NewsForge: The Most Popular Linux Article Ever?

[Editor’s Note: Linux Today has noted the pervasive nature
of this story as well, having located it in no less than 33
separate international media outlets. While our methods of
newsgathering differ somewhat from NewsForge’s, it is still an
interesting study in how some Linux news stories propagate through
the media world more than others. -BKP]

“You’ve seen a headline or two recently on NewsForge that said
something like ‘Microsoft fights off Windows rival Linux.’ I say
‘headline or two’ because we goofed up and and linked to this story
at least twice, under different headlines. It was an easy mistake
to make because this AP story has run in more newspapers and on
more news Web sites than any other story I have ever seen with the
word ‘Linux’ in it.

“We use a combination of automated scans and human eyeballs to
generate our NewsVac section. We scan Google News, NewsNow and
other aggregators’ sites, too, to pick up anything our software
tools (and our readers’ many submissions, for which we thank you
heartily) may have missed. And that AP story about Microsoft saying
Linux is bad not because of licensing but because it costs too much
has dominated our searches for Linux stories since Christmas and is
still going strong…”

Complete
Story

Related Story:

AP/The Olympian: As Linux Advances, Microsoft Alters Message to
Customers(Dec 20, 2002)