, though, and hope Open Source isn't an innocent victim in this game.
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)
This is the fourth Slashdot article about LinuxOne, and the third posted by CmdrTaco. While the first Linux-based stock scam was interested the first time around, it's gotten a bit stale. I'm sure there are more interesting stories being submitted.
314-15-9265
"Linux distros need to collude & combat black sheep"
Uhm...no. You do realize that that sounds exactly like something Micros~1 would do.
"If this IPO goes through and there's a fallout afterwards, this may suddenly undermine confidence in Linux, with Microsoft jumping on board and saying "SEE!? I TOLD YOU SO! IT WAS ALL HYPE!" and people who dont know any better, yet have their cash tied up in RedHat, will panic. "
This is likely anyway. Eventually, the economy is going to get to a point where it's not swelling like a zit on a 14 year old's face, and people who are playing the stock market are going to realize that they were smoking crack when they paid $300.00 for VA stock. (Don't get me wrong - I think they're both great companies, VA and Redhat, I just don't think they're worth the money that they're at. The stock price should have something to do with earnings in my book)
When the market corrects itself, redhat and VA are going to fall a bit. They're not going to fall like NetUSA did, but they will fall somewhat until their stock price is a bit more in line with what the company is. All fads wear off.
I agree with you that LinuxOne could catalyze that, (the linux aspect anyway, not the whole economy aspect) but I think it will happen anyway.
"This could spell trouble"
Yeah, well, do like most other people do and don't bother looking at linux or using it as a financial tool. Just use it as a kick ass OS. Again, I like redhat and VA, but I won't buy any of their stock anytime soon because I'm a programmer, and for some reason I just can't understand the brains of investors. The best bet (for me anyway) is to ignore linux IPO happenings when it comes to my own personal finances and enjoy linux as an OS.
"I think there needs to be an overall 'consortium'
contributed to by all distributions (...)"
That sounds like a good idea IF you can find somebody who will play the benevolent dictator role. I'm not really worried about this distro though since I think that if a lot of the allegations in the article are true, the company will probably have a total of about 10 users (most of which is the board of the company) a year from now.
I also don't like the thought of a board like that, because it would be very easy for it to fall into an exclusionary game of who gets to play with linux and who doesn't.
MDA
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
Does anyone know who owns www.linuxone.com? If you surt there you get the message:
:) )
This page is not here yet.
(with due credit to Transmeta in the source
Linuxone has www.linuxone.net, so who's got linux.com?
Another mysterious start-up? Another soon-to-be IPO?
Dana
LinuxOne OS will support these new technologies with its sophisticated proprietary device drivers....
;)
I think I now know who that "open source, copyrighted, non-distributal Natalie Portman" guy really is
mcrandello@my-deja.com
rschaar{at}pegasus.cc.ucf.edu if it's important.
LinuxOne INC S-1
"The shares will be offered for sale by our management for a period of 180 days, unless extended in the discretion of our Board of Directors for an additional 90 days. No commissions will be paid to our management for any sales they make. This is a "self-underwritten" offering."
So, they are planning to spam tens of thousands of people to offer them the opportunity to buy worthless stock. It's so worthless they can't get an underwriter to touch it!!
Oh boy. I see slashdot has started its umpteenth GPL flamewar of the week. What does that tell you?
If they're actually in violation of the GPL, they can lose *all* of their rights with respects to the GPL'ed software.
Copyrighted works by default give people NO license to copy, redistribute or modify the work. The GPL explicitely grants this right so long as the user works within the bounds of the license. Once they violate the license, they lose all redistribution rights to the software, which would kinda put them out of business instantly.
Nothing better than investing into companies that are trying to sell something any idiot can get for free! Maybe LinuxONE can outperform RedHat in its ability to lose money. Though that will be tuff, RedHat has done amazing job losing money selling Linux. 3.6 million dollars in loses is a phenomenal job!
Anyone that is interested in investing in Linux-based stocks, please give me a call. I have some wonderful real estate opportunities for you including a bridge in Brooklyn and some swampland in Florida.
I know this probably sounds crazy, but put a few pointers in here...
1. This guy started NetUSA, and the company went public.
2. NetUSA is failing in public, it's lost huge amounts of money and the stock price is falling drastically.
3. HE probably owned a majority share of NetUSA, right? So he gained quite a bit of money from those stocks... now, legally he could neither sell them nor use that money for six months. However...
4. Now he starts a NEW company, and tries to send it public within six months, a ridiculously short time for such things. Which, at ANY price, will bring in a nice chunk of pocket change...
5. Gee, sounds a little fishy - you think he might be using one to fund the other? Illegal, yes, impossible? No.
He's already shown disregard for people (laws?) by hosting spammail junk. Considering the (lack of) history for this company, I wouldn't be surprised if this is exactly what's happening. I hope he gets caught and jailed.
-Elthia
opinionated as ever
We the linux community must spread the word ASAP.
I am very very worried. I am worried about how this will hurt Linux and open source. It is very sad, but inevitable that sooner or later some fucking bastards will try to exploit us and this is a clear case. A lot of people today, who do not know much about the market or linux, !(me and you), are going to dump their money if Linuxone goes IPO. Now, what do you think will happen? After a short while, people will realize that this company is a hoax and will loose a lot of money! If a lot of people loose money in this, what will this say? Linux is not happening?! Linux is a hoax? I am not talking about what you will think, but what the average joe will. people will throw there money when this goes IPO if it ever does, they will do it, not to invest , but to make very quick money! THe outcome worries me.
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
Michael Lerperger (LINUXONE-DOM)
Kutschkergasse 4/7
Vienna, Vienna A-1180
AUSTRIA
Domain Name: LINUXONE.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Lerperger, Michael (ML9820) mlerp@POBOX.COM
+43 (1) 402 8089 (FAX) +43 (1) 402 8089
Billing Contact:
Lerperger, Michael (ML9820) mlerp@POBOX.COM
+43 (1) 402 8089 (FAX) +43 (1) 402 8089
Record last updated on 14-Nov-1999.
Record created on 15-Nov-1998.
Database last updated on 23-Dec-1999 14:08:21 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.MLERP.COM 208.231.31.21
NS4.MLERP.COM 208.231.31.22
It is the commercial businesses that produce slaveware, not the humble servants of the FSF.
I was able to telnet in to the SMTP port on Quistis and verify the users listed on their web site.
And yes, they are still being hosted on a DSL connection, as you can tell by doing a reverse lookup of their DNS. Not too impressive.
You'd think that, as "a leading-edge developer of Linux software, products and services" they'd at least be able to hire a decent server admin.
awfully bold to file for an IPO, without underwriters, with a tiny firm that's existed only for six months and that barely has a product. And to have the cheek to ask us to pay $29.95, sight unseen, for a distribution that the firm hasn't the conviction to run as its own Web server, and to expect us to not worry our pretty little heads over source code seems a bit much. Add to that LinuxOne's claims to be a world shaker poised, as the About page says, to "become the world's highest-rated supplier of Linux solutions based on innovation, packaging, support, and global capability."
Does this sound like some earlier M$ campains to anyone else??
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
People are dumb when they just listen to someone else. People are smart when they decide something for themselves and make an educated decision.
News for nerds should be pointing out facts of the matter, not belittling someone so they can't be rich like everyone else.
If you were to worry about anything, worry about redhat making a second offering already, wory about stocks splitting and market saturation. Worry about how money won't keep coming if its not making a profit. Its okay the first few years to report a loss, but if RedHat positions its value to be at billions of dollars and doesn't get some SERIOUS assets, there are going to be some SERIOUS loosers out there.
I sure hope you find ways to support your market instead of the blind leading the blind. Too bad ESR and RMS has to speak for evreyone here. I find that dissapointing and someone hypocritical of the masses.
You can flame me, you can moderate this however you want. The issue is the usability, the functionality and the business aspects of linux and this company. Read there prospectus, decide for yourself. Don't let jealous people make up your mind.
Variety was always the feature of linux. The choices and freedoms you have. Thats why i say its hypocritical of anyone to be downplaying another company.. just becuase one person or another says they are not a true player.
The "evil empire" doesn't tell me who i can or shouldn't buy from. the "Evil empire" doesn't have people running to trade shows preaching ethics of software. Come on people. The eveil empire is giving up your choice for someone elses choice. While your choice of linux may be yours. don't give up your other choices just because your being told to do so.. sounds more of any eveil empire then having something that works..
BTW: the evil empire you speak of, has a great new operating system called Windows 2000 professional. It offers the abillity to switch between multiproc/single proc systems, has a great web server, has nice Directory Services. Lots of new internet funcionatlity, and most of all it works with my usb and firewire devices so now i can get digital video from my digital camera in and edit it in full frame rates.
And no one forced me to choose one thing or another. No bill gates didn't send droves of people out on the net to preach ethics of software. NO bill gates didn't make computers political. No bill gates didn't give a sub culture to the culture that already existed
It wasn't until linux came about that being a computer user/nerd became friend or foe for the choice of your operating system. I remember the good ol' days when it was how you could network, program, code, and be yourself.. to bad we have lost all our rights for an "Ethical operating system for the community"
Open your eyes people. what good is a choice, if you have to be approved of making that choice? what good is choice if the head honcho's don't like your decision.
Funk dat. I run linux, i run BeOS AND i run Windows 2000 and Windows 98. Linux doesn my firewall/routing. BeOS is a play toy. Windows 2000 is my workstation and windows 98 is my girlfriends computer.
They all work.. but linux users/systems are the only ones that give me hell.. and for what? I don't want to loose functionality of suppoering my PDA's, my network cards, my usb devices, full printing features (linux printing blows donky ass), web browsing (ahem.. don't even claim linux has a good browser yet.. and i know about mozilla, i debug that under beos and nt all the time).
enough with my rant.. make up your own mind. thats my point.
Slashdot has got to hell in a handbasket. Every day, every article, the thing is filled with lied, FUD, and zealotry about the FSF. Screw that. Go to court. Violate the GPL as much and as often as you can. Get this shit in a court of law so we will know. And shut the fuck up about the damned GPL on every damned story.
When I asked what the difference between RedHat and LinuxOne is, he said that there is little difference, and when I asked why I should buy LinuxOne instead of RedHat, he was unable to answer my question.
If you've got any furthur questions, their toll free sales line is: 1-877-Linux12
Sosumi. just kidding. DONT!
I've been amazed that there has been as much "good faith" shown as there currently is.
it's only going to get worse, I just hope this doesn't give linux a big black eye when the truth turns up... I fear it may.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/991102-000009.html
Call me cynical, but with this kind of background, any investor who loses his shirt on this IPO (if it busts) due to lack of research deserves every cent he flushes down the drain. There is so much hype these days, and no real understanding of what makes a company worth investing in. It's not like this article was revealing anything a competent investor couldn't have found, and the article is published where anyone can find it if they care to look. I have little sympathy for investors who lose money on pure speculation and hype.
To whit: I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
BTW, I thought the author was... uh, to say the least... generous. Pretty amusing article, if it weren't for the fact that we're dealing with a serious issue here.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
...hopefully, is that LinuxOne *will* crash and burn, and anyone stupid enough to use it as an anti-linux datum will be quickly pointed to the denunciations on Slashdot and LinuxWorld, from Bruce Perens, and from basically anyone else who knows what they're talking about.
I mean, honestly, LinuxOne's name has been mud from the very day their existance became known! If someone invests in them because "it's got Linux in the name!" but doesn't bother to do so much as a web search to research the company, they deserve what they get.
This is going to make life not so good for any other legitimate distro who want to fund their company through an IPO.
This LinuxOne IPO will probably not do very well, which will drag down the image of "Linux IPOs" in the mind of the underwriters.
If the underwriters have a low opinion of Linux companies because of this, the next distro who wants funding through an IPO will probably get a lower opening price, which means less money in the bank for them, which means less development and such which affects us all.
Hopefully this will set the standard for other companies who wish to do the same thing. If these guys do terribly, then others probably wont follow suit, which is good for the community, both the open source community and the financial community.
2 cents from an ex manager of wrestlers
LinuxOne is positioned to quickly become a leading provider of Linux software.
Yeah right. Their going to out do RedHat or SuSE or Caldera? I think not.
The Company's extensions to the Linux software kernel will rapidly distinguish its products from all other available Linux software. LinuxOne intends to develop operating system and application software tailored to support a wide variety of platforms, business environments, and markets. LinuxOne has an exceptional management team that possesses the experience and proven skills necessary to quickly establish the company as one of the world's preferred providers of Linux software.
What are they going to make that Linux dosen't already do? What platform are they going to add? At the rate other companies are going, my left pinky toe will be able to run Linux :) Great management team? Try great BS team.
Robert E. Philips, B.S. Physics, BS Philosophy, MBA Marketing, and MBA Extended Edition in High Technology Management, has been a founding executive for numerous Silicon Valley startup firms. He has been responsible for business plans, proposals, collateral materials, advertising, and public relations. His technical background in hardware, software, and network technologies provides him with considerable insight into high-technology products.
And having a Bachelors in Physics and Philosophy is going to make him a good marketer? How? And whats this Extended Edition crap? Makes it sound like a car not a degree. He has been the founding executive for numerous Silicon Valley startup firms? What are they? Are they all bankrupt? Probably, thats why he went on to Linux, its a new field to try.
OK, enough of my rant, this company is a disgusting pile of bullshit and I am not going to waste any more of my time complaining about it!
Anonymous Hay goes in and I come out...
For CmdrTaco to essentially decry this company as a scam is entirely inappropriate. He, and this website, are owned by a close competitor, so comments like these not only have no objectivity, but should be viewed as highly suspicious and manipulative.
When it comes down to it, there really are only slight differences between the behavior of LinuxOne and that of VA systems, RedHat, and the others. None of them have, or will have, profits to justify their market valuations, and all are based on essentially the same platform: Making Money from Linux.
So what is so different about this company? That they don't have the alliance with a bunch of hip linux hackers, or the requisite early marketing hype. They certainly have comparable profits.
The Linux as IPO fantasy is playing out again and again, just as e-commerce did. But, as with e-commerce, the ones who make real profits will be few and far between.
But to hear scathing remarks posing as journalism about a competitor in their industry makes my stomach churn. I certainly didn't hear this kind of criticism regarding VA or the others. You've already cashed in.
Moderators: While I do expect this view to be unpopular, please evaluate its merits for discussion (and rational defense) before emotionally slamming it as 'flamebait'.
I understand why many people may not like the GPL, but after seeing so many corporations today choose greed over product quality (ie, MSFT, or the plethora of these ridiculous patent-suing companies), I no longer have faith that most capitalist businesses produce products for the common good. Instead it seems they only want to maximize profits. Thus, I'm all for the GPL, which while admittedly not the free-est (how do you spell this? Most free, instead?) open-source license by far, serves to level the playing field, by allowing every party involved to have the same rights that every other party involved has.
I agree that there are other more ideal open-source licenses, but I don't believe today's companies or markets are ideal. I believe, and you're perfectly entitled to blatantly disagree, that the GPL can help prevent corruption here, while allowing the benefits of open-source and software sharing.
Of course some companies may form and try to exploit this (ie, linuxone), but the GPL would prevent them from proprietarizing any parts of the kernel or distro (assuming the redhat distro is GPLed). If, by some fat chance, linuxone makes improvements on redhats code, then we all win because we can now use their enhancements.
I simply won't purchase, contribute, or have anything to do with this company. Neither will many others, I suspect. Do whatever they like. Unless they come out with something "special" (i.e something that sets them appart from the rest of the pack), then I simply won't waste my time on them.
So, they go public. They ride the Linux bandwagon and all become millionaires overnight. Big deal. Life goes on. I'd rather support and invest in companies that care about the community they are serving.
The Linux community is a (generally) close-knit group. We tend to really support those we like, and eat those we don't alive (whether the mis-feelings are founded or not, that's a different matter altogether).
In other words, I believe things will work out on their own, and unless LinuxOne has something to offer that Redhat, SuSE, Debian, Caldera, Mandrake, Slackware, yadda, yadda doesn't offer then they are doomed before they even start.
You are right. If LinuxOne makes improvements over Redhat, we win. If LinuxOne simply rips off Redhat without offering anything new then, just like in the "traditional" market, you simply will not have a customer base. You tank, crash, and fall over like a dead cockroach. Again, we (the community) win again.
:)
Gotta love it, man
It wasn't until linux came about that being a computer user/nerd became friend or foe for the choice of your operating system. I remember the good ol' days when it was how you could network, program, code, and be yourself..
...I don't want to loose functionality ...
hmmmmmmmmm....
you seemed to miss Amiga Vs. PC and Mac sentiments, the Mac vs. Ibm feelings, the whole UNIX vs. NT idea, DEC vs. IBM vs. Control Data, some people are Palm Pilot vs. CE fanatics. There are many other instances where people were and are fanatical about operating system choice. It is nothing new.
The "evil empire" doesn't tell me who i can or shouldn't buy from.
Oh yeah? How uneducated you are indeed. They sure have tried to tell IBM, Dell, Compaq, Gateway and everyone else who they can and can't buy from. Did you read the finding of fact against Microsoft? They sure were telling Apple who to buy from, and who do you think they were effectively dictating choice to? YOU, the consumer.
some SERIOUS loosers out there.
Loose? As in not tight? It's LOSE, by the way. One O. This post wasn't about being the grammar police, but come on. Also, "the head honcho's don't" Apostrophes do not show plurality. Oh well, this degenerated into a grammar check.
I don't even want to get into 'this great new operating system' Windows 2000 Professional. You deserve to use Microsoft products.
Juln
What do you mean that andover.net is a "close competitor" to LinuxOne? andover.net is a MEDIA company. LinuxOne pretends to distribute a version of Linux that "runs under Windows" (actually, it sounds like you execute it under Windows, it reboots into Linux, then if you want to "return" to Windows, you type "reboot" at the command-line prompt. Does that even SOUND like it's "running under Windows"?!?).
How, exactly, are they competing?
---------The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Maybe I should just incorporate now and file an IPO to get the money, silly me, I thought I would have to have a product first.
Of course I guess I could just turn it into a scam of some sort so Slashdot would run the story and the VC firms would come to me. I wouldn't mind be called a scam so much if I could get the money I need. I've already had one person suggest I was trying to cash in on Linux's success. I would have thought anyone who had used Linux for a few years or so would know that anyone wanting to start a game company to produce Linux games isn't trying to cash in on anything except for maybe their own desire to actually play a computer game again. Besides if I was cashing in on Linux I wouldn't plan on supporting FreeBSD and BeOS. Oh well I am rambling again. Sorry
My rather long winded point is that the SEC really should set some stricter rules on who can go for an IPO. Of course I guess there should be more common sense involved as well. I mean who in their right mind would ask for money from the general public with no track record? The general public isn't like a big firm, I know lots of people that want to invest in companies but don't really have the money to spare. It isn't at all fair that the average shmuck who doesn't know jack about the Linux community except that every Linux IPO goes gold might waste his life savings on this.
won't be open sources for several years though... at least the 3d engine won't. id makes allot of money from licensing their 3d engine, and won't open source it until they've milked every last penny from it, which will probably be several years because of how advanced the engine in q3 is.
in short: don't hold your breath.
-----
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
MEEPT!!!!!
MEEPT!!!!! is overjoyed to see that his earlier advice given to graduating students has been expanded upon by the loveable LinuxOne. MEEPT!!!!! advised students to adopt a catchy series of initials, such as ESR or RMS, then wait for free shares of IPO-madness to start rolling in. MEEPT!!!!! is delighted to see that LinuxOne has expanded this concept, and will be offering their very own IPO!
MEEPT!!!!! strongly encourages slapdashers to support LinuxOne's product when it is made available. Wun C. Chiou Sr., Ph.D. - the esteemed CEO of LinuxOne - has personally assured MEEPT!!!!! that LinuxOne will make available the finest Linux Distribution in the world: Redhat. He encourages investors to get in on the ground floor of LinuxOne's IPO, because "hey, you all gave mad cash to Redhat. We sell the same thing, right down to the directory names and box logo! You should give us money too!"
MEEPT!!!!!
According to their Y2K statement
...
In July 1999, we formed a committee consisting of our President, Chief Financial Officer, and a systems administrator, as part of our effort to perform a coordinated audit of:
...
Geez - those poor corporations that hired programmers to check their work - what a waste of money. All you need to verify Y2K compliance is a President, CFO, and a sys admin and observe what happens when you turn the date ahead.... Its not like components interact over time or anything
You mean this? From earlier today (comment 15 or so)? Or am I missing something?
Did this hurt the technology explosion? Not really. It was broad based and building off of NASA technology developed during the space race. ("Computers that can fit inside a single room....)
Will this hurt Linux? Most intelligent investors know there are such carpetbagging companies out there, and will either avoid the stock or get burned. Many idiots will associate LinuxOne with Linux as a whole, but these are the same twits who will be dropping all of their Linux stock when the next fad comes along.
We'll probably loose some PHB's in this mess, but most of them will have tech people who will use Linux anyway and use the $$$ allocated for NT licenses for Q3 and TNT cards..... ;)
Bottom line, unless there's a massive media blitz, this will only cost us the morons we'd loose in a year or two anyway.
On the flip side, we can all put in some calls. You buy the stock betting it will go down. Someone buys betting it will go up and you get the difference when it tanks! I'm not an investment advisor, I don't even own stock, but the rich guy who rents out space in the building told me this when I told him about LinuxOne.
Funny, I proof courseware about Securities investments, but I don't know squat about it! (The result of reading to find errors and poor readability)
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
This one from The Register (UK). No registration required.
No wonder they go nonlinear. The system is stacked against them from the start.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
actually a better thing to say is "this is like comparing yahoo to IBM".
yahoo and microsoft are in direct competition because of MSN.
-----
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
I added a link on siliconInvestor.com Maybe we can help the poor smucks out there SiliconInvesto r
Help fight continental drift.
I wonder how long it'll take before they become a Microsoft Partner.
Blender And Linux Fan
Hmm. I looked at LinuxOne's employment page, and then compared to RedHat's. There *is* a difference: Are you interested in becoming part of the Red Hat team? We offer a competitive salary and benefits package including major medical; life; dental; vision; short and long term disability; flexible spending account; and 401k savings and retirement plan. If you think you have what it takes and enjoy a fun but high pressure environment, please send your resume, salary requirements and position title to:
Red Hat can list their benefits.
LinuxOne: Are you interested in becoming part of the LinuxOne team? We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits package. If you think you have what it takes, and enjoy a fun but high-pressure environment, please send your resume, salary requirements, and position title to:
Can not.
Is it me or did LinuxOne get cut/paste happy?
Couldn't Linus Torvalds deny LinuxOne the right to use the name Linux in their corporate name?
Peace and love, y'all
This is so true for many recent IPO's, but I've never seen anyone actually admit it.
After linuxone tanks, you can pickup a truckload of stocks dirt cheap for novelty value...
I can't wait to tell the women at the bar "yeah, I own 10,000 shares of linux stock, wanna see my 'Rol3x'?"
A HOWTO that sums up the whole phenomenon.
After the success of ANDN using the unproven OpenIPO process, I wouldn't be surprised if LinuxOne does equally as well without an underwriter. Of course a doubling or tripling of your initial investment isn't the same as going up by a factor of ten as with VA Linux, but you still make very good money. The chances of a Linux stock initially trading less than the IPO price have got to be small and we Linux developers would only be interested in making a quick buck off such a scam company so long term prospects don't mean much.
LinuxOne is clearly a Situationist-inspired art project, like eToy. It's a hoax created by a Dutch and Japanese multimedia artists' collective. It has to be.
If you look at it that way, it's a good practical joke.
yes, the moderators did you in.
yet another LinuxOne story. oh well, hopefully the word will get out and damage to the name "Linux" will be minimized. Not that the "MassLinux" debacle helped any. IMHO, Corel's "Debian"-based distro is helping Linux the most.
here is a link to a few details of the new $7 million "money saving, commercial technology" i486-based brain for the hubble.
No mention of the OS or programming language, other than a "modern" programming language was used for development. COBOL perhaps?
Hubble's new brain
Hmm, these LinuxOne people seem to have something for the FF8 girls. Methinks that they need to get out more.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
The securities laws already require tons of disclosure. I can file an IPO tomorrow for a company to market LinuxOne CD's through a network of homeless street people, and if you don't like it -- don't buy it!
We need to rise up and embark on a haxor jihad to put down these people who would sully the good name of LiNuXXX! Down with these Johnny Come Lately carpetbaggers! We need to cast them out of our open source movement with the sound and the fury of the most phearsome packetstorm that the Cyberworld has ever known! Generations after us will remember our heroic deeds in epic song, and they shall forever be grateful that this honorable JiHaD rose and forced these heathens back to their Win32 Micro~oft world!
Oxman [CIA]
----------------
"OmG wut iz thiz lAmmmER shiznit.... u d00dz suX0r at QUAkE my mamamaa beat j000 sh3 haz a GlaSs Legand Eye. HAHAHHAHAUHRUHA"
I can't say who I am, which makes me glad we still have AC here. I can tell you that I have a fair bit of influence here and there in certain arenas. And because of LinuxOne's behavior and practices, I'm using that influence to block them wherever I can.
When they announced their "LinuxMac" or "MacLinux" "product", there were a few mentions of it on various Mac OS news web sites. Using the simple facts that Linux already does what LinuxOne's vaporous product did, and my influence, I got all mentions of it killed, fast.
I later found out that they were threatening a major (probably not any you're thinking of, though) Linux news web site. Not good. That adds to my/our conviction to push LinuxOne down as hard as we can.
I'll continue to do that whenever and wherever I can. You can thank me later.
Signed,
Your Friend.
On one hand I'm really angry about this, what happened to the "three years of profibility" clause that the SEC used to enforce? What kind of future are we looking at where every Tom, Dick, and Harry could package someone else's distro and say he's a Linux company about to go public?
On the other hand I'm delighted at the prospect of a Linux IPO bombing. Someone guy in my office made $42,000 on VA Linux and $35,000 on Red Hat's IPO. The guy doesn't know a thing about Linux, only how to push buttons on E-Trade. If the company has the word Linux in it, he buys. I can't wait to hear him scream from his office as LINX falls like a stone.
Now wait a second. If this Leenuxx is as good as they're saying it is, it might be worth saving. But riddle me this... Can it run my Beowulf cluster of Quake3 servers? If so, give me and John a call.
Dave "Zoid" Kirsch
"What's a ps?"
I'll foot the bill. I guarantee we would make 5-6 million -- easily.
Common name? No. You mean generic. Currently, it would not pass the test of being a generic name, although maybe Unix would.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
LinuxOne is a problem :
- noone from the free software community will buy its stock
- if investors are clever enough to do an altavista search about linuxone they won't buy either
I think we should be prepared to see more and more companies like this
Not only are they not using thier own distribution, but they didnt even bother to compile their own Webserver. They are using the defualt Apache installation that comes with Redhat! Connected to www.mlerp.com. Escape character is '^]'. HEAD / HTTP/1.0 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 23:48:04 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) (Red Hat/Linux) Last-Modified: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 22:21:00 GMT ETag: "de002-10e-37f3e24c" Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 270 Connection: close Content-Type: text/html
I noticed the article mentioned that by some accounts Mandrake is outselling Red Hat significantly. Looking for the number of units each of the distributions is shipping, I went hunting around the Red Hat site looking for theirs. I can find their estimate of their percentage of the North American market (56%) as well as the revenue generated from the sales of software ($3,369,000), but I can't find the raw number of units. I'd like to know. Now to Red Hat's credit, they clearly indicated in the latest quarterly report that the decline in software sales as a percentage of income does not represent a decrease in sales of software. They have increased their sales of service. And from the look of it as I skimmed, they are selling quite a few books as well.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
One way to partake would be to short it just after its issue. Chances are it will open at more than 5 times its issue price, but then depreciate rather rapidly. If you short it, you can cash in big. However, unfortunately some brokerages might not allow to short stocks right after the IPO.
Does anybody know the date when it'll go to IPO? January 20th by any chance?
Just looks like another smartass trying to make some fast money from others works. Nothing new.
Anyway, I'm not going to use Mandrake distribution. If they work, collaborate or whatever with LinuxOne, something stinks.
This smells fishier than a sushi bar on Tuesday. Come on, a RedHat server? Ye of little faith!
> something for the FF8 girls. Methinks that they
> need to get out more.
Maybe you do, since you recognized those names awful quickly ;-)
I love hostname themes, so let's see, we have:
rinoa.linuxone.net 216.101.248.91
tifa.linuxone.net 216.101.248.92
quistis.linuxone.net 216.101.248.93
But they reverse lookup to things like adsl-216-101-248-92.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
Unfortunately, shorting it would be impossible. At least my broker (Datek) does not let me short VA, Red Hat, etc. - "security is non-marginable" (and, therefore, can't be sold short). I think it is the same with other brokers, at least right after the IPO. This is one of the reasons why VA is still around $200 - people can not go short on it. Once they can, it will go down to more reasonable levels (although I've been saying that about Amazon all way long :)
That's not a bad idea!
If everyone who has a spare couple of $hundred (more is better of course) did this, it would send a pretty good message, too.
You should put a link to this up on a couple stock boards, too.. that would scare the DayTraders off.
probably means it took him longer to get than normal.
- LinuxOne's GPL violation status:
- They acknowledge the requirement to provide a written offer in the README on the CDROM
- They acknowledge the problem when contacted by phone
- They have failed to follow through on providing the source code on their FTP site
- Caldera has distributed OpenLinux Demo CDs without source code or a written offer of source code.
- The CDROM README file does no discuss the availablity of the source code at all
- Caldera refuses to respond to email on the subject
- Caldera refuses to address the problem when contacted by phone stating a policy of requiring software authors to contact the Caldera contact assigned to them at the time Caldera choose to redistribute their software (however, Caldera has not assigned contacts to GPL authors, only to companies authoring commerical licensed software). They have refused to acknowledge that there is any problem.
- Linux Systems Labs in their product titles implies that entire CDs are covered by the GPL when in actuality the CD conatins several packages that are not covered by the GPL (this act is described as a GPL violation by the Free Software Foundation)
- Linux Central when a binary only CD is ordered does not supply any written offer of source code availablity
- Cheap Bytes when a binary only CD is ordered does not supply any written offer of source code availablity
- IBM has been in violation of the LGPL for over 400 days since the time they have distributed unsupported ADSM for Linux. To date, they still have not made the object files for ADSM available for accomplishing relinking against modified versions of the LGPL material. There is every reason to believe that IBM will remain in violation of the LGPL throughout the entire 1999 year.
If you where actually do a non-bias audit of the companies that are affilating themselves with the Linux name, I think you would find that if you put all the company names on a dart board and threw a dart at it that the majority of the time you will hit a company that has violated the GPL. You have to wonder why we continue to be dumb enough to publish under the GPL or LGPL at all! And considering that a large part of the computer industry works "by example" of other computer companies that have been successful, it isn't suprising that the number of GPL violations continue to rise. Imagine if LinuxOne choose to follow Caldera's example and not even provide an offer in their README file. But rather than set the Linux friendly companies as a whole straight so that they are all setting good examples for other companies that become interested in affilating themselves with Linux, what happens is that groups like Technocrat reserve doing an audit for GPL violation until they find something else they don't like about the company. If your extra shady then the "and you followed the bad example of the other Linux companies and violated the GPL" card will be thrown at you. But if your "friendly" enough to the Linux Community like being a Linux Internation Sponsoring Corporate Member just like Caldera does then: what the hay, go ahead and throw out as many demo CDs without source code or offer of source code as you want, enforcing the GPL only applies to those other questionable companies. Why should Caldera even have to acknowledge they have obligations under the GPL?I think that /. readers are getting their panties in a bunch needlessly over this. Most people who buy IPOs are not THAT stupid. Most IPOs need a top tier underwriter to do at all well. RedHat had Goldman Sachs, the toppest of the top. VA Linux and Andover had decent underwriters.
LinuxOne is trying to fly on their own, which to any investor who knows anything is an immediate red light and siren warning.
There are plenty of scam artists trying to attach their name to whatever is hot at the moment - from Black Light Power to LinuxOne. LinuxOne isn't the first company to try a fast one like this, nor are they the last. Will investors pay any attention to LinuxOne? Not any more than they will to the thousands of con artists that have tried to take advantage of other stock fads.
What is the most likely consequence of the LinuxOne IPO? A securities fraud case, and jail time for those involved.
Linux is not going to get a black eye over this.
Linuxone is a scam plain and simple(in my eyes). no revenues, no product to speak of . no employees. yet trying to go public. this is nothing but a scam in my eyes. i hope all slashdot readers dont partake in this foolishness, not that y'all didnt already bawk at this offering. Reminds of zzz mattress company days (i think thats what it was called). cheapskate
Rafael Kaufmann's parents are proud to announce his IPO, to take place in early 2000. Kaufmann has already secured the Nasdaq ticker KMNN, and is in the process of preparing for the offering by fasting (sometimes for periods of over 6 hours!) and cleaning up his place.
Kaufmann is a small individual operating out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, associated with the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. He operates mainly in the area of computational mathematics, as well as alternative software in general. He is affiliated with the Tunes project, but has yet to do anything important.
Kaufmann's mother Drorit had no comment, but his father was quoted as saying "that boy will never amount to anything!".
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
Linux has nothing to do with the stock market. Linux will live on long after the last day trader is long dead in the cold ground. Linux will survive because I say it will and so do thousands of other people around the world. I'm getting kind of sick of all the talk about Linux INC. Linux is not a corproation it is a community.
I personally don't care if RedHat dies tomorrow and if LinuxOne carried the casket, it would not mean a thing to me. How many people that use Linux have shares of VA or RedHat? I would bet it's somewhere around 3% or less.
Ask yourself why you use Linux. If you use it because RedHat and/or VA and/or LinuxOne and/or LinuxTwo and/or LinuxEtc is listed on the stock exchange then you are a short sighted fool and should switch back to NT.
When you are serious about wanting stable software systems you get Open Source, and when you get serious about Open Source you get Linux. Why? Becuase Linux delivers on the promises it makes. It is fast and stable despite what Microsoft says, It is free despite what TurboLinux says, and it is a full desktop ready operating environment despite what every newspaper hack in the world says.
Linux changes everything. The media doesn't see it, the Wall Street wolves don't see it, but I do. If an under-educated carpenter from nowhere USA can see it then surely all you college grads must have some clue.
What does Linux mean to me? It means I will never have to pay for software again! Is this gready? YES. Is it short sighted? PROBABLY. Is it true? YES.
The truth is that right now anything that carries the Linux stamp onto Wall Street will be devoured with disgusting lust. Soon that will change and if all it costs me is a couple of day traders, that's a price I am willing to pay.
This is not the last of the Linux crooks! Get over the shock! If you have web space, use it to speak out against the crooks and praise the honest man. If you have a penny, send it to the honest man. If you have a voice speak, out for the honest man. If you are an honest man, thank you.
"LinuxOneTM, Inc., provides world-class UNIX (Linux) software for server,workstation, and home environments." So in addition to everything else, Linuxone is ignoring the Opengroup's trademark for Unix(TM). BTY the rest of the page reads like an ad for the IPO.
Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est
This sounds extremely awesome. I need some extra cash and this sounds like a great way to do it! Maybe take Debian, embrace and extend it with proprietary binary only code and then release it on CD.. then the IPO baby. I can go from my garage to being a millionare overnight! This is fantastic. Everyone should be doing this rather than complaining about LinuxOne! They are taking advantage of an incredibly stupid public! We should too! I guarentee you, if each of you had $1 million in cold hard cash in your hands you'd think twice about living your hippie open source lifestyle and start developing GOOD quality closed source products in order to get MORE of this great green shit. I would too.
Does this mean that /. is no longer a couple of guys with a cool site. I sure hope not, even if there happen to be a couple thousand readers daily. Who says the media is never biased. Lets see, I know ABC isn't. That little commercial stating "tell me something good about guns in 10 seconds" sure isn't biased. Lets see, how about protection from people who got them illegaly and, oh yeah, that second ammendment thingy also. Sorry, I got a little off topic, but nobodies perfect, include CmdrTaco.
The best way to accelerate a windows box is at 9.8 meters per second square.
If you check out LinuxOne's order form you will notice that the source codes are available upon request. The fact that the default choice for receiving source codes is "no" is another story...
Also notice that although they have changed their name from "LinuxOpen" to "LinuxOne" (as stated in the article above) linuxopen.com is still registered and their orderforms are located on a computer called gabriel.linuxopen.com
Funny stuff...
I quote some choice lines from their S-1 filing. These folks really need to be whipped!
We are an emerging developer and provider of open source software and services, including the LinuxOne Operating System, which we call "LinuxOne OS". Unlike proprietary software, open source software has publicly available source code and can be copied, modified and distributed with minimal restrictions.
No mention of GPL!
Since it was only introduced in September, 1999, we do not have a history of operations, but we believe it will become one of the more popular Linux-based operating systems in the world.
Yeah right! Hello! How do they plan on doing this? Mailing it to the 2 billion armpits in China?
We seek to establish a position as a leading provider of open source software and services by: - continuing to enhance our web site to create one of the definitive online destinations for the open source community;
And what an awesome begining they've had so far. One of the stalwart figures of the community Bruce Perens has been openly critical about them and has shown no signs of withdrawing his criticism, since LinuxOne has obviously made no effort to involve him or the other leaders in the community.
They then go ahead and list the following risks.
Few open source software products have gained widespread commercial acceptance partly due to the lack of viable open source industry participants to offer adequate service and support on a long-term basis.
Huh???? Apache and Linux have not gained commercial acceptance?
OUR RELIANCE ON THE SUPPORT OF LINUX TORVALDS AND OTHER PROMINENT LINUX DEVELOPERS COULD IMPAIR OUR ABILITY TO RELEASE MAJOR PRODUCT UPGRADES AND ESTABLISH MARKET SHARE.
Enough saidCorrect me if I'm wrong, but hasn't LinuxOne changed a whole lot since then? I believe that when the LinuxWorld article was written, they had all kinds of problems, but since then they have fixed many of them. I remember reading that their distro is sort of respectable now, and they have a better web site etc. Let's not blindly LinuxOne bash, although I wouldn't buy their stock.
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
Something that I don't think anyone has mentioned (my fault if they did...) A quick search of the US PTO online database shows no registered or pending trademarks for LinuxOne. I don't think it's illegal, but I think it's pretty poor for someone to claim a trademark on something they haven't even bothered to file with the US gov't. Unless of course it's a foreign trademark. But that's murky waters. Anyway.. I'm not one to cry wolf about stuff I don't know 100% about, but I'm just a bit apprehensive about this company... we'll see what happens when and if it ever does IPO.
somebody finally reporting something on here
truthful about a hyped linux company which has
problems !!!
be honest about all this stuff
we all lose when people arent
Here's the latest I've found:
Hmm, it's not RedHat anymore (it was RedHat 6.0 in early Nov.), but that sure as hell doesn't look like a LinuxOne distro either. I also seriously worry about how the Linux name could be affected by such shoddiness. They apparently haven't even locked the box down. Bad news.They also claim to have downloadable source at 140.174.127.97, but I've had no luck getting in, with the message:
Hmm. Wonder if they have max users set to something like 1 or 2 to give the appearance that their server is busy. Mainly, I wanted to see for myself how "different" their distro was. So far, no luck and I'm not optimistic.Hopefully, there is enough noise in the community to keep any innocent users from getting snakebitten by what, to us, are obviously useless and unneccessary products (LinuxMac on the top of the list).
--Humpty Dumpty was pushed!
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I really hate linuxone. I am so ashamed of being chinese now! GOD! This linuxone chinese guy really makes me very very sick!!! ML
If Redhat gives up you better believe it's going to have a negative impact on linux, its ability to get new software as well as marketshare. So like it or not, the future of linux depends on one company-Redhat. Fortunately, Redhat isn't linuxzero.
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LinuxOne will probably do well because their focus is on China and Japan. Do you think they care what slashdot says? Slashdot is in English. LinuxWorld is in English. They'll let Redhat dominate the English speaking world while they try to 'own' China. Having said that I think these guys are con artists trying to sell stuff anyone can legally get for free.
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And these violations ONLY matter if someone takes the companies to court *OR* some kind of linux boycott can be arranged.
/. are willing to give a lawyer money to defend your GPL rights?
Court action matters little to a company. Look at Microsofts actions outside of court, and the general attitude of Microsoft. It's only wrong after the judge rapps the gravel.
And, if the company is based in some country that doesn't honnor IP (Intellectual Property), the chance for court action is even less.
If these 'violations' of the GPL offend you, perhaps you can get ESR to take some of his VA Research^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HLiunx shares and hire the lawyer? There is this legal idea that if you are unwilling to defend your rights, you lose them.
How many of your GPL defenders on
The problem with Internet investing is people think that just because they have access to information they can go head to head with George Soros and Warren Buffett.
The naive investors who are targeted won't be reading Slashdot. But this is a great discussion if it helps people here understand these practices. And if shysters know the authorities are watching, they'll think twice before using their most aggressive practicse, and the public will save money.
The real "Bruce Perens" does not have a 'dot' at the end of his name. The real "Bruce Perens.", on the other end, does not have a missing dot at the end of his name.
I think slashdot should be more careful about dots.
Please note that the opensource natalie portman does not have dots or, for that matter, capitalized initials. This is misleading.
Heck it makes a small company like Apple with a PtS of 2.84 or a really small company like General Electric with a PtS of 4.84 probably risky investments. Of course these companies, like MS are actually profitable, and will probably remain that way.
Oh well, everyone lets put on blindfolds, knock back a few drinks and jump on the Linux bandwagon.
No, I am a Finaly Fantasy freak, plus I'm playing the game as we speak.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...