Unix fragmentation It'll be interesting to see whether anything comes of non-Red Hat GNU/Linux vendors' United Linux initiative. I'm guessing not. Each flavor of GNU/Linux is pretty substitutable, so lock-in moves to the (weaker) relationship level. United Linux is an engineering solution to what is essentially a business problem: poor distribution, services, and marketing.

(Don't) weep for local radio Here's a sappy article bemoaning both the death of old-style, mom and pop, idiosyncratic commercial radio and radio megalith ClearChannel's current financial woes.

First, it doesn't understand who lost from mom and pop radio--the public. I have nothing against small, local radio stations, but I want my bandwidth used as productively as possible and I'm guessing a three person shop playing their favorite tunes from 1972 isn't it. Secondly, it has the usual elitist attitude that people really want to listen to very unique and varied things, when really they just want to listen to what all their friends are listening to. Anyone with skin in the game understands this or goes out of business, but media's insulated from it's ignorance about, well, media.