08.28.19
Serial GPL Violators Fancy Being Called ‘Open Source’ and the Linux Foundation is Happy to Oblige
Welcome to the PR universe; Proprietary software is “open source” now…
Summary: Everything we were told is wrong! Proprietary software is apparently open, the Open Source community loves proprietary software and violating Open Source licences by exploiting the code (without meeting the most basic obligations) doesn’t really matter
THE “OPENWASHING” epidemic is spreading. Quite the pandemic!
Microsoft is far from the sole culprit when it comes to openwashing. That much should be obvious and our weekly openwashing reports barely mention Microsoft. Today we’d like to focus on VMware.
“Microsoft is far from the sole culprit when it comes to openwashing.”There has been an extraordinary effort lately to label malicious VMware software “open”. There’s even an openwashing piece [1] with the CEO in a site connected to the Linux Foundation and the author isn’t joking (only coming across as somewhat ignorant if not worse — corruptible). What is this inane PR campaign? It’s like saying that "Open Source loves Microsoft". Lies are the business model now. “Perception management” is what they sometimes call it in the PR industry which the Foundation is based upon.
The openwashing of VMware went up a gear over the past few days because of an event of theirs. Check out Packt Hub’s piece about Pivotal. They’re openwashing their proprietary software by separating just one component out. “Pivotal and Heroku teamed up to create Cloud Native Buildpacks for Kubernetes,” it says. “Cloud-Native Buildpacks turn source code into production-ready Docker images that are OCI image compatible and is based around the popular Buildpack model. Yesterday, they open-sourced kpack, which is a set of experimental build service Kubernetes resource controllers.”
“VMware is, of course, a surveillance and back doors company (see Snowden leaks about EMC’s response and RSA’s revelations).”What about all the rest? Proprietary of course. Remember who’s buying Pivotal… VMware, with Dell Technologies as the main owner. Dell and VMware are joined by the EMC hip and we recently named Dell as a joint openwashing culprit (with AT&T). How about “Dell Adds Kubernetes Support to VxRail”? Dell wants us to believe that it likes Open Source merely because it exploits it. It’s like saying you love cows because you frequently eat beef.
VMware is, of course, a surveillance and back doors company (see Snowden leaks about EMC’s response and RSA’s revelations). Who would give it data? Or a whole database? Sadly, some would. And new reports reveal this thirst for data [1, 2] — a subject which no doubt won't bother the Foundation.
“They set up some group called “Open Source” something to pretend that because less than 1% of the staff has the term “open” somewhere in the job title it therefore means that the whole company is “open”.”Meanwhile we’ve noticed that Swapnil continues that gross, Linux Foundation-funded (i.e. VMware-funded) openwashing of a GPL violator and back doors giant. He’s doing another PR stunt with “Dirk Hohndel, VP and Chief Open Source Officer at VMware [who] talks about the importance of Open Source Program Office.”
They set up some group called “Open Source” something to pretend that because less than 1% of the staff has the term “open” somewhere in the job title it therefore means that the whole company is “open”. Sadly, Swapnil’s site (TFiR) is full of PR spam of proprietary software for proprietary software platforms (e.g. “Aqua Security Brings Aqua CSP to VMware Cloud Marketplace”). Swapnil has reduced himself to an openwasher of VMware who merely copies and edits press releases for proprietary software companies (compare to the original press release; it’s just embarrassing). It’s about Platform9, which in VMworld 2019 made its planned appearance. There’s lots and lots of openwashing coming out of this event, e.g. this from Mellanox Technologies.
Remember, people… VMware is open! The VMware-funded Linux Foundation tells us so. VMware says so too. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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VMware CEO Sets Lofty Open Source Goals
VMware hasn’t traditionally had the best reputation in the open source community, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger admits. In fact, he sums it up in one word: “Bad.”
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