Interesting essay at LinuxPlanet talks about how even though many Linux boosters yell loudly into the “all proprietary software sucks” microphone in public, when you start reading actual developer’s email lists, where the real work takes place,there is a surprising amount of courtesy shown to people who come from proprietary software backgrounds and want to get involved with Open Source. Just possibly, notes author Michael Hall, the ones who talk big and the ones doing the actual work aren’t the same group. (Not that you didn’t know this all along, right?)

Yes, it’s another weekly edition of Need to Know, one of our personal favorite sources of general Internet news and gossip. This week they start off with an update on Douglas Adams’ latest activities and go downhill from there. Perfect reading for a slow Saturday.

Yes, it’s another weekly edition of Need to Know, one of our personal favorite sources of general Internet news and gossip. This week they start off with an update on Douglas Adams’ latest activities and go downhill from there. Perfect reading for a slow Saturday.

“UK companies may be lagging behind their European counterparts because of
their failure to promote IT managers to the board,” says a
ZDNet UK story. Interesting thought; if you’re looking for a job (in the U.K. or anywhere else), would it be wise to see if the hiring company has at least one IT person on the board? Could this truly be a potential indicator of a company’s future, even if it’s not in a “high tech” field, given the fact that IT is essential to almost all businesses these days?

– by Robin Miller –
Yes, “reorganization” in this context is a polite term for
“bankruptcy.” But it is still possible — we hope — that Stormix Technologies, the company behind Storm Linux, can round up an additional injection of capital and keep going, even though things look rather bleak at the moment.NewsForge got an early whiff of trouble at Stormix when we contacted the company first in late December and again in early January to request a review copy of Storm Linux, and were told that they had no CDs available. Their PR person put a great spin on the lack of product, saying their latest release had been “so successful” that they had sold out.

This smelled a little funny; if the company’s products were that successful, why wouldn’t they simply make more? CDs aren’t expensive to produce, and people like us are interested in evaluating the actual software, not looking at fancy boxes. And if things were going that well, why not print more manuals and make more boxes? There are thousands of “print on demand” shops out there these days that will whap out a small number of installation guides almost overnight for a reasonable fee — at least reasonable enough to get a company through a temporary product shortage.

Another clue to potential Stormix problems was that many customers who had bought Storm Linux in stores had been promised product rebates, but had not received them even after months of waiting.

The kicker came in the form of a letter dated January 17, 2001, from the Deloitte & Touche (accounting firm) office in Vancouver, BC (where Stormix is located), that included these words:

• I, Stormix Technologies Inc., an insolvent person[*], pursuant to Subsection 50.4(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, intend to make a
  proposal to my creditors.
• Deloitte & Touche Inc. of 2100-1055 Dunsmuir Streeet, Vancouver, B.C., a licensed Trustee, has consented to act as Trustee under the
  proposal. A copy of the consent is attached.
• A list of names of the known creditors with claims amounting to @250 or more and the amounts of their claims is attached.
• Pursuant to Section 69 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, all proceedings against me are stayed as of the date of filing this notice with
  the Official Receiver in our locality.

*Under Canadian law, a company is considered a “person” in many financial and legal matters.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Stormix is going to immediately shut down; many businesses in both the United States and Canada file bankruptcy as a temporary measure while they get their financial act together or look for a more stable company to buy them. But all too often this sort of reorganization is a prelude to corporate death. It certainly was for U.S. retail chain Montgomery Ward, which operated under a court-supervised bankrutcy that allowed it to keep operating for several years while it tried to make a comeback — an effort that ultimately failed.

The folks on the stormlinux-users-list have been emailing each other back and forth like mad about this recently. Storm Linux, which adds GUI admin tools to Debian, has a dedicated following who hope the company — or at least the Storm Linux product — survives and that support for it continues.

The January 2001 list archives are here — at least if Stormix hasn’t pulled the plug on the server hosting the list archive by the time you read this; their ftp servers have reportedly been “up and down” over the last few weeks, and their list servers have also been out of commission for part of January. (Posts about the bankruptcy are toward the bottom of the page.)

We at NewsForge wish Stormix the best of luck, in large part because we have heard many good things about Storm Linux and were looking forward to trying it, and possibly using it permanently after we published the review.

Sadly, it looks like we may not see Stormix formally at Linux World this week, but if any Stormix employees, ex-employees, or devotees are at the show and would like to talk to us, either as reporters or as sympathetic friends, please stop by the OSDN booth. We’d love to meet you.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

CBSNews.com raises this concern: “Continued outages on
Microsoft’s Web sites raise questions
about the company’s bold new .NET
initiative, which encourages users to
store their files on Microsoft’s Web
servers.

The past few days have shown the
Redmond-based software giant is
vulnerable to attacks by hackers and
mistakes by its own technicians.”

The BBC reports on the mock documentary about a “murder” of Bill Gates. It seems to have the multi-billionaire a tad upset.

Richard Storey writes: “Don’t ya just luv it? ‘Our basic argument is that computer code is speech and it is entitled to First Amendment protections,’ says Andy Hertzfeld, co-founder of software firm Eazel and one of the brief’s authors. ‘Code, whether it is source or object, is speech and should be protected. That’s the truth, and there is no ambiguity.
I abhor what the MPAA is doing to bend the facts to fit their commercial ends.’ ” The story is at Business 2.0.

ZDNet reports that a bad week is thankfully over, at least if you’re a Microsoft fan. “For the fourth consecutive day, technical problems hindered access Friday to
Microsoft’s vast network of Web sites and services.

Access problems struck some of the software giant’s Web sites Friday morning and by
midday the company’s main site — Microsoft.com — was almost completely
inaccessible, according to Internet performance watcher Keynote Systems. “

From LinuxPR:
OpenDocs, LLC. a publisher of technical books and manuals is looking for
potential authors. If you are an author, or a would-be author, Opendocs wants to
hear from you.

The ideal OpenDocs author has a desire to write in a clear and effective manner.
As the technical industry changes rapidly OpenDocs is happy to work with
first-time authors that demonstrate a desire to produce a quality manuscript.
OpenDocs is open to any ideas on technical books that you may have, but have
particular interest in the following areas:

FreeBSD, Linux, Open Source in general, Programming Languages (specifically
Python, Perl, and PHP), Databases (including MySQL and PostgreSQL),
Network and Linux Security.