Yes indeed, says Dan O'Dowd of Green Hill Systems.

O'Dowd went on an extended anti-Linux rant at the Net-Centric Operations Industry Forum in McLean, Virginia, which was covered by EE Times.

Here's the money quote. "If Linux is compromised, our defenses could be disabled, spied upon or commandeered. Everyday new code is added to Linux in Russia, China and elsewhere throughout the world. Everyday that code is incorporated into our command, control, communications and weapons systems. This must stop."

I don't know whether this is true or not, but before you take it at face value learn the rest of the story.

Green Hills, which O'Dowd founded in 1982, competes with Linux in the embedded systems market. It produces a micro-kernel called veloSity, and a real-time operating system (based on veloSity) called Integrity. It claims to be the second-leading RTOS company.

None of this is revealed in the EE Times piece.

Now, the fact that this guy has a competitive axe to grind might strike most reporters as important information. O'Dowd may be 100% right, but the fact that he's a direct competitor to Linux, which has been making inroads into the embedded market, is news you need to have in order to properly evaluate the charge.

Don't you think?

If you get a chance, ask this of CMP writer Alexander Wolfe. I Googled O'Dowd and got all this data in just five minutes. I assume Wolfe, or an editor, could have done the same.

More. I just Googled Wolfe. He's no ordinary writer but a managing editor. Before moving into management he wrote the site's Wolfe's Den and its "Wintel Watch" columns.

But I don't care if you are Managing Editor, Wolfie -- someone still needs to check your sources before a mere blogger embarrasses you again.