Bonum Certa Men Certa

Some New Examples of FUD Against Linux, GNU, and the GPL

News truck



Summary: Microsoft tries to abolish the GPL and the Free desktop; FUD against Stallman and distortions about Linux development are combated by Groklaw

DANA Blankenhorn has asked what it would take for people to trust Microsoft. His post is very theoretical and conveniently it seems to be ignoring Microsoft's constant attacks on GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].



Microsoft has entire teams dedicated to fighting against GNU/Linux (and the GPL). Some years ago it brought someone called Sam Ramji [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12] from SaaS in order to justify the whole practice of giving free code to proprietary vendors and Microsoft products that render it non-free, just like so-called "clouds". It is worth remembering that Sam Ramji does not come from an area that he pretends to understand (he actually was caught spreading disinformation about the GPL, maybe not deliberately) and having just quit he goes back to the same area he came from and it's not "open source". This latest post from him -- "Does open source still matter in cloud computing?" -- is yet more indication that Microsoft never cared about Freedom, and hardly even openness. The same goes for its buddy the Gartner Group, whose discrimination against Free software is being noticed by more people, some of whom sue the firm [1, 2]. Here is a new Twitter item: 'A jewel from Gartner: "Definition: open source for IP telephony is the use of public-domain programs to create IP PBX..". Public domain ????'

They cannot tell Free/open source software, even if it hit them in the face. Regarding CodePlex, Groklaw links to an analysis from Andy Updegrove and states:

Andy gushes on, but I note that this is a foundation that intends to outnumber the GPL. I don't know if it means their only weapon left to kill the GPL is money, or if this is just adding another quiver to their bow. But it's obvious they don't mean to include the GPLv2, from this paragraph:

Open Source Licenses. The Foundation will maintain a list of recommended Open Source licenses for projects and maintain information necessary to understand how code can be shared between projects with the purpose of avoiding unexpected restrictions in how the final code can be used or redistributed. This includes maintaining information that makes clear how projects can incorporate external code. It should be possible, for example, for a project to incorporate appropriately licensed code without requiring a formal contribution of that code.

So, the development model that has served the community so well will be avoided by Codeplex in large part, and it looks like a way for corporate sponsors to buy programmers' time so they can get them to write code that the sponsors would find useful. So you can write for Microsoft and its fellow Corporate Cougars, and in return for their largesse, what do you get in the end? I suspect what Steve Ballmer said was Microsoft's goal, that all the open source applications you want run on Microsoft's operating system, not the Linux kernel, which is GPLv2, not v3, and then who needs Linux? They've paid you to get out of the bazaar and back into the cathedral, just with a bigger, professionally maintained yard.


Consider the fact that Microsoft apparently violates the GPL and grabs code from CodePlex -- code which it then proprietarises.

“...Microsoft apparently violates the GPL and grabs code from CodePlex -- code which it then proprietarises.”Some days ago we wrote about Microsoft paying $100,000 to Apache [1, 2], Groklaw's response to which is: "As long as it gets its money's worth, I suppose?" To Microsoft, this is a simple case of buying influence [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17].

To say more on the GPL, Groklaw complains about this post from Jack Wallen, who Pamela Jones claims to "ha[ve] written a list of the 10 biggest failures in IT history, including two, BeOS and WordPerfect who many of us would say were killed off by Microsoft, and he includes as Number 7 Richard Stallman."

Jack Wallen is truly an advocate of GNU/Linux, but he does not agree with the FSF. That's okay, but he has just insulted Richard Stallman and Groklaw replied as follows (in News Picks, to which there is no fixed URL):

Jack, if you are going to write about history, you should read some first. Stallman is associated with Free Software, not Open Source. He has never been a "champion of open source" so you have made a very deep and frankly humorous error. Free Software is also Open Source, but Stallman distinguishes his and the FOSS community's work from the breakaway group that decided business would never accept the GPL or Stallman, and so they decided to hide those bits, because to them acceptance by business was more important.

Look at the results. Would you say it has been beneficial that corporations discovered Linux? Post-SCO and the Novell-Microsoft peace pact, what arguments would you offer that it has been a good thing? And now Microsoft would like to kill off The Real Thing and substitute its own Brand X "Open Source", as per the Codeplex Foundation, and smearing Richard Stallman is the latest coin of its realm.

I note that Jeff Gerhardt, presumably the Jeff Gerhardt of the Linux Show, sounds off as well, not to correct the mistake, but to pile on, including the following: "But the problem with Richard and many in the die-hard FOSS community (many who are close friends of mine), is they in their desire to spread the good of FOSS (and there is indeed good) they also close the door on ANY other option.

That is often the problem with radicals. The first thing that happens in a socialist state as an example, is a change in the ability of the media to be critical of government."

Nice FUD, bringing in "radicals" and "socialist state" words. Vicious FUD, actually. Without Richard Stallman, there'd never have been a Linux Show. Or Red Hat. Or Linux. Or any of this.

Richard Stallman will go down in history for changing the world, because it was all his idea. And when either Jack Wallen or Jeff Gerhardt wins a MacArthur Genius Award, as Richard Stallman did, send me the memo. Before you criticize someone who won an award for being a genius in his field, you might ask if you have the chops to even understand what he is doing. Meanwhile, note carefully who really understands FOSS and who doesn't grasp even the foundational concepts. It's important to know who your real friends are and who is just making a living.


In News Picks, Groklaw also claims to be "Answering some OSNews FUD". Jones says:

The link takes you to the beginning of the thread, where Gordon posts his desire to submit his FatELF code to the Linux kernel guys, who quite correctly point out some important reasons not to do that. Gordon then posts that he ran into a "buzzsaw", which I consider inaccurate, but you can read it for yourself. And the OSNews publishes it all as if it were a crying shame the Linux kernel meanies didn't accept the code, without even mentioning the patent issue. What's with OSNews, anyway?


It's not OSNews in general, it's Thom Holwerda.

Holwerda is the reason I chucked out OS News from my reading list, being a semi-official FOSS basher and Windows booster. It is sad to see such a distortion being used to make Linux look bad.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
 
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025