08.20.19

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

To GNU/Linux, the Operating System, GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) is Not the Threat. Microsoft is.

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 11:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Julian Assange, weeks before he was isolated from the Web and from visitors:

.@schestowitz rightly points out that Microsoft is missing from GAFA. So let's make it GAFAM.

Google and Facebook started as surveillance capitalism companies. Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, seeing the transition of GF into AI companies using surveillance data are following suit.

— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) February 1, 2018

Summary: Don’t let Microsoft get away with its bogus narration; GNU/Linux is primarily under attack from Microsoft, whereas Software Freedom in general is under attack from many directions

There’s a common and perhaps deliberate misconception. We’re supposed to think that GNU/Linux is under attack from many large companies, but in reality there’s one single company standing to gain the most from a destruction (or hijack) of Linux. That company isn’t SCO but the company that subsidises SCO’s lawsuits against Linux. It’s also the only company that’s blackmailing, using patents, ChromeOS (GNU/Linux) and Android (Linux) OEMs, even in 2019. Those who don’t understand that are either indoctrinated or dishonest. Google isn’t the company that assaults Linux in court. Apple isn’t the company that started the “Get the Facts” FUD campaign. Amazon’s AWS is predominantly GNU/Linux and has nothing to gain from Windows. As for Facebook? It’s deeply connected to Microsoft. It’s problematic for a lot of reasons. Apache's Jim Jagielski used Facebook's abuses as a pretext for excusing Microsoft's.

“Amazon’s AWS is predominantly GNU/Linux and has nothing to gain from Windows.”Bill Gates-funded^* sites such as The Guardian and BBC would typically deflect. Some have shamelessly removed Microsoft from GAFAM as if Microsoft is suddenly some ‘startup’ or a benevolent company. Days ago they focused on Google. The new villain? To privacy maybe, not to Linux.

One must watch out for such spin, which I highlighted to Assange a year ago (he shared my views on this). Microsoft’s attacks on GNU/Linux are becoming more sophisticated; they’re being ‘dressed up’ as love. One trashy site of IDG has just published (about an hour ago) “Get started with Linux containers in Docker on WSL2″ (composed by a longtime Microsoft propagandist, Simon Bisson).

“GAFAM isn’t the threat to GNU/Linux; Microsoft is. One has to be specific and distinguish; those companies aren’t one single entity; there are inherent differences and a collective treatment (bundling/aggregation) is the sort of narrative that helps Microsoft excuse itself when it does, for example, bribe officials to dump GNU/Linux.”So this afternoon people search for GNU/Linux news and instead they get Vista 10 promotion. They want Linux, but they get Windows instead.

This kind of googlebombing would have us believe that Microsoft loves Open Source, Open Source loves Microsoft (says the Linux Foundation‘s chief, so it must be true!), Microsoft loves Linux, and Linux is just Microsoft Windows (or Azure). GAFAM isn’t the threat to GNU/Linux; Microsoft is. One has to be specific and distinguish; those companies aren’t one single entity; there are inherent differences and a collective treatment (bundling/aggregation) is the sort of narrative that helps Microsoft excuse itself when it does, for example, bribe officials to dump GNU/Linux. Remember Munich? Microsoft is working hard to make GNU/Linux ‘extinct’ and even difficult to boot on a new PC. Hardware is being made less compatible with it. █
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^* Euphemism for “bribed”; they’re being routinely bribed through a scam ‘charity’ designed to whitewash a criminal like Jeffrey Epstein.