Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft: From Glitch to Leech

Microsoft blue ribbon



Summary: Having failed on technical merit and lost despite anti-competitive tactics, Microsoft is now adamant about destroying the winner (Linux or android) from the inside

MICROSOFT is not winning. It is definitely losing, but it sure tries hard to ensure that its competition too is losing. Several years ago Microsoft started infiltrating the Open Source community. "Shared Source" did not take (people were not gullible enough), so they tried CodePlex, but people still knew it was just s shell of Microsoft. So Microsoft renamed it a bit, using the more obscure name "Outercurve" (which many people do not associate with Microsoft because they don't know any better). Using this fake shell that promotes proprietary Microsoft software under an "open" flavour, it is still openwashing everything with PR fluff, using paid press releases that no journalist seems to even pay attention to anymore (based on what we could gather anyway).



"Microsoft is a company on the steep decline (Windows sales have declined for several consecutive quarters since 2009) and the company is now turning into a leech that feeds on GNU/Linux and FOSS for its survival."Several years ago Microsoft also infiltrated Linux and OpenOffice.org development through Novell, putting Hyper-V and OOXML in those two products, respectively. This was part of Novell's obligation to Microsoft, as clearly stated in their 2006 patent deal, which was sort of renewed when the Attachmate-owned SUSE signed a document without even consulting the SUSE community and then pocketed more Microsoft money (with strings attached). As we pointed out some days ago (a criminally under-covered story), Microsoft has just found itself another 'Novell' in China and its boosters are ecstatic. The point of it is to tax the use of GNU/Linux and control the way it is being used, through the hypervisor at the very least. This new mostly covered by pro-Microsoft writers (all except one that we found, namely LinuxDevices). Why are GNU/Linux sites ignoring all the reports and not rebutting the sheer spin? This is terrible news and we need to shed light on it.

Microsoft is a company on the steep decline (Windows sales have declined for several consecutive quarters since 2009) and the company is now turning into a leech that feeds on GNU/Linux and FOSS for its survival. My cohost Tim put it well last night when he argued that Microsoft has "fear of the future", which seems to revolve around servers and mobile devices for accessing those servers. To quote:

When looking at a diverse range of technology topics, it’s very rare that I will write a rebuttal post (of sorts). Its even rarer that the post which forms the foundation of the article is from Microsoft themselves. In Redmond “The land of make-believe” it seems that Microsoft wants to tell us how things are and of course the desktop is not dead, that is of course because its vital to Microsoft that the Desktop PC stuffed with Windows continues on.

The question for today will be “What will be the future form factor of choice for the mainstream home user?”.

Think of the average users in your experience, the mainstream, the following masses. With those people it’s all Facebook, Twitter, Farmville and YouTube. Perhaps the very user Microsoft has ensnared with Windows is now to assist in the downfall because of lack of need in respect of the more “traditional” form factors.


Those who perceive themselves as belonging to the GNU/Linux community or even fair competition proponents like yours truly need to counter Microsoft's attack on both. Apple too is participating in this attack on operating system as a commodity. It's a class war. So Apple too has become an integral part of the problem, however it hardly infiltrates the GNU/Linux community in the same way Microsoft does (we do have few Apple agitators in our IRC channels). People need to openly talk about these serious issues. They need to name those who conspire against them or sell the community out.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually