Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft as Chief Censor of Torvalds' Git and Torvalds' Linux (Foundation): How Did We Get Here?

Centralisation of Git repositories and delegation of authority to the Linux Foundation may make us vulnerable to payments from our adversaries, who are like MitM

Adversary (cryptography)



Summary: We deplore and condemn Microsoft's quest to wrest control of GNU/Linux and everything that surrounds it; there seems to be persistent reluctance in key circles to even speak about this problem

IN the context of patents we've already witnessed the ability of litigation zealots to take over patent offices, e.g. Campinos/Battistelli at EPO and Andrei Iancu at USPTO. The key step is putting someone who is hostile towards science and close to the litigation lobby in charge of the whole chain, in turn appointing people like patent trolls as deputies. This is sometimes known as "infiltration" or "entryism" (several spellings are possible for this political slang).



In the context of the Linux Foundation, if the goal is to undermine it, then what you basically want is someone ambivalent/agnostic/hostile towards Linux in charge of the Foundation. The last thing you want is a chief very passionate about Linux (or an actual -- God forbid! -- GNU/Linux user). And that's where we are today...

"My criticism was always sincere and not intended to be provocative, only reactionary. It's a reaction to the attacks on GNU/Linux and -- by extension -- on Software Freedom."Now, when it comes to large repositories like GitHub (a single point of failure to a lot of projects), you basically put a 'mole' inside the management team (like Xamarin's CEO and Mono booster), preferably one who can hook up with the chief of the above Foundation to outsource all the "Linux" stuff to the very same company that's attacking Linux. It's not too expensive to do this; it just takes a bit of time and relentless lying (provocative statements such as "Microsoft loves Linux").

This site is almost 13 years old and my personal activism in this domain predates the site. Knowing my criticism of the Novell deal (with Microsoft) and the Foundation alike, some people view me as an "enemy" not because I'm dishonest or insincere but because what I say is uncomfortable to them (or their agenda). My criticism was always sincere and not intended to be provocative, only reactionary. It's a reaction to the attacks on GNU/Linux and -- by extension -- on Software Freedom.

Earlier today I was advised by some readers to ask for Torvalds' views on the current situation. I had been in contact with him before, so I decided to drop him a few lines. The E-mail was not a 'bait' and it was definitely not hostile. "I want Linux to succeed," I told him, "and not become just a zero-cost commodity for proprietary software giants that could not care any less about Open Source."

It increasingly seems crystal clear what not only Microsoft but a cabal of large companies (including G.A.F.A.M.) have in mind. Software Freedom isn't compatible with their worldview (i.e. their business model) and they're willing to collaborate on one thing: undermining freedom.

"It increasingly seems crystal clear what not only Microsoft but a cabal of large companies (including G.A.F.A.M.) have in mind. Software Freedom isn't compatible with their worldview (i.e. their business model) and they're willing to collaborate on one thing: undermining freedom.""There are forces in this game that try to change Linux from the inside and," I've told Torvalds, "not in a good way. They try to make your job harder, knowing you have stronger grip on the project as its founder and "community darling". The media paints you rather negatively while they pass rules that disproportionately affect non-corporate participants (as part of their job they cannot say or do certain things that would get them fired, whereas community players/actors such as Con K. cannot be fired but excluded)."

I've been trying to come up with analogies for this situation; the closest I've found is borrowed from cryptography. To quote Wikipedia and alter some words (rendering it more applicable to us):

In [FOSS foundations/institutions/companies], an adversary (rarely opponent, enemy) is a malicious entity whose aim is to prevent the users of the [Commons] from achieving their goal (primarily [Freedom and collaboration]). An adversary's efforts might take the form of attempting to discover [dirt], corrupting some of the [stability] in the system, [distorting] the identity of a [group], or forcing [systemic failure].

Actual adversaries, as opposed to idealized ones, are referred to as attackers. The former term predominates [...] This notion of an adversary helps both intuitive and formal reasoning about [FOSS] by casting [...] analysis of [institutions] as a 'game' between the users and a centrally co-ordinated [saboteur]. The notion of [integrity] of a [FOSS] is meaningful only with respect to particular attacks (usually presumed to be carried out by particular sorts of adversaries).


Watch how they slander Torvalds to the point where he's reluctant to speak out critically. It reduces the stability of his projects, wherein his authority is gradually diminished in a top-down fashion. Who's at the top? Follow the money. Mostly adversaries. Check who controls the lion's share of the Foundation's Board nowadays. The same for Git, too...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Against Outsourcing of Sites and E-mail
Software Freedom is great, but it is not enough if you let someone else do it 'for you'
Drew DeVault: People Talking About My Attack Site (Against the Founder of GNU/Linux) is "Spam"
"Spam on sr.ht mailing lists"
"Oppose the Fascist"
what the founder of GNU/Linux said
Halloween, All Saints Day & Swiss citizenship
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Saving the Planet With Honesty, Transparency, and Sharing (Not Only of Computer Code)
GAFAM is destroying the only habitat humans and other animals have and it'll only get worse
Shout-out to Christine From FOSSForce
Who noticed our short story
Apple's MacOS Shows Us the Vision of Computing That GAFAM Has for Us (Digital Prisons)
Freedom means "we the people" should be in control, not people being controlled by corporations (contemporary slaveowners)
 
Microsoft Bribing Canonical (to Stop Competing) and Bribing Users to Shun the Competition
Canonical is worth shunning
Disinformation About Election Outcomes Even Before Any Election Outcomes (or Election/Voting!)
seeding doubt about election outcomes
[Meme] The 2024 'Info Bros'
And prehistoric googling
Computers Getting Worse (for the User) Over Time
This is like Windows-ism coming to "Linux" through the hardware
[Meme] How NOT to Vote
Another form of (mostly-unspoken-of) election interference
An LLM Inside a 'Search' Engine Means That Companies Tell You What They Want, Not What Web Pages to Visit
The future of 'googling' things might be as unreliable as using Social Control Media as a source of information
Google's Debt Has Increased and 'Cash on Hand' Fell by 22.27% This Past Year
These are the numbers that the corporate media intentionally leaves out
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 04, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 04, 2024
There's a Reason Why Techrights is Turning 18 and Tux Machines Will Turn 20.5 Next Month
I started advocating GNU/Linux when I was a teenager
Techrights Has a Long History of Fighting to Expose 'Team Mono' or Microsofters Inside GNOME
Never downplay the malice of Microsoft and its operatives
Gemini Links 05/11/2024: Halloween Over, Intention and Implementation, Bookmark Syncing
Links for the day
Microsoft Lost Nearly Half of Its 'Cash Reserves' This Past Year
Is Microsoft (MSFT) the next Intel (INTC)?
The Year Isn't Over Yet, There Will be More Waves of Microsoft Layoffs
Nowadays Microsoft just tries to conflate/equate its energy waste with "value"
The Corporate Media Blasted Bitcoin for Destroying the Planet and Must Do the Same to Incite the Public Against the 'Great Rigging of Wall Street' (Under the Guise of "AI", the Latest Gold Rush)
"AI" is the next "metaverse" (trailing by a few months)
[Video] Richard Stallman is Back to Halo and Gown (in Peru) With 2+ Hours of a Public Talk
The globetrotting Richard Stallman gave many talks at the end of last month
Going Strong Against the Wind
the abuse serves to emphasise or affirm the importance of what we do
Links 04/11/2024: Squashing More Software Patents and Taiwan at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/11/2024: Typing vs Writing and a Smol (Net) Pub
Links for the day
Links 04/11/2024: LibreOffice Had Adopted PeerTube, "Hey Hi" Hype is a Threat to the Energy Grids (Worse Than Fake-Coins)
Links for the day
[Meme] Social Control Telescreens With Microphone
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Not Boycotting Apple (Yet)?
"Apple Forces The Signing Of Applications In MacOS Sequoia 15.1"
statCounter This Month: Android Has Nearly Become Twice as Big as Windows
If it happened, it would be an unprecedented milestone
Why Technical Sites Need Not Make Political Recommendations or Endorsements
Except perhaps when it's for some purely technical role, e.g. FCC chief
[Meme] Apple Freedom
Freedom is... the ability to purchase as many 'i' things as you want
"Active" as in One URL, One Emoji, and 4 Words in One Week
Diversity community in Fedora
Apple Vision Pro Has Failed, Just Like "Metaverse"
Vision Pro lacks software
Things That Can Improve Election Integrity
the first two relate to "tech"
Rigging Elections is Difficult, Cheating a Little is Not
Avoid social control media, it is the biggest rigger of all
"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"
On throwing stones in a glass house
Our Stance on Electronic (or Digital) Voting Machines
The simple activity of voting and counting ballots does not require thousands of complex machines with hundreds of millions of transistors and hundreds of millions of lines of code
Microsoft and "Retrospective Re-writing of History..."
in YouTube anyone can make stuff up (as one goes along)
This Coming Week
Go exercise your right to vote
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 03, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 03, 2024
Reddit is (Still) Lying and Faking
Don't fall for this phony idea that the above sites are grassroots or edgy; they're not
GNU/Linux Users Are Not Cheaters
The bottom line is, most cheaters use Windows
Links 04/11/2024: FCC, Broadband Industry Spar Over Net Neutrality; Software Patent Squashed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2024: Official MyGemini.Space Announcement
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2024: Election Thoughts, Plagiarism, and LLM Slop
Links for the day
Links 03/11/2024: Deere 'Right to Repair' (RoR) and "Threads Bans Anyone For Mentioning Hitler"
Links for the day
[Video] "El Movimiento del Software Libre y el Sistema Operativo GNU" by Richard M. Stallman
The footage is a bit jittery (taken with a phone apparently, and there's no tripod available), but the sound is OK and the words (in Spanish) are comprehensible
Android at New Highs (47%), Windows at New Lows (24%), Suggests Latest Data From statCounter
So the market share of Android is about double that of Windows
[Video] Richard Stallman's Talk in Spanish (in Peru Last Week)
Alternative URLs too
The Media Focuses on the Wrong Scandal
The real scandal at MIT was Gates
Gemini Links 03/11/2024: Fantasy Life Day and Worship
Links for the day
[Meme] Write Us Drivers and GTFO!
When you realise sanctioning BRICS devs goes against the community
Decommissioning Copper Lines Makes Us Less Safe
We've essentially degraded the robustness or reliability of critical systems
Life of an Addicted Lolicon Who Can Also Code
Personal blog as an open diary
[Meme] Reporting Crime is Not a Crime
Obviously!
Manchester Party for Techrights
If you choose to come, of course we'll cover the cost of the food and treats (but not travel)
Privacy is Not a Crime (in Places Where It is a Crime the Regime is Typically Very Rogue)
Also, criminals lack "privacy rights" to hide their crimes from the public
GNU/Linux "Market Share" in Lebanon More Than Doubled in a Few Months
Maybe it's a reaction to something? Assassination in Haret Hreik was in July.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 02, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 02, 2024
Nearly 40 Years Without Security Incidents
People who use Windows have come to sort of "accept" that security incidents are part of life or "normal"
[Meme] The Streisand Effect
Simon says, don't bother trying to suppress facts
Streisand Effect at IBM?
Trying to silence your workers isn't the best approach. It only makes colleagues even more curious.
Microsoft is a Gift That Keeps Giving (Future Stories to Techrights)
Microsoft has been trying to silence me using dirty tricks for nearly 20 years
Elon Musk Has Trashed Twitter for Ideological Reasons (and Propping Up Trump in Exchange for Financial and Political Favours Once in Public Office)
In case you didn't leave Twitter already, consider the fact that Twitter's (or "X"... whatever!) future is uncertain
Wall Street Has Demoted Intel, Seeing There May be No Future to Intel
Intel's loss isn't a loss to us
Free Software Licence Compliance is About Security Too
Linux as de facto proprietary off-the-shelf platform