Bonum Certa Men Certa

Looking for Explanations About Samsung's DeX and Other FOSS Initiatives Being Canned

If no explanation is provided, then that means that the explanation is being concealed (arousing suspicions)

You don't simply can a project still in beta. Unless it pisses someone off like DeX did.



Summary: DeX was primarily a threat to the desktop/laptop monopoly of Microsoft, so its sudden abandonment -- without even an explanation -- continues to attract speculations

"I think there is more to this Samsung story than just DeX," David (GNU developer) wrote in IRC half a day ago. "Earlier this year they terminated their "director of open source technologies", his staff, and seemed to have pulled out of a lot of projects. They also abandoned their office phone system business. I had also learned from him before that happened that Samsung smart tv's use a version of Enlightenment, but what they are doing and why I do not know. It does seem part of a larger pattern there though."



We've received a lot more feedback on yesterday's article. Nobody seems to know for sure what happened. We can speculate. We think we may need Samsung whistle-blowers to tell us whether some 'Korean Elop' has entered Samsung. Never forget what Elop did to Nokia over in Finland (at the behest of Microsoft), turning it from a top Linux contributor to an anti-Linux patent trolls feeder (while canning all the FOSS projects) and conditioning it into Windows suicide mode. Finland knows such tactics of infiltration and these greatly harm the nation. If Microsoft arranged for some staff changes, then we need proof (which we lack at this stage).

“They also abandoned their office phone system business. I had also learned from him [Samsung's director of open source technologies] before that happened that Samsung smart tv's use a version of Enlightenment, but what they are doing and why I do not know. It does seem part of a larger pattern there though.”
      --David
David reminded us that Samsung terminated their "director of open source technologies" (we mentioned that at the time). Does anybody know whether Samsung changed some director-level or executive-level people? The suspicion is that someone up at the top pulls strings to hamstring Linux and promote Microsoft instead. Patent lawsuits and threats have already contributed towards that. "The death-cut is only a phone call away," as Tom put it. He too is in IRC. There are alternative explanations*, however, so we need to get to the bottom of it.

12 years ago we called for a boycott of Samsung after it had signed a patent deal with Microsoft, in effect agreeing to pay Microsoft patent royalties for "Linux". Yes, excuse our cynicism about "Microsoft loves Linux" (cash). Remember that as recently as this year Microsoft launched yet more lawsuits to that effect, so we know nothing has truly changed. _____ * There's this alternative explanation entertained in IRC:

[13:36] oiaohm dyfet: you also have to wonder if the remove of Linux desktop from dex is linked the the fact there will be pinephone and libre 5 phone in the market. [13:36] oiaohm Removing direct benchmarking. [13:41] MinceR would be a stupid move if it was [13:41] MinceR considering that they would make their own products even less desirable to avoid comparison with products that probably have much weaker hardware [13:45] dyfet An interesting point @oiaohm [13:46] dyfet And of course there is Duval's "/e/"... [13:48] dyfet I think it is part of something larger though, given the other things Samsung had been doing [13:59] oiaohm MinceR: Not exactly. There are a lot of different limitations around the way Dex contains Linux distributions. The horrible part is there is a real possiblity that a pinephone could run Linux native applications faster than dex can the fun of emulation overheads. [13:59] oiaohm MinceR: much weaker hardware kicking your ass basically would look really bad. [14:01] oiaohm Having digital rights management certification I would guess would also get in way. [14:02] MinceR then maybe they could get rid of it [14:02] MinceR all it does is lessen the value of their product

Recent Techrights' Posts

Debian GNU/Linux and Free Software Developer Daniel Pocock in Irish Elections This Month (Dublin Bay South)
Polling day in 15 days
Layoffs as Happy Stories in the Corporate Media
It's based on a longstanding pattern
In Switzerland, GNU/Linux Reaches Record Highs, But What About the Corruption?
Pocock is a disappointed citizen of Switzerland
 
Links 14/11/2024: Politics, Climate, and Instability
Links for the day
Links 14/11/2024: EmacsConf and Flounder
Links for the day
Links 14/11/2024: Science and the Demise of Microsoft-Connected USPTO Director
Links for the day
For "X" to Die the Media and Politicians Will Need to Quit (Then, Advertisers Will Lose Interest, Even for Political Ads)
Fewer people are still there anyway
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Bob Should Tell Alice About What GitHub (Which Linux Foundation Outsources Code to) Does to Entire Nations, Following Donald Trump's Policies
"What's next, preventing access to Linux from non-NATO countries? Putting NSA backdoors in the kernel?"
It Took The Guardian More Than 2 Years of Musk to Realise What Twitter Was and It Took Twitter 4 Years of a President Trump to Realise What Trump Was
Trump was deplatformed only a fortnight before Biden became president anyway
[Meme] Google 80%, Windows 2%
"I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f---ing kill Google."
Microsoft's Market Share Falls to 2% in Haiti
Throw in Android (now 80% of "the market") and Windows is down to 2%
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Magic of Walking and Lest We Forget
Links for the day
Links 13/11/2024: USPTO Director Kathi Vidal ('Former' Microsoft Rep) Resigning, Censorship After Car Ramming Attack in China
Links for the day
Microsoft: Layoffs, Outsourcing, and R.T.O. as Cover for Mass Layoffs Without Severance Pay
Microsoft had mass layoffs pretty much every month this year
[Meme] The Addicted Lolicon Throwing Stones
"They've found my RMS attack site"
Jonathan Carter & Debian betrayed Joel Espy Klecker
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 13/11/2024: Red Tape War and Programming Experiences
Links for the day
Links 13/11/2024: "Make Your Laptop Last FOREVER" With GNU/Linux, 23andMe Mass Layoffs, Intel 'Resignations' Layoffs Loophole
Links for the day
More Than 3 Years After Vista 11's Release More Chinese Computer Users Still Use Vista 7 (Than "11")
it was "officially" released October 5, 2021
At BetaNews, "Most Commented Story" Is Not a Story But LLM Slop! (Readers Talking to Bots)
They make fake stories with provocative headlines and then boast that these get many comments
[Meme] Swiss Lawyers/Attorneys Who Fake Qualifications and Rob People
Switzerland mostly guards its reputation by censorship of media
Just How Slow Has the News Industry Become?
We're drowning in garbage from fake publishers
Things That Still Work OK (But We're Being Shamed for Using)
Using old stuff is nothing to be shamed of (or afraid to do)
Free Software is About Collaboration
WordPress limits it
Even the Managing Editor of BetaNews is Doing Slop and Spam
A Fish Rots From The Head Down
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 12, 2024
PERA Bill in US Senate Strives to Crush Caselaw, Making Patents on Mathematics and Algorithms 'Great Again'
Follow the money
BetaNews is Beta-Testing the Site as LLM Slop With Microsoft Propaganda Thrown In
Many of the people there are Microsoft boosters and they use slop as "filler" (for marketing)
Evolution of euthanasia & WIPO UDRP similarities exposed by W. Scott Blackmer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Phasing Out 3G, Brian Kernighan Books, Tcl/Tk, Time to Ditch x86
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2024: A Lot of Censorship and SWNS at 50
Links for the day
BetaNews, Inc. Became a Spam Operation/Web Site, LLM Spew (Slop) for SEO Disguised as "Articles"
Published 5 minutes ago by Brian Fagioli...
Gemini Links 12/11/2024: Invidious Down and YouTube Addiction
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2024: Hey Hi (AI) Failures and COP29 Fakers
Links for the day
Latest Rumours of Red Hat Layoffs
Rumours or gossip is how almost everything starts
WordPress is for the 'Old Web'; the New Web Necessitates Static Pages
There are purely practical reasons to move away from WordPress and the likes of it
Biggest Debt Leap in Years, More Than Half a Trillion Dollars in Just One Month
We remind people (almost every year) that it's also "buynothingday"
Windows Falling to All-Time Lows and Microsoft Has Nothing to Replace It With
It's mostly Android (Linux) replacing Windows
Cybershow Has a New 81-Minute Episode on Digital Sovereignty and International Cyber-Relations
it is a high-quality show
Activism in the Digital Realm Can Never (and Must Never) Rely on GAFAM
This simply means that tech activists must completely abandon any hopes of finding allies in Google or IBM or whatever...
Golden Dawn(ald) and What GAFAM Means to Liberal Techies
In one single screenshot
IBM CEO Says Donald Trump as President-Elect is Good for IBM in New Interview With CNBC
most unprincipled CEO ever?
GNU/Linux Up to 6.1% in Finland (Almost 9% If One Counts ChromeOS Too)
Home of Linux (the kernel)
BetaNews Has Become a SPAM/Slop Factory, Brian Fagioli Publishes Fake 'Articles'
everything is now suspect in BetaNews
It's Morbid to Talk About Living People as If They're Dead
What happens to LLM slop when Brian Fagioli dies?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 11, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 11, 2024
Free Software and Love of Nature
It's not a coincidence that many Free software activists are also lovers of nature
Silicon Valley and GAFAM Were Never Liberal
spineless CEOs and founders aren't against Trump
Windows and 'The Desktop' Floundering
Microsoft should be extremely worried
WordPress is Bad for the Planet (Even If Many Still Use It)
the costs nobody wishes to talk about