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Fox News is Responsive to the Linux Community

blog.eracc.com — The Linux community spoke and foxnews.com listened. I received a polite message late today from Mr. Dave Denis the Director, Product Development at Fox News. Mr. Denis stated that Fox News is now aware of the problem with their Video page and is working with Maven Networks to get it fixed.

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  • weizbox, on 04/30/2008, -4/+57The Linux community in action. Great work, thanks Gene!
    • eraccusa, on 04/30/2008, -3/+11Yup, as long as we in the Linux community know "who, what, when, where and how" we can get done what we want done. Also, you're welcome.
      • ChristianMagic, on 04/30/2008, -0/+11I love the difference between the polite letters of the linux community vs. the vigilante justice of the rest of the internet.
  • schestowitz, on 04/30/2008, -6/+74FTA:

    "Mr. Denis also stated that most of the Fox News developers use Ubuntu. "

    Small world, eh? :-)
    • benanzo, on 04/30/2008, -17/+6wait a second...
      "...most of the Fox News developers use Ubuntu." -- Yet they didn't know their video player didn't work with Linux? Pick your logical conclusion:
      1) The incompatibility is intentional and they really do hate Linux.
      2) Their developers are careless.
      3) This *****'s fake
      • moolaismyfriend, on 04/30/2008, -11/+9Their developers get paid ***** and figured white trash don't use Linux.
      • Tiak, on 04/30/2008, -0/+12Developers != Quality Assurance && Developers != Webmaster

        Developers aren't necessarily required to test the finished product when their parts of it/development trials worked fine.
      • whataboutdave, on 04/30/2008, -1/+8The tone of his response led me to believe that they were aware of the problem.
      • hadees, on 04/30/2008, -0/+15I've developed things that won't work on linux even though my home desktop is linux. Sometimes your employers insist on something stupid that doesn't work on linux. Just be thankful, for the most part, developing pages that only work with IE is over.
      • zongamin, on 04/30/2008, -3/+12Calm down idiot. Its not a ***** conspiracy
        • GreatSunJester, on 04/30/2008, -0/+4LOL -- you say something is not a conspiracy when Fox news is mentioned? THIS IS DIGG! Of course it is a conspiracy.... especially when it is not... that is just what they want you to believe.
    • shrewduser, on 04/30/2008, -1/+18how many differen't kinds of developers do you think there are at fox? just the one's running the web service?

      i'm sure fox requires an EXTENSIVE back end and network along with all kinds of IT infrastructure etc that needs developers...
    • init100, on 04/30/2008, -2/+15Just wait, five minutes after Steve Ballmer hears of this, he will be on a plane to Fox News headquarters to convince Fox that using Linux is unamerican and a very bad thing to do, since it supports the terrorists, yada, yada, yada.
    • derekivey, on 04/30/2008, -2/+7If they all use Ubuntu, then how come they didn't know about the problem with their site?
      • nmnnotmyname, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1They may or may not had been using the Ubuntu ones for this part of development. Or perhaps they test the site in IE on Wine on the Linux boxes. (If at all, and if so, Obvious reasons for that.)

        (Notice: Some people may or may not understand that when running IE under Wine the site will think you run Windows. Just thought I'd note in case someone thought that, as I've seen earlier.)
      • jay019, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Not even the devs think the sites content is worth looking at :P
      • PeachCobbler, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1*Insert obligatory comment bashing Fox News, relating how they wouldn't want to read their ******
  • Lyk4n, on 04/30/2008, -13/+39About time, not that I watch Fox News though..
    • Waterrat, on 04/30/2008, -10/+4Nor do I.
    • hadees, on 04/30/2008, -1/+17I watch their business shows some times. They may be all wrong about social issues but those right wingers know how to make a buck off the stock market.
    • skrowl, on 04/30/2008, -3/+6Bill O'Reilly's show is very entertaining. You should at least give it a chance before you condemn it.
      • ilves7, on 04/30/2008, -1/+7It is entertaining, I'll give you that. But I'm still going to condemn it on its content.
      • PopcornDave, on 04/30/2008, -2/+1Wally George was funnier.
    • ray023, on 04/30/2008, -2/+2..
  • GregFD3S, on 04/30/2008, -28/+11*Faux News...
    • nandasunu, on 04/30/2008, -11/+4nice
    • masterm1nd, on 04/30/2008, -7/+7Fuxx Yews
    • Tiak, on 04/30/2008, -9/+3Mentally pronouncing that has always made me laugh... Not because it's a clever play on "Fox", but because it sounds "urban".
    • nmnnotmyname, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Wow, they do something good toward the community, and people can't let off on the 'FOX Sucks' for just a single day.
  • moolaismyfriend, on 04/30/2008, -39/+18Fox News is committed to brainwashing as many people as possible.
    • masterm1nd, on 04/30/2008, -21/+13Apparently, so are all the people who hate fox. I mean come on, is it a coincidence that you're a libtard?
    • skrowl, on 04/30/2008, -5/+16Silence all views contrary to your own! It's the liberal way!
    • nmnnotmyname, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Well, this isn't an action that puts them on my bad side. Looks like they put their public image in front of their own views if they really don't support Linux, and if not, then at least they don't not support Linux? :P
  • harvested, on 04/30/2008, -24/+46That's all well and good, but unfortunately it's still Fox News.
    • tonage, on 04/30/2008, -2/+4Why don't you closed minded people at least save your phobias of Fox News for political topics?
    • ray023, on 04/30/2008, -1/+3Even filtering the profile to just Technology, I can't escape the media pop-shots.
      <groan>self </groan>
  • rivalius13, on 04/30/2008, -5/+89A positive story about Fox on Digg? *head asplodes*
  • solidcube, on 04/30/2008, -20/+27Maybe now we can use our massive clout with Fox to ask them to stop destroying America with their lies and propaganda.
    • eigenweasel, on 04/30/2008, -3/+18Indeed. If only they would think exactly the same as you it would enhance the USA's pluralistic democracy. Curse them and their thoughtcrimes.
      • solidcube, on 04/30/2008, -5/+3Naw, it's not so much that as the fact that they're breaking the law.
        • tonage, on 04/30/2008, -2/+6How about we just bring anyone up on charges who disagrees with you?
      • buddyfarr, on 04/30/2008, -4/+3it's not that he wants them to think exactly like him, but IF possible MAYBE every now and then print the truth? yeah, that is asking too much now isn't it...
        • tonage, on 04/30/2008, -2/+6And by the truth, you mean they should print only things that support your political biases. I mean if the story does not support your opinion then it has to be a lie, right?
  • chillfaktor, on 04/30/2008, -6/+35They use ubuntu? they must be human after all
  • SifuMoKung, on 04/30/2008, -10/+5Sometimes incompetence isn't politically motivated. The web guys might simply be lazy, or bad.
    • arjie, on 04/30/2008, -4/+2Hanlon's razor, eh? Funny thing is, others have said the site works perfectly with User Agent changed, so they must be actively checking for Linux UAs and blocking them.
      • Ademan, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1More likely than that, they have a series of user agents that they check for, and if one of them is present, it's flagged as good (whitelist as opposed to blacklist) and linux wasn't on the list.
        • jay019, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0Not even Vista was on the list, but I can understand that :P
  • humanerror, on 04/30/2008, -16/+12Umm why were linux users trying to watch fox news videos anyway?
    • 4321234, on 04/30/2008, -3/+4Looking for Mozilla Firefox news. Clicked wrong link. Sorry. Next time I'll add "AND NOT lies and propoganda" to the search string.
      • tonage, on 04/30/2008, -2/+4I love the way the very people who pride themselves on the fact that they don't watch Fox News are the ones that are trying to tell everyone they are propaganda.
        • humanerror, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Uh. Do you expect people who realize that it's lies and misinformation to keep watching it?
          • tonage, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2You can say you quit watching because of the content. But we all know you never watched it. You just follow your liberal pals and agree with their opinions like a lemming.
  • bobbknight, on 04/30/2008, -7/+19FOX is good, all others are evil.
  • farkis, on 04/30/2008, -2/+9They sure got our attention, and a lot more web traffic than normal, thanks to a few lines of code.
  • oomfoofoo, on 04/30/2008, -11/+3I never had this problem with my distro. I guess ubuntu needs some work.
  • newms32, on 04/30/2008, -7/+3...and then the Linux users quickly faded back to obscurity.
    • tripzero, on 04/30/2008, -2/+3yep, as long as by "obscurity" you actually mean, back to "developing the backbone of the internet and IT infrastructure, running government and research systems, etc".
  • IncognitoCraven, on 04/30/2008, -16/+2Who cares? It's ***** Fox propaganda.
  • bsmang, on 04/30/2008, -17/+8Now if only Fox News was something we actually WANTED to watch.
    • RoadWarriorX11, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1Bill O Reilly can be entertaining, in a satirical sense anyway
  • neowolfwitch, on 04/30/2008, -13/+5So- besides viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, random crashes, and other nastiness- Linux also protects me from propaganda? What is there to fix?

    It is nice to see a company actually responding to Linux users, but in this case- it isn't necessarily a good thing.
    • tonage, on 04/30/2008, -1/+2This story should just be posted in Politics. The Fox Newsphobes make anything with Fox News in the title a political thread. They cannot stand that someone thinks different from them. Keep your political opinion in the political topics. Stop trolling for places to spout your own propaganda.
    • stix213, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1Neahhh, Linux still lets you on Huffington Post, so the propaganda blocking feature is broken. Someone should write up a bug report.
  • lazerflesh, on 04/30/2008, -11/+1Yeah, hmm. Nice job to attempt to gain the support of a hard to get into subculture.

    Or possibly Faux news, mega corporation has One, Maybe TWO guys who are nerds at home. You know- maybe one of the many "internet analysts" they hire.
  • WorkingDead, on 04/30/2008, -13/+5Cant view Fox news in Linux? Sounds more like a feature than a bug to me......
  • lonniebiz, on 04/30/2008, -8/+4Don't assume they'll actually fix it. Give them praise when it is fixed. Lip service to the open source community is common. Until it is fixed, we have to stay on them.
  • nonrate, on 04/30/2008, -0/+11I interviewed at Maven at one point to run run their backend infrastructure. I can tell you, I wasn't impressed. Their backend was engineered, or for that matter cobbled, together by what seemed to me an unexperienced "kid" who didn't seem to follow any technology process or leave behind any documentation, and was stuck in the bad interview practice of asking dictionary-based technology questions. What's worse, is this kid seemed to be praised, even though at the time (last year) they claimed to only have a 70% uptime. Maven has a good product and idea, but I got the impression they rushed the development of it and went on the cheap side to get it rolled out. I can easily understand why this problem exists.
    • Ademan, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Isn't that like the entire tech sector in a nutshell?
      • nonrate, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Unfortunately, yes. And the pimps, I mean recruiters have helped make it that way by finding nice cheap labor for the cheapskates. The sad fact is most technology management isn't technical at all so they believe getting cheap hourly labor saves them money. In reality, it costs them more because they end up needing to hire more people to do the same job, then have to pay more in hardware to mimic high availability and performance. I've given up on working for the idiocy of corporate America as an employee and happily bill them to fix their ongoing mistakes.
  • Yage2006, on 04/30/2008, -11/+1Yay now linux users can get brainwashed too woopy ***** doo !
  • designer, on 04/30/2008, -5/+2Fox News is evil?
    • kleverness, on 04/30/2008, -4/+1Yes, yes they are, very much.
    • levon2k, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2i heard all their developers drive white ford broncos and kick puppies for fun.
  • jav1231, on 04/30/2008, -4/+13Thank goodness most of you are too young/lazy to vote.
  • bipolar, on 04/30/2008, -0/+9http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html
    Works for me.... Ubuntu Hardy w/ Firefox 3
    Looks like they fixed it.
  • bcamp1973, on 04/30/2008, -9/+2this just in. Al-Qaeda uses Ubuntu...pardoned for 9/11...

    who ***** cares?
    • levon2k, on 04/30/2008, -2/+1psh! i'm not afraid of al-qaeda; i'm afraid of al-cracka!
  • jimmyb3, on 04/30/2008, -4/+7I love Fox News.
    • inajeep, on 04/30/2008, -6/+2Prone to throw insults based on stereotypes or out dated political categorizations who don't follow his narrow line of thinking - Check.
      Brainwashed - Check.
      Complains about digg's politically leanings yet continues to stay here. - Check
      Likes to keep things simple and in black in white - Check
      Likes Fox News - No kidding.
      • tonage, on 04/30/2008, -1/+7inajeep,
        So if people do not share your view on the world, they are brainwashed, simple minded, narrow minded, and should just get off Digg?

        Would appear you are the one with the problem here.

        Do you even watch Fox News?
        • ell0bo, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1Yes, and I start to have blood running out my nose from my brain hemorrhaging, but not everyone seems to be effected the same way. I encourage you to continue watching.
  • StingingNettle, on 04/30/2008, -6/+1Becareful what you wish for.
  • Kr0ntab, on 04/30/2008, -0/+12It is always a encouraging to see fast and positive action in response to public commentary. For anyone who actually bothered to write in to Fox and voice their concern, if you're so inclined, please be sure to reply with a letter of appreciation. Good job, Fox.
    • nomad1986, on 04/30/2008, -1/+3Kr0ntab, I agree with you. Excellent post.
  • myFriendDerrik, on 04/30/2008, -1/+9Of it is. O'Reilly has lots of books about Linux and programming.
    :D
  • rauenzahner, on 04/30/2008, -0/+9As someone who works on the web team at Fox News, and I can attest that we're not lazy... or bad. The problem was more Maven than us, and is fixed already.

    And it's correct that most of the team here is on Ubuntu - with a few of us using Mac OS as well. So are we human? Just maybe!
    • eraccusa, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2Wow, if you are an actual Fox News developer and choose to comment here ... Well, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. BTW, thank you and your teammates for a job well done. :)
    • eraccusa, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1After viewing your profile I realize I should have said "... better woman ..." but that stands to reason since I am not a woman anyway. ;)
  • stix213, on 04/30/2008, -0/+6I like the part where Fox says that most of their Dev team uses Ubuntu. And the problem already appears to be fixed. That's pretty fast for such a large site to push a user request fix out that fast. Much props to FoxNews.com on this.
  • BAMAToNE, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1Can someone please tell Fox News that it isn't just Linux being blocked. Opera users in Windows also cannot watch the videos.
    • danielg, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2This linux fix also corrected the issues with playing video in Opera.
  • Atomic1fire, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1That cant be... Fox news is evil or so we've been told
    /sarcasm
  • polko, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0they are responsive to any community..
  • ewiget, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0I responded to the first report of this and also mentioned www.wlwt.com - I fired off a polite email stating the problem, pointed them to the original digg article, and they fixed it there too (they were using that new microsoft technology silverlight or whatever it is called - they went back to their old format). I never got a response to the email, but my videos work there now
  • eraccusa, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1ewiget, good idea! We should use these Fox News URLs here on Digg as examples to other media sites that are broken in browsers under Linux. Send them a polite note and point them to these articles. If Fox can do it, they all can do it. These broken sites just need to hear from us.
  • Origin415, on 05/02/2008, -0/+0Digg saves the world once again
  •  

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