Pretending to be a journalist, actually a Microsoft 'asset'

Todd Bishop meets his maker

Summary: Microsoft's attempt to assimilate (to confuse) bears some fruit and the Microsoft-linked media plays a considerable role in it

SOME READERS of ours, commenting on a recent headline, were not yet familiar with the term Google bomb, which was mentioned here over the weekend. When we say that Microsoft is "Googlebombing" (iophk's interpretation of it) we mean to say that it is trying to make proprietary software come up (highly ranked) in search results for "open source". It's rebranding or reinvention by confusion and ambiguity.

Microsoft's booster Todd Bishop (we have written a lot about him over the years, including financial support from Microsoft) continues this ugly campaign by openwashing a Windows font (yes, font!). Well, to be accurate, this font isn't even a part of Windows, but it doesn't prevent Bishop, who literally meets and chats with the highest-ranked Microsoft officials (like Brad Smith the other day), from spreading these misleading headlines in Microsoft-linked media, only to be repeated by other Microsoft boosting Web sites.

"It's rebranding or reinvention by confusion and ambiguity."We have grown rather tired of seeing Microsoft's reckless and shameless attempts to associate itself with the competition. That's how Microsoft hopes to devour the competition. We were disappointed to see complicity -- not merely a waste of space -- in Linux Journal today. It's about .NET. Linux Journal is labeling it "FOSS" despite the reality which very is different, as explained here repeatedly before. Those who insist that Microsoft .NET is "Open Source" should try to fork it (not possible), then redistribute. Good luck with the patents. Phoronix also helped the openwashing of .NET a day or so ago. Microsoft is using other people's code to openwash .NET, so Michael Larabel jumped into the trap and made a story out of it. "They also intend to improve LLVM's support for C#," he writes. This is more like an "embrace and extend" approach. Microsoft is trying to make Free software merely a client (or tool) of proprietary software. What's there to celebrate?

Based on what Martin told us yesterday in the IRC channels, Microsoft is now pressuring governments in Europe to adopt proprietary software with data in NSA PRISM (Azure) by pretending it's Open Source. The "look but don't touch" interpretation of 'Open Source' by Microsoft is, based on sources, now being used to bamboozle governments in Europe. If people who demand Free software ("Open Source" they say) don't understand what it means -- let alone understand technology on general -- then they're easy to fool. The pressure (lobbying) from Microsoft in Europe is capable, combined with enough openwashing and Googlebombing (misleading headlines), surely fools EU politicians. Microsoft is reportedly (the reports are not in English) using back room (closed doors) deals in East Europe to sell back doors (pun intended) to the EU, reminding us that Microsoft is still fighting very hard against Free software and GNU/Linux. Microsoft is also fighting very hard to keep it all secret, bias the media, and so on.

Don't be Microsoft's "useful idiot". Microsoft is not a friend, it's a predator. ⬆

"I would love to see all open source innovation happen on top of Windows."

--Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO