Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Public Relations 'Industry' Has Co-opted the Media to Attack Software Freedom

Video download link



Summary: Free/libre software is under attack, but those who attack it hide behind proxies and PR firms (sometimes they even send an expedition of employees to bury/censor links to Techrights); we need to talk about IBM, which has begun doing that along with more familiar villains such as Microsoft

THIS morning we (re)published a good article from Alex Oliva, the person who left IBM as soon as Red Hat was taken over by IBM. We commend and applaud him for that. He also had some stories to tell after he had left. IBM doesn't care about freedom and sometimes IBM actively fights against it, just like Microsoft did for its entire existence, unlike Red Hat.



Red Hat at this moment of time is just a name or a brand; the same is true for Fedora, which is "its master's voice" (IBM being the master -- a term that was hardly deemed problematic before IBM arrived at the scene).

"IBM doesn't care about freedom and sometimes IBM actively fights against it, just like Microsoft did for its entire existence, unlike Red Hat."It has meanwhile occurred to me that while recording this video I said that Linux-Libre 5.12 hadn't been released by Alex just yet. As of the time of writing the text (about the video above), it's officially out! Maybe it was even announced while I was recording the video.

In any event, the video shows the sort of biased media we're dealing with and who really owns it, who pays it, and why it defames people whom the sponsors (IBM in this case) are desperate to "cancel" (banish or ostracise from society for no crime at all, unlike IBM's crimes!) and while this video focuses on ZDNet we could just as well mention other publishers, including those deemed responsible for 'ousting' (temporarily) Linus Torvalds at the end of 2018 (there are IBM connections there as well).

Of course I've become a lot more cynical about the media, seeing how Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos were bullying and bribing publishers so as to not report crimes. They also block sites that expose those crimes. Ever wondered why the media never mentions IBM's still-disturbing role in Nazi Germany (anymore)? Follow the money...

Freedom is always under attack. There's "no money" in freedom and there's a lot of money to be made by taking away freedom, replacing it with control.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Apparently Confirmed: IBM Layoffs in Canada Today, Hundreds Affected
Impacting "177 people", says one person, "in Ottawa"
[Video] Dr. Richard Stallman's Keynote Speech in Kerala Finally Uploaded
In non-free format and proprietary YouTube, but perhaps that's better than nothing
 
Microsoft Canonical Continues Its FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) Campaign, Reveals Google Too Sponsored It
They're paid-for lies from a Chinese company that takes GAFAM money to write puff pieces about them
Android Rises Above 76% in Mozambique, Leaving Windows in the Dust
Windows may soon be measured as smaller than Apple's iOS
IBM, Red Hat and Microsoft Probably Also Manipulate Metrics (It Helps Con the Shareholders)
Wall Street's credibility will depend on enforcement of "checks and balances"
Slopwatch: trendhunter.com and Other Pure Junk From "Google News"
The need to vet sources is hardly new; anyone can spew out anything, anywhere. There's a need for vetting.
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Rewatching The X-Files, Slop Concerns, and NOSTR Censorship
Links for the day
Links 28/03/2025: Australia at Risk, EPO Grants Illegal Patents With Illegal Effect
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 27, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 27, 2025
Links 27/03/2025: Obituary to a Shop, Russia Trying to Buy Time
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2025: Slop, Autosuggestions, and Nostr
Links for the day
When Windows Was Dominant (1990s) Browser Monopoly Meant MSIE, But Now Google Android is Dominant and the Web in a 'Webapps' Era Works With (or Is Designed for) Chrome-isms
We've been there before
Slopwatch: BetaNews, LinuxSecurity.com, and the Attack on Web Search Using Fake and Likely Plagiarised Pages
Changing a few words here and there won't change the fact that it's not properly authored
Links 27/03/2025: U.S. Honeybee Deaths Reach Record High, Legal Occupation Next in Line After War on Science
Links for the day
Using Courts for 'Revenge' is Always a Losing Strategy
Trying to cause someone you dislike to spend a lot of money
IBM CFO James Kavanaugh Refers to Firing of Almost 10,000 Americans as "Workforce Rebalancing" (Shifting IBM's Centre of Balance to Low-salary Contracts/Countries)
The scale of IBM layoffs is getting too large to evade WARN Notices
Islands Are Leaving Microsoft Behind, According to statCounter
Android has had a very strong year
EPO Management Fails to Deny That the Office is Discriminating Against Women
Europe's second-largest institution isn't just exceedingly corrupt but also immoral
In Some Countries the Market Share of Vista 11 is Going Down, Not Up
despite being released in 2021
Rumour: Mass Layoffs in IBM Canada Today
Maybe later today some people from Canada will say something firmer and maybe some media will even talk about that
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Gemini Links 27/03/2025: X-Files' "Kill Switch", Orlando, and ASN (Autonomous System Number) 'Hack'
Links for the day
Links 26/03/2025: Healthcare Cuts and Turkey's Own "2025 Project" (Culling Opposition)
Links for the day
LLM Slopfarm: A Site's Last Incarnation Before Throwing in the Towel, Going Offline Permanently
A lot of coverage that claims to be about Finland is chatbot-generated nonsense or poorly-plagiarised work
Microsoft Canonical Pays IDG to Spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)
this seems a tad exploitative and reminds us of the time Novell kept telling companies that using anything other than SUSE was dangerous
Gemini Links 26/03/2025: GTD, Zenshuu, and Geminispace Community
Links for the day
Links 26/03/2025: Media's Failures, Arrests of Journalists, Limitations of End-to-End Encryption
Links for the day
LLM Slop (Lots of It Spewed Out by Microsoft) Versus Linux
Microsoft is a very, very evil company. It doesn't mind destroying the Web if there's a chance it'll make a buck in the process or mess up people's brains (in Microsoft's favour).
Slopfarms (Sites That Only Ever Publish LLM Slop) Are Killing Google News
pair of slopfarms still propped up by Google News
Microsoft's Serial Strangler's Law Firm Has a Long History of Fronting for People Who Do Bad and/or Illegal Things
Whose terrible idea was this?
Novell and Microsoft Apologist/Booster Bruce Byfield Writing About the FSF is a Recipe for Problems
Totally not shoehorning some agenda
Looking Forward to the Fall of UPC and Revocation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement, Which Was Always Illegal and Unconstitutional
We'll try to keep abreast of any progress in this case
Slopwatch: Google News, LinuxSecurity.com, and the General Demise of the Web
many supposed or so-called "news" pages are just spewed out by some chatbots (or tools which help plagiarise original articles without getting caught; detection gets harder)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 25, 2025