Forbes columnist Dan Lyons says he really likes Linux, no matter what anyone else says (video)

During a session at the 2007 Online News Association conference in Toronto, Canada, I had a chance to point my video camera at Forbes columnist (and Fake Steve Jobs blogger) Dan Lyons. He told me that people who say he dislikes Linux are not being fair to him; that out of 70 articles he’s written about Linux, 67 have been positive, and he absolutely denies that he is paid by Microsoft to write what he does about Linux, Apple, or anything else.One thing that comes through strongly in the video is that Dan Lyons dislikes Groklaw.net and its founder, Pamela Jones, a.k.a. PJ. But then, Groklaw and PJ don’t have much love for Dan, either.

More Groklaw non-love for Dan Lyons is hidden in these Groklaw search results for those who want to dig through them. And here’s a sample of Dan’s love for PJ. Plus, for more of Dan’s writing about SCO and Linux, not all of which comes across as overly positive to a disinterested reader, you may want to check his own (real, not “Fake Steve Jobs”) blog, Floating Point.

After wading though some of the Lyons vs. PJ mire while writing this brief piece, I found myself wondering, “Aren’t we all supposed to be grown-up journalists, or bloggers, or whatever? Aren’t Linux and Free Software supposed to be about love and harmony and making the world a better place? Can’t we, please, smile on our brother, everybody love one another, right now?”

In any case, old-hippie sentiments aside, Dan Lyons says that despite the many attacks on him as a supposedly anti-Linux attack dog, he loves Linux. And uses it. And that he has trouble understanding why anyone would think he doesn’t love Linux.

Some of the video sound (notably my voice) is poor, since it was shot hurriedly in a noisy room, not in a controlled studio setting with proper microphone placement. But Dan comes through loud and clear, and that’s what counts.

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