Bonum Certa Men Certa

Raspberry Pied in the Face -- Part V: Raspberry Bye? The Lost of Trust is Pervasive and the (Un)Official Response Unhelpful

Video download link



Summary: The perception that the Raspberry Pi is compromised (by Microsoft) is hurting all the momentum (and reputation) it has built for nearly a decade; we heard from developers close to these affairs

THE media coverage about the blunder has entered its second week (we broke the story more than a week ago) and this morning we found several more articles about it, never mind comments and social control media. The Foundation hoped that the anger would die out just because queries from the community and from customers were being censored. This is a case of bad judgment on top of bad judgment.



Remember that the Foundation works with various GNU/Linux developers and projects, including Debian Developers. One of them wrote about Pi images only hours ago. We too spoke to some developers. They lost faith or lost truth in the Foundation. Much damage has been done by working with Microsoft behind their backs. "Microsoft repos installed on all Raspberry Pis," one developer told us, asking: "have you seen the news about the Raspberry Pi Foundation forcibly and without notice installing a Microsoft repo in all machines running Raspberry Pi OS? Here's more context. This implies that at every update you are pinging Microsoft's servers, and as the repo is PGP-signed by the developers, Raspberry Pi OS users can unadvertedly install Microsoft software, pull it as a dependency or even having it installed in an update. This is a tremendous breach of trust for millions of users and an attack by Microsoft, IMO. Also, in a typical corporate dictatorship style, the critics in the Raspberry Pi forums were quickly censored for "Microsoft bashing"."

"Remember that the Foundation works with various GNU/Linux developers and projects, including Debian developers.""I know about this," I responded, "because we (Techrights) are the ones who actually broke the story." (We are also being credited at the site raspbian.io ... in the front page)

It is clear, based on what we've heard, that many developers are pissed off, even partners. They feel betrayed. The breach of trust impacts not only customers (Pi users).

One reader told us that it's "awesome that TLG [The Linux Gamer] showed Techrights, about that Pi OS maintainer snooping in the Microsoft repo/gpg key... reading a thread about it also, the maintainers said that won't change, and it's to make sure life is easy for those wanting to install vscode... sounds like money talking, to me! Wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft aren't a major sponsor (similar to Google/Firefox), or a total buyout announcement on the cards."

They already tried, several years ago in fact, to put Windows on the Pi (we wrote several articles about it back then and again several days ago... in prior parts of this series).

"It is clear, based on what we've heard, that many developers are pissed off, even partners."It's a travesty because the Foundation betrayed users, customers, media, developers, strategic partners, and even hardware suppliers (there's a whole chain of extensions for Pi devices). It would likely be the end of the Pi 'monopoly' as they have many competitors now (some with the word "Pi" in their name). People would vote with their wallets and we heard of some who started exploring alternatives. Was it worth it for the Foundation? Microsoft has ideas...

We've also just received some truly disturbing E-mails related to this. It seems like this series will end up being a lot longer than we first anticipated, so we might split it apart into other (separate) series.

"Trojan horses are not really gifts, even if they come with ribbons and a greeting card that says "Microsoft loves Linux"...""And with the way this has been mishandled by both Microsoft and RPF," an associate told us a few days ago, "there is even less reason to trust Microsoft. A question with a very interesting answer would be, why the offending software was not added to the official repositories and in the right category? The category "main" is not the right one."

Some Debian Developers are really unhappy about this. It damages the reputation of their project/s as well. But Microsoft is of course just trying to interfere with GNU/Linux from the inside (pacifying or demonising opponents by claiming that it "loves" them) -- same thing it always did to undermine and kill rivals. Latest target? It seems to be this. Not the first time, either. Trojan horses are not really gifts, even if they come with ribbons and a greeting card that says "Microsoft loves Linux"... (that greeting card is just a gate opener)

Recent Techrights' Posts

Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October