Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell's Vice President Could be Tweeting for Microsoft Dollars

Novell loves the monopoly



Summary: Miguel de Icaza shows excitement over proprietary Silverlight, proceeds to promotion of closed-source software paradigms for developers; Microsoft's strategy with F/OSS is explained

ONE of our Indian readers has shown us some new tweets from Novell's vice president -- tweets that I was unable to view because they are "protected" (maybe he blocked me). Tony Manco quotes them as follows:



"RT @spouliot: "Chrome OS Success May Be Dampened By Silverlight" http://tinyurl.com/yezgk8v -I have a suggestion if anyone #google care" [Source]

"OMG OMG OMG OMG #silverligh4 has everything I wanted on it: full desktop apps with full system access" [Source]

We wrote about Microsoft's Twitter AstroTurf in, e.g.:



Yes, Microsoft also offers small bribes to people who tweet about Microsoft products and our reader Goblin tweeted yesterday (based on evidence): "wow..the Microsoft marketing machine seems to be flooding twitter with schemes to win a free piece of MS tech."

He later added: "For those interested yet another MS themed Twitter account has popped up: slashsoft !"

Well, Miguel de Icaza does not need those prizes as incentives. He works for Microsoft's CodePlex Foundation.

Our reader Brandon refers to Miguel de Icaza's gentle attack on Free software (mentioned last week when he attended Microsoft's event). As Brandon puts it:

“Keep it proprietary” is something you could say that would label you a traitor to the FSF. Such attitude doesn’t appear over night.
Young developers without a lot of obligations can more easily consider doing open source projects, de Icaza said. But someone with a family and tuition to pay has to tread carefully when taking a technology to the open source route.
This statement is a little misleading because there have been people who brought new technology to open source, and ended up getting hired to keep working on it. (Pulseaudio[1], and Linux Kernel contributions are at the top of my mind). Greg Kroah-Hartman mentioned at this linux plumbers conference for example that Intel wanted to get recruiters into the talks. Recruiters? Oh yeah cause its easy to get a job with Open Source.


A couple of days ago we showed how Microsoft was proprietarising Free software by "embracing" it. The warning came from Matt Asay, who in turn cited IBM's Savio. In response to this, Pamela Jones from Groklaw wrote: "Now think about Oracle and the EU Commission complaints. Then think about Microsoft supporting Apache. Embrace is followed by what, again?"

Separately, about Microsoft pretending to have embraced "open source", Jones wrote: "Ballmer has already told us that Microsoft wants all Open Source apps to run on Windows instead of the Linux kernel. So I take this as an indication of their progress toward that goal, not as indicating any new openness on Microsoft's part. Windows isn't any more open. I doubt it ever will be. This is Brand X openness, then, almost openness, open apps but running on a proprietary system. And like the song says, Ain't nothing like the Real Thing, Baby."

Novell's Mono/Moonlight team is helping Windows at the moment [1, 2, 3]. It's not surprising at all. There is more of that coming soon.

"Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand."

--Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO



Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
 
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025