Bonum Certa Men Certa

Summits of Open Bear Traps: The Open Core Summit and Other 'Open' Events That Actually Attack Software Freedom

Openwashing Report part II

Weekly openwashing report



Summary: Conferences that call themselves "open" something are sometimes nothing but an attack on openness (not to mention freedom) and promotion of FUD about Free/Open Source software (FOSS); there's an ample set of examples to that effect

THIS weekend, just like this past week, there's much attention being paid to the same old scam which is "Open Core", fetishised by people who care about money a lot more than they care about freedom. Simon Phipps (OSI) commented about it some days ago; he's against it. It's because of some stupid summit set up by foes of Software Freedom.

"Who else was there? Microsoft and several of its proxies, companies that profit from attacking and slandering Open Source, e.g. Snyk and WhiteSource."One can typically tell the motivation of an event based on who chooses to sponsor (i.e. bankroll) it. The Open Core Summit is no exception; Remember Microsoft with its "Open Cloud" charade. Who was actually there? The chief of the Linux Foundation, who told the crowd that "Open Source loves Microsoft..."

Who else was there? Microsoft and several of its proxies, companies that profit from attacking and slandering Open Source, e.g. Snyk and WhiteSource. One can rest assured that FUD about "Open Source" will carry on as long as companies look to destroy (or hijack) it.

Days ago we caught this report. It exposes GitHub as a threat because it attracts dumb employees who use it to upload sensitive data. Did the media blame Microsoft? No, it never does. Notice how corporate media loves playing along with the Microsoft lie -- the intentional lie that GitHub is somehow separate from Microsoft. This is designed to entrap people and harm them. Same for Facebook with WhatsApp and Instagram. Or Google with YouTube...

"Notice how corporate media loves playing along with the Microsoft lie -- the intentional lie that GitHub is somehow separate from Microsoft."Citing BNNBloomberg, one reader told us about it yesterday. "Here's a fun one," the reader said, citing this report from David George-Cosh. "The Bank of Nova Scotia "inadvertently" uploaded sensitive login credentials to an open source repository..."

As the article put it: "The Bank of Nova Scotia is working to remove internal computer code reportedly containing sensitive login credentials for some online services that was inadvertently uploaded to an open-source repository." (of Microsoft)

Remember that Microsoft is currently being sued by Capital One over a similar incident. GitHub is reckless about what's hosted and served through it. Disclaiming liability is a classic pattern of Microsoft behaviour across a broad spectrum of its activities. Later on Microsoft says Open Source is a risk and a danger; whose fault is it though?

"That's just classic FUD; this is the sort of thing that fills up Microsoft-run 'open' events. It's all about attacking FOSS and making it look bad."Analytics India Magazine, a Microsoft-friendly site, has just published this piece of FUD. Citing an-anti FOSS firm which is Microsoft connected they try create the stigma that so-called 'technical debt' is a uniquely FOSS issue (like they do "security" and "licensing").

That's just classic FUD; this is the sort of thing that fills up Microsoft-run 'open' events. It's all about attacking FOSS and making it look bad.

There's another new corporate 'summit' with lots of openwashing; it's led by Alluxio.

Going back to the BNNBloomberg article, here's what it says: "The Register, a U.K.-based technology website, reported on Wednesday that a Canadian IT worker discovered the uploaded source code on Github, a website that hosts programming code that is freely available for other programmers to access.

"The code contained information related to the bank's backend systems as well as code related to Scotiabank’s mobile apps for its Central American and South American customers, the website said."

"Open Core is just proprietary software with openwashing-themed marketing."Whose fault is it? Or rather, if Microsoft serves this data, is it exempted from accountability?

Speaking of The Register, that same reader noted: "Now some crap about open core..."

We mentioned this in Daily Links. To quote: "Analysis On Thursday, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, companies building open-source code gathered to figure out how to survive having Amazon, Google, and Microsoft sell their software as a service without paying for the privilege.

"The confab has a name, the Open Core Summit, where "Open Core" refers to the marketing strategy of offering a core service for free and charging for complementary capabilities. Presumably, "Freemium Summit" didn't pass muster.

"The inaugural conference is focused on helping commercial open-source organizations develop viable business models. It's organized by OSS Capital, a venture-capital firm founded by entrepreneur Joseph Jacks and given street cred through the presence of board partner Bruce Perens, one of the pioneering figures in the open-source movement."

"So they sponsor turning FOSS into proprietary software. In 'the cloud'..."Open Core is just proprietary software with openwashing-themed marketing.

And "note the next paragraph links to the final Stallman interview," our reader said, quoting "whatever those [sic] may be..."

Here's the part in question, using words like "partisans": "Free Software partisans describe open source as a development methodology without the Free Software movement's moral and philosophical aspirations, whatever those may be. Distinctions aside, a common thread in the two intermingled communities continues to be figuring out how to get paid for code offered under a permissive license."

Fun quote from the article: "Open-source licenses like Apache 2.0 have no requirement to compensate those actually crafting such software."

Compensate? Seriously?

Here's the full context: "Several of the companies attending, such as Elastic, have become poster children for the peril of cloud-provider parasitism. Open-source licenses like Apache 2.0 have no requirement to compensate those actually crafting such software. So, mostly, the cloud giants that deploy services based on open-source projects don't bother to pay outsiders who improve and maintain the code."

"Those are not FOSS companies; they're proprietary software."And here's more: "If you ask nicely, these companies may sponsor your conference, as AWS has done for the Open Core Summit. At the same time, it's tempting to see a certain zero-sum symbolism in the conference's morning donut service, "brought to you by AWS," not to mention interstitial music cues like Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer and Imagine Dragons' Whatever It Takes."

So they sponsor turning FOSS into proprietary software. In 'the cloud'...

As the article notes, "in March, Amazon Web Services debuted its fork of the Elastic project, all the while insisting it's not a fork.

"During the lunch break, a co-founder of a prominent open-source project pointed to AWS's banner for its Open Distro for Elasticsearch as "a giant f– you" to the open-source companies in attendance."

The "article includes this note," the reader noted: "Editor's note: we are happy to clarify that Ben Golub described open-source software as a loss leader, and not Upbound CEO Bassam Tabbara as first reported."

"Proprietary software giants sponsoring "open" things is matter of tossing 'slush funds' to improve perceptions."Lightbend participates in this nasty conference that promotes proprietary software under the guise of 'open'. It even issued this press release to brag about it; these openwashing attacks on Free software's legitimacy (showing how the licence is 'worked around' in 'the cloud') is nothing to brag about. It should be a source of shame. But Lightbend keeps paying to spread this. Larry Augustin also sold us all out by joining Amazon AWS (his former employer SugarCRM has betrayed all customers by becoming proprietary software as well... whereupon the fork SuiteCRM came to their rescue). From the press release: "Brewer joins panelists Larry Augustin, VP Amazon Web Services (formerly CEO of SugarCRM) and Scott Collison, CEO Anaconda..."

Those are not FOSS companies; they're proprietary software.

Proprietary software giants sponsoring "open" things is matter of tossing 'slush funds' to improve perceptions. Mac Asay does this all the time at such companies (now Amazon/AWS).

"IBM wants to stay proprietary; it can leverage Red Hat to pretend otherwise. Microsoft does more or less the same thing."There's also this new press release [1, 2] entitled "Top five open source-powered solutions to mitigate the impact of natural disasters announced as finalists in Call for Code global coding challenge" ("Call for Code" is not the same as "Call for Open Source Code").

Just like AWS, "open source-powered" means "exploits FOSS but remains proprietary software itself" because it's not about freedom but leveraging freedom to deprive others.

The "Call for Code 2019 is focused on creating solutions to help mitigate the effects of natural disasters and help communities better prepare and respond to the needs of survivors..."

IBM is OK with it being proprietary; it is, after all, just a PR stunt for them. IBM wants to stay proprietary; it can leverage Red Hat to pretend otherwise. Microsoft does more or less the same thing.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Not Just Slow News But Also Late News (Julian Assange Landing in Thailand)
Why did AP take so long (nearly a week) to release these?
[Meme] Smart Alec Poettering
How many Microsofters can the Debian Project withstand?
Getting Rid of Microsoft Does Not Go Far Enough
Microsoft already has many problems. One day Microsoft won't exist anymore. But that does not guarantee users' freedom.
Alyssa Rosenzweig's LibrePlanet Talk About Freeing the Apple GPU
Alyssa Rosenzweig is the graphics witch behind the reverse-engineered drivers for the Apple GPU. She previously led Panfrost, the free drivers for Arm Mali GPUs powering devices like the Pinebook Pro. She graduated in 2023 with a Computer Science degree from the University of Toronto and now writes free software full-time.
Links 30/06/2024: LLMs Under Fire and Dictatorship of the Old
Links for the day
[Meme] Walking Outside the Guardrails of the Walled Gardens Built by Monopolies
So-called "advertiser-unfriendly" material was never a problem for Wikileaks
This War Crime Footage, Nothing Political Per Se, Is What They Made Julian Assange Plead Guilty To (War Criminals Not Convicted, Only Those Who Expose Them)
Wikileaks' Julian Assange: Exposing the US Military Crimes
20 Years Passed, Let's Go Even Faster Now
We are hoping to bring more original stories
 
In the First 6 Months of 2024 Thailand Moved to GNU/Linux, Not to Windows Vista 11
maybe users moved from Vista 10 and 11 to GNU/Linux, seeing where Microsoft was heading with forced hardware "upgrades"
Eko K. A. Owen, New Outreach and Communications Coordinator for the FSF
Nice to see many new additions to the FSF's team
Microsoft Has Slaves and Enablers, Not Partners
Obligatory meme too
Windows in Åland Islands: From 100% to Less Than Half
Åland Islands lost the sense of urgency to move to GNU/Linux
Tobias Platen Covered Freedom-To-Play Games in LibrePlanet 2024
Freedom-To-Play games using Taler
[Meme] Opening a 'Webapp' With 'Only' 4 GB of RAM
Until 2020 none of my PCs ever had more than 2 GB of RAM
Destination 'Five Percent'
We reckon GNU/Linux can break the 5% barrier some time by the end of this year, even without counting Chromebooks
A Crisis of Online Journalism
Almost a week ago a journalist was forced to plead guilty for an act of journalism
Germany One of Many Countries Where Microsoft's Bing Lost Market Share After All That LLM Nonsense (Bing Chat and Further Rebrands/Renames)
openai.com traffic plunged 60% last month
Microsoft’s Latest Antitrust Scrutiny
4 new stories
Microsoft Layoffs, Mass Plagiarism, and More
outrage included
GNU/Linux Climbed 0.25% This Month (in statCounter)
Around midday on Tuesday we'll start seeing preliminary data for July
Ilya Gulko Introduces Pollyanna
"Pollyanna is a web framework that makes it easy to create your own libre social space, such as a social network or blog."
'FSFE': Underage Labour, GAFAM Fronting, and Identity Theft to Undermine the FSF's Current Fundraiser
looking to raise funds at the same time as the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 29, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, June 29, 2024
Links 29/06/2024: Astronauts at Risk, Ukraine Updates
Links for the day
Fedora and Red Hat Leftovers
mostly redhat.com
Microsoft is Now Googlebombing or Spamming 'Open Source' and 'Linux' to Promote Proprietary Surveillance, Azure
Notice the title and the image, what's being promoted etc.
Seychelles: GNU/Linux Doing OK
Seychelles cannot be considered poor
Gemini Protocol Isn't Even Remotely "Dead"
"Lupa knows of 505,000 (half a million!) working Gemini URLs at present, up from about 425,000 this time last year"
About 10 New Free Software Foundation (FSF) Members Per Day
The total changed from 46 to 47 while typing the article
Vista 11 Adoption Unusually Low in Germany and It's Going Down, Not Up
This is not happening only in Germany
Kevin Korte on Computers Being Allowed to Make Decisions Based on Cryptic Algorithms and Proprietary/Secret Data
It uses buzzwords where none are needed
[Meme] Garbage In, Garbage Out (linuxsecurity.com)
It is neither Linux nor security, just chatbot-generated slop
Microsoft-Invaded CISA Spreads Anti-Free Software FUD (as If Proprietary Software Has No Memory Safety Issues), Brittany Day Uses Chatbots to Amplify and Permutate the Microsoft FUD
linuxsecurity.com became an anti-Linux spam site
Microsoft Laying Off Staff in an Act of Retaliation and Union-Busting
retaliatory layoffs at Microsoft
Gemini Links 29/06/2024: Content Drowning in 'Goo' and LLM Slop
Links for the day
Windows Lost Almost 92% Market Share in Egypt
From over 99% to just over 7%
In Ecuador, GNU/Linux Adoption Surged From Under 1% to Over 4% in About 3 Years
Not even counting Chromebooks
LibrePlanet: Cultivating Backups (of Recordings)
an appeal to recover some of these talks
Microsoft/Windows Machines Are Turned Off (or Windows Deleted/Decommissioned) in Web Servers, as the "Market Share" Collapse Continues
Taking full history into account, this is a decrease of over 90% in some cases
Corwin Brust Hosting Freedom: A Behind-the-scenes Tour With the GNU Savannah Hackers
"the "smiling faces" behind it."
Android at 90% or More in Chad
Windows below 2%
David Wilson: Cultivating a Welcoming Free Software Community That Lasts
"a feeling of shared ownership for all users."
Julian Assange Might Continue Wikileaks, But Certainly Not Yet (Recovery Time Needed)
And probably at a symbolic capacity only
Bringing in 12 Santas and Taking 13 Out (Old Interview With Julian Assange)
Julian Assange's life inside the Ecuadorian embassy
Neil Plotnick on GNU/Linux in the High School Classroom
uploaded to the LibrePlanet instance of MediaGoblin
Asia Appears to be Fastest to Adopt GNU/Linux
the home of a considerable majority of the world's population
Alexandre Oliva's LibrePlanet 2024 Talk About "Software Enshittification"
in spite of technical difficulties encountered while recording
What They Used to Do With Mono They Now Do With Systemd (Lower and Deeper Down Than Userspace)
Now we have a project started primarily by Red Hat (and managed by Microsoft GitHub, which is proprietary) being managed by Microsoft and primarily serving Microsoft and IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 28, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, June 28, 2024
Links 28/06/2024: Kangaroo Courts and Patents Spam, EFF Still Fighting for CPC's TikTok (a Digital Weapon)
Links for the day
Links 28/06/2024: Overton window and Polarization
Links for the day
[Meme] In 50 Years...
Microsoft's Vista 11 will take 50 years to be fully adopted
Only About 1 in 8 Russian Windows Users is Using Vista 11
it looks like over the past 12 months Vista 11 hardly grew and it remains very low at around 12% of Windows usage in Russia
Links 28/06/2024: More Attacks on the Press, More Censorship in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2024: Christmas Prematurely, Self-hosting
Links for the day
IBM: So Long, Suckers. Your Free OS is Now Proprietary. Pay IBM or Else.
almost exactly a year after turning RHEL into proprietary software
Vista 11 is Doomed and Despite Lack of Adoption Microsoft Already Speaks of Vapourware ("12")
"Microsoft has pulled a Windows 11 update after users reported boot loops and startup failures."
ChromeOS Reaches Highest Share in Years at the World's Most Populous Nation, Windows Now at All-Time Low of 13%
We're talking about India today
[Video] "It Is Incredible That Julian Assange Survives"
There was a positive and mutual relationship between Wikileaks and Dr Jill Stein
Never Assume That Because the Law Exists the Powerful Will Follow the Law
Who's going to hold them accountable now?
Nearly a Month Has Passed and Nobody at the Debian Project Even Attempted to Explain What Seems Like Back-dooring of Debian (and Hundreds of Distros That Are Debian-Derived)
I can cynically guess that only matters when a user with a Chinese name does it
[Video] Julian Assange Explains Wikileaks' Logistics
predating indefinite detention
IBM Was Never the "Good Guy", Just a Self-Serving and Opportunistic Money- and Power-Hungry Monopolist, Living Off of Taxpayers' Money (Government Contracts)
The Nazi Party of Germany was its second-biggest client at one point and now it's looking to profit from the work of slaves
"I Hated Working at IBM. They Were the Most Unfriendly People."
Don't forget what Watson the son did to a poor woman on a plane
State of the News (and Depletion of Journalism Online, Not Just Offline)
Newspapers are not coming back and the Web is not coming back either
GNU/Linux Consolidates in North America
Android rising a lot this year, too
[Meme] More Monopolies Granted While Patent Examiners Die (Overworking for Less Compensation)
Work more; Get less
Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) is Taking the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to an International Tribunal (ILOAT)
SUEPO wants more EPO staff to participate in collective action
Stella Assange and the Legal Team Speak to the Media a Day After WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrives in Australia
Published yesterday by a number of mainstream publishers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 27, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, June 27, 2024
RIP Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, Red Hat death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock