Video download link | md5sum b79ef3197b064e2dde4651780bb83dfc Stop Calling Everything Linux Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: While the media keeps mentioning "Linux" in very negative contexts, e.g. "botnets", "ransomware" "malware", and "back doors" (projection tactics and misnomers), we should remember who sponsors such media and what it might be trying to deflect or distract from. The real back doors are in Windows (we have leaked documents and more concrete evidence that prove this), the malware is Windows itself, and botnets are typically Windows PCs, which is also where ransomware thrives. "Microsoft pretending to be a victim is a separate topic," an associate says, referring to Microsoft spin on culpability (it should be banned from procurement for the latest mishandling of -- or total disregard for -- actively-exploited flaws). There's also Microsoft "pretending to be a security authority," an associate notes, and "the pretending to be a security authority is the greater harm and should be addressed first" (related to bad engineering).

THE past week or so has been typical in the sense that the Microsoft-sponsored (e.g. by advertising) and/or Microsoft-edited (e.g. operatives others than editors) "news" sites tried to associate the brand "Linux" with security issues, even when Linux had nothing to do with that.

At the same time, provided one looked closely enough and examined measurable evidence, the real issue was Microsoft. Microsoft is ignoring and refusing to patch actively-exploited and highly critical flaws for months; one might joke that Microsoft isn't patching because that leaves many PCs in Russia vulnerable (remote access by Western intelligence agencies). Microsoft keeps blaming the attackers and then -- sometimes -- even trying to blame the victims! Those who do not even get patches!

Microsoft even pretends to be the victim here! It pretends to be the security expert (with sponsored narratives in the media) and just before the victims have their systems compromised Microsoft is trying to sell "security" to them, for an additional price; at the end of the week it even resorted to "hate speech" -- trying to blame "China" (for Microsoft having holes that it is not patching). This is a bunch of xenophobic tactics.

The video above mostly focuses and shows how "the media" treats this thing called "Linux" (but isn't in fact Linux). Such reckless 'journalism' discredits the media; it looks like it's running Public Relations campaigns for Microsoft instead of reporting facts.

Of course, as usual, Microsoft is never blaming itself for bad engineering and neglect that follows (when there are exploits in the wild and actively-exploited holes as we saw last year when Exchange had been cracked for months; Microsoft knew and did nothing). Now we see the same in Windows, Office, and Azure. Microsoft is trying to brush the holes under a rug while systems are targeted and compromised, impacting not just the companies which operate these systems but anybody whose data is on such systems (possibly billions of humans all combined). As Snowden's NSA leaks shows, a lot of this neglect is deliberate.

So why does the media obsess about "Linux" all the time? Why does it bark up the wrong tree, using the wrong brands and intentional misattribution? Over the course of the month we've seen a sharp increase in that. Here are dozens of examples from the past week (more examples can be found here and here). Those are discussed in the video above. ⬆

When all else fails, blame "Linux"