Whodda thunk it indeed. Most tech "journalism" consists of things like, oh I dunno, The LAMP "Cooperative" ("LinuxWorld Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Compares LAMP's Evolution to Farmers' Cooperatives") or the more standard fare of just rewriting press releases.

However, the very same Editor-in-Chief's latest missive is "A Letter To Our Readers":

The editorial staff of LinuxWorld Magazine would like to set the record straight on our efforts and intentions with regards to what we publish on LinuxWorld.com and LinuxWorld Magazine. Due to an unfortunate series of events, we recently advised our publisher to remove content from a sister Web site of another title that does not adhere to the company's publishing guidelines...

...We want to express our sincere best wishes to Pamela Jones of Groklaw (www.groklaw.net) and wish her the best in her endeavors.

It appears there was a cat fight going on between the latter named person and one Maureen O'Gara, both of whom are "journalists" in the Linux space. That feud is described in February's "The Jones-O'Gara Feud".

It seems to involve a lawsuit between IBM and SCO (a Unix vendor) over Linux. Microsoft is on SCO's side and owns part of them. Or something.

On May 12 came "Tragic End to Jones-O'Gara Feud". The feud reportedly "ended with O'Gara's professional destruction." That post includes the following comment:

Except of cause if you are Val Kreidel or Robert Penrose. In which case it become tragically personal.

It is telling you feel that her new found 'persona non grata' status is 'tragic', what do you consider the supossed "suicide" of two people ?

Holy Moses. From the 3/22 Salt Lake Tribune:

The Orange County, Calif., Coroner's Office and Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed Monday that Val Noorda Kreidel, daughter of technology entrepreneur and Canopy founder Ray Noorda, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Kreidel's death came less than a week after her attorneys and those for fired Canopy Chief Executive Ralph Yarro and two associates formally announced a settlement of their dueling lawsuits over control of Utah's premier technology venture capital firm...

Now, back to feudee Pamela Jones. From a May 9 post entitled "Intimidation":

SCO and its minions can never again complain about Linux "zealots", not without being laughed right off the stage, because compared to them and their tactics, it's clear now who are the pros at intimidation and terror.

Darl McBride and Laura DiDio have complained bitterly about receiving nasty email and late-night phone calls. That's kid's stuff by comparison. Without commenting on the latest O'Gara article's contents, because I am considering legal action and can't comment directly at this time, think about this: Have Linux "zealots" ever put up personal info on how to find Darl McBride's mother, with pictures of her home and the number on her mailbox so any stalker can find her readily? That was O'Gara's intent. Has anyone published who DiDio calls from her landline phone? Can you imagine the press conference SCO would hold, and what names they would call the FOSS community, if anything like that happened?

...On a personal note: I've heard from several who are seriously warning me that they think SCO is setting me up so that they can arrange my "suicide". You know, like Val Kreidel allegedly was so overwhelmed by what was printed about her by Maureen O'Gara and others that she ended it all?

I have no experience in such things, so I can't evaluate their warnings, but I have taken note that three persons on the SCOX Yahoo Finance board, one known to be a SCO supporter if not an insider, have already predicted my suicide, two of them since this article...

Maybe I could find someone to help me write a screenplay about this.

Note that back on the 10th, this site had much the same reaction as I did above. I'd imagine we aren't the only ones. Who knew nerddom was so full of (classic) tragedy and pathos?