Wired: “Attention former government programmers, system analysts and assorted geeks: Your country needs you. There’s nothing like a government job for security.”

LinuxDevices.com writes: “This story by LinuxDevices.com founder Rick Lehrbaum provides in-depth coverage of today’s important joint announcment by Red Hat and FSMLabs of Red Hat’s adoption of RTLinux as its real-time Linux technology of choice. The article is based primarily on interviews with Michael Tiemann and Victor Yodaiken, and includes numerous links to further details and background information.”

Salon: “Gang members are using the Internet to discuss crimes in private chat rooms and
offer gangbanger wannabes a chance to enlist by posting membership
applications online.

Police nationwide are taking notice.”

MSNBC: “For anyone buying a new computer once the OS is released Oct. 25,
your decision will be made for you. Windows XP will come installed as
standard equipment on the majority of computers. Gateway is the first
company to announce it’s taking orders for computers with XP installed.
Expect everyone else to follow quickly.
Both Home and Professional versions are based on Windows NT/2000.
This will mark a big departure for most Windows OS users because the long
line of Windows 3.x/9x/Me operating systems were based on software placed
on top of Microsoft’s venerable command line OS MS-DOS.
Why base both new operating systems on NT/2000? Because Microsoft
says the code base is more secure and reliable.”

LWN is online, ready for your reading enjoyment.

LinuxSecurity: “Echelon exists, the European Union (EU) Parliament was told Wednesday. Echelon, allegedly a vast information collection system capable of monitoring
all the electronic communications in the world, has been talked about in security circles for several years. But no government agency in the world has
ever confirmed or denied its existence. An EU committee has been investigating the system for almost a year.”

LinuxJournal: “The two programs I discuss are Gmurf and Broadcast 2000, the latter of which had a nice introductory article in the January 2001 issue of Linux Journal. Neither program requires root privileges to install or run,
and both are easy to install and run (just follow the documentation), so I won’t cover that here.

The only other things you’ll need aren’t computer-related at all and consist of noise-making items (such as your voice or a pan and spoon), studio gear (such as a 48-channel powered mixing board with DSP or a
Wah-Wah pedal) and a mic or three.”

ZDNET: “At an event recognizing the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research, Gates indulged his fondness for technology,
raising hopes for a world where computers will become more useful. “The message you’ll get is one of incredible
optimism,” he said as he described Microsoft’s vision for its research labs.

Microsoft follows in the footsteps of more traditional computing companies such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM, which
have long had basic research efforts and enjoy making a spectacle of their latest discoveries.

Microsoft Research concentrates on
three main areas, Gates said: using
computers to extend what people
can do; improving digital music,
videos and images; and building
the company’s .Net vision of
computing services available over
the Internet.”

– by Robin “Roblimo” Miller –
Okay, all the Linux stocks have tanked, and analysts are yowling loudly that Linux may never be a competitive desktop operating system. But we’re suddenly seeing a burst of mainstream press coverage sympathetic to Linux and Open Source. Is it possible that Linux, in order to get widespread media attention, must be viewed as a hobby thing rather than as commercial software?
When IBM touts Linux, it is not much of a story. Microsoft may be huge, but IBM is huger. Ho-hum. One big company against another. Sun, HP and other computer giants can boost Linux all they want, but it’s still the same old, same old. We all know members of this crowd are only interested in Linux because they expect to make money from it, if only because they can eventually gain a competitive edge in some markets if they don’t have to pay Microsoft’s license fees.

When Linux companies were riding high and major Linux conventions drew surging hordes of not only the faithful but also of eager would-be converts, Linux was seen as a power, one that had, even, an air of inevitability about it. IPO and VC money was being thrown at Linux. Linux company corporate officers and key employees were buying new SUVs and upscale houses, and were becoming much like proprietary software company people in their other spending habits, too. Once again, not worth many stories aside from a few generic “excesses of Silicon Valley” commentaries rewritten to apply to high-profile Linux figures.

Now Linux is on the ropes, at least from a corporate financial viewpoint. Suddenly Linux is an underdog again, and the people who make it are being recast as dedicated volunteers going up against the Evil Empire. Any day now, we can expect to see a musical called “Damn Windows,” featuring a seductive song with a chorus that goes, “Whatever Ballmer wants, Ballmer gets …”

Nothing makes a better drama than a seemingly hapless person or group going up against a seemingly invincible foe. David vs. Goliath. The old Washington Senators against the New York Yankees. The Minnesota Twins against the New York Yankees. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays against the New York ….

[ED — Robin, quit with the baseball stuff already. We get the message. And the Devil Rays are not a fair comparison with Linux, because Linux is major league and they aren’t!]

Okay, boss. I was just getting into the sports analogy, but whatever you say. (*sigh*)

Anyway, my point is, writers love “Underdogs vs. Evil Power” stories. They are fine morality tales no matter which way they turn out. If the Underdogs win, than it was obviously the result of their all-around goodness and Excellent Character, while if the Evil Power wins, it teaches us all that, at the end of the story, the Good Guys can whistle their way joyously into the sunset, happy that even though they lost they Did Their Best, while the Evil Power is left to gloat joylessly over a hollow victory.

Despite his riches, Steve Ballmer never looks very happy, does he?

Now look at these happy Linux Guys.

Who would you rather hang out with, even if Ballmer and the Linux people were equally on the side of Goodness?

Given a choice between Microsoft’s management and a rag-tag bunch of part-time Linux developers, who would you rather cast as the “hero” in a story if you were a reporter trying to come up with something interesting and dramatic on a tight deadline? And if you were that reporter, wouldn’t you rather report on a story with the same classic (and endlessly endearing) plot as Jack and the Beanstalk than on a conflict between two sets of corporate greedheads?

Thought so.

And this is why Linux, in order to keep getting favorable attention from popular media, must remain in the underdog’s role as long as possible.

An article on MSNBC raises some concerns about the HP/Compaq deal: “Federal regulators will give the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq deal a glance, bless it and yell, Next! But they will be making a mistake, creating a behemoth slouching its way toward monopoly.”