[sf-lug] Fwd: Help Linux Flourish

[Rick Moen]

I wrote (about "tux500.com"):

> If you read a sampling of Lobby4Linux's materials, you may or may not
> have the same impression, but I recomment at minimum considering
> carefully whether you want to rely on their projects' longevity or give
> them money. 

Subsequent to that, entirely by accident, I came across:

http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?p=289&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
    "Is the Tux500 racecar advertizing project a scam?"

http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?p=290&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
    "Tux500 scam - news and links history"

http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?p=291&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
    "the tux500 scam of the Linux community"

Make up your own minds, of course.  Me, I considered the entire thing to
smell _very_ dodgy within aobut five seconds.  But then, any
vague-sounding "Send us a bunch of money for a great cause" appeal
pushed by two guys identified only as "helios" and "devnet" starts
with a severe credibility deficit, in my book.

Oddly enough, Pete ("Penguin Pete") Trbovich starts out the first of
his three entries as follows:

   It smells fishy. I have no proof. Just a gut feeling trained by
   street smarts.

But very soon thereafter, he did get much more specific.

(People sometimes think I'm overly suspicious of Internet pseudonymity.
I certainly don't think it's used _only_ by questionable characters, but
can't help notice it often is -- and that, if you _do_ happen to be an
irresponsible screw-up, jerking people around from behind a fake name
makes it much easier to evade consequences, later.)