05.04.11
Good Week for Techrights
Our most vocal critics may leave us alone now
Summary: The leading attacker against Techrights (Mono) is now out of work; the principal target of Techrights (that would be Novell) is kaput
Novell is over, Mono is over, and Linux is winning in the devices space despite software patents and accompanying lawsuits. What was achieved by “Boycott Novell” is immeasurable and we thank those who supported us along the way. It ought to be added that a huge deal of the distortions, lies, daeminisations, incitations, threats, bullying, and trolling against Techrights actually came from the Mono boosters. The evidence is well documented. They did more damage than Novell employees as a whole. Now that Microsoft/Novell no longer pays them (paycheck from Novell, which received Microsoft funds for particular objectives), we expect a lot less disruption and heckling. I estimate that over 70% of the daily attacks on this site and its participants came from people whose main cause was Mono/.NET. Simon Phipps made a comparison to Scientology. Other journalists, like Sam Varghese, were maligned by the Mono boosters for simply reporting the facts.
Our IRC channels have been rather active recently and there are many new faces in there. It ought to be mentioned that the Mono boosters also engaged in systematic abuse of anyone who had entered them. This type of thuggish behaviour is no more, so we invite people to come and become part of our conversation. █
Needs Sunlight said,
May 4, 2011 at 7:35 am
Will Novell’s court cases run to completion, especially those against Microsoft, or will they be dropped? It is important that a judgement be recorded.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 4th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Some of them already work on C++ projects.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 4th, 2011 at 9:54 am
Oops. Wrong thread. Well, does Groklaw have an archive of the case which is also complete? If not, maybe we should assemble one under Techrights Legal.
twitter said,
May 4, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I doubt the harassment will stop. Novell and mono are just Microsoft proxies. Microsoft will create more and their usual PR and TE people will do their usual thing. Microsoft’s declining revenue will do more for that than the demise of their flunkies.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 4th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
I beg to differ because before the worms jar of Mono was cracked open I was receiving different types of abuse/personal attacks. Since I started writing about Mono they have been relentless, non-stop provocateurs with a lot of sockpuppets in different Web sites and social networks (some accounts and Web sites were solely dedicated to smearing me), manufacturing enemies against this site and egging them on. They also retaliated against and insulted people who merely linked to my articles. More recently they aided Microsoft Florian and Microsoft Jack.
If Mono is down for the count and nobody picks it up, then it’s great news for Techrights.
twitter Reply:
May 4th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
The demise of mono is great news for free software in general. You did a lot to foil that plan and deserve credit, praise and thanks. Success will bring more Microsoft attention not less.
The personal attacks, I’m afraid, will continue. In the first place, Microsoft will keep trying to push mono and make it look like a community effort. Even if people in the community don’t pick it up, Microsoft will pretend they do and do their best to create confusion and hatred in the free software world. If they are not above impersonating you and me, they are not above impersonating mono developers. The more important issue is that Microsoft can’t stand honest reporting. They have to attack you personally because Techrights exposes them irrefutably and is making a difference. There’s a long list of Microsoft victims, such as Peter Quinn, and Peter Gutmann. The only way for them to mitigate the damage is to keep people from reading or trusting Techrights. Paradoxically, your success will bring an increase in the resources dedicated to you. Asroturf and abuse are the only technologies that Microsoft seems to be able to scale.
I don’t like that the smear will continue, but I have to face the facts. At least one of those harassment sites are also dedicated to smearing me too. They have taunted me with, Slashdot smear pages, encyclopedia dramatica pages, death threats and other vile stuff which has caused great distress to my family members regardless of the correctness of their identification and claims. I can only guess at the job opportunities that their smears have cost me. Microsoft’s prior success in destroying more established people’s careers is both intimidating and motivating. We’ve got their training manual for proof of their malice, I documented personal harassment at Slashdot and the HB Gary scandal has exposed details common to the PR industry that shows how these turds really work. I have no doubt that these people will continue to harass, intimidate and smear me until Microsoft is bankrupt.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 4th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
They morph into other companies, so the culture will prevail (e.g. IV).
assemblerhead said,
May 4, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Good. The fewer the trolls the better. Isn’t it funny how the trolls tunes change when the money cuts off?
(Personal Opinion):
Patents should never have been extended to software, business methods, or IP.
If your business is so badly run that going to court with bogus claims is the only way you can get any income …. you need to go out of business!
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 4th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I can recall a heckler called “Dan O’Brien”. He lived around Novell’s HQ, he refused to identify himself (the name is too generic), and he attacked the messenger hundreds of times under our Mono posts. When we pressured for disclosure repeatedly he just vanished. Another pro-Mono heckler was “Baby In The Bath Water”, who posted a lot of disruptive comments until we showed he was posting from Novell.com IP addresses. Then he vanished. Carla Schroder told us that Novell.com IP addresses were used with pseudonyms to defame me from her site, Linux Today. More recently she was fired under mysterious circumstances.
The Wikileaks-Anonymous-HBGary fiasco shows that this is not a rare tactic. Groklaw too has had Microsoft folks and SCO folks ruining the site until banning of them began, whereupon they just relocated to sites like Slashdot.
assemblerhead Reply:
May 5th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Now I understand why I stopped reading Slashdot.
Banning be earned I can easily understand. There are some Web pages I read where I wish certain M$ paid trolls would be banned. (Not giving the trolls a name for a reason! / I refuse to feed them.)
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 5th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Slashdot is well aware of the PR agencies that infest it.