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<P>Media Unspun serves business news and analysis, authoritatively and irreverently, every business day. An annual subscription costs $50, less than a dollar a week. If your four-week free trial is coming to an end soon, please visit <A HREF="http://www.mediaunspun.com/subscribe.html">http://www.mediaunspun.com/subscribe.html</A>  and sign up via credit card or check.<br>
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<P>US Airways scored a $500 million bankruptcy court bailout. American Airlines announced a re-org. United Airlines' parent company's stock sank on speculation that UAL is next in line for Chapter 11. It's a wonder none of this happened last September, but it's not much consolation to airline employees, shareholders, and customers that it's happening now.</P><P>
The Wall Street Journal had the most extensive coverage of American's plan as of Unspun's deadline. The airline will lay off 7,000 workers, ground some jets, cut back on flight amenities such as food, and retool its hub operations to make for longer layovers. "In the past, airlines were loath to have longer connection times because flights were listed in travel agents' computers by elapsed time," said the Journal. "Now, online booking tools and search engines most often list flights by price,
not time." In this age of penny-pinching, American's worried about low-cost carriers, not the big guys like, um, US Air and United. </P><P>
Speaking of United, it's hard to come up with a verb for its parent company's stock that doesn't invoke an air disaster. Let's just say it didn't go up yesterday. The $3.80 share price may be the least of UAL's worries while it waits for an increasingly unlikely $1.8 billion loan from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board. "The ATSB expects an applicant's workers, suppliers and creditors to make concessions to help the airline repay the loans and thus protect U.S. taxpayers' interests,"
said the L.A. Times. Sounds nice for uninvolved taxpayers but not so good to some of United's unions, which are balking at a wage cut. Workers did enough by deferring $498 million in retroactive pay this year, said the 36,000-member machinists' union. Analysts moaned in anti-labor frustration. </P><P>
The basic problem here is too many empty airplane seats, and non-U.S. outlets didn't have a lot of sympathy. "The U.S. government has bailed out carriers with insurance subsidies and federal loan guarantees" while "European authorities have acted more wisely," letting Swissair and Sabena "go to the wall," said the Financial Times. Canadian pundits agreed that America should let a couple of airlines wilt, since the Canadian airline industry benefited from the demise of Canadian Airlines and
Canada 3000. Paging Charles Darwin to the white courtesy phone... - Jen Muehlbauer</P>
You've heard about identity management, but do you know about the opportunities and business models that will emerge as a result? <a href="http://release1.edventure.com/executivesummary.cfm?MCode=Unspun">Download</a> a free executive summary of Esther Dyson's coverage of identity management in Release 1.0. Learn more about the expanding market for these services and applications.
<P>The LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, which opened yesterday in San Francisco, will host two of the strangest bedfellows ever to lie down with a stuffed penguin: Microsoft and Sun. These are companies that once referred to Linux as a "bathtub of code" (Sun) and "a cancer" (Microsoft), according to Sun's hometown paper the San Jose Mercury News.</P><P>
Both companies are taking Linux seriously despite the absolute numbers. By January 2, 2001, Microsoft had made as much on server software as all Linux vendors put together would reap in the entire year.</P><P>
Honors for the best attention-grabber on Microsoft's presence at the show go to Brier Dudley, who opened his piece for the Seattle Times this way: "Microsoft executive Peter Houston wasn't too worried about the reception he'd get at LinuxWorld ... until he heard about the pie cannon."</P><P>
Wired informed us that the section of LinuxWorld where Microsoft will be holding the fort is dubbed the Rookery -- "a place where you can watch companies hatch and grow right before your eyes," deadpanned reporter Michelle Delio, quoting Microsoft's Houston: "Hatching isn't exactly on the agenda, but I certainly hope to grow."</P><P>
Turning to Sun, Unspun notes that five years ago a joke press release circulated on the Net claiming that Linux creator Linus Torvalds, then still living in Finland, was moving to Silicon Valley to work for Sun. The joke was that Sun had decided to scrap its Solaris operating system and instead concentrate on a version of Linux, to be called "Solinux." How time does make April fools of us all: Linus Torvalds is now thriving in Silicon Valley (at Transmeta), and yesterday Sun Microsystems
demonstrated Sun Linux 5.0. and introduced its first general-purpose servers running Linux.</P><P>
The Merc ran a comprehensive wrap of Sun's evolving attitude toward the upstart operating system. Sun has little choice but to embrace Linux, wrote reporter Therese Poletti, because some of its traditional Wall Street customers were deserting it. "Several investment banks have tossed out whole sections of Sun servers and replaced them with Intel-based servers running Linux," Poletti reported. And you thought Microsoft hated Linux? - Keith Dawson</P><P>
Microsoft changes its tune toward Linux (Seattle Times)<br>
Sun Microsystems flexes Linux to jab at Microsoft (Seattle Times)<br>
Microsoft and Free Software at the Same Show? It's True<br>
Linux begins its descent into the enterprise<br>
<P>Ex-CEO Pleads Not Guilty to ImClone Fraud<br>
Security flaw found in Microsoft Web browser (Reuters)<br>
Gates Foundation Walks Fine Line As It Increases Its Cable Holdings<br>
PGP defect reveals encrypted messages<br>
Bigger Bar Code Inches Up on Retailers<br>
Damn the Constitution: Europe must take back the Web<br>
Japanese Drop Out of New ID System (Newsday, AP)<br>
Marketing: Cowpoke Productions (<a href="http://www.cowpokeproductions.com">cowpokeproductions.com</a>).
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