Bonum Certa Men Certa

OSI Taken Over (Even More Than Before) by Microsoft, Whereas FSF Removes Troublemakers

Video download link | md5sum 81464650c130041e9d942408553f3cee Promising Changes in FSF Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The Open Source Initiative isn't what it's called; it's becoming more and more like a front group of proprietary software, offering sinister technology giants a bunch of openwashing services; contrary to that, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) fought to regain its identity and this week we saw evidence of that

THE video above concerns the appointment of Zoë Kooyman, which we mentioned two days ago. Since doing that video, based on this announcement, Kooyman herself wrote this statement, shown above in the video.



Microsoft and FSFSome people have been asking what it means to the FSF (and to GNU), so I wanted to respond in the form of a video ("No Derivative" so people cannot distort what I actually said). Kooyman was in fact selected (promoted) months ago.

It has meanwhile been advertised by the new chief of the OSI that, following his admission that half of the OSI's budget goes to Microsoft, there's now even more of Microsoft inside the management and steering team. "He is Director of Developer Policy and Counsel for" Microsoft. Now he's also a Director at the OSI. To quote: "Joining the board as a Director is Justin Colannino, who was appointed by the board in January. Justin joins us with a decade of experience representing clients at the intersection of free and open source software communities and for-profit enterprises. He is Director of Developer Policy and Counsel for GitHub where he advocates for developers' ability to innovate, collaborate, and have equal opportunity. Justin also serves as Senior Corporate Counsel, Open Source and Standards for Microsoft where he is part of a small team that oversees legal processes to enable open source engagement at massive scale, as well as maintaining an active pro-bono practice for free and open source software communities."

Microsoft and OSIWhen it comes to advocacy, the OSI has been dead for years. No wonder many have left. Drew DeVault thinks he can change OSI for the better, but the OSI is already thoroughly infiltrated and it'll resist any meaningful change. The board now has a Director who is clearly hostile; those are people who are attacking Open Source and Software Freedom (GitHub is an attack on both; it is also an attack on communities and on Git itself (EEE)).

The OSI isn't merely irrelevant. It's just dead. Or in the words of an associate, "OSI is more than dead, it is malignant." Don't waste even a single dollar on it. Microsoft already subsidises this front group, just like it does the Linux Foundation, which openly attacks Linux and even advocates/promotes the competition of Linux. Sure, it calls itself the "Linux Foundation", but that doesn't mean it really cares about Linux (look who runs it!) and similarly the Open Source Initiative is happy to promote Microsoft's proprietary software at the expense of Open Source.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
 
Links 23/11/2024: "Real World" Cracked and UK Online Safety Act is Law
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: Celebrating Proprietary Bluesky (False Choice, Same Issues) and Software Patents Squashed
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 22, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 22, 2024
Gemini Links 23/11/2024: 150 Day Streak in Duolingo and ICBMs
Links for the day
Links 22/11/2024: Dynamic Pricing Practice and Monopoly Abuses
Links for the day
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024
Gemini Links 21/11/2024: Alphabetising 400 Books and Giving the Internet up
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: TikTok Fighting Bans, Bluesky Failing Users
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: SpaceX Repeatedly Failing (Taxpayers Fund Failure), Russian Disinformation Spreading
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Earned Two More Honorary Doctorates Last Month
Two more doctorate degrees
KillerStartups.com is an LLM Spam Site That Sometimes Covers 'Linux' (Spams the Term)
It only serves to distract from real articles
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 20, 2024