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Linux Software

LinuxOne CTO Interview 126

Posted by Roblimo from the let's-try-to-be-nice dept.
PraveenS writes "There's an in-depth analysis of LinuxOne and its IPO at linuxtoday.com. Paul Ferris of Linuxtoday spoke with LinuxOne CTO Dr. Peter Milford. Here's an interesting quote: "Our next version will have applications on it that no one else has." However, he said little else, making one wonder if they really do have something great. Also, it seems LinuxOne is not entirely unaware of the controversy surrounding them; they're holding a "Flame of the Week Contest." "
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LinuxOne CTO Interview

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  • I agree. That is *far* from an interview, given the
    selective cutting and pasting, clearly biased editorial
    viewpoint, etc.

    Out author keeps referring to them as "not getting the
    point". Which point? The one the author superimposes
    on the situation? The author fails to synthesize the
    viewpoint of the subject of the article, instead dismissing
    it instead of understanding it.

    This is not an article grounded in fact, rather, in
    opinionated fluff. Will a real interviewer go do the
    job right?
  • That's a great moderation!! It took a minute for me to catch it...

    Linux One == A bunch of crap

    ...so it's redundant. :-)
  • Is this related to the LinuxOne we know and love? (Mostly in Korean):

    LinuxOne Inc [linuxone.co.kr]

    This Alzza linux appears to be RedHat 6.1 with Korean font support:

    Alzza [linuxone.co.kr]

    Can anyone explain what these are?

    --
    Simon

  • LinuxOne now has a source code site available at 63.201.69.114 and 140.174.127.95. The first server runs LinuxOne 2.0, kernel 2.2.12-2 on a i586, and the second server runs on LinuxOne 1.2, kernel 2.2.12-2 on an i686. Feeling suspicious, I poked around on the second site, and noticed the global replace of RedHat with LinuxOne. Here is an excerpt from their RPM-PGP-key:

    The following public key can be used to verify RPM packages built and signed by Red Hat Software using `rpm -K'. If anyone cares to sign this key, please send the signed key to marc@redhat.com. Type bits/keyID Date User ID pub 1024/CBA29BF9 1996/02/20 Red Hat Software, Inc.

    Note that that the source tree [140.174.127.95] seems to be brought over directly from CVS, and includes such interesting bits of detritus as object files and emacs buffer files. The CVS root file reveals it to be from :ext:msw@devserv.devel.redhat.com:/mnt/devel/CVS

  • Why?

    Linux is clearly not ready for the desktop. Tell them not to bother wasting their time by installing it.

    Sorry, but I don't know what your family does with their computers, but Office, Quicken/Money, and the games are far superior than anything Linux currently has.

    Linux is NOT the market leader. Windows is still on 90% of the desktop computers out there. Linux is rising, but to claim them as a leader is foolish.

  • Except that, when it comes time to change over from libc5 to libc6/glibc2, you basically have to strip the entire machine, at which point you're better off reinstalling from scratch, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. RedHat/Debian at least give you half a chance at avoiding that.

    I'm currently using Slackware 3.something, and need to upgrade, 'cause libc5 is getting left behind. Now, I could upgrade to Slackware 7 or Debian's upcoming 'potato' release. I must say I don't relish the idea of redoing every niggly little post-installation configuration change again. However, if I install Debian, it will be the last time I ever have to do it; upgrades will carry my configs forward transparently. I'm certain Slackware will require a full reinstall at some future point (I've done it twice before).

    I like Slackware. I really like it. I like its simplicity, the fact that you have to learn how this stuff works (thereby affording you the opportunity of doing it right), their particular boot script arrangement... But I've made a zillion little personal changes here and there (my own sendmail.cf, the BACKSPACE key actually generates ^H like it's supposed to, #includes for 'ncurses' are in the place most source packages expect them, etc.) I don't remember everything I touched. I will have to do it again when I upgrade, but I don't want to do it again and again and again... It looks as if Debian will let me avoid that. Debian also does dependency tracking, which is unbelievably helpful. I dare you to try and build and install GnuCash from sources only ("Oh, you also need this Perl extension, which requires this Perl extension; oh, and you also need Guile...").

    I'm not looking forward to Debian's boot script method (since I don't grok it yet), or using dselect on a regular basis (because it's so verbose), or the fact that I have no idea where the XF86Config file got dropped, and why it gets stomped every time dselect pulls down an XFree86 update. But I like the idea of Slackware's full-wipe-and-reinstall upgrades even less.

    I haven't made the move quite yet. Opinions welcome.

    Schwab

  • This reminds me: what happened to the supposed segment on DeCSS on ABC WorldNews? I've been watching it every day for the past week (perhaps what they intended), and haven't seen a thing!

    Perhaps the ABC-Disney connection silenced it?
  • Then you'll know who did it, then maybe we can get them into the RBL.
  • For those of you unaware of who Linux One is, they're a company that IPO'd amid skepticism of the Linux community.

    Hmmm... the wording makes it sound like they've already executed the IPO; they've just filed for (and announced) it at this point.

    --

  • Has anyone complained to the Federal Trade Commission [ftc.gov] about LinuxOne yet? The FTC investigates fraudulent practices, both on the net and off, and I think they would be interested in something like this.

    Their complaint form is here [ftc.gov].

  • > Unlike Mandrake, all they did was re-label a buggy version of a Red Hat distribution and call it something new.

    AFAIK, that is almost how Mandrake started out. They simply did a RedHat distro with KDE instead of GNOME.

    However, Mandrake, unlike LinuxOne, seemed to start out with a degree of support from the Linux community. LinuxOne seems to be trying to forgo the hard work of gaining the respect and support of the Linux community and aiming straight for the rumoured gold in 'them thar Linux hills'. They seem to be unaware that you have to do the first before getting the second.

    If this turns out to be the story of LinuxOne, then I'm prepared to radically change my opinion. But I'm not expecting to!
  • Check out:

    Devil Take the Hindmost : A History of Financial Speculation
    by Edward Chancellor

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/037413858 3/

    Discusses the south seas bubble, the 1929 crash, the 1987 crash, the 1986 Japanese crash, among other things.

    A book that lives up to the maxim of, "those that forget history are doomed to repeat it."
  • I MUST TO THE BFINN FOR TO POSTING- MAKE NO LITTLE LETTER BUT BEST TO ENGLISH OF VILLAGE I GO FROM!!!


    Or something.


    Apologies to the rest of you, nothing worse than an inside joke.

  • Ah, I thought we were a dying breed (he said, fingering his CD full of slightly legally dubious KLF white labels... )


    Bill D and Jimmy C are much underrated.. any idea what the K foundation is up to these days?


    Hail Eris..

  • Of course, the reverse of that would be some embittered Erisian free software people trying to kill the hype, so all the money goes away, and they can go back to hacking in relative obscurity.


    However, you'll be ok, if you remember that


    NOTHING IS TRUE


    and


    ALL GENERALISATIONS ARE FALSE.


    Big up Kallisti, aaaye.

  • Red Hat, Redhat, Caldera, OpenLinux, SuSE, S.u.s.e., applixware, news, resources, Operating, System, OS, KDE, GNOME, GNU, Server,

    Searching for these things gets you LinuxOne?
  • thank you very much.....

    I wrote that....

    Hope I win the T-Shirt....

  • Hey! Post the URL for that complaint letter generator thingie, please! I lost the URL and that's one of the coolest things to send an anon email to someone you 'like' with a link to this page that generates one of these rants on the fly and then say..

    Just thought you might want to take a look at this... someone posted a complaint about you!

    and if the guy is a real idiot, he will not realize that the page is dynamically generated on the fly with the variables in the URL and actually complain to the site owner thinking that there is a complaint about him posted for all to see.

  • That's a good thing. It gives you legitimate reason to complain to their parent ISP and wipe them off the face of the net :8)
  • we sould contact mr. torvalds too, with a petition to revoke their use of Linux in their name...
  • My concern is that Microsoft does allow Linuxone to sell Office for Linuxone and when everybody gets pissed off at Linuxone Microsoft can turn around and say "We tried to support the community but this is what you have to expect from free software."

  • Nah,

    they will find another lame ISP, it takes a long time to get ISP's to act, I get enough spam as it is, and it will give anti-linux people things to say, "Linux companies spam" la la la

  • The form for the flame crap is submitted via email, so if you are not careful, the next thing you will be getting is lots of spam from these guys.

  • Wasn't that Chinese guy the President/CEO a few weeks ago? Strangely, on their Management section of their website, his name isn't mentioned, and someone else is President/CEO now. Has anybody else noticed that?
  • OH, Great!

    Now I *have* to go down & check out the Linux Expo thing. I need a Blair Witchy type coffee mug.
  • What with thier product they are doing is just what the GPL encorages(sp?). But what they are doing with their hype is completely wrong.

    1) They claim that they have the easiest to use Linux. -- False, it's just a repackaged Red Hat.

    2) They claim to bring skill at internationalization to the table. -- Maybe, but they should be working with the proper groups so that every bodies programs will work with their distro.

    3) They try to make themselves sound like "the next red hat". -- False, at the time they filed for IPO, they had no product and had only invested $5,000 in equipment/office suplies.

    Basically people are pissed because the potential investors are being lied to, and it's probably going to make linux look really, really bad!

  • Hmmm....
    Gee, every member of my wife's family and mine are thinking about switching to Linux.... (with no encoragement from me, btw) Why? Positive experiences of friends, neighbors, co-workers and good press...

    The professions are:
    Wife's Father : Plant Manger
    Wife's Mother : Teacher
    My Mother : Social Worker
    My 1st Brother : Cult Expert
    My 2nd Brother : HVAC Repairman
    My 1st Sister : Librarian
    My 2nd Sister : Social Worker

    As you can see, these are not technical people. (Although my 1st brother did found the magazine "UnixWorld" in the mid-80's)

    I think you reallly need to take you head out of Bill Gate's ass and look around. The press is full of positive stories about linux, and negative ones about _every_ other (except for the first time since '84 Apple) OS manufactuerer. Like it or not Linux is being protrayed as the market leader.....

  • Dude. If you're not going to read my post. Don't respond. I did _NOT_ say they were a market leader, I said they were being portrayed as a market leader. In other words, there have been more articles about upcoming versions of linux than about win2000.

    Secondly, I thought I made it clear in my first post that I am hands off as far as what my family uses. If they need help I'll help them but it's their descision.

  • Maybe these guys are secretly funded by some nameless loose-nit group with a lot of investments dependant on the success of another OS and they figgured that this was a good way to give Linux and Linux vendors/distros some really bad press... The general public loves bad news and scandal right? They remember only the loudest shortest scream and their first impressions... If these guys are enough peoples first impression of Linux it can do huge dammage and with enough Marketing/Advert funds that'll happen... Nahhh they're just a bunch of lamers after a fast buck... Genuine Linux compatable keyboards... Participating in the flame contest just helps them out. They will glean a great deal of press worthy comments and understanding and identity of their opponents through the communication. Best to attack in kind with information to the general public.

  • Actually, the "Flame of the Week" contest is a scheme to collect email addresses to sell to bulk emailers for a little extra cash. $$$

  • I was gonna register LinuxTwo.com and repackage linuxone's repackaged mess. I won't even change the names.

    But LinuxTwo.com is registered, doh. One of the e-mails is DomainCollection.com. Hmm. LinuxScam is available.

  • I for one cannot believe that they defiled poor little Tux like that. Its like they put thier stupid symbol right on his belly, like a bullseye. Who has the copyright for Tux, and can we get an injunction against LinuxOne for using an altered version without permission?
  • with their Flame of the Week contest. This is certainly a stunt designed to belittle their critics, and only the flames that are the most imbecilic and easiest to shoot down will ever be featured.
    Instead, take some time to write a polite note to any given analyst or editor of a financial magazine. Those are the people who will properly discredit LinuxOne and nullify their existence.
  • I don't get it. How does despamming my address make me a fugitive black slave?

    (From www.m-w.com:)

    Main Entry: 1maroon
    Pronunciation: m&-'rün
    Function: noun
    Etymology: French maron, marron, modification of American Spanish cimarrón, from cimarrón wild, savage
    Date: 1666
    1 capitalized : a fugitive black slave of the West Indies and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also : a descendant of such a slave
    2 : a person who is marooned

    That must mean there are a lot of Fugitive Black Slaves here on /.

    News for Fugitive Black Slaves, Stuff that Matters (to Fugitive Black Slaves)
  • This guy was a spammer with NetUSA and the form is submitted via email. That means he's collecting email addresses with this bullshit form. I was stupid enough to submit via netscape without de-spamming my address. Now I'm probably going to get tons of crap to my main email address that I kept spam free for years. Shit
  • Who knows, maybe these guys are taking the Amazon approach to profits one step farther. They figure that if they can found a company, offer an IPO, and _not even_ lose money their stock will skyrocket. It doesn't have to go out to investors that they shipped 0 units, just the fact that they are not losing money as an Internet startup is good enough.
    Seriously though, it was bound to happen that someone would try to ride in on the coattails of the big names like Red Hat. And no, it's not wrong to re-package the RedHat distribution. But they need to offer some valuation added to the distro, and I can't see a RedHat binary of Microsoft Office as the answer.
  • I remember when Redhat was the focus of all the civil dispute among the linux community. Now Redhat is regarded with pride etc.

    My how times have changed :)....and just when i changed from redhat to debian too.
  • Let the conspiracy theories roll: Question What is the best way to downplay Linux? Answer Create a phony company that has no value nor product, claim that you're doing the same thing as other companies as well. Let people who don't understand Linux wonder what the hell is going on.
  • Heh People get pissed off for two reason. 1. Redhat made a distribution and Then made a shit load of money (or sales...not nessecarily money) Then after they were an actuall buisness THEY IPO'ed Linuxone has not product except a really really bad rip off of Redhat (thats in GPL violation due to not providing source) And IPO'ing. Difference? Redhat was reputable before they tried to make a buck. ::Avert your virgin eyes Here:: NOT THESE GREEDY FUCKING BASTARD CHARLATONS CALLED LINUXONE. They are trying to make a quick buck. Whats the difference? Motivation Redhat , mandrake insert Real Redhat clone == In it to provide software to the linux community Right off the bat. Linuxone==Make a shit load of money by ripping off the linux community and selling to blind / dumbass investors, then Either Disapear or maybe make a product of their own

  • It's painfully obvious that the public _still_ doesn't understand that this company is crap. If the public really, truely, did, the company's staff would have left in a sudden Exodus to good jobs.

    Their flame-contest? It's a way to show all of the companies seriously considering investing in these guys that, hey, "All those bad things said about us were in this flame contest. They weren't serious!"

    Is it our responsibility to ruin this company? Will Linux still be mone after they fail? If not, then I think the community should do something. If so, screw it and let them and anyone that invests in them lose their money.

  • a play on zero, from the smashing pumpkins, rite?

  • You mean they actually go to those Linux conventions? Maybe they should be placed next to ESR's "Geeks with Guns." That would be really interesting.

    *smirk*
  • Did you hear about the K foundation prize a few years ago?

    They offered a prize of £40000 for the worst piece of modern art produced in the previous year. Now here comes the good bit:
    The shortlist was announced coincidentally on the same day as the Turner prize for modern art. Even more coincidentally, the same people were on each list. To top it all, when the K foundation prize was announced, it was the person who had won the Turner a few minutes before. Who'd have guessed?

    The final detail that made it all worthwhile was that the Turner is only worth £20000.

  • Satanic ? I thought it was the biohazard logo [parasolemt.com.au]... it DID seem proper for them :->
  • You think if Linux One ports AOL to linux that it would overwrite PPPD? I smell a conspiracy.
  • I think we are helping LinuxOne by creating this much publicity. As they say, bad publicity is better than none.

    People respond to reverse psychology. If we all say its "evil", "bad", "forbidden", people are going to start looking at LinuxOne in a favorable light. Jist like drugs.

    Of course LinuxOne doesn't need a business team. We are it!

  • Interestingly, if you search for "linuxone" on google, no matches are found.

    Hmm!

  • Oooh. White labels. None of those, but I do have two slightly different versions of "1987", one with "Doctorin' The Tardis", and one without. I always liked their sense of style, all that genuinely clever, and musically interesting self referential stuff with "Build A Fire" on "The White Room".

    More recently, they released "F**k The Millennium", backed with a cover of "What Time Is Love" by a brass band, which sounds strange, but when I saw the brass band themselves, they did a load of different old acid tunes, in a remarkably effective manner. The dancefloor went wild. I doubt I'll ever see the like again...

  • I for one would pay for one of those "I Flamed LinuxOne" T-shirts :)
    You'd probably have to anyway . . . first, assuming you're not in the 650 area code, the long-distance call ("Winners please call (650)948-6201 to claim your prize.") Then they'll probably have a small shipping and handling charge.
    Hmmm, I wonder if selling "I Flamed LinuxOne" t-shirts myself would be allowable under GPL?

  • A well thought out and insightful essay.
  • Since the general consensus is that LinuxOne is a stain upon the reputation of the linux community, perhaps there should be a real movement to block LinuxOne from making money from their IPO.

    Although I abhor receiving chain mails (from my less techincally saavy friends) about "how I can make money from microsoft, aol, etc. by forwarding this email to as many friends as possible...", in this case I would not be against using such a tactic. Especially since, we are are trying to get our message out to the less technically saavy investor...

    The email should be well worded and begin with: WARNING: DO NOT INVEST IN LINUXONE IPO.

    The email include a very descriptive explanation of the LinuxOne situation. And at least five bulleted reasons why a person should not invest in LinuxOne.

    The email should also include all links to articles that have been written about LinuxOne to support our claims.

    Although I have been reading about this subject since it first appeared at slashdot, I don't think that I have enough knowledge of the linuxone situation, the linux community, or the linux operating system to compile this email by myself.

  • I hope you don't mean to imply that non-xtians are satanists, not that there's anything wrong with Satanists (they're certainly less annoying than most xtians ;) I thought that their symbol looks kind of like toyota's.
  • I think you might be right. Their web site seems VERY unprofessional. Their FAQ section is short, random and has no relevance to LinuxOne at all. However, why the heck are they offering a Chinese version of Linux if they were just playing around?
  • But damn is it still fun! If only they stopped throwing out such great material. A support staff of two?!? Ha ha ha ha! Hey, it'll probably be the best support available for linux, as they'll hopefully only sell two copies of their distro and have a dedicated support person for each. Of course if they understand the the technical aspects of Linux as well as they understand the GPL then it might not o any good.
  • Having followed this (or attempted to) for a couple months and being very skeptical, IMHO, there are several possibilities for a 'flame competiion':
    (1) provides 'cover' for the real flames to anyone outside Linux community, 'yeah, it's a joke, we have a contest to see who flames us best, doesn't mean anything. so popular, it's on all the web sites now';
    (2) provides potential 'out' should people investing end up suing 'see, even on our own site we had opinions showing what people really thought of us, you should have read it. we certainly provided full disclosure' (shareholder suits are infamous. could be simply the old CYA gimmick);
    (3) provide fodder for their attorney if IPO fails, suing the flamers saying 'see, they ruined our marvelous technological great superb company (or should say future superb... everything on their site is in 'will be' or 'could be'. at least they finally started putting the safe harbour statements in there.)'.
    I wouldn't trust that flame competition. or them. period.
    Someone noted the names of all the officers, etc, changed (though the 'owner' isn't prominent on the site, I'd say he still owns the stock/runs the show).
    I WOULD ,knowing we have some journalists in /., like to see if anyone could follow up on a couple things: (a) can anyone find the people who's names WERE the officers and maybe interview them. If they were summarily dumped by linuxone, might have some real interesting insights and willing to provide them. (b) officers/boards are generally, I would guess, part of disclosure requirements in an S-1 just as in K filings or the proverbial annual report. Anyone know if they've submitted some type of addendum of their S-1 to reflect the total change in upper management? (Wouldn't that make an investor somewhat skeptical?)

  • "All those bad things said about us were in this flame contest. They weren't serious!"

    Yeah, maybe that's their approach, except that everything they've done so far has been so AMAZINGLY dumb that it's almost impossible to chalk it up to anything but out-and-out stupidity. Everything they do just digs them a deeper hole.

  • It's a natural evolution of software - if it's liked/used then it will get
    supported and developed. Inevitably this will happen to LinuxOne. Unless
    they manage to corner a large percentage of the Linux market their proprietary
    additional packages will die. The same would happen to Microsoft if another
    set of software came along that was equally as usable and free.

    The company would just wither and die.

  • Re:Proprietary software will die ... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Perhaps you don't understand. A program can be
    "open source" and still unusable in a commercial
    environment due to software patents. Take RSA until later
    this year--if you're a company using RSA in the USA
    without paying a license fee, you can be taken to court.

    And you fail to understand the strength of traditional
    market venues--people buy what they see advertised,
    discussed, and in stores. They buy whatever is bundled
    on their machine, not what takes extra effort to install.
    Witness the death of Netscape, the wide-spread
    availability of Windows. Currently a number of companies
    with influence in these venues are interested in Linux,
    but if they changed their minds, Linux would return
    to being "little stuff" instead of "big stuff".

    The deciding factor for technology isn't how well-written
    it is, how well-engineered it is, but whether it has
    the install base, and popular media support. By this
    definition, Linux is on the horizon, but hasn't gotten
    to the finish line yet. Geoworks fell by the wayside, as
    did DR-DOS, Desqview, and many other superior
    technologies. And remember, the technology market
    is a fickle place. They might love LinuxOne because
    of a name, for the same reason they leap on Linux
    instead of OS/2, the BSDs, BeOS, and even Mac OS X.

    It's all in a name, or a leap of faith, or the piece of
    paper picked up first. Why is Linux the unready
    technology of the hour, as opposed to MacOS, which
    has competed for years (with relative success) with
    superior technology :-). Claiming "open source" isn't
    the answer, as most resellers have been able to add
    drivers, rebrand Microsoft products, etc, for years,
    making them effectively open source for anyone with
    market clout.

  • Let's call 60 Minutes (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I know it would be difficult to get the "60 Minutes" gang interested in this, but it would be good if non-technical potential investers could be warned of this type of scam.

    It would be very unfortunate if LinuxOne makes the quick buck off of this scam just because there are enough suckers who will be dumb enough to blindly invest in the IPO. I don't know if the SEC is empowered to investigate such scams...who do we call? Ghostbusters?

  • Re:Once a fraud, sill a fraud (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I went by their booth twice. The first time I spoke with their CTO or whatever he is, and asked him how he could possibly have a Web site that doesn't use SSL to accept credit cards. He told me that he knew that a few weeks ago they had a "security problem", but that it was fixed. Well, their site still doesn't use SSL to accept credit card info for those suckers who try to buy this crap online.

    Later on, I wandered by again and asked the guy who was there - some Chinese guy - when the IPO was going to happen. He said he didn't know anything about an IPO! I don't work for a startup, but isn't an IPO pretty big on everyone's mind at these places?

    I don't think they care about what anyone thinks and have that flame page just to spit in everyone's face. They just want to do their IPO, get their money and split.

    If you look at their "About us" page, they don't even list a CTO! Just a marketing guy, a sales guy, a financial guy and a (new) CEO. Funny that a technical company has no techical people isn't it?

    And when did they get a new CEO? Where's the "press release" on that? They have press releases blowing about their contract with a flea market vendor, but not about getting a new CEO? Also, don't they have to modify their IPO's S-1 (or whatever it's called) when they have a major change like that? Has that been done?

  • Also, the faq must have been written in Windows because all of the apostrophes show up as question marks. Also, take a gander at the source of all of the pages I have checked out...they all contain
    meta name="keywords" content="Linux, LinuxOne, kernel, S.O., Distribution, Labs, Red Hat, Redhat, Caldera, OpenLinux, SuSE, S.u.s.e., applixware, news, resources, Operating, System, OS, KDE, GNOME, GNU, Server, Network, application, Penguin, Onestop, Free, Download, commerical, support"
    It seems that they are totally riding other peoples coatails to the top, at least they don't include Debian on the list ;-) But seriously, that is a ridiculous number of keywords, basically, anyone searching for these words will end up at the LinuxOne web page which is a shame. Maybe Google can put up a disclaimer before it sends anyone to the LinuxOne web site.
  • Of course they'll abuse the picture! Linus was an idiot to allow it. They'll probably use it to claim that he has endorsed their product and is a secret co-author of their distribution (using the kernel as proof of this claim).

    Let's face it - LinuxOne is a cheesy rip-off, and even the cheese is a cheap rip-off.

    Yes, I know, having more distros is a good thing. That's very true, but even I could produce a better distro than that. IN MY SLEEP! With added value, FROM THE START! And minus cutsey satanic symbols, obviously aimed at impressing those "long-hair rebellious types that use Linux". Sod it! Nobody is impressed by cheap junk, however "rebellious" it looks. Though a few might send the CEO some "get well" cards.

  • Unlike Mandrake, all they did was re-label a buggy version of a Red Hat distribution and call it something new. If you're going to be filing off the name, you'd better be adding some real value- otherwise, leave the name on and do like CheapBytes does. It's not hypocrisy when you're complaining about someone literally ripping someone else off- which in this case, it would be Red Hat, the poor sots they sucker into buying their current distribution, and the investors they sucker into buying their stocks.
  • > Unlike Mandrake, all they did was re-label a buggy version of a Red Hat distribution and call it something new.

    AFAIK, that is almost how Mandrake started out. They simply did a RedHat distro with KDE instead of GNOME.

    There are two points to remember about how Mandrake started. First, the KDE/Gnome wars have reduced to a simmer now. When Mandrake started they were at a full boil and the ability to get a Red Hat distribution with a KDE desktop was significant since Red Hat was objecting to KDE on principle. Second, Mandrake's first action was to produce a Linux distribution and make it available. Then they offered to sell it if people wanted to buy it (which they did).

    LinuxOne is a pure IPO scam. Their first action was to prepare for an IPO. As an afterthough they copied Red Hat's distribution, didn't add anything useful to it, and didn't really make any effort to let people have access to it. Those people who did manage to get access to it have reported that it isn't even a good or fully functional copy of Red Hat.

    Business Plan for LinuxOne

    1. File for IPO
    2. Hope that Linux hype will drive IPO sky high
    3. Cash out
    4. Let the company die
    5. Take a vaction with all the money from suckers who bought into a Linux IPO without realizing that this was the company's business plan.
  • Their phone staff isn't too informed either. Check out this link:

    http://www.hackphreak.org/~accipiter [hackphreak.org]

    This is a transcript (mp3 included) of a call I made to them.

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • This is the German comment babelfished for other people like me who are interested.

    My objection over LinuxONE LinuxONE had its saying, and this is meins. Which follows, a call is to the complaint on from us, which are interested -- large enough number for challenging vitriolic acceptance LinuxONE's over grade of transmission performance. I must protest to LinuxONE's use of bad Prudisharten to obtain its sadistic targets. This acknowledgment indeterminateness the demonstrability regarding an external to accompany objective reality is concerning a crisis our ability, to be known had that the only way, which is I LinuxONE perhaps forgive can, if it says the truth and forms returning. No matter how much discussion and analysis occur, an organization, which would like to receive in front, should tries, to understand the extensive consequences of its jokes. LinuxONE never had these training bodies. It always does, what would like to do and to figures it be able to do it at the moment to be situated even from all possible problems which develop. LinuxONE's cronies it seems to struggle that it cannot do injustice. I know, because I experienced that personally. LinuxONE's lackeys is frequently intercepted trying to stamp brutishwhinges. Of course they refuse this, but all we know full recess that LinuxONE is not capable to use the English language effectively or correctly. LinuxONE's maneuvers disbursed themselves: squalid wrongmoderated liars and cheat something success in their efforts, in everyone had to already interfere otherwise affairs. It is far away well-known that LinuxONE's philosophies are based on somewhat deep-rooted Funktionseigenschaftstoerung. But I have a tendency, over which more sensationalsachen the fact that LinuxONE to, is shocking the things, things to report as, like it would like to lead substantial documents hidden from the public, until they become politically contentious. And I carry out the difficulty, which has the average person when coming to the grasps with that, but it the case is literal, which we begin to witness the absorbed effects of its new interpretations of the historical cases. It is person suffering from a brain injury, so that LinuxONE regulates debt for social printing, economic loss, or loss of the political energy on a target group their debt designed, supplies a highly simplified assertion. Or possibly I should say, it am political false. If one needs a character the fact that LinuxONE is uncertain regards you that it forms a virtue of the not again-good-closing disturbance. Not too belabor the point, but LinuxONE states that its requirements are approximately hurt not worth receiving. I react that there is another page to the output. An old joke explains from the optimist up to now, which away from a building 60-story and, since it whizzes behind the 35th stick falls, " proclaims, so well! ", but such blind optimism, which henchmen LinuxONE's, is not over to think caused that they can animate a Arcadian behind that again existing ducks never. And that, in my opinion, is our real problem.

  • Perhaps they are working on a licensed DVD player for Linux :o)
  • like the guys who nailed a million dollars to a board and set fire to it...

    That would be the KLF then!

    The followup was even better, for the last few years, they have been auctioning small sections of the film of that event at various shows they have done.

    I was extremely tempted a while back to try and raid one of their events and "kidnap" the remains of their film and ransom it back to them... but laziness got the better of me :-)

  • Meine Beanstandung über LinuxONE LinuxONE hat sein Sagen gehabt, und dieses ist meins. Was folgt, ist ein Aufruf zur Klage auf die von uns, die sich interessieren -- eine große genug Zahl zum Herausfordern von vitriolic Annahmen LinuxONE's über Übertragungsgüte. Ich muß LinuxONE's-Gebrauch von schlechten Prudisharten protestieren, seine sadistic Ziele zu erzielen. Diese Anerkennung des indeterminateness der Nachweisbarkeit hinsichtlich einer externen, objektiven Wirklichkeit zu begleiten ist eine Krise betreffend ist unsere Fähigkeit, zu wissen gewesen, daß die einzige Weise, die ist ich LinuxONE vielleicht verzeihen kann, wenn sie die Wahrheit sagt und Zurückerstattung bildet. Egal wie viel Gespräch und Analyse auftritt, sollte eine Organisation, die voran erhalten möchte, versuchen, die weitreichenden Konsequenzen seiner Witze zu verstehen. LinuxONE hat nie diese Lehrkörper gehabt. Es tut immer, was es im Augenblick tun möchte und Abbildungen es können, selbst aus allen möglichen Problemen heraus zu liegen, die entstehen. LinuxONE's-cronies scheinen, zu ringen, daß es kein Unrecht tun kann. Ich weiß, weil ich den persönlich erfahren habe. LinuxONE's-lackeys sind häufig abgefangenes Versuchen, brutishwhinges einzuprägen. Selbstverständlich verweigern sie dieses, aber alle wir kennen volle Vertiefung, daß LinuxONE nicht imstande ist, die englische Sprache effektiv oder richtig zu verwenden. LinuxONE's-Manöver haben sich ausgezahlt: bereits haben squalid falsch-gemilderte Lügner und Betrüger etwas Erfolg in ihren Bemühungen, in jeder sonst Angelegenheiten zu einmischen gehabt. Es ist weithin bekannt, daß LinuxONE's-Philosophien auf etwas tief-verwurzelter Funktionseigenschaftstörung basieren. Aber ich habe eine Tendenz, über die mehr sensationalsachen, daß LinuxONE bis, ist die shocking Sachen, Sachen zu berichten wie, wie es wesentliche Dokumente führen möchte versteckt von der Öffentlichkeit, bis sie politisch strittig werden. Und ich verwirkliche die Schwierigkeit, die die durchschnittliche Person beim Kommen zu den Griffen mit dem hat, aber es buchstäblich der Fall ist, dem wir beginnen, die selbstabsorbierten Effekte seiner Neuinterpretationen der historischen Fälle zu zeugen. Er ist hirngeschädigt, damit LinuxONE Schuld für Sozialdruck, ökonomischer Verlust regelt, oder Verlust der politischen Energie auf einer Zielgruppe deren Schuld konstruierte, liefert eine stark vereinfachte Erklärung. Oder möglicherweise sollte ich sagen, es bin politisch-falsch. Wenn man ein Zeichen benötigt, daß LinuxONE unsicher ist, betrachten Sie, daß es eine Tugend von der nicht wiedergutzumachenden Störung bildet. Nicht zu belabor behauptet der Punkt, aber LinuxONE, daß seine Ansprüche nicht wert das Erhalten ungefähr verletzt sind. Ich reagiere, daß es eine andere Seite zur Ausgabe gibt. Ein alter Witz erklärt vom optimist, das weg von einem Gebäude 60-story und, da er whizzes hinter dem 35th Stock fällt, " bis jetzt ausruft, so gut! ", Aber es ist nicht solcher blinder Optimismus, der LinuxONE's henchmen, um zu denken verursacht, daß sie einen Arcadian hinter der wieder beleben können existierenten nie. Und das, in meiner Ansicht, ist unser reales Problem.
  • (3) point out some of the craziness behind the recent "dot-com mania" (or whatever the media is calling it this week).

    Isn't that dot-net maina? After all Andover.net is proving that even the stigma of being a non-dot-com with non-dot-com sites (e.g. slashdot dot ... wait for it ... ORG!) can be overcome. These companies can band together into pitiful little groups and stand up for the rights of the dot-com-challenged!

    Heck, I see a movie in it. The heart-warming tale of a DNS-dissadvantaged company that managed to strike it big against the odds. Excuse me while I go write the screenplay. ;-)

    ob-on-topic-comment: So, is it possible that LinuxOne, while a PR nightmare is doing the right thing? If I wanted to build a Linux business right now, I could do worse than to IPO with 1/3-2/3 of my shares, use that to hire a herd of slick, young geeks and start building a company that gains some sales, stock price goes higher, then follow-on with another 1/3.... Oh wait! That's what Red Hat did! ;-) Remember that Red Hat only made 80ish million on their IPO. They'll be makeing 380ish million on their (much smaller) follow-on.
  • From the LinuxOne website [linuxone.net]:

    "LinuxOne plans to distribute the Apache server software to its customers"

    Get the hell outta here! Nobody bundles Apache. How in the world do they do it? Go go LinuxOne!!

  • or, perhaps, this [fuckingsucks.net]
  • I get the feeling that the people behind LinuxOne are some kind of avant-garde performance artists, like the guys who nailed a million dollars to a board and set fire to it...
    Surely no-one could really be this supremely arrogant and stupid, to alienate their entire potential user base after all this hype, without seriously meaning to...
  • I can just see what they advertise next.
    "Our distribution comes with 'cat' - the most powerful and simple file-viewing software in existence. It views files in ANY FORMAT! And because it's so extensible, we'll soon be selling our proprietary 'more' Expansion Pack for 'cat' for only $39.99!"
    --
  • Yes, and all the good little Christian boys and girls should be using Jesux, remember?
  • This is *not* an interview. This is Paul Ferris' *very* subjective report of a conversation he had with the LinuxOne CTO.

    This is the worst bit of journalism I've seen in ages.
  • I say I have to find it ironic that people complain that LinuxOne's distro is just a copy of Red Hat's.

    What's wrong with that? Isn't redistribution exactly what the GPL encourages!

    I'm not saying that I trust them or anything and I hope their IPO falls flat on its face

    just my 2 cents

  • I have just been reading through their SEC filings available on-line from www.sec.gov.

    I think it is important that we look at their good points:
    1) They have made a massive investment in infrastructure by way of property and equipment $18,273
    2) They have a good knowledge of the Open source community including Linux Torvalds (their spelling)
    3) They currently have four products, their OS was released in Spetember 1999 and with this their entire revenue to the end of October 1999 was $0
  • Why would they do this? Their IPO will fail miserably, the flames will be (are) unbelievable, and the value as a corporation/business is very low. What would be the poit of incorporating, just to be thought of a slime and then fail.

    Never knock on Death's door:

  • From the CTO interview, Ferris sums it up in one paragraph.

    I have to add that this kind of thinking is from the dark ages of software distribution. It's the Microsoft model of software creation. It's the one doomed to extinction. As things like K Office, a free office clone, come on-line in the Linux distribution channel, people expecting to make money by strong-arming customers into decisions are going to be left in the lurch.

    And that will include any company that doesn't get it, such as Linux One.

    The motivation of why they are doing business this way is what puzzles me.

    Never knock on Death's door:

  • Haha, the Scott Panking generator, I forgot about that one. I'll bet we'll kill whatever environment they have running their flame site, first the /. effect and then pure dasd overload with all the flambe'e mail. Does anyone have the mail address for the execs? A 'cc to them along with the flame posts would be a good way to make sure the content gets read by the appropriate folks. I'm not encouraging spam here, but I think it would be interesting to see the fallout, especially for the brainiac who thought up the flame idea in the first place.

    Never knock on Death's door:

  • Symbol (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04, 2000 @02:25AM (#1306537)
    What is that little satanic symbol they are using anyhow? Is LinuxOne supposed to be Linux for non-christians?
  • I dunno, but the one it generated for me was pretty on the spot:

    My complaint about Linuxone

    "Although I have no criticism of Linuxone's memoranda, I have a few observations and comments to share. I want to share this with you because if history follows its course, it should be evident that opposing Linuxone's insecure disruptive publicity stunts actively and earnestly is the moral duty of every good human being. I'm not going to respond to Linuxone's writings beyond saying that flattery will get Linuxone nowhere. Linuxone is not just incorrigible; it's ostentatious, too. With friends like Linuxone, who needs enemies?

    Well, let's get our facts straight. Linuxone needs a refill of its medication. If I understand Linuxone's manuscripts correctly, then Linuxone's inclinations stink of cover-ups, stalls, diversionary tactics, legal maneuverings, and other measures that turn peaceful gatherings into embarrassing scandals.

    Linuxone's philosophies turn the stomachs of those who know even a little about the real world. "But I'm only one person," you might protest. "What difference can I make?" The answer is: a lot more than you think. You see, those who fight against Linuxone's solecism-oriented money-grubbing theories are inevitably branded as immoral and disreputable by Linuxone's cronies. The foregoing greatly simplifies the real situation, but it does indicate in a rough, general way that I don't need to be particularly delicate here. I leave it to more capable and intrepid folks to explore the full ramifications of Linuxone's effusions. And that's all I have to say."

  • Re:My theory on LinuxOne (Score:3)

    by True Dork ( 8000 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @03:50AM (#1306539) Homepage
    Hey.... here's an idea! We start one called Goodtimes Linux. We send out millions of emails to AOL users that say something similar to:

    OFFICIAL AOL WARNING: The Goodtimes Linux distribution is a large threat to the community and is being spread by email. If you receive an email that is titled "It takes guts to say Linux" do not open it! This Linux will automatically take over your system and replace your AOL 5.0 TCP/IP stack with a WORKING ONE and cause your system to become stable and secure. It can even cause any computers anywhere near the affected machine to start having long uptimes. We have also receieved word that the illegal DeCSS code is included which will automatically make you a criminal by having it on your computer. We consider this a major problem, and we are working closely with Microsoft and Network Associates to rememedy the problem.

  • Free LinuxOne! woo hoo! (Score:3)

    by Mooset ( 9986 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @05:35AM (#1306540)
    The other day I recieved my free copy of LinuxOne OS. (I guess I was one of the first 200 "educational users" to sign the form on their site.) Boy does it suck! Not only did they completely rip off RedHat/Mandrake, but I think they managed to make it worse in the process. Due to a number of problems with their software, it was much more difficult to install and maintain than even Slackware (which is on the other half of my hard drive, btw). I sincerely hope that this distribution is some kind of massive joke to make the Linux community laugh at itself (sort of like the User Friendly / BeDope / SegFault thing last year). Anyone want a copy of the disk so that they can try out this Wonder Distro for themselves? :)

    BTW, I wasn't flaming Slackware, it happens to be my favorite distro. But whereas Slackware is a challenge to configure and maintain because you do everything yourself, LinuxOne OS is a challenge to configure and maintain because it is a fetid pile of crap.

  • This is something of a test case (Score:3)

    by Dacta ( 24628 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @04:05AM (#1306541)

    It is vitally important for the future of Linux/Open Source that LinuxOne does not succed.

    If they become even mildly successful (I don't have a good definition for that, though), then all the companies that are jumping on the Linux/OpenSource bandwagon will think "Hey, we can have the hype of Linux, and ignore the community".

    That is exactly the way software companies operated before the Internet - there was very little community of software users, and so they could shovel crap at us, and we wouldn't know any better. The Internet has improved communication now, so people know of alternative products, and Open Source has been shown to be a way to produce (mostly) reliable software that the community will embrace as it's own.

    If LinuxOne succeds, some companies will think "Screw the community - we don't need it. Look at LinuxOne - their community hated them and they are going fine"

    That's my opinion, anyway. I'd love to hear what others thought about this.

  • An undertaking of great advantage... (Score:3)

    by Paul Johnson ( 33553 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @03:21AM (#1306542) Homepage
    It puts me strongly in mind of the South Sea bubble. This was the first great stock market bubble and crash in the UK, and AFAIK in the world.

    The South Sea Company stock was very popular, and prices went very high. The company had no immediate revenue stream, but once the war with Spain over South America was over the potential for future profit was thought to be huge. Alongside South Sea Comany came other companies hoping to cash in on the boom. The most remarkable was one which was "A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is".

    The parallels with the Linux IPO situation are truly remarkable.

    BTW, although there are no links here, you can type that phrase into Google for a number of short histories of the SSB.

    Paul.

  • Re:I like their flame competition. (Score:3)

    by nhowie ( 38409 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @02:26AM (#1306543) Homepage

    The odd thing is, that even though they print the flames, they don't seem to have any valid responses for them -- almost like they're trying to stir up as much fuss (read publicity) as possible. Perhaps if we ignore them, they'll go away.

    The way the CTO talks about their product being 'proprietry' as if it's a USP (unique selling point), scares me -- the thing is, if it's any good, it'll alienate traditional Linux users, but may actually do well commercially, making the current distro wars look like a walk in the park, kinda like all those rumours about 'MicroSoft Linux'.

    Oh well, that's assuming they do actually have something of any interest, wouldn't surprise me if their major product anouncement was on April 1st.
    --

  • My theory on LinuxOne (Score:3)

    by levendis ( 67993 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @02:39AM (#1306544) Homepage
    After seeing the flame contest, there is no way these guys can be serious. My guess is that come April 1st, we're gonna see LinuxOne's IPO, along with an announcement that they've "reinvented" themselves (providing geek novelty items ala thinkgeek or copyleft, perhaps). I for one would pay for one of those "I Flamed LinuxOne" T-shirts :) LinuxOne is just going to become the OSS/linux community's big inside joke. This whole thing is a great way for them to (1) generate publicity, (2) agitate thousands of nerds, and (3) point out some of the craziness behind the recent "dot-com mania" (or whatever the media is calling it this week).

    God, I hope I'm right....

  • L1 not totally clueless (Score:3)

    by SLOfuse ( 68448 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @04:01AM (#1306545)
    They know how to get free advertising on slashdot.

  • They don't seem to get it (Score:3)

    by 348 ( 124012 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @02:34AM (#1306546) Homepage
    I don't think they fully understand the negative impact many in the Linux community feel they will have. A good example is the flame of the week. Cute I admit and having to pick only one would be a tough challenge. If they really wanted to see the flames, all they would have to do is read a thread or two here.

    I wonder what the motivation is? It's sort of like John Rocker attending a NYC ethnic convention and wanting to be a keynote speaker. I really don't think they understand. This is going to generate horrible PR.

    Never knock on Death's door:

  • I like their flame competition. (Score:3)

    by luckykaa ( 134517 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @02:17AM (#1306547)
    A great way to unwind on a Friday afternoon.

    I wonder if they accept flames written by this complaint generator [uiuc.edu]

  • Types of flames? (Score:4)

    by AlexCompy ( 115203 ) <crossroadsman@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Friday February 04, 2000 @03:43AM (#1306548)
    I couldn't help but notice the style of flames that they have posted (and the number).

    Firstly, there are only a few, so I suspect that there is some degree of 'screening' going on.

    This leads me on to the second thing: that the flames are generally lacking in well-considered criticisms of LinuxOne, and that they are generally contain a good deal more vitriol than fact (I appreciate that this is pretty standard for a flame), but bear with me for a sec

    It seems likely that the purpose behind this little display is to give the impression that a lot of the (very vocal) detractors of LinuxOne don't really have much of merit to say- they are merely slagging off the company for being too close to Windows (the Linux in Windows theme of the flames seems to be getting a disproportionate amount of attention in these flames).

    If the average newbie waltzes by and sees this flame gallery, he(or she) may get the mistaken impression that the now infamous venom against LinuxOne lacks any real ground.

    I would bet money that the winning flames of the week do not draw attention to ANY of the (substantial) serious dodginess of this company ant its vacuous product.

    Something to think about perhaps?

  • What effect would that cause?

    I wonder if all they got were DeCSS source code entires if they would post the winning entry?



    -----

  • Re-distro'd T-Shirts (Score:4)

    by Gourou ( 123409 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @03:19AM (#1306550)
    I would be sceptical about getting one of these t-shirts.

    Are they just Red-Hat promo shirts with LinuxOne overprinted on them?

    Do they claim to have "Never before seen holes, for new cutting edge limbs." perchance?

    They could make a mint selling these shirts to the community though.

    In fact they'd probably be the most profitable Linux IPO based on the sales of that T-shirt alone.

  • Once a fraud, sill a fraud (Score:5)

    by Oliver ( 19269 ) on Friday February 04, 2000 @03:08AM (#1306551) Homepage Journal
    I had a talk with one of the guys at their booth yesterday. I think it was their CFO.
    At first, he sounded quite reasonable and said things like they had not been doing well on their side and "deserve[d] all the 'abuse' we got from the Linux community" aswell as that there was a lawyer that did not understand the spirit of the community, but he got fired, etc...
    All the top management (/C?O/) has been replaced in the last two weeks and on their press material nowhere could the name of their doubious founder be found.
    At first, I almost fell for their arguments, that they were "newly reborn", "got rid of the evil", but some indepth questions made me even more suspicious then before. First, he didn't want to answer my questions about how large their staff was, only that they had guys "here and there" like in Taiwan, where "guys at the Ministry of Something have guys working on Linux" (aha! for LinuxOne?) and some in California. Realizing that I was writing for a Japanese publisher he claimed "we have a very successfull Japanese version". Gotcha. After telling him, that I KNOW that that is an absolute lie, because I am at the center of the community there (board of linu.or.jp), his statement suddenly changed to "we are having an alliance with the largest software ditributor there", and named an absolutely unknown name, not even sounding Japanese. He said that their Japanesation Engeneer would get in contact with me the same day, but I have not heared from him yey.
    Also their press kit is a JOKE. When this stuff appeared at the press root, most of the press (that has a clue) burst out in laughter. Now they are sellin Harddisks as "LinuxOne OS Easy Drive", 13.5GB for $169.95 and $17.3GB for $199.95. Also their "Partial List of Drivers" boasts about "USB UHCI support", "USB keyboard support", "3C507", "Infrared-port devices". Also it runs "with devices[...] such as ADSL and cable modems" (yeah, mine eat 100Base-T)
    Statements like "When ready to resume Winows, simply type 'reboot' [...] and LinuxOne Win/Lite terminated" just make me laugh. Guess I have had an amusing afternoon reading this crap.
    Because the CFO said, "it was a bad decision to announce intentions IPO, you simple don't do that" I asked him, wheter they were going to delay their IPO untill they repaired their reputation (which he promised to do), he was "not allowed to say" (quiet period?) but "it was every intention to IPO as soon as possible when the company was founded". So they havn't changed, though admitting what they do is wrong.

    I am even more convinced that they indeed are a FRAUD, but were trying very hard to cover that up. Without knowing their history and being a community activist, I'd probably fallen for their arguments. The general public MUST be WARNED about this monstrosity.

    PS: When Linus worked by, the guy asked to take a picture with Linus. After noticing that he was LinuxOne Linus explictly disallowed them to use this picture for marketing/PR purposes or post it publicaly. I have witnessed this dialoge from a distance of 1m and are willing to testify as a witness in any court, should they abuse this picture.

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