Bonum Certa Men Certa

Proprietary Software Giants Tell Open Source 'Communities' That Proprietary Software Giants Are 'Friends'

Linux Foundation and Linux.com



Summary: The openwashing services of the so-called 'Linux' Foundation are working; companies that are inherently against Open Source are being called "Open" and some people are willing to swallow this bait (so-called 'compromise' which is actually surrender to proprietary software regimes)

"HOW did we get here?"

Many people ask us such questions...

Ask Jim Zemlin instead.

The "Registrant Contact" for Linux.com is "Jim Zemlin". So a person who never uses GNU/Linux… owns Linux.com. Great!

A whois lookup shows that "Domain Name: LINUX.COM" has "Creation Date: 1994-06-02T04:00:00Z"

"The "Registrant Contact" for Linux.com is "Jim Zemlin". So a person who never uses GNU/Linux… owns Linux.com."So the site turned 25 only 2 months after Zemlin and the Golden Boys (gold, as in money) had fired all the staff. They ended up sacking all Linux.com journalists and editors -- actual users of GNU/Linux -- without prior notice (lack of funds was definitely not the problem!), only to be replaced by obedient openwashing pros, making the site more 'in tune' with the Openwashing as a Service (OaaS) business strategy of the so-called 'Linux' Foundation.

The Linux Foundation has been thoroughly and almost entirely captured by inherently-monopolistic corporate interests from the Board downwards, which means it cannot be salvaged or repair itself, only replaced. Entryism kills institution by undermining their goals. This is what happened here. The Linux Foundation's chiefs (what's left after many got removed) would likely tell us GPL is a "cancer" (if they could). We were shocked when someone recently told us, based on research he had done, that the last project released by the Foundation with a GPL-like licence was Xen. That was ages ago and since then the Foundation actively attacked the GPL, as we noted some days ago. This is the licence of Linux, which Torvalds loves. The "Linux Foundation" is against the license of Linux.

"The Linux Foundation has been thoroughly and almost entirely captured by inherently-monopolistic corporate interests from the Board downwards, which means it cannot be salvaged or repair itself, only replaced."We're meanwhile watching, with increasing levels of concern, SUSE's retreat to its (or Novell's) proprietary roots. It's getting down on its knees again for Microsoft (Friday's Azure promotion). It's basically a Microsoft ad in SUSE's official blog. "This blog was written based on the SUSECON 2019 presentation given by Stephen Mogg, Technical Strategist for SAP and Public Cloud and Mark Gonnelly, Senior Consultant for SUSE Consulting," it says.

Notice SAP in there as well. SAP has too much control over SUSE these days and one must remember that SAP has long been close to Microsoft (it was almost bought by it) and it attacks Free software behind the scenes, sometimes even publicly. See old posts such as "Shai Agassi, SAP, and Open Source Software" or "Open-source community hits back against SAP". The insults they threw at Open Source match those Microsoft had thrown before them. Cancer, socialism, you name it...

These companies are looking for ways to portray themselves as "open" without actually changing in any concrete way; same business models, same development paradigms.

SAP openwashing



"We're meanwhile watching, with increasing levels of concern, SUSE's retreat to its (or Novell's) proprietary roots."Swapnil made the openwashing image at the top. He actually made this phony nonsense. These liars for hire of the 'Linux' Foundation aren't even using Linux. It's all Microsoft and Apple stuff in his Twitter feed.

"The thing about the Linux Foundation is," I wrote yesterday, "many have known for a while that it went awry, but 1) they didn't say anything and 2) they didn't understand just how bad it had become..."

One critic of the Foundation (for quite some time) responded: "Was when I was in Seattle on a Moodle gig... There was a foundation [Linux Foundation] event. There was a free pass to the security talks... So mysel+my gentoo friend went. They gave us full passes because they claimed there were no security passes left. Then I saw. Not community! And saw..and saw..."

"Saying that Linux needs Big Corporations to "succeed" is like saying that feminism needs financial support from wealthy white men who dominate the "rich lists" owing to the status quo feminists are looking to tackle..."She has been in the Linux community for decades and her site bemoans a corporate takeover disguised thinly as 'social issues'. In her own words: "There is a poison spreading within our community. From my perspective, this is coming from people who do not code, who do not understand an inkling of what it is like to be a programmer, a maintainer, and put your heart and soul into a project."

Some people saw that coming a long time ago. Remember that those looking to cause trouble aren't critic of the Linux Foundation but of actual Linux developers (vastly different things). Saying that Linux needs Big Corporations to "succeed" is like saying that feminism needs financial support from wealthy white men who dominate the "rich lists" owing to the status quo feminists are looking to tackle...

What would GNU/Linux be if it was 100% dominated and controlled by the companies that compete against it technically and philosophically (as explained in our previous post)?

Recent Techrights' Posts

This Saturday It's Gonna be 3.5 Years* Since Russia Invaded Ukraine. No Microsoft Protests Against Microsoft Having Provided Russia With Services.
Companies do not have consistent policies and enforcement of "corporate values" is somewhat of an egg salad
Slopwatch: Sites Gone Rogue, Google Promoting Lies, and DDoS Attacks by Plagiarism Giants
Charlatans and frauds engage in a war against artistic industries, mislabeling plagiarism as "AI"
End of the Smartphone Era? No.
Maybe the media should focus on producing accurate, factual news
Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech
don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to
 
Microsoft Has Issues in Guyana
It's not just Guyana
About 25% of the "Linux" News/Results in Google News Today Are LLM Slop, Almost 20% From the Same Rogue Operators of Slopfarms
Google, which tries to market itself as an LLM giant, apparently fails to understand what's wrong with it
Harassing People on Holiday
There are "no-go areas"; but that assumes all laws firms have ethical standards
The Great, Undeniable Value of Paper Trail, Not Purely Digital Systems
Suppose you have nothing but bits on someone else's computer and "word of mouth"...
The Company Behind Ars Technica, Reddit and Wired Caught Publishing LLM Slop (It Also Admits It Now)
Condé Nast busted
Links 22/08/2025: Lagrange 1.18.8, Wired Magazine and Business Insider Caught Resorting to LLM Slop
Links for the day
Links 22/08/2025: Cisco Layoffs, LA Times Says "AI Hype is Fading Fast"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/08/2025: K for Kentucky and Caddy Versus LLM Slopbots
Links for the day
The "End Software Patents" Initiative of the FSF Explains "WHY [to] ABOLISH SOFTWARE PATENTS"
We hope to cover patent-related issues more and more as the big anniversary of the FSF approaches
Freenode Sniffing
The grown-ups left the building
The Only Thing Worse Than Misinformation is Misinformation Sold to Everyone as "Intelligence"
Misplaced trust is worse than none at all
The Register MS Now Openly Admits LLM Hype Does Damage, But It's Also Being Paid to Participate in the LLM Hype (With Paid 'Articles' and 'Webcasts' for Paying Advertisers)
The Register MS gets paid to do this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 21, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 21, 2025
Enshittification of Airports, Airlines, and Airplanes
If people are willing to tolerate standard declines and enshittification (nowadays sold as "pivot to AI" or "replaced by AI" or "AI layoffs") they will pay for it some other way
Airlines and Their Tricks That Only Work in the 'Digital Age'
People sceptical of the direction technology has taken are not "Luddites"
Open Source Initiative (OSI), Which Became a Propaganda Front of Microsoft and "Hey Hi" (Hype, Misnomer), Wants You to Forget These Scandals
A lot of these issues won't be set aside until there's a resolution
The Culture of Overnight Coding
An industry-wise push-back is needed
Windows Down to New Lows in Guinea Bissau and Many Countries Around It
If Android is accounted for, Windows is down to about 10%
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: Modern Dating, Debian 13, and Apache
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Had About 10 Waves of Mass Layoffs So Far This Year (Not Two as Mainstream Media and Slopfarms Endlessly Claim)
Notice how the MSM (Mainstream Media) never mentions the debt of Microsoft. It is a conscious, deliberate decision.
Links 21/08/2025: Covid Cases on the Rise, "Social Media Trolls", Russia's Attacks Intensify
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: The Attraction of Back Alleys, Initramfs, and BSD ISPs
Links for the day
Links 21/08/2025: Stephanie Shirley Dies and "Groklaw Domain Hijacked?"
Links for the day
Search in 2025 (Age of DDoS Attacks Under the Guise of "AI" "Innovation")
One common concern when things go "live" is that any random bot out there can execute queries, pumping up RAM and CPU usage, as happened when we used MediaWiki and WordPress
Using Slop for Images Does Not Make Your Site Look Advanced or Witty, It Just Makes Your Whole Work Look Like Presumed Plagiarism
Lazy slobs and Serial Sloppers use the guise/excuse of "AI" to plagiarise and spam the Web
Financing of the "Hey Hi" (AI) Bubble by Those Who Profit From Planetary Destruction (Global Warming)
It's about personal gain, too
Richard Stallman Will Speak in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress
it's good to see that the FSF pays considerable respect to it founder, who is moreover invited to speak at events
(At Least) Second Wave of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft This Month
This is not the first time this month that Microsoft has mass layoffs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 20, 2025
IBM Operatives Inside The Register MS and More Shady Money to Follow
The Register MS bites every banknote it can sink its teeth into
On the Internet, Nobody Knows Microsoft and Windows Are Becoming Niche Players Until Data is Shown Correctly, Not Microsoft-Sponsored Articles in Microsoft Publishers
Microsoft controls a lot of publishers and thus it controls information
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms in Google News (e.g. Linux Journal and WebProNews)
Google plays an active role (if not deliberately then through utter neglect and carelessness) in plagiarism
Links 20/08/2025: Mass Surveillance Framed as "Artificial Intelligence" (All Old Things Reworded to Misframe Old Computer Issues), Europe Resists Capitulation to US(SR)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Trips and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
Links for the day
Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
Why are people still investing in this company?
All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
Or steal it
Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
Links for the day