TechBytes Episode 10: Microsoft FUD and Dirty Tactics Against GNU/Linux

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2010-11-20 01:19:31 UTC
Modified: 2010-11-20 19:32:20 UTC

Direct download as Ogg (1:10:22, 20.5 MB) | Direct download as MP3 (32.2 MB)

Summary: First episode of its kind discussing just one particular topic rather than general news; the show accumulates many examples where Microsoft attacks GNU/Linux

THIS is our tenth episode which is also a special one because we introduce one discussion topic rather than a news roundup. Our regular-to-be Gordon -- along with Tim and Roy -- speaks about this story of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). They go through some past stories where Microsoft is caught spreading FUD or derailing GNU/Linux adoption. As the show is in no way scripted, the discussion is not complete, but many different areas get covered. Tim's site, OpenBytes, will publish some overview very soon.

Today's show ends with "The Pretty Pride Of Russia" by Tom Hickox (published in SXSW 2009 Showcasing Artists). We hope you will join us for future shows and spread the word if you enjoy this show. Also consider subscribing to the show via the RSS feed. If you have an Identi.ca account, consider subscribing to TechBytes in order to keep up to date. ⬆

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Our past shows:

Show overview	Show title	Date recorded
Episode 1: Brandon from Fedora	TechBytes Episode 1: Apple, Microsoft, Bundling, and Fedora 14 (With Special Guest Brandon Lozza)	1/11/2010
Episode 2: No guests	TechBytes Episode 2: Ubuntu's One Way, Silverlight Goes Dark, and GNU Octave Discovered	7/11/2010
Episode 3: No guests	TechBytes Episode 3: Games, Wayland, Xfce, Restrictive Application Stores, and Office Suites	8/11/2010
Episode 4: No guests	TechBytes Episode 4: Fedora 14 Impressions, MPAA et al. Payday, and Emma Lee's Magic	9/11/2010
Episode 5: No guests	TechBytes Episode 5: Windows Loses to Linux in Phones, GNU/Linux Desktop Market Share Estimations, and Much More	12/11/2010
Episode 6: No guests	TechBytes Episode 6: KINect a Cheapo Gadget, Sharing Perceptually Criminalised, Fedora and Fusion 14 in Review	13/11/2010
Episode 7: No guests	TechBytes Episode 7: FUD From The Economist, New Releases, and Linux Eureka Moment at Netflix	14/11/2010
Episode 8: Gordon Sinclair on Linux Mint	TechBytes Episode 8: Linux Mint Special With Gordon Sinclair (ThistleWeb)	15/11/2010
Episode 9: Gordon Sinclair returns	TechBytes Episode 9: The Potentially Permanent Return of ThistleWeb	17/11/2010

Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM: Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore: The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief): The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?: days ago they hired a new US editor
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows: Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games: Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX): Links for the day
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices: That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor: Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register: I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?: Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025: IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude: I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic): Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace: Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community: Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse: When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster: It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK: Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital: Links for the day
Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis": Links for the day
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics: They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome: The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them: Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake): Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small: Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology: Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone: The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master: Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking): Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably: Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time): Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM: In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025: IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce: Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux: Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs: When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More: Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback: Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Convicted Felon Quits UNESCO, "Vibe Coding Goes Wrong", and Signalgate Gets Worse: Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week: Links for the day
Misinformation is Not Intelligence: It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes): Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore: So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots: Busted.
'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability: In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation: Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?: Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive: Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?: Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster: "Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation: When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft: A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host: PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now: The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere: Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger: LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025: IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday): Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media: Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too): At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?: "Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled

TechBytes Episode 10: Microsoft FUD and Dirty Tactics Against GNU/Linux

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