Tech Reporting Is Garbage

S

scooby

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Linus Torvalds: The accidental revolutionary by David Coursey is utter drivel. To save you reading it, here is a summary of what this guy wrote after interviewing Torvalds.

He's a regular guy.

He's a regular guy. Linux is a big thing.

He's a regular guy. His wife is a karate champion.

He's a regular guy.

I really did interview Linus.

So did lots of other people.

He said "crap" and doesn't like Microsoft.

He's a regular guy.

Except for his funny sounding name.

Except for his funny sounding name.

He's a regular guy.

He's a very important person.

He's a regular guy.

He's a regular guy.

Do you think he's a regular guy?

Not that network news is much better, but this is so content-free it's laughable. </rant> What bugs me most: the writing is actually quite good. He could have done a good job.
 
... are you MaG's Scooby or is the name just a coincidence?
(if you dont know what the heck i'm talking about, then your not ;-) )

Kinniken
 
Originally posted by Kinniken
... are you MaG's Scooby or is the name just a coincidence?
(if you dont know what the heck i'm talking about, then your not ;-) )

Kinniken
Click to expand...

Just a coincidence, I guess. Good to meetcha anyhows.
 
Sounds to me like Coursey didn't get much in the way of info. Remember those book reports you did based on Cliff's Notes?

Sounds like rather than admit he either conducted a less-than-wonderful interview, or that perhaps he didn't understand a word of what Torvalds had to say (the guy is known as a true gearhead), he just talked about what a regular Joe he is and how swell his wife is (not that this doesn't have merits, and it IS sort of interesting in a peripheral way).

All in all, it didn't suck, but it was no literary opus either. Coursey's been a pretty consistently good writer. Maybe he had an off day? Or maybe (gulp!) Torvalds didn't have much to say?

J
 
Originally posted by jbartlett
Or maybe (gulp!) Torvalds didn't have much to say?

J
Click to expand...

Wouldn't be too surprised if Torvalds didn't talk much. After all, he wrote a kernel and... Not much apart from that.

So Coursey could have looked further, or deeper. He might have thought, "well, we've got this whole GNU/Linux OS, who wrote all the rest of it?" There are thousands of people involved in it, and he could have tracked down some really interesting stories in how thousands of people who have never met can work on something like GNU.

I guess I'm just disappointed in the media. I get the feeling they don't have faith in their readers, and so they prefer to stick with the big names and catchy soundbites, rather than dig into the guts of the stories.
 
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