"Where are we on this Jihad [against Linux at Intel]?"

--Bill Gates

Summary: The sociopaths from Microsoft seem to be harming Intel's and Nokia's main Linux push (MeeGo) by abolishing its development

THE SITUATION seems rather familiar. Big hardware companies are moving towards Linux and people from Microsoft soon intervene, trying to stifle further development of this kind. A few days ago we wrote about the Mono issue that the FSF recognises and explained how Microsoft/Novell put Mono inside everything Linux-powered, including MeeGo (which is planned for in-car systems, sub-notebooks, phones, and just about everything compact). A new interview which we linked to yesterday has Richard Stallman elaborating on Mono:

Question: Many see Mono with its patent issues as possibly a big problem for GNU/Linux and Free Software; do you think using, developing and contributing Free Software written in Mono is better or worse in the long run for a user's freedom than using proprietary software?

Stallman: That's a comparison between growing apples and eating oranges. Instead of responding in those artificial terms, I will explain the issues of C# and Mono.

Mono is a free implementation of C#. Programs can't be "written in Mono"; they can be written in C#. If you have a program written in C#, it is better for you to run it using Mono (free software) than to run it using Microsoft .NET (proprietary software).

When you write a program, I recommend that you choose a language other than C#. If you write it in C#, then its use in the free world could be threatened by Microsoft's patents. So write in some other language, and avoid the problem. This is true whether your program is meant for release as free software, or meant just for private use as private software. (If it is meant for release as proprietary software, you should refuse to participate regardless of the language used.)

MeeGo's Mono problem is now the main issue right now. A lot has also been said about the role of Microsoft's President, Mr. Elop, who is now the CEO of Nokia. See for example the following posts:

1. If You Can't Beat Them, Hijack Them (Microsoft Joins Nokia and It Already Shows)
2. Linux Battle in Mobile Phones Becomes Primarily Legal, Not Technical, Due to Software Patents
3. Taking Over Linux, by Proxy
4. Microsoft Passes More of Its Executives to the MSBBC. What About Nokia?
5. Microsoft President Quits, But is Nokia the Next Victim?
6. Microsoft Insiders Galore: BBC, Nokia, Others Already Damaged by Microsoft Hires
7. Linspire/Ballnux in Tablets; HP Possibly Experiments With Vista 7 in Slate After Abandoning It, Then Hiring From Microsoft
8. New Article Says Nokia Might be Bought by Microsoft After Appointing Microsoft President as CEO
9. Entryism Watch: Yahoo! Keeps Being Abducted by Microsoft Executives, HP Cancels Android Projects After CEO Appointment From SAP
10. As Expected, Nokia and HP Betray Linux Under Microsoft-sympathetic New Leadership
11. Head of Microsoft Romania Quits, Entryism Revisited
12. Microsoft's Favourite 'Reporters' Are Attacking Nokia, Pushing it Into Microsoft's Arms
13. Will Elop Choose the Future (Linux) or His Past (Microsoft) for Nokia?
14. Analyst Wants Microsoft's Elop (Now Nokia CEO) to Shoot Down Linux Programmes

According to yet another update, the 'new Nokia' (which is run by Elop) suddenly feels different about its crown jewels and its behaviour becomes suicidal. It sure seems like Yahooism (giving all traffic to the Google scraper called Bong [sic]). Will Elop adopt the rubbish Vista Phony 7 [sic] or will he carry on with the current direction, along with Intel? The former editor of Linux Today asks: "Nokia: Losing Faith in MeeGo?" Elop losing "faith"? Well, no. He has Microsoft "faith". It's a mindset system. The piece says:

Topping the rumor list: that Nokia may drop the MeeGo platform in favor of another operating system.

If true, this would be a huge blow to the MeeGo project, which has not enjoyed much progress in the mobile sector. Nokia contributed its Maemo platform to the MeeGo initiative, along with Intel's Moblin operating system, so if effectively one-half of the founding team abandons MeeGo for another OS, that could spell the end for MeeGo's future chances of success.

Fueling this rumor is Elop's direct mention of MeeGo as one source of Nokia's troubles.

"We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market," Elop's memo read.

[...]

But if one of the project's founders has lost faith in the platform, how can anyone else but their faith in MeeGo?

MeeGo is actually a wonderful, standards-based platform which could soon inherit all the applications from Android, so what's the matter? MeeGo is a lot more compatible with desktop GNU/Linux than Android will ever be and hypePhone [sic] after Steve Jobs' departure is starting to suffer from "fragmentation", which is the term Apple and Microsoft used against Android. To quote the new allegations:

Today may be remembered as the day the iOS platform became fragmented like Android. The announcement today by Telenav that its GPS app has been released for the Verizon iPhone may carry unexpected ramifications for apps on the iOS line of products.

MeeGo can beat hypePhone and Android now that it can inherit all applications from Android and be a lot more free/open than both. Only a Linux-hostile CEO would conceivably depart from MeeGo now that there is a new announcement about the Android-to-MeeGo bridge (we posted links about it last night and today).

Meanwhile it turns out that Nokia is cancelling Linux/MeeGo phones while Wafaa says the netbook plans too are off:

Sound a bit morose? Well in a way it is. Basically by all accounts MeeGo is stopping all work on the Netbook UX. Yup, all our hard work is now almost for nothing :-(

Here is another article/post about it.

Well, that was fast. Nokia has reportedly killed the N9-00 MeeGo phone before most people even knew it existed.

It sure looks like our suspicion that Elop will ruin Linux at Nokia gradually becomes more substantiated. That's how Microsoft's sociopaths work: either they tilt the competitor towards Microsoft (e.g. Novell, Corel) or they simply take them out of business. Who benefits from such a behaviour? This is not capitalism, it's entryism. ⬆

Update: A Microsoft booster says that "Former Nokia Exec Claims CEO's "Burning Platform" Memo a Hoax," but this may not change some of the other references above. Here is another sceptic.