While I am perhaps not the best person to talk about this as I've only had one submission accepted, my recent time spent with the Firehose has demonstrated to me that most people have a hard time crafting an acceptable story submission, in spite of the numerous examples on the front page. The following is just a list of hints and tips that might help someone assemble a story submission that makes sense.

Novell has issued a joint press release with Microsoft, in which HSBC, a customer of joint technology from the two companies, claims that Windows has a lower total cost of ownership than Linux.
See full article here:
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/software/stories/173143.html