08.14.20
Summer of Code or Nuclear Winter?
Microsoft claims to maintain a “vault”; Google claims to ‘support’ Free software, but both are mostly PR ploys that let monopolies ‘boss’ or ‘police’ their alternatives
Summary: 2 ‘seasons’ or 2 ‘flavours’ of PR charades; can we seriously trust companies that fight against freedom to somehow guard Free software and ‘manage’ communities that are stewards of key Free software projects?
THE company known as “GOOGLE” (GOOG) has long used GNU/Linux. It has been publicly traded for a couple of decades, about half as long as “MICROSOFT” (MSFT). The companies are inherently different because of their primary business models, so comparing them as though they’re the same would lead us astray. We won’t compare apples to oranges, only note that both merit their place in “GAFAM” (or “GIAFAM” as figosdev puts it, insisting IBM belongs there too).
“One thing that Microsoft and Google do have in common is disdain for freedom.”Google’s Summer of Code (SoC or more commonly GSoC) has long bothered me for a number or reasons. On the one hand, it encourages people to join Free software communities and improve existing stuff; the downside is, as we found out in recent years, Google leverages GSoC to muzzle or ‘cancel’ Google critics (former Debian Project Leader Ian Jackson and Daniel Pocock from Debian complained about it). A side note is that many GSoC students end up outsourcing their work to Microsoft (GitHub), but Google or GSoC program managers cannot be held responsible/accountable for it as it’s typically students who make this choice, however careless if not reckless a choice.
Google is not a friend of copyleft, but it pays key people to pretend that it is (as does Microsoft, a serial GPL violator that goes out of its way to spread FUD against the GPL all around the Web, sometimes directly and sometimes by proxy, e.g. 'former' staff).
One thing that Microsoft and Google do have in common is disdain for freedom. Sure, Android uses Linux (kernel alone), but what is it used for anyway? Spying on people everywhere they go?
“It’s a bit amusing that Microsoft brags about a so-called ‘Arctic vault’ while helping Donald Trump pave the way to nuclear confrontation with China.”For ethics and morality look neither at Google nor Microsoft (or the rest of “GAFAM”). The founders of Google are long gone — one of them reportedly tried to keep Google in compliance with the “don’t be evil” mantra — and they don’t care about freedom. To them, Free software is just “free stuff” (to exploit or leverage to build proprietary, user-subjugating stuff).
It’s a bit amusing that Microsoft brags about a so-called ‘Arctic vault’ while helping Donald Trump pave the way to nuclear confrontation with China. Good luck with that PR charade. █
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