Bonum Certa Men Certa

FOSDEM 2009: Sponsored by Microsoft Partner

Movell and Nicrosoft



Novell is sponsoring this year's FOSDEM. It did so last year as well, so the whole event was pimping Novell and Ballnux, which is bad. The Indian protesters have already explained why. Pascal Bleser from the OpenSUSE board is among the organisers, so it could be tricky to change things.



That said, Richard Stallman supported the action in India and F/OSS events where Microsoft's agenda is pushed he also believes to be better off avoided.

Stuart Cohen, who used to run OSDL, could teach a lesson here [1, 2]. The demise of OSDL is sometimes attributed to his stance on Microsoft/Novell, which he continues to defend even yesterday in the Wintel press.

I was one of the few open-source CEOs to support that deal while at Open Source Development Labs, and I even joined Ballmer and Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian on stage that day. The deal made sense then and still does. It lets Novell provide important software that complements the core, or kernel, of the operating system and enables interoperability between Windows and Linux.


The Linux Foundation is not much better off because of its incestuous relationship with its sponsor, Novell [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Some people simply refuse to learn from history.

“At Microsoft I learned the truth about ActiveX and COM and I got very interested in it inmediately [sic].” --Miguel de Icaza, Novell

"Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand." --Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO

"[The partnership with Microsoft is] going very well insofar as we originally agreed to co-operate on three distinct projects and now we’re working on nine projects and there’s a good list of 19 other projects that we plan to co-operate on." -- Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO

“People that use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us.” --Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

"We believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability." --Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

“If the Microsoft corporation, whether it wishes to be part of this ecology in a genuine and sincere sense or not, if it succeeds in getting one distribution to pay royalties for the distribution of free software, other distributions will do so. They will have to. That will then succeed in marching the commercial sector away from the non-commercial sector, and Microsoft then will be able to use its patents to sue to block the development of software in the non-commercial sector without the fear of suing its own customers, which is the force that now constrains them from misbehavior with their patent portfolio.” --Eben Moglen, SFLC

"Pearly Gates and Em-Ballmer... One promises you heaven and the other prepares you for the grave." --Ray Noorda, Novell

"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it." --Be's CEO Jean-Louis Gassée

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

BetaNews is Now Officially a Spamfarm With Phantom Authors and Fake Text (SPAM and Linkspam Made With LLM Slop)
That's it, the site is virtually dead now (maybe that was the plan all along)
Hazem Abbas of medevel is Ruining His Site With LLM Slop
Some of his articles are original, but now everything is suspect
Free Software Foundation: Anchoring the FSF in its values
Original by Free Software Foundation
GNU/Linux Surges to All-Time Highs in Greenland, Windows Sinks to All-Time Lows
a lot of GNU/Linux gets detected there lately
Microsoft in Trouble as Azure Breaks and Only Days After Promising Investment in "Datacentres" Construction of Actual Datacentres Paused (Expect More Azure Layoffs Very Soon)
No wonder many people who got trapped inside Azure quit Azure, which keeps bleeding (losses and layoffs)
 
Slopwatch: Brittany Day and Brian Fagioli Are Still at It, Googlebombing "Linux" With LLM Slop (Taking Away Traffic From the Articles They're Plagiarising)
Some more sites that used to cover GNU/Linux have turned into slopfarms
Links 12/01/2025: More Sanctions Against Russia, SCOTUS Signals Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban Will Stay
Links for the day
[Meme] A Jihad Against Servers the User Controls
We need to strive for and work towards greater control by users over "their" servers
Microsoft Azure-Only Bugs in "Linux" Can "Compromise the System."
From ubuntu.com and linux.org a few days ago
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 11, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, January 11, 2025
Gemini Links 12/01/2025: DHL Express Does Not Deliver, Oddmuse Update
Links for the day
Links 11/01/2025: Social Control Media Facing Sanctions, Carter Respected at Funeral
Links for the day
If TikTok (China) Has the Rights of American Persons, Then ByteDance Can be Sentenced to Death
TikTok - like Julian Assange - does not enjoy any protections of the First Amendment and since it's not a person it would lack these protections as an American company, too
After a Year of Layoffs in Microsoft Nigeria (and Microsoft in Africa at Large) Windows Falls to New Lows and Bing Falls to 0.46% "Market Share"
Of course Microsoft gave bribes in Nigeria to suppress GNU/Linux adoption
An Important Lesson About Patents and Patent Maximalism (They Drive People and Companies Away)
This previously happened in Texas, where companies perceived their presence (in any form) to be a liability as patent trolls could drag them to friendly courts and win "damages"
When It Comes to Fentanylware (TikTok), a Digital Weapon of a Hostile Entity, Common Dreams is Jumping the Shark Again (Years After It Ran Out of Steam or Money)
Or maybe it likes the agenda promoted (curated) by Fentanylware (TikTok) and its parent company, Bytedance or Chinese Community Party (CPP)
[Meme] Real and Fake (or "several influential "open source" organizations [which] have come to be dominated by large companies")
The Free Software Foundation has not sold out
Microsoft's "Donald Trump First" Doctrine
national deficits growing
Gemini Links 11/01/2025: Wildfire, Militia and the Mole, IRC vs Social Control Media
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 10, 2025
Links 10/01/2025: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Shrinking, "Not every user owns an iPhone"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/01/2025: Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Linux Desktop Setup
Links for the day
[Meme] Donald Trump Will Pay Microsoft Back
bribery administration is 10 days away
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Tripling in Share in 3 Years in Iran
ChromeOS adoption is low, but then again, nobody buys a Chromebooks with the expectation of better privacy
Using a Popular Ponzi Scheme to Sell Expensive Hardware Mislabelled as "Hey Hi" (AI)
Selling shovels in an age of "gold rush"
Search Engine-Optimised (SEO) Googlebombs Target "Linux", "Ubuntu", and "RISC-V", Still Composed by Bots
the way to defeat LLM slop (trash) is to call out serial sloppers or "repeat plagiarists"
Guardian Digital, Inc (linuxsecurity.com) is Again Spamming or Googlebombing "Linux" and "Security" Using LLM Slop
Guardian Digital is basically a dodgy company. Don't trust Guardian Digital with your security.
Unix Men (or UnixMen) Has Turned Into LLM Slop With Embedded Linkspam, Piggybacking "Linux" for SEO
Welcome to 2025 and the "new" Web
Computers as a Heat Source
suppose you have over a dozen activated monitors in a room or two
Social Control Media and 'Linux' Foundation Accelerate the Death of the Web
Social Control Media is basically a dying business
Links 10/01/2025: Disinformation Sold as "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" and as "Social Media" Now Facing Growing Scrutiny
Links for the day
Linux Foundation Increasingly Reliant on Paid Press Releases, Paid-for Stenography, and Even LLM Slop (Fake 'Articles')
This LLM slop is a big problem both for Linux and for Google
Links 10/01/2025: Scam Altman’s Younger Sister Files Lawsuit Claiming He Sexually Abused Her, Apple Faces Embargo
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/01/2025: Internet Archive Gopher Search Interface and Falling "in Love With the Small Web"
Links for the day
Starting 2025 on a Strong Note
we ought to find more time to produce our own stories
Entire News Sites Have Become Just the Output of Bots (or Chatbots Disguised as "Authors")
the Web is screwed
Colombian Trends Help Explain Why Microsoft Rushes to Start the Year With Mass Layoffs (Before Some Staff is Even Back to Work!)
No wonder there are mass layoffs (first of GAFAM) as early as week 1 of 2025
LLM Slop and Bot-Generated Marketing for the Linux Foundation and Its Openwashing
Of course it's chaff
Microsoft Gives Money to Trump, Poor or Even Sluggish Adoption of "Hey Hi" (AI) Reported Amid Mass Layoffs
Microsoft now uses its media moles to downplay layoffs and bribes
More IBM Layoffs (2025)
IBM is being scattered away, yet the media barely covers it. It'll just happen "silently" over time.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, January 09, 2025