10.03.10
ACCESS (ALP) is Now Dead, Freedom Lives
“Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software he helped create remain, for now. Dismantling them is up to us.”
Summary: Good news to Free software proponents as a ‘proprietariser’ of Linux and defender of software patents finally exits the scene
A SOURCE of agitation against the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Techrights, and few other pro-software freedom groups is no more. The staff was laid off a short while ago and there is no loss to anything but a software patents pool and proprietary software; the winners are probably Android, MeeGo, and software freedom. Bruce Perens was right when he called ACCESS “a sinking ship.” All it did was divide GNOME, belittle Android, smear Richard Stallman, and led to the firing of at least one Free software supporter. That is a terrible legacy to be leaving. █
Related posts:
- ACCESS Surrenders to Google
- ACCESS Co. is Dying
- Bruce Perens on the Recent Attacks on Richard Stallman and GNU
Agent_Smith said,
October 3, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Oh, poor Brandon. But, as Siddharta Gautama would say: “Bad Kharma’ s a bitch”
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 1:35 am
Well, the mobbyist [sic] has had a sex shop venture going on for a while. Maybe that ‘safety net’ will be put to use now.
Homer said,
October 3, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Can you provide verification of this?
You don’t provide any links to any other sites, and I can find nothing about it on Google?
Thanks.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 1:33 am
Go to the blog of the mobbyist [sic] who admits this. I prefer not to link to it.
Homer said,
October 4, 2010 at 1:40 am
If you mean “opensourcetogo” then his most recent blog post was the 20th of June, and there’s no mention of this event.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 1:52 am
Not this one. He has like 10-20 sites/blogs (IIRC), the vast majority of which are anonymous blogs used to attack those who don’t agree with him. Some have expired or been deleted due to ToS violations.
Other mobbyists keep a narrower presence, also under reverse names like “FOSSPatents” (anti-FOSS, pro-software patents/RAND), “opensourcetogo” (let’s bash the FSF and promote Apple-like exploitation/overriding of FOSS), or ACT (anti-SMB interests, while pretending to be the exact opposite and getting funded by monopolists).
The reverse lobbying techniques are used a lot in the States. For example, there are groups pretending to work for old people while doing the very opposite and just stealing their collective voice. Richard Berman must be the expert.
http://www.bermanexposed.org/
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 2:54 am
By the way, I still read C.O.L.A. and I caught your thread the day — the one about “Tim Smith”. Yes, he still stalks me and chats a lot with Miguel de Icaza (& Co.). His main focus in Twitter — having previously gamed the voting system tirelessly in Digg and played “voice of reason” façade in C.O.L.A. — is to discredit Microsoft opposition. He does almost nothing else, which I find suspicious.
Homer said,
October 4, 2010 at 2:27 am
OK so I looked at Florian Müller’s blog too, but saw no mention of it there either.
I assume you mean one of “Lefty’s” many attack blogs, if it’s not on his main “opensourcetogo” blog, in which case I’m stuck, as I don’t have any of those URLs, and there doesn’t seem to be any way of Googling for them using “Lefty’s” real name (and I don’t know his pseudonyms either).
If you don’t want to link to the actual article, can you at least quote the exact statement, so I can Google for it?
To be honest, I think it’s a bit silly publishing a news item like this without linking back to at least one official source. As it stands, it’s totally unverifiable.
I have a particular interest in this, and as you know I follow the development of corruption within the Free Software community from Microsoft and their sympathisers quite closely, so if someone like me can’t find the original source for a news item like this, I don’t hold much hope that others will either.
It also doesn’t help that the company “ACCESS” has a very common word for a name, thus making Googling for any related news items nearly impossible.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 2:49 am
I agree that it may be better to link. http://caffeine dot shugendo dot org/2010/09/27/life-is-what-happens-to-you-when-youve-made-other-plans/
“…as a particular result of the lack of uptake on the First ELSE phone as well as a general lack of return on the mobile platform business, decided to stop development of the ACCESS Linux Platform, and laid off 35% of their staff—myself included—as a result.”
I would appreciate it greatly if you researched these issues of ACCESSing FOSS communities only to overthrow/change them from within. As I dented a couple of hours ago, “Entryism – Microsoft’s way of buying rival companies for just $0. #sap #hp #nokia #yahoo #novell #corel #xandros #samsung #citrix #xen”
GNOME appears to have regains balance after the lobby of binary/Mono (Phillip/de Icaza et al.) incidents.
“Gathering intelligence on enemy activities is critical to the success of the Slog. We need to know who their allies are and what differences exist between them and their allies (there are always sources of tension between allies), so that we can find ways to split ‘em apart. Reading the trade press, lurking on newsgroups, attending conferences, and (above all) talking to ISVs is essential to gathering this intelligence.” –Microsoft, internal document http://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/comes-3096.pdf
Homer said,
October 4, 2010 at 3:37 am
OK, thanks for the link. I would never have found that article otherwise, as AFAICT Google don’t link to it, I’ve never heard if that blog before, and he doesn’t even use his full name on it (so no way to find it by searching).
BTW: It may interest you to know that ACCESS paid $10,000 a year in order to keep “Lefty” on the Gnome board, so unless he’s going to stump up that cash himself, it looks like he’s out of two jobs, not one.
According to his blog (shugendo), his plan is to be a nomadic web developer, or in other words unemployed and homeless.
LOL!
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 3:40 am
Techrights has written several articles about that, noting that it’s akin to lobbying GNOME.
Homer said,
October 4, 2010 at 4:49 am
BTW: WRT Gnome “regaining balance”, I respectfully disagree. Any organisation that can support a sustained and vicious attack against RMS and GNU, just because RMS dared to suggest GNU members should follow GNU principles by promoting Free rather than non-Free software, is clearly beyond all hope.
AFAIAC it’s over for Gnome, and has been for some time. In fact if you do a bit of research, you’ll find de Icaza was not only a Microsoft sympathiser from day one (he almost got a job with them once, and of course is now an MVP) but he became enamoured with toxic technologies like COM and ActiveX years ago, and so the very foundations of Gnome is undoubtedly tainted by many Microsoft design principles (e.g. the GConf Registry).
Had I known that all those years ago, I’d never have become a Gnome user.
I certainly won’t be from now on.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 4th, 2010 at 5:10 am
KDE explored similar ideas not so long ago.
Let’s try to support GNOME rather than allow Microsoft to knock it.
“We need to know who their allies are and what differences exist between them and their allies (there are always sources of tension between allies), so that we can find ways to split ‘em apart.” –-Microsoft, internal document