Bonum Certa Men Certa

It Feels Like IBM and Canonical Are Intentionally Not Promoting GNU/Linux on Desktops/Laptops (Given Yet Another Golden - Albeit Missed - Opportunity)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 22, 2023

Portrait of a Forest Fire Fighter

One day ago: Red Hat (IBM) 'Principal Product Manager' Nikhil Mungale is Pushing Windows Today in RedHat.com

Two days ago: Canonical Nowadays Shamelessly Behaving Like a Division of Microsoft, Selling Notorious Proprietary Software, Back Doors, and TPM/DRM

LAST week we wrote (here and in the sister site too) about Microsoft leaving Windows Vista 10 users to rot. Or alternatively, ripping them off for security patches at a time of financial perils (worldwide). Should poor people be left with known and actively-exploited 'bug doors'? Is that Microsoft's vision for the world???

"Move to GNU/Linux then," says a rational person. Or even to a BSD...

Who will tell the media about it? Canonical? IBM?

Nope, they're too busy shilling Windows and Microsoft's proprietary 'apps' (spyware), clown computing, and rancid philosophy...

They've moreover helped Microsoft with restricted boot, which further complicates if not technically prohibits putting any GNU/Linux distro on a so-called 'Windows PC' (no such thing; a PC is hardware, Windows is not).

Forest Fire: Forest Burning into the Night

According to news reports [1, 2] (some in Daily Links already), Microsoft's latest decision is an attack on the planet, on the environment too! Don't ask the Linux Foundation to comment on that because this utterly rogue foundation gets paid by Microsoft to greenwash Microsoft. It's deceit and sellout as a "business model" - a model that is of course not sustainable.

One reader of ours argues that Canonical (Ubuntu) and IBM (RHEL) are both too infiltrated by Microsofters to be making hay with this; the reader asserts it is a recurring event as "Microsoft + Intel ratchet down towards hardware level DRM" (TPM and DRM).

The reader asked me: "Would the UK Green Party be interested in reducing 240M kg (~ 240Gg?) of e-waste next year?"

"It' something they should at least debate, and pick a stance one side or the other."

Well, German politicians are in bed with Microsoft (even bagging bribes), so don't expect such debates in the EU or central European nations.

Working to Put Out a Forest Fire

Suffice to say, Microsoft stands to gain the most from sabotage of Free software and it is worth noting that DRM violates the Doctrine of First Sale. That can be revisited some time soon. What Microsoft, Intel and useless brands like "Ubuntu" are doing this month is an attack on the universal consumer's rights, never mind software freedom.

One needn't even be a software freedom 'fanatic' to care about this. This is an attack on all computer users, irrespective of their views on software freedom.

One brand we've not mentioned here is SUSE (of Novell infamy). Well, "open" SUSE wants to outsource control over SUSE PCs to Microsoft... as per their latest (very lengthy) strategy document. Suffice to say, this is a really bad move, wrongly marketed as "security". This is what happens when the media bags money from Microsoft, politicians bag money from Microsoft, companies like Novell/IBM/Canonical sign deals with Microsoft, and Microsofters get hired and then promoted to management positions, where they serve Microsoft while receiving a salary from SUSE/IBM/Canonical.

GNU/Linux needs a stronger and much bigger community element. Microsoft keeps 'buying' corporations like IBM/Canonical, or at least units of theirs which were meant to compete with Windows. Infiltration by Microsofters is an aspect we've long covered here and we have provided many concrete examples.

Microsoft hates Linux. Microsoft need only pretend otherwise to infiltrate the opposition and then derail it from the inside. Microsoft has done this for decades already. Apparently just talking about it would be a "CoC violation" nowadays.

“Linux infestations are being uncovered in many of our large accounts as part of the escalation engagements.”

--Microsoft Confidential

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
 
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
eight-part series
Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
We Shall See...
My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
Going Offline
There was life before the Net
The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
It is basically a fake address on the face of it
There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025