This message goes out about 14:00 GMT. By 15:00 GMT or so it begins partly to lose relevance, so please reply soon if you can think of anything to say. The topic is news media relations. The Wall Street Journal has tried fairly hard since about 1998 to keep up with Linux developments. However, the WSJ has no clue about Debian. They don't get it. Searching the WSJ's article database back to 1996 (subscribers like me have access to this feature on-line), one finds 607 references to "Red Hat" against precisely five for "Debian", the most recent of which is a year old. Now, this is okay, I guess. We thrive without broad publicity. Probably it is better this way. However, yesterday morning I poked the WSJ tech editor about sarge. Steve Langasek even made himself available to answer questions if needed. I do not know whether the WSJ ever contacted Steve, but what they printed in this morning's paper in breaking Linux news is, well, I don't know the word for it. Frustrating? Humorous? Poignant? Ironic? You'll have to read it yourself. On page B4 of today's U.S. print edition: START-UP HIRES OPEN-SOURCE ALLY By Robert A. Guth SourceLabs Inc., a start-up funded and run by former employees of Microsoft Corp., has recruited one of the best-known proponents of open-source software. SourceLabs, Seattle, Wash., said that is is hiring programmer Bruce Perens as its vice president of developer relations and policy. Open-source programs, such as the Linux operating system, allow users to modify underlying instructions called source code. Mr. Perens has helped promote the use of such products and set standards for licensing them; he is a co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, a nonprofit that helps set licensing rules. He was a programmer at Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and worked for two years at Hewlett-Packard Co. as a Linux and open-source strategist. He was recently working as an industry consultant. [...] So on the day sarge releases, the big news in the free-software world is, "Bruce Perens gets a job?" (Notice the lack of any mention of the keystone item on Bruce's resume: DPL. But this is a mere quibble, compared to the overall lack of newsworthiness judgment here.) We love and appreciate Bruce and wish him all the best. Naturally this is not any criticism of him. I wish that the WSJ thought me important enough to report when I got a job. However, something is badly out of kilter here. I have obtained the reporter Guth's work phone number and do mean to phone him when he reaches his desk this morning. He's on U.S. Pacific Time (GMT minus 0700). Have you any suggestion as to what I should say? I lack past experience in media relations. I don't really know what to say. I don't think that, "Get a clue, dude" would help. Suggestions? -- Thaddeus H. Black 508 Nellie's Cave Road Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA +1 540 961 0920, t@b-tk.org, thb@debian.org
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