Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Tries to Use Eclipse for Microsoft Lock-in

Eclipse



Summary: Microsoft uses Free software to serve the very opposite goal, which is to block Free software users from accessing Web sites

OVER the past year or two we have shown how inter-personal relationships (including staff moves) have enabled Microsoft to gain more influence inside Eclipse -- influence that they mostly used to spread Microsoft lock-in such as Silver Lie, excluding GNU/Linux users in the process. To name a few posts on the subject:





Microsoft's latest Eclipse move is of course covered by Microsoft's friends, such as Gavin. Heise makes it clear that Microsoft is using Eclipse to spread more of Silver Lie, which has nothing to do with Free software, except for the fact that it excludes and punishes Free software, along with Web standards. From the new article:

Soyatec, who have been working with with Microsoft to develop the Eclipse Tools for Silverlight, helped with implementing the support of Azure and Silverlight. This has lead to the Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse, an open source plug-in that enables PHP developers working with the Eclipse development environment to develop web applications for Azure.


In a timely fashion, someone mailed us yesterday to say: "I came across this blog post by Sam Ramji. It's an OK blog I think, but the response he makes to a comment is surprising, he says, 'We'll have to wait and see what projects are offered to the CodePlex Foundation to determine what the primary focus will be. I hope to see support for Linux as well as Windows. In my experience, open source developers are committed to advancing their own projects as well as those projects that are closely related to them. Free software developers on the other hand are consistently committed to advancing the Linux platform.'"

“Microsoft is trying to hijack "open source" and paint "free software" as negative, as usual.”The question which was then asked is: "Do you think this difference between open source and free software is correct? Maybe this explains Microsoft thinking in starting to promote open source - that developers don't care about Linux and will gladly help Microsoft maintain Windows."

Well, Sam Ramji is being dishonest, but maybe not deliberately. Microsoft is trying to hijack "open source" and paint "free software" as negative, as usual. "Free software" and "open source" are inherently the same in many technical ways and another pattern of Microsoft FUD -- the one Ramji disagrees with -- is that Free software cannot be "commercial". Bill Gates is among those who spread this lie, so the problem resides deep inside the company. It's probably a good thing that Ramji quit Microsoft last month.

Microsoft is still an enemy of Free software by its very own choice. Recently enough Microsoft got caught planning a software patent coup [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], not to mention lawsuits by proxy such as T3.

It is actually amusing to find articles like this new one from Carmi Levy, who messes up completely and ignores the OOXML corruptions, for example. By means of whitewashing and selective eyesight he tries to portray Microsoft as an ethically-reformed company. Here is the part about Novell:

Networking. While Novell rightly gets credit for defining and popularizing the modern Local Area Network, Microsoft's Windows NT Server assumed the mantle and drove the concept into the heart of corporate IT. It certainly wasn't always pretty, especially if you were responsible for patching and securing it, but it was a good enough, familiar enough product family for most organizations.


From the comments: "I really though[t] that we would get a balanced view in this article when I saw the heading, but no.... just some more one sided drivel."

Are Microsoft's PR efforts paying off? Are people unable to see that Microsoft is still breaking the law whilst attacking its competitors? And if so, this may explain how Microsoft has managed to penetrate Eclipse and other such Free software projects which it exploits.

"There's free software [gratis, dumpware] and then there’s open source... there is this thing called the GPL, which we disagree with."

--Bill Gates, April 2008



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
 
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
Links for the day
European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
breaking/violating laws and conventions
Offloading to the Sister Site
In the interest of not overwhelming readers
Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
Links for the day
Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025