THREE days ago we wrote about what it would take for Linus Torvalds to regain leadership of his own project, seeing that he's no longer in charge (especially since 2018). We'll come to that in a moment.

Well, a couple of hours ago Linux.com published this awkward article (it's awkward enough that they publish any article at all because that site is practically dead; all the editors and journalists were fired a year ago without warning and without telling the public anything at all!).

And now?

Well, now things are different. It feels like the site is now owned and composed by Microsoft employees. The above article isn't really an article but a paid placement, a self-serving puff piece. You now go to Linux.com for news about Linux and instead you read a puff piece from matt.butcher@microsoft.com about Github and "VS Code extensions"...

"You now go to Linux.com for news about Linux and instead you read a puff piece from matt.butcher@microsoft.com about Github and "VS Code extensions"..."The company behind the "Cancer" slur and its anti-GPL nonsense is now running Linux.com, at least indirectly. Does that make sense at all? Remember that the official blog of the Linux Foundation is also nowadays run by a former Microsoft employee. Does the Foundation hand over its messaging to Microsofters? Does that make any sense?

How did we come to this? Today's Linux Foundation is not merely defunct. It is corrupt. It takes money from Microsoft and outsources projects to Microsoft (GitHub). It helps promote Microsoft's proprietary software! This is the very opposite of what it was supposed to do! Look at the management team and Board, both of which are now stacked with Microsoft employees including top-level executives. These are the bosses of Linus Torvalds. Surely he can sense their presence.

Shoehorning Microsoft didn't happen overnight; it's a slow process and it's always moving or advancing in one direction. Under misleading banners (lies) such as "Microsoft loves Linux..."

"Shoehorning Microsoft didn't happen overnight; it's a slow process and it's always moving or advancing in one direction."And suffice to say, those who dislike Microsoft no longer belong in the Foundation. So keep quiet, Mr. Torvalds, shut up about Microsoft. You don't want the Board to oust you again, do you? The media can easily be weaponised to achieve that; we know who pays the media...

We've already seen what the media did to Richard Stallman a week or two after a major Bill Gates scandal at MIT; so-called 'journalists' (salaried by Microsoft- and Gates-funded publications) are just shaming, canceling 'targets', inducing guilt and self-shame upon them. We've long seen the media presenting/painting them as 'zealots' for opposing things that large corporations want until they 'soften' and obey. Sometimes the media calls them "arrogant" for merely holding the same position in defiance of antagonists, as if principles are a weakness...

Yesterday there was an article entitled "TrueNAS isn’t abandoning BSD—but it is adopting Linux" and one reader told us: "Sure, both GitHub and Linux kernel are co-opted by Microsoft. This is how they slowly attack BSD -- get free software crowd to adopt Github, get BSD crowd to adopt Linux kernel. That's a cheap way to get their claws in."

"We've already seen what the media did to Richard Stallman a week or two after a major Bill Gates scandal at MIT; so-called 'journalists' (salaried by Microsoft- and Gates-funded publications) are just shaming, canceling 'targets', inducing guilt and self-shame upon them.""Articles aiming at Torvalds," another person told us yesterday, highlight the stages of the 'coup' against Torvalds as the "benevolent dictator" of Linux. The pattern is worth taking note of, for it highlights a certain modus operandi.

"Sorry I can't find much," the person told us, "even though the attacks against Linus Torvalds have gone on for well over a decade it is terribly hard to find key articles."

The Internet rots very quickly. Several of the links below are dead already (some died as recently as months ago when domains were abandoned).

"Here is a small sampling of recent aggressions," the person said. "They have been gunning for him continuously for years because of the direction he has kept the code base moving towards. Remember he is focusing on the code, but that is exactly what upsets microsofters and worse groups so they go ad hominem on him. Too bad but that works."

In 2019 Linux Journal published "25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds" (just before the site went offline, then came back albeit without any staff). The person who curated these links asked, "can you find the original article which it refers to?"

"The pattern is worth taking note of, for it highlights a certain modus operandi."Well, it's right here. Notice the people involved back then. Same familiar faces even in the mid-nineties.

In 2012 (MS)BBC News [sic] published this awkwardly-titled piece, "Linus Torvalds: Linux succeeded thanks to selfishness and trust"; the publisher that worked to oust Torvalds in 2018 published "Nvidia Responds to F-Bomb From Linus Torvalds"; unlike "Linux founder Linus Torvalds delivers a smackdown like no other"...

A year later, in 2013, Torvalds confronted a troll from Intel. He argued: "The fact is, people need to know what my position on things are. And I can't just say "please don't do that", because people won't listen. I say "On the internet, nobody can hear you being subtle", and I mean it."

He also said: "The thing is, the "victim card" is exactly about trying to enforce your particular expectations on others, and trying to do so in a very particular way. It's the old "think of the children" argument. And it's bogus. Calling things "professional" is just more of the same - trying to enforce some kind of convention on others by trying to claim that it's the only acceptable way."

The Register (close to Microsoft since that old Microsoft partnership) published "Dear Linus, STOP SHOUTING and play nice - says Linux kernel dev" and there were many articles to that effect back then (we too wrote about it). The original from the troll was entitled "No more verbal abuse" and it's now offline, much like the person (nobody hears about this troll anymore; technical career over).

"The Internet rots very quickly."The Register published 3 years later (in 2016) "Linus Torvalds in sweary rant about punctuation in kernel comments" -- the typical attempt to portray Torvalds as rude and unruly. A year earlier the publisher that worked to oust Torvalds in 2018 (together with the above troll) published "Linus Torvalds on why he isn’t nice: “I don’t care about you”" (Garrett working with the troll, using the Microsoft-funded Ars Technica to quote Torvalds out of context).

In 2018 the Microsoft-manned BBC published "Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'" and the media where he lives published "Linux creator Linus Torvalds 'truly sorry' for online behavior, plans to take time off". The message contained herein ("Linus Torvalds: Linux 4.19-rc4 released, an apology, and a maintainership note") seems to include a sort of forced "apology"...

"The big smear campaign was spearheaded by an IBM-owned (partly) and Microsoft-funded publisher, which managed to 'oust' Torvalds -- at least temporarily -- and then publicly bragged about it."Even back then you could already sense someone else was controlling him and his words...

The big smear campaign was spearheaded by an IBM-owned (partly) and Microsoft-funded publisher, which managed to 'oust' Torvalds -- at least temporarily -- and then publicly bragged about it. It wasn't an act of journalism but shareholder 'activism'. See "After Years of Abusive E-mails, the Creator of Linux Steps Aside".

Torvalds was never a big fan of how the Internet treated him and cherry-picked his words; see "Linus Torvalds calls social media a disease" (site now offline).

"The employer of Torvalds is now full of Microsoft people (still receiving their entire salary from Microsoft) and the site called Linux.com is composed by Microsoft employees, promoting proprietary software of Microsoft."The provocations and trolling go a long way back, but most press coverage about it is nowhere to be found anymore. As our reader put it, "remember this troll?" See "Is Torvalds really the father of Linux?" from CNET, now owned by the same company as ZDNet, a totally shameless Microsoft propaganda site.

So here we are, almost 30 years after Linux was released (with a GPL badge). The employer of Torvalds is now full of Microsoft people (still receiving their entire salary from Microsoft) and the site called Linux.com is composed by Microsoft employees, promoting proprietary software of Microsoft. It's pro-monopoly; Microsoft's monopoly. As recently as 2-3 hours ago. But no, no... there's definitely no coup. It's just an illusion... nothing to see here, move along. Microsoft isn't leveraging cult-like tactics; the only "cult" is "overzealous" people who oppose Microsoft. ⬆