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

[Meme] One Person, Singular Pronoun
Abusing people into abusing the English language is very poor diplomacy
New Article From Richard Stallman Explains Why He Says He and She for Unknown Person (Not 'They')
"Nowadays I use gender-neutral singular pronouns for a person whose gender I don't know"
 
Links 30/11/2023: Belated End of Henry Kissinger and 'Popular Science' Shuts Online Magazine
Links for the day
Site Priorities and Upcoming Improvements
pages are served very fast
Ending Software Patents in Recent Years (Software Freedom Fighters MIA)
not a resolved issue
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 29, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 30/11/2023: Rushing Patent Cases With Shorter Trial Scheme (STS), Sanctions Not Working
Links for the day
Links 30/11/2023: Google Purging Many Accounts and Content (to Save Money), Finland Fully Seals Border With Russia
Links for the day
Lookout, It's Outlook
Outlook is all about the sharing!
Updated A Month Ago: Richard Stallman on Software Patents as Obstacles to Software Development
very recent update
The 'Smart' Attack on Power Grid Neutrality (or the Wet Dream of Tiered Pricing for Power, Essentially Punishing Poorer Households for Exercising Freedom Like Richer Households)
The dishonest marketing people tell us the age of disservice and discrimination is all about "smart" and "Hey Hi" (AI) as in algorithms akin to traffic-shaping in the context of network neutrality
Links 29/11/2023: VMware Layoffs and Too Many Microsofters Going Inside Google
Links for the day
Is BlueMail a Client of ZDNet Now?
Let's examine what BlueMail does to promote itself
Just What LINUX.COM Needed After Over a Month of Inactivity: SPAM SPAM SPAM (Linux Brand as a Spamfarm)
It's not even about Linux
Microsoft “Discriminated Based on Sexuality”
Relevant, as they love lecturing us on "diversity" and "inclusion"...
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 28, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Media Cannot Tell the Difference Between Microsoft and Iran
a platform with back doors
Links 28/11/2023: New Zealand's Big Tobacco Pivot and Google Mass-Deleting Accounts
Links for the day
Justice is Still the Main Goal
The skulduggery seems to implicate not only Microsoft
OpenBSD Says That Even on Linux, Wayland Still Has a Number of Rough Edges (But IBM Wants to Make X Extinct)
IBM tries to impose unready software on users
[Teaser] Next Week's Part in the Series About Anti-Free Software Militants
an effort to 'cancel' us and spy on us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Permacomputing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constraints Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 27, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, November 27, 2023
When Microsoft Blocks Your Access to Free Software
"Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." [Chicago Sun-Times]
Techrights Statement on 'Cancel Culture' Going Out of Control
relates to a discussion we had in IRC last night
Stuff People Write About Linux
revisionist pieces
Links 28/11/2023: Rosy Crow 1.4.3 and Google Drive Data Loss
Links for the day