Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Turncoat Quits

Geisha



Summary: Like his predecessors Bill Hilf and Martin Taylor, Sam Ramji decided to give up the game

YESTERDAY afternoon we wrote about Miguel de Icaza joining a Microsoft board and shortly afterwards it was discovered that Sam Ramji is leaving Microsoft. Good timing.

Then there is the whole issue of patents and the old school anti-Linux FUD (like the recent BestBuy case). I've seen Ramji stand at the front of a seemingly hostile open source crowd defending Microsoft. It didn't look like much fun to me, but he did it.


Some folks were not entirely sure at the time, but it is now confirmed by Ramji himself. This is good news for Free software because Ramji was doing harm to it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Will someone like Robert Duffner take over? Maybe another new hire? This position is repeatedly left vacant after less than two years. Screwing Free software is not a fun job and those who subscribe for it are not liked; they very well know it.

Speaking of screwing Free software, in his announcement about joining the CodePlex Foundation, Miguel de Icaza makes a seemingly snide remark. He takes a little shot there at the FSF, maybe.

I hope that I can last more on this foundation than I lasted at the FSF, where I was removed by RMS after refusing to be an active part of the campaign to rename Linux as GNU/Linux.


It is not surprising that Miguel de Icaza -- just like Novell -- is siding with Microsoft and distancing himself from the FSF after they expressed concerns about Mono. In Novell's case, there is the whole GPLv3 issue.

Also, yesterday in the news we found this report:

MonoDevelop, the IDE for Mono and .NET, has officially gone cross platform with support for Windows and Mac OS X in the new beta of version 2.2. In his blog, Miguel De Icaza says that this is more than just a "plain GUI port" as it also provides "installers, deep operating system integration and support for native debugging on each platform."


"I was thinking," writes our reader Seller Liar, "Monodevelop 2.2 does not work using Mono for Windows. It needs .NET framework 3.5 to run.

"MonoDevelop for Windows does not work with Mono for Windows."

We pointed this out before [1, 2, 3]. MonoDevelop is a win for Microsoft, for Windows, for .NET, for C#, and maybe even for Visual Studio. It's like a migration route/ramp to all of those things.

Regarding Microsoft's so-called "Foundation" that is about PR and about embracing and extending "Open Source", Redmonk, which has Redmond (Microsoft) as a client, says:

The foundation looks like it will feature an open source community around Microsoft-centric technologies, said analyst Michael Cote of RedMonk.

"Thus far, that world hasn't benefited as greatly from the open source world as say, Java has, but there have been several notable tie-ins over the past years," Cote said. "Setting up a separate entity along with getting all of the IP and patent hoopla ironed out should start to fill that vacuum, namely, where do I go if I want to do open source in the Microsoft world?"


Here is how another person put it: "Microsoft - In need of a bloodless coup"

So here's the real question... can this foundation be used by external collaborators to start driving the process of cultural change inside Microsoft with regard to patents?

[...]

Or people who want to see Microsoft's patent litigation culture change can engage and participate in something like this foundation and try to drive a cultural change from inside Microsoft's own ecosystem.

I think ultimately we are going to need both...both the carrot and the stick. We've gotten a good handle on hold to wield the stick. I'm not so sure we know how to comfortably hold the carrot without risking our fingers getting bitten off.


To most of the world, this foundation may seem like a farce; but for dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft developers it might be a place to escape to, pretending that they too are part of "Open Source".

Microsoft desperately needs more people because when it comes to engineers, Microsoft is massively outnumbered by Free software developers. To make matters worse, Microsoft's recent additional layoffs show no signs of stopping and on top of the canceled picnic Microsoft is now scaling back on its employee meeting. Todd Bishop writes:

The meeting, traditionally closed to the public and press except on rare occasions, gives Microsoft executives a chance to rally the troops. But given the company's unprecedented job cuts, the cheerleading stands to be more subdued this year, as highlighted in a recent post by the anonymous Mini-Microsoft employee blogger.

"Folks are going to come into Safeco, grab their box lunch, sit down with their co-workers and friends and as they fold their pink paper airplane, they are going to remark, 'I can't believe they are spending all this money for today. <<Fill name in the blank>> and more could have kept their job if they just cancelled this horse and pony show.' "


The "new Microsoft" is a smaller Microsoft and a more aggressive Microsoft, as we last showed yesterday [1, 2].

"Do you feel like you're screwing a porcupine and you're one prick against thousands?" the OSCON audience member asked Ramji. Ramji politely replied: "It takes time to change and I knew that I'd be unpopular when I took this job..."

--Microsoft: Not worried about open source patents

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Attack Dogs Have Failed. Now What?
It would be utterly foolish to assume that Microsoft has any intention of changing
All Your "Github Projects" Will be Gone One Day (Just Like Skype)
If you have code you wish to share and keep, then start learning how to do so on your own
Fedora Already Lost Its Soul Under IBM
Fedora used to be very strict compared to many other distros and it had attracted very bright volunteers
Links 17/04/2025: Calling Whistleblowers at Microsoft, Slop Doing More Harm Everywhere
Links for the day
 
Gemini Links 17/04/2025: Role of Language and Back to Mutt for E-mail
Links for the day
"Sayonara" (さよなら), Microsoft
Windows had fallen below iOS in some countries
Links 18/04/2025: Layoffs at Microsoft Infosys and Qt Becoming Increasingly Proprietary (Plus Slop)
Links for the day
Google News is Dying
treating MElon's algorithmic/biased site as a source of verified news
To Understand Who's Truly Controlling You Follow the Trail of Censorship (or Self-Censorship)
Do not let media steal and steer the narrative; CoCs are not about "social justice", they're about corporate domination
Microsoft is Still Attacking GNU/Linux and the Net
Microsoft bribed the government using money that did not even exist
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 17, 2025
Gemini Links 18/04/2025: Pinephone Pro and Linux is too Easy
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2025: Russian Bot Farms Infect TikTok (Which US Government and SCOTUS Decided to Block January 19), US Hardware Stocks Crash Due to Tariffs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/04/2025: Sticking to Free Software, Smolnet, and Counting the Reals
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: In Conclusion and Enforcement Action Proceeds Against OSI at the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
There's too much to cover in one single part
When You Fail to Filter Your Clients You End Up SLAPPing Reporters on Behalf of Bad People From Microsoft in Another Continent
“American Psycho”
Links 17/04/2025: LayoffBot and Tesla Cheats Buyers
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Trump Authority (CA) With a Trump NSA is All About Security, But Whose?
A "turnkey tyranny", as the NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake loved to call it
Confirming IBM Shutdowns and Layoffs Today
It's not over yet
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: The 2010s Are Calling and Why "Tools Will Not Liberate Us"
Links for the day
You Should Probably Self-Host Your E-mail and Never Use a Web Browser for Mail
Does anyone still believe Gmail is "free"?
Links 16/04/2025: Cliff Lynch RIP, More Attacks on Science (NASA)
Links for the day
StatCounter Shows the Market Share of Vista 11 is Decreasing in Ukraine This Year
Microsoft abandoning Vista 10 users would be a victory for Vladimir Putin
Google Promotes Fake Articles (LLM Slop) Instead of Originals, Relaying Microsoft's Linux FUD Emanating From Microsoft LLMs
Shame on Google for participating in the slopfest
In Some Countries the Largest OEMs Already Dump Microsoft Windows
Windows at 18.9%, Android 60.2%
The "Gold" Rule: Taking Money for Reputation Laundering and Openwashing Under the "Linux" Banner
Seller of expensive toilet paper, Jim Zemlin
LLM Slop Says Slop is "coming for white-collar jobs. Microsoft’s layoffs are just the start"
Look what the Web has become
Microsoft Down From 100% to 10% in Myanmar/Burma
only about 4% of Web requests in Myanmar/Burma come from Vista 11, soon to be the only "supported" version of Windows
Reporting Facts About Violence Against Women Deserves Awards, Not Frivolous Lawsuits and Threats
What is Microsoft's stance on women's safety?
Linux.com as Spamfarm of the Linux Foundation, Partner of the Gates Foundation
They no longer publish articles
When Fedora Said It Was Looking to Integrate "AI" It Meant Promoting Microsoft's Proprietary Spyware and GPL-Violating Slop
When they say "AI" they mean Microsoft
Slopwatch: The Typical Slopfarms and the 'Brian Fagioli Dilemma'
To the Web and to society (exposed to the Web) LLMs are a net negative
It Used to be IBM, Now It's Microsoft (Why You Need to Fire Microsofters or CIOs Working for Microsoft)
Typically the only effective solution is to identity and remove Microsofters from one's project/organisation (before they can bring more Microsofters in)
IBM Closes Offices and Labs in the United States to Open New Ones in India
It's not layoffs per se; they're substituting/swapping veteran employees for lesser-paid ones
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: IndieWeb Carnival, Tinylog RFC, "Focus, the Web and Gemini"
Links for the day