Weird attack on Torvalds as the father of Linux

I remember Ken Brown
I met him at the e-government conference of October, 2002, where he was on a panel to debate open source in government. He was an excellent speaker, if you disregarded content and focused only on his style.

His method was to find quotes, take them out of context (fairly? Good question), and string them together into something resembling an argument, to the careless ear. I remember that he quoted one statement which, as I listened to his torrent of words (he was nearly impossible to quote, he went so fast), I realized undercut his own argument, but had the right political tone.

His speech was completely FUD-filled and just not in the same class as the other panelists (Bruce Perens, Tony Stanco, Tim O'Reilly, Bob Hahn, Robert Kramer), in two notable ways.

First, I couldn't judge his technical knowledge with any degree of certainty. His delivery, especially the speed of it, and the lack of cites for his quotes, kept me from judging fairly.

Second, he gave such a barn-burner of a speech that he got a room of people who, I suspect, were mostly thinking the same thoughts I was thinking about him, to give him a standing ovation.

I include myself in that room full of people. I remember, as I was rising to my feet, thinking to myself, "What am I doing? This guy is full of it, and I'm rising to applaud him!"

He's a really good speaker.

After the panel, I had lunch across the street with a new acquaintance, and when we left, we ran into Ken Brown at a sidewalk table, having lunch with some of his friends.

What did Brown want to talk about?

Edison and Tesla, and how Edison had won the war of AC versus DC. His admiration was unreserved for how Edison used business guile to defeat Tesla's superior technology.

I didn't detect any sympathy on his part for Tesla.

Torvalds and Minix
An excellent reply to above from the creator of Minix Andy Tanenbaum here http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/brown/

"Small Earthquake in FUD Land, Not Many Hurt"
El Reg provides more honest assessment: 'Not the sharpest of knives' - praise heaped on Linux study author

Wanna legal trouble??? O.K. Invent some original stuff!!!
So what'is the scope of this attack ??? Money ,Justice,fame or once again the fear to let other countries to honestly improve (and invents) high-tech products/skills.
NO way!! It's Hard Time for genuine inventors!!!!!! (especially in Europe....The shadow of patents rules is coming)

Anti-foreigner
Tanenbaum's responses at his website are worth reading.

As for Brown: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Smells like ********* spirit :-) The most disturing thing in the NEWS.COM report is The Linux issue fuels Brown's concern that open-source software makes it easier for other countries to benefit from U.S. technological prowess, he said: "How are you going to have an intellectual-property economy if you can just rip off stuff?"

Err, but the rest of the world sees it as "How are we going to have independent modern economies if the US squats on every idea?