A memo from Steve Ballmer outlining the challenges to his company from open source software, and Linux in particular, was responsible for driving down the stock today. “We need to woo young programmers away from Linux” said the memo, which was quoted in financial television. Then the reporter said, “Linux stock is up fifty percent this morning” and showed a chart in which LNUX had, indeed, risen. Linux is not a company. VA Software, the company that trades under the symbol LNUX, is a Linux software vendor, but that’s not at all the same thing, in fact its business is less and less related to the operating system, given that it’s changed its name from “VA Linux.” Stupid investors.
Secretly Ironic 