Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft and Novell Grab Open Source Soapboxes

Microsoft's influence inside ZDNet was mentioned just a few days ago and so was the apparent confession from a Microsoft employee about the company urging its workers to post comments there. We have already seen examples of this for ourselves, e.g. promotion of Silverlight by a paid Microsoft "evangelist" in ZDNET.



“A restrained attitude towards Microsoft critique would be a gross misrepresentation of the blog’s target audience and population.”Considering the close new relationship between Microsoft and Novell, it's not too surprising that ZDNet's addition of a "community" blog will be run by a Novell employee, not -- let us say -- someone from Red Hat or Mandriva. They give Zonker (of Novell) a prominent blog spot despite the fact that he is already active in several other publications like Linux Magazine and OStatic, in addition to an OpenSUSE blog.

A restrained attitude towards Microsoft critique would be a gross misrepresentation of the blog's target audience and population. Novell is not a "community" player; it's a "community" betrayer. This was mentioned the other day, so for Novell to run a ZDNet's "community" blog is like for a Windows user, Dana Blankenhorn, to run an "open source" blog, writing about software he does not seem to use.

Elsewhere on the Web (no direct link), The Ramji Invader [1, 2, 3, 4] is trying to pull FOSS developers over to Microsoft Windows Vista/Longhorn (WS08). It's the same old Microsoft PR routine -- pretending to be a friend of the very same projects that they plan to sue or just threaten to sue. Rather than link to the original, we might as well highlight this critical response to it.

They take our FOSS nicely ported onto their protocols and platforms and create closed versions where this is feasible: augment their integrated core with features or buy licenses from the projects.

Microsoft wants to get the FOSS world to be towards Microsoft what the prior proprietary world was. In other words, have FOSS apps get close to and depend on Windows instead of on Linux or on any other low level platform. "Where's the place to be and to find cool apps? Why on Vista of course!"

But these companies and projects cannot win. Microsoft gets easy loueasy code to study, take, or buy rights to. We get no transparency from them. There is nothing but a Rat Race* on Windows. Microsoft needs rats to power their monopolies. They don't have time to keep up with Linux FOSS. Rather they want you to support them so they have time to integrate and to add features not being developed for Linux.


The other comments sing a similar tune. With people like Zonker & Ramji in the press, what is the impression one might get? That "open source" is a collusion involving two proprietary software companies that engage in software patent deals? It bodes badly for the movement and it needs to be prevented.

A bad penguin -- Novell

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October