Tech “journalism” – smacks forehead

Just spotted this “article” on ZDNet called Ubuntu allies with Amazon and Dell. It opens

The next Ubuntu release, dubbed Karmic Koala (k is the 10th letter of the alphabet and this is officially release 9.10) is drawing attention for its support for clouds and its improved desktop.

[Emphasis added]

And apparently

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983.

Uh, the letter k being the 10th letter of the alphabet has nothing to do with the release number. Ubuntu 9.10 means it’s the version of Ubuntu released in October (10th month of the year) 2009. Ubuntu 9.04 will be released in April of 2009. Ubuntu 8.10 was released in October 2008. And so on.

Some things don’t change, I guess. Further reading:
Linux – stop holding kids backā€¦ so wrong
Enough with the sensationalist Linux headlines
Bad Journalism

5 comments

  1. Thank you! I was just wondering if it wouldn’t make more sense if releases were numbered x.0, x.5, (x+1).o, (x+1).5, etc. I hadn’t made the month connection.

  2. I didn’t make the month connection either, but good catch/call. If the writer had a clue of previous releases, then wouldn’t Feisty Fawn be 6 instead of 7 and based on the alphabet and Edgy Eft be 5 instead of 6?

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