Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is OSBC's First Sponsor Ever (Updated)

Maybe a coincidence, but here is what we know

Having just gone through responses at Digg.com, I found that Matt Asay responded to a submission of mine. He said:

What is ironic, Roy, is that Microsoft was the first sponsor ever for OSBC...and yet it hasn't capitulated after five years and 7-8 events. Maybe it *is* possible to talk without being swayed. It is for me, anyway.


So, Microsoft was the first to offer money to make this open source conference possible. That would seem to indicate that Microsoft wanted OSBC created. In relation to the "business" slant of this conference (that's the "B" in OSBC), the following publication, once cited only by Asay, comes to mind again. At the time, we suspected it could have been sponsored by Microsoft. It had fingerprints on it.

“That would seem to indicate that Microsoft wanted OSBC created.”The thesis speaks about commercialisation of open source software, which is exactly what Microsoft wants because it's easier to monetise and exploit (e.g. with software patents), all at the expense of old-school Free software. I am also reminded of Asay's anti-Stallman blog posts, not to mention the many slurs against Linux on the desktop and the GPLv3. I've been reading Matt's blogs quite exhaustively for about two years, so I feel eligible to comment on this.

I also found the following bit of text among Andy Updegrove's links just a couple of hours ago:

Microsoft's Brad Smith Tries To Make Nice With Open Source Community

Andrew Updegrove, a partner in the law firm Gesmer Updegrove LLC, was a member of a panel following Smith's talk and asked, "Wouldn't it be a great step to assert that no patents will be used against Linux?" Smith responded, "That would be saying, 'Hey, if you create the Linux kernel, you get a free pass.' ."


Unsurprisingly, the bit above was selectively quoted by Andy. Who wouldn't find it a tad shocking?

We last wrote about OSBC yesterday afternoon. You are strongly encouraged to read this post if you haven't.

Earlier this night I received another E-mail asking about OSBC. Specifically, it was an inquiry in relation to that horrific talk from Brad Smith. I later asked: "I suppose you know who invited Brad."

The response was interesting:




Who? Matt Asay?

Is this guy pro-Microsoft?

I have the impression he is responsible for the Microsoft hijack of the open source term, and the recent MS-OSS licenses.

Maybe he is bought already.

[...]

When it comes to patents, Microsoft might be in the top3 worse companies.




This response comes from a European expert on software patents. It gets very difficult to trust people these days. As a note of clarification, I do not believe Asay wishes to help Microsoft but I maintain my position that he is being used, probably without even realising it.

He is promised fame and glory, but he may be manipulated (a condition upon which this reward depends). And ironically enough, this reminds me of a particular Vice President from Novell, who once pursued a job at Microsoft. Instead, shortly after the job interview, he created a competitor to KDE, thus leading to fragmentation and duplication of effort.

Update: I have just come across this writeup from Linux expert/journalist Sean Michael Kerner. It seems to concur in places. Have a look:

Microsoft's Open Source Business Conference

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

KillerStartups.com is an LLM Spam Site That Sometimes Covers 'Linux' (Spams the Term)
It only serves to distract from real articles
Did Microsoft 'Buy' Red Hat Without Paying for It? Does It Tell Canonical What to Do Now?
This is what Linus Torvalds once dubbed a "dick-sucking" competition or contest (alluding to Red Hat's promotion of UEFI 'secure boot')
 
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
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: Game Recommendations, Schizo Language
Links for the day
Growing Older and Signs of the Site's Maturity
The EPO material remains our top priority
Links 20/11/2024: Politics, Toolkits, and Gemini Journals
Links for the day
Links 20/11/2024: 'The Open Source Definition' and Further Escalations in Ukraine/Russia Battles
Links for the day
[Meme] Many Old Gemini Capsules Go Offline, But So Do Entire Web Sites
Problems cannot be addressed and resolved if merely talking about these problems isn't allowed
Links 20/11/2024: Standing Desks, Broken Cables, and Journalists Attacked Some More
Links for the day
Links 20/11/2024: Debt Issues and Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban
Links for the day
Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar), Magna Carta and Debian Freedoms: RIP
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar) & Debian: from Frans Pop to Euthanasia
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
This Article About "AI-Powered" is Itself LLM-Generated Junk
Trying to meet quotas by making fake 'articles' that are - in effect - based on plagiarism?
Recognizing invalid legal judgments: rogue Debianists sought to deceive one of Europe's most neglected regions, Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Google-funded group distributed invalid Swiss judgment to deceive Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: BeagleBone Black and Suicide Rates in Switzerland
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Links 19/11/2024: War on Cables?
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/11/2024: Private Journals Online and Spirituality
Links for the day
Drew's Development Mailing Lists and Patches to 'Refine' His Attack Pieces Against the FSF's Founder
Way to bury oneself in one's own grave...
The Free Software Foundation is Looking to Raise Nearly Half a Million Dollars by Year's End
And it really needs the money, unlike the EFF which sits on a humongous pile of oligarchs' and GAFAM cash
What IBMers Say About IBM Causing IBMers to Resign (by Making Life Hard/Impossible) and Why Red Hat Was a Waste of Money to Buy
partnering with GAFAM
In Some Countries, Desktop/Laptop Usage Has Fallen to the Point Where Microsoft and Windows (and Intel) Barely Matter Anymore
Microsoft is the next Intel basically
[Meme] The Web Wasn't Always Proprietary Computer Programs Disguised as 'Web Pages'
The Web is getting worse each year
Re-de-centralisation Should Be Our Goal
Put the users in charge, not governments and corporations in charge of users
Gemini Links 19/11/2024: Rain Music, ClockworkPi DevTerm, and More
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 18, 2024