Microsoft's Entryism as Mortal Risk/Danger: The Example of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Don't be misled or distracted by superficialities (serving to distract from the corporate goals)
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) - a new series we first introduced yesterday - highlights the way in which taking bribes (and later moles) from Microsoft will always fail the recipient. Such a failure is the goal; it's a case of "assimilate or die" or "serve us by backstabbing everyone, then die".
I have my share of stories about what happens when Microsofters infiltrate your employer. I told one such story 19 years ago as a Ph.D. student. There's no such thing as "too little" Microsoft influence and the only solution is to prevent it from actually starting, i.e. do not ever hire Microsofters (or they might bring in other Microsofters later, e.g. to support the Microsoft junk they shoehorn into their new "host" or to grow the "Microsoft fan club").
"Also," one reader told me, "my last contract I had a coworker who was previously from MSFT. Imagine the underhanded, whispers behind my back to the point I was fixing his POS document and management asked me if I even opened it. Such a POS... not TOC, no page numbers, used WKHTML to output a PDF and codesnippets split across pages. I never want to work with a former MSFT employee ever again in life."
"It would help society greatly if Microsofters had a lifetime ban on working in either IT or politics," one other person said, adding that we should "hold their feet to the fire and make them regret Microsoft's entryism enough that they begin to expel the Microsofters" (if it's not too late).
OSI is one good and timely example of sellout destroying an institution meant to antagonise Microsoft (and/or Microsoft's agenda). Simon Phipps and the people he wrongly trusted are responsible for it. They failed to foresee what would come next, even if many - including ourselves - warned this would happen.
Microsoft is not some ordinary company, not even by GAFAM standards. Microsoft is a cult. █