Comments on: Microsoft Appoints Robert Duffner to Fight Freedom and Harm GNU/Linux http://techrights.org/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/ Free Software Sentry – watching and reporting maneuvers of those threatened by software freedom Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/comment-page-1/#comment-50307 Roy Schestowitz Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:23:55 +0000 http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/#comment-50307 Here is an interesting comment that arrived later: http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-15-027-35-NW-BZ-MS-0000 "<em>It is interesting that the article does not mention Martin Taylor when discussing the history of Microsoft's attempts to co-opt Linux:</em>" http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002237511_msftlinux11.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6086044.html More in: http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-15-027-35-NW-BZ-MS-0001 http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-15-027-35-NW-BZ-MS-0002 Here is an interesting comment that arrived later:

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-15-027-35-NW-BZ-MS-0000

“It is interesting that the article does not mention Martin Taylor when discussing the history of Microsoft’s attempts to co-opt Linux:”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002237511_msftlinux11.html

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6086044.html

More in:

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-15-027-35-NW-BZ-MS-0001
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-15-027-35-NW-BZ-MS-0002

]]> By: Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/comment-page-1/#comment-50162 Roy Schestowitz Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:07:39 +0000 http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/#comment-50162 <blockquote> On a related note - I think just about any project that reaches some level of maturity will have some pressure applied for it to be ported to work on windows. </blockquote> It's more than just a port. It's also hosting, licences, proprietary formats, patents etc. Microsoft doesn't view it so simplistically.

On a related note – I think just about any project that reaches some level of maturity will have some pressure applied for it to be ported to work on windows.

It’s more than just a port. It’s also hosting, licences, proprietary formats, patents etc. Microsoft doesn’t view it so simplistically.

]]> By: mpz http://techrights.org/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/comment-page-1/#comment-50053 mpz Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:28:18 +0000 http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/#comment-50053 On a related note - I think just about any project that reaches some level of maturity will have some pressure applied for it to be ported to work on windows. And I don't think it's at all nefarious - it usually seems to come about due to some wish to become popular, or go 'mainstream', or attempt to please lusers who keep asking for it. For some projects it can attract new developers, but I think on the whole the MS eco-system is basically incompatible with free software - and all you end up with is a lot of less-savvy and less-polite users giving you hassles. Users want everything for nothing (no real difference to GNU users really), but developers from that side rarely seem to want to do anything without some direct recompense. One only has to observe the Java eco-system compared to the .NET one to see the embodiment of these ideas. Even large and complex enterprise software is now basically a commodity and freely available on Java, on .NET you have to pay for every little extension widget or shitty 'framework' that fixes some short-coming in the basic system. It seems the only driver for 'innovation' is money - and no crappy little one-man ISV will ever make enough money on their 'shareware' to get anywhere, so they're really just pissing in the wind while the only winner is Microsoft, who is also pissing in the wind - up-wind to everyone else. On a related note – I think just about any project that reaches some level of maturity will have some pressure applied for it to be ported to work on windows. And I don’t think it’s at all nefarious – it usually seems to come about due to some wish to become popular, or go ‘mainstream’, or attempt to please lusers who keep asking for it.

For some projects it can attract new developers, but I think on the whole the MS eco-system is basically incompatible with free software – and all you end up with is a lot of less-savvy and less-polite users giving you hassles. Users want everything for nothing (no real difference to GNU users really), but developers from that side rarely seem to want to do anything without some direct recompense.

One only has to observe the Java eco-system compared to the .NET one to see the embodiment of these ideas. Even large and complex enterprise software is now basically a commodity and freely available on Java, on .NET you have to pay for every little extension widget or shitty ‘framework’ that fixes some short-coming in the basic system. It seems the only driver for ‘innovation’ is money – and no crappy little one-man ISV will ever make enough money on their ‘shareware’ to get anywhere, so they’re really just pissing in the wind while the only winner is Microsoft, who is also pissing in the wind – up-wind to everyone else.

]]> By: Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/comment-page-1/#comment-50006 Roy Schestowitz Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:51:18 +0000 http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/#comment-50006 The issue as I know it is <a href="http://boycottnovell.com/2008/01/02/the-money-question-influence/" rel="nofollow">a little different</a>. The issue as I know it is a little different.

]]> By: MisterMeister http://techrights.org/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/comment-page-1/#comment-49969 MisterMeister Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:11:07 +0000 http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/15/robert-duffner-anti-foss/#comment-49969 Protecting the reach of Microsoft in Africa is nothing new, even if it causes the deaths of a few million in the process: BILL GATES’: KILLING AFRICANS FOR PROFIT AND PR. MR. BUSH’S BOGUS AIDS OFFER by Greg Palast July 14, 2003 (excerpt) "Stephanie, let me let you in on a little secret about Bill and Melinda Gates so-called “Foundation.” Gate’s demi-trillionaire status is based on a nasty little monopoly-protecting trade treaty called “TRIPS” – the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights rules of the World Trade Organization. TRIPS gives Gates a hammerlock on computer operating systems worldwide, legally granting him the kind of monopoly the Robber Barons of yore could only dream of. But TRIPS, the rule which helps Gates rule, also bars African governments from buying AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis medicine at cheap market prices." http://www.bigeye.com/billgates.htm Protecting the reach of Microsoft in Africa is nothing new, even if it causes the deaths of a few million in the process:

BILL GATES’: KILLING AFRICANS FOR PROFIT AND PR. MR. BUSH’S BOGUS AIDS OFFER

by Greg Palast
July 14, 2003

(excerpt)

“Stephanie, let me let you in on a little secret about Bill and Melinda Gates so-called “Foundation.” Gate’s demi-trillionaire status is based on a nasty little monopoly-protecting trade treaty called “TRIPS” – the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights rules of the World Trade Organization. TRIPS gives Gates a hammerlock on computer operating systems worldwide, legally granting him the kind of monopoly the Robber Barons of yore could only dream of. But TRIPS, the rule which helps Gates rule, also bars African governments from buying AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis medicine at cheap market prices.”

http://www.bigeye.com/billgates.htm

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