Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Veiled Attack on Google Tries to Incite GNU/Linux People Against Chrome OS

"Diversionary tactics, holding action, and retreats may each seem contrary to the achievement of the overall objective when considered solely in their own terms, but taken in light of the overall conflict, may contribute to overall success."

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



Summary: How Microsoft works to create civil wars and Google hate/unrest (and even get Apple fans to distrust or dislike Google)

LET US START with some background or an introduction to Google's real impact in this area of desktop operating systems. Everyone has heard the news by now because the entire mainstream press covered it. Sam Varghese explains quite correctly why Microsoft is so scared (with only another Vista down the road and still no proper support for ODF [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]).

Chrome OS: Nice curveball from left field, Google



[...]

Also remember, this is an operating system that Google has announced, one that will come up against Microsoft's main cash cows, Windows and, by extension, Office.


According to new research, Chrome OS will gain tremendously because of ARM chips that are inexpensive and very energy efficient. 55 percent market share is projected.

Researcher: Chrome to boost Atom to ARM switch in netbooks



[...]

While Intel's Atom holds more than an 80 percent share of the 23.5-million netbooks sold in 2009 the ARM processor will to gain a 55 percent market share of the 96.0 million netbooks sold in 2012, according to researchers.


As Slated puts it, "ARM-incompatible Microsoft Windows Vista-7 need not apply."

Microsoft must respond fast. As usual, Microsoft does not respond by making better products; Microsoft just attacks its competition with vandalism or words.

Several people disparage Google and Ubuntu (even quite publicly) right now. Microsoft is also trying to have UNIX/Linux people attack Google over Chrome OS in particular. We have found Enderle, Yankee and Gartner doing it and as wallclimber puts it, it's all aimed at making these products less appealing. "I have mixed feelings about it," she adds. As another reader emphasised yesterday, "Microsoft is trying to spin Google OS as an attack against Linux." As we shall show in a moment, Enderle apparently incites Apple fans against Chrome OS and Google (Safari and Chrome are both based on WebKit, which used KHTML). It's a divisive role and we previously showed that Microsoft's strategy includes trying to create 'civil wars' inside or between competitors (for example, the use of Novell/patents against GNU/Linux and Mono/Ximian against critics and doubters of Microsoft).

Let's proceed to some actual new examples. We wrote about Rob Enderle just days ago because he continues to spread Linux lies and he incites people against Chrome OS (the Guardian does this too). But as Pamela Jones at Groklaw puts it (in reference to other punditry), "I must point out that Chrome runs on the Linux kernel. The Google announcement linked to by the article says so: "The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel." So, it's just Linux getting wings into the cloud, and Chrome running on the kernel. So Google is using Linux to challenge Microsoft. Once again, we see how appropriate it is to distinguish between the Linux kernel and the GNU/Linux operating system, so folks don't get confused as to which you mean. Here the author means GNU/Linux operating systems, like Ubuntu or other desktop distributions."

“Microsoft is also trying to have UNIX/Linux people attack Google over Chrome OS in particular.”Enderle is again spinning the Chrome OS announcement. He uses ECT (owner of LinuxInsider, which is considered rather GNU/Linux-hostile) to attack Apple and Google at the same time, thereby creating tension between the two (angle: Chrome attacks Apple). That is on top of all the lobbying against Google, whose important role in on-line office suites Microsoft had dismissed until it got something of its own ready and then re-announced old news (it was last re-announced only yesterday).

FUD like this is not uncommon, but one reader illustrates the nature of this attack by quoting and responding. For instance, Enderle writes: "The good news for both companies is that it doesn't look as though Google fully understands what it will take to succeed in this space. That means this move may be riskier for Google than it is for either Microsoft or Apple, unless Google focuses, builds up marketing competency, and executes better than it currently is..."

Our reader says: "This is a disguised directive from Redmond trying to bait Google into changing direction and fight Microsoft own battle on Microsoft's own territory, rich desktop applications. Whenever you see Microsoft giving advice to anyone, you can be guaranteed it isn't for the other fellas benefit."

The reader adds that Enderle is "rewriting history on top of it. This is the true function of shills like Enderle. Relentlessly polluting the record with self-serving distortions like the below."

Enderle writes: "In short, like Netscape, Google may have instigated one of the biggest changes since the beginning of the PC, but it might be unable to capitalize on it..."

The "FUD injection", as our reader puts it, is: "Netscape failed to capitalize on the PC revolution."

He argues that the reality goes like this: "Microsoft tried to buy out Netscape, negotiate with the NSCA for an exclusive license, then licensed Spyglass and never paid them as they 'gave away' the client. Meanwhile 'extending' their web server app with incompatible HTML extensions."

See some of the gory details in Comes trial documents and this petition.

Enderle was of course not alone in all this. See what Eric Lai (of a Redmond blog) did when he tried to create Google unrest or describe/accentuate a perceived issue of "fragmentation". As we noted on Saturday, Lai used a FUD-inspiring headline with a question mark (here is the direct link).

But more obvious are probably the attacks on Chrome OS from the Yankee Group, a longtime friend of Microsoft [1, 2]. From IDG comes the same storyline: "Google OS Could Put Squeeze on Other Flavors of Linux"

But just when some Linux distributions seemed to be gaining a foothold, Google may soon curtail their success. The strength of its brand, and its reputation as a company that builds sleek and easy-to-use products, means it could steamroll over the other Linux candidates, said Joshua Martin, senior analyst at the Yankee Group.


Because Yankee Group is surely an unbiased and "independent" party when it comes to Linux, right?

But wait. That's not all. Yesterday was the last time we wrote about Gartner and Microsoft and here is some fresh Gartner FUD about Chrome OS. The storyline remains: "Will Chrome endanger Android?" (that's the headline, with the obligatory question mark to save from accusations of trolling, as usual).

It is funny how all the same Microsoft-friendly analysts come out of the woodwork whenever a real threat to Microsoft appears before a receptive audience/crowd.

Chrome OS is by all means good news for Linux (see the remarks from Zemlin et al of the Linux Foundation). The opposite spin is a form of indoctrination that comes from Redmond through the Microsoft-tilted press. Here is a decent new analysis which is titled "Five Ways Google Spits on Microsoft."

Even the headlines this week fed off that animus. Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb on Microsoft said one, Google Launching OS, Firing Torpedo Into Microsoft, went another.

The 655-word blog post that announced Chrome OS started it all, of course. But almost lost in the hoopla over that manifesto were the shots Google took at its rival, five taunts that jabbed at Windows' most notable, and cliched, shortcomings.

Google says: "...the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no Web."

[...]

Translation: Windows is a headache, plain and simple, and getting it to work right takes the patience of Job and requires that users discard any leisure time and instead dedicate hours every week to the chore.

Windows users, to greater and lesser extents, recognize this as a truth, and plan accordingly by taking the estimated time to, say, add a new printer, then doubling it for a real timetable.


Any more Chrome OS mockery from Microsoft-friendly press people? If so, please share.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO Examiners Point Out to the Heads of Delegations in the Administrative Council of the EPO That the "AI Policy" of the Office is Illegal
"the Central Staff Committee (CSC) asks the Administrative Council to exert its supervisory role and instruct EPO management to enter into genuine dialogue with the staff representation on the AI Policy, to revise the “Leverage AI” target of 90% AI-automated classification in the SP2028 and to put in place the measures supported by staff in the resolution."
French Cities Dumping Microsoft Because They Recognise Software Freedom, Open Standards, GNU/Linux Autonomy
We hope that more French cities - maybe Paris - will follow Lyon.
LWN is a Voice of GAFAM (Through Linux Foundation, Their Front Group or Occupying Force Inside Linux)
remember who the chief editor works for and who sponsors many of the articles
The 'Case' of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft is a Lot of Copypasta (Maybe Also LLM Slop) From the Matthew Garrett 'Case'
5RB deserves to know and the matter shall be properly reported in due course (when the time is right)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part II - Office Breaks Rules, Ignores Courts, Defies Justice
False promises everywhere
IBM - Like Microsoft - is a Dying Company and Perishing Brand ("AI" is a Lie and Decoy)
"Arvind is cutting costs (layoffs, PIPs, forced RTO, etc...) like crazy. IBM offices are closing all over the place in the US."
"Code of Conduct" Invoked When Fedora and Red Hat Users (Since the 1990s) Don't Want to Use Wayland
That is IBM "DEI"
Microsoft Layoffs Next Week: About 10% to be Laid Off in Microsoft Gaming (2 Days Before Independence Day), About 20%+ of XBox Staff
Microsoft is rapidly collapsing
 
Keeping Things Accessible
Gemini Protocol seems to be growing
Technical People Need Technical Lawyers
Technical Litigants in Person (LIPs) have many real and concrete advantages
10,000+ Articles in About 20 Months (and How We Got Here)
More bloat does not beget efficiency and "bells and whistles" tend to have a hidden cost
Links 26/06/2025: Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC) Failing Scandinavia, K-Pop Agencies Abuse People
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/06/2025: AuraGem Twitch Proxy is Back and UI Sluggishness
Links for the day
Links 26/06/2025: Noise Pollution Considered High in Europe, Mass Layoffs Next Week in Microsoft Confirmed, Very Large in Scale and Scope
Links for the day
No, I Don't Want Your Latest XYZ, ThankYouVeryMuch...
Wayland is finally ready?
China Keeps Breaking Into Microsoft Systems, So for True Sovereignty, Nations Wary of China Need to Dump Microsoft
Looking at data from Taiwan (not China) and Maharlika (not Philippines, the king is dead and Spain is out), there are encouraging signs
Linux Journal Wants Ads on Its LLM Slop or Ads as 'Articles'
it's basically another BetaNews
How to Kill a Monopoly
in 10 simple steps
Mozambique: GNU/Linux Rose From 0.5% Last Year to 3% This Year
what (or how) statCounter is measuring
Next Month Marks 11 Years Since Our In-Depth EPO Coverage
The same is happening to Microsoft right now
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Campaigns Against Vista 11, Adds 4 New Associate Members Per Day
If more people understood the underlying principles, more of them would flock to Free software overnight
Canonical Seems to Have Culled Some Sources of LLM Slop From Planet Ubuntu
It's like "junk food", it's not information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 25, 2025
On "Weak Claims"
For the record, they sent me unjustified threats, repeatedly tried injunctions (censorship)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part I - Burnout and Family Health
more exceptional circumstances
This Month's Mail (MX) Server Survey Shows Microsoft at 0.20% "Market Share"
We need to remind people that desktops and laptops decline (in proportion to other client devices) and at the "back end" GNU/Linux is already dominant and has long been dominant
Links 26/06/2025: Filespooler Guide and Learning to Code
Links for the day
Why Techrights Cannot be Vilified (and Instead It Gets SLAPPed Repeatedly by Microsoft People)
Attack dogs are all "bark"; because they have no actual "bite"
Austrian GNU/Linux Usage Up to About 5% as More of Europe Abandons Microsoft
Since inauguration day the Austrian people have adopted more and more of GNU/Linux
Why the "Wayland People" and "Rust People" Will Lose Hearts and Minds (Same Reasons)
Wayland pushers are fast becoming like "Rust People"
5,600 Pages/Articles Per Year
So far this year we've kept all the promises
BetaNews Beginning to Show What Its True Goals Are
The 'new' BetaNews won't be about journalism. It's trying to sell things.
Microsoft Has Lost "The War"
We'll soon see the 9th or 10th wave of Microsoft layoffs in 2025 alone
Slopwatch: A Wreck and a Dreck, "Flooding the Zone With Dreck" or Flooding the Web With Junk
"Slopwatch" continues today because we have many new examples
Links 25/06/2025: Thwarting More Software Patents, Overlap Grows Between EPO Corruption and Illegal Kangaroo Patent Courts in EU
Links for the day
Links 25/06/2025: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Caught Lying, WhatsApp Faces More Bans
Links for the day
Wayland Pushers Lose the Argument, Use LLM Slop and Chatbots to Make Up Arguments for IBM
Another new low and low blow
Brian Fagioli Created Another Slopfarm Targeting "Linux" After BetaNews Became a Slopfarm of Phantom Accounts and Pseudonyms
Mr. Fagioli even had slop about a dead Torvalds (hypothetical) as clickbait
Wayland is Perfect, Nobody Can Escape Its Perfection! (Or Not)
Do not form on opinion on Wayland based on politics
What is "MATA"?
Think of it as GAFAM or "Meta"
Moral Duty for "Linux Sites" to Speak Out Against LLM Slop
My wife has long complained about "Linux bloggers" keeping quiet and thus passive about a growing problem: slop
In Recent Hours Google News Promoted at Least 3 Slopfarms That Relayed Linux Foundation Propaganda Made by Bots or LLM "Bullshit Generators" (as Dr. Stallman Dubbed Them)
Google is circling down the drain and Google News too is hopeless
Linux Journal is a Slopfarm, It's Experimenting With LLM 'Authors'
Is Slashdot next?
WebProNews is a Slopfarm
Please avoid linking to WebProNews
Microsoft LinkedIn is Dying and Many More Layoffs Are on the Way
LinkedIn is just a failed acquisition of Microsoft. It causes losses and debt.
Gemini Links 25/06/2025: Combinatorial Music and Self Hosting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Coming Back to Europe This Autumn to Give More Talks
His last talk in Europe attracted about 400-450 people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Social Control Media, Technology & Catholicism: Synod on Synodality review and feedback
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Many More Women Will Managers at Microsoft Strangle and Tell to Kill Themselves (or Try to Kill)?
The world needs to know what happened
The New BetaNews: 7 New 'Articles', All of Them LLM Slop
BetaNews is basically defunct. Nobody writes there anymore.
Another "Told You So!": XBox Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Many Recent Reports Were Chaff and Spin), Many Other Divisions Affected
With mass layoffs at Microsoft the world would be much better
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day