09.29.11
Gemini version available ♊︎Not News: Miguel de Icaza is Working for Microsoft
Summary: In light of more FUD from Miguel de Icaza, a reminder of who or what he is serving and why we oughtn’t pay attention to him
SEVERAL people have asked us to cover the unsurprising story of a Microsoft MVP praising Microsoft and trashing Linux. The only noteworthy gem is that this Microsoft MVP is called Miguel de Icaza, the man who technically leads a startup striving to spread .NET. He also works (or worked) for a Microsoft foundation that facilitates self-serving intrusion into FOSS. We’ll expand a bit just in case someone still does not know Miguel de Icaza, whom Microsoft conveniently characterises as opposition because he is controlled opposition.
The short story is, Miguel is being Miguel again. “Conveniently,” says one of our regulars in IRC, “he skips the OEM monopoly [..] and shilling for vista 8″
Miguel’s current fascination with Vista 8 can be seen in this post, but we must remember that Miguel also promoted .NET and Silverlight for Linux (even rewriting and writing applications for Linux in Moonlight) while Microsoft pretty much dumped both. This man is not credible and he is fuelling Linux FUD that quotes him as “Gnome creator”.
“Like everything in Microsoft’s culture, lying is OK as long as it’s useful to Microsoft.”This should not surprise anyone as we have seen him in newsgroups too playing along with Microsoft trolls and throwing FUD at Linux. One has to gasp at the sight of this person who openly bashes the Linux desktop, a part of which people sometimes wrongly attribute to him (mostly in the Microsoft camp, of which he is a loyal part).
It ought to be mentioned that the latest FUD from Miguel was generated in collaboration with Microsoft’s buddy Tim Anderson, whom Microsoft gives presents. It is helps validate what we have been saying for years about Miguel and other Microsoft lust which he takes pride in.
He will not be insulted by association with Microsoft. He loves Microsoft, he tried getting a job there as far back as 1998.
Like everything in Microsoft’s culture, lying is OK as long as it’s useful to Microsoft. The company even lied to the government recently — a serious breach of trust that does get scrutiny from the press but probably not enough scrutiny.
“Ask Miguel about Microsoft’s abuses and see him slinking away.”The bottom line is, Miguel will say the darnest things, he will get things wrong (as he did before), and we really must not take what he says seriously anymore. If FOSS developers took his advice, they would be swapping OOXML files, building GNOME 3 using Moonlight (XAML), and investing their effort in Xamarin, which fails to even be mentioned by the press after staff left, the software turned proprietary, the new CEO was appointed after an early Microsoft career, and the CTO is reduced to some kind of anti-Linux mouthpiece.
Miguel has been groomed by Microsoft boosters (some pretend to be objective journalists) for a good reason. He gives credibility to their FUD because they can try to label him “Gnome founder” and then magically speak ‘on behalf’ of the opposition. The grooming of the “de Icaza” brand is mostly done by Microsoft sites, as a news survey can easily help show (we performance several such surveys about Mono before). The goal is to weaken FOSS elements such as the FSF and give power to Microsoft boosters and apologists mostly through exposure and PR tactics. Another objective to be achieved is the marginalisation of elements in the community which are critical of Microsoft (and there is lots to be critical of, e.g. patent extortion and boot attack). The same strategy is used in politics. It is partisan and at times very malicious.
Ask Miguel about Microsoft’s abuses and see him slinking away. █
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mikebisten said,
September 29, 2011 at 2:26 pm
This really is quite a spiteful and juvenile posting. Your arguments are starting to get lost in cheap point scoring and an obvious resentment. You are starting to border on the paranoid.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
You are gonna have to be more specific. Do you see any point which is factually inaccurate? I can produce links if that will help you.
saulgoode Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
While I hold little regard for Mr de Icaza’s more recent (as in, the last decade) activities and exhortations — whether from a Software Freedom or technological viewpoint — he did play an instrumental role in the creation of the Gnome project (and was even awarded the FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software in 1999 for those efforts) and it is in my opinion disingenuous to suggest that those past contributions to the GNU desktop are “wrongly attributed” to him.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I was not referring to GNOME but to the Linux desktop in general. Federico Mena and Miguel de Icaza did not make the first desktop environment. I remember how Perlow even insinuated that GIMP needed GNOME, which was untrue and Groklaw rebutted this.
twitter Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Do Microsoft people ever mention this guy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Mena