Submission + - Kleenex, Xerox, Linux, and other generic words (nytimes.com)
Riktov writes: Thomas Friedman's latest column in the New York Times is about global warming and new innovative technological solutions. It has nothing to do with IT and computers. Yet there in the middle of a description of an MIT collaborative project towards an energy-efficient vehicle, Friedman describes it as "the Linux of cars." Not a word of explanation, qualification, or elaboration of just what Linux is or how the MIT project is analogous to some computer OS. Not even a hyperlink. It's Linux, and you, dear reader, surely know what that means, don't you?
When the term "Linux" can be used in any context in the general media with the assumption that anyone reading it knows what it means, surely it's as mainstream as it could possibly be.
When the term "Linux" can be used in any context in the general media with the assumption that anyone reading it knows what it means, surely it's as mainstream as it could possibly be.
