Bonum Certa Men Certa

Revised Microsoft History, Brought to You by Microsoft Boosters

Let me tell you the story of a company that brought us computers and the Internet and the media player and the search engine and...



Summary: Microsoft's past as seen from the eyes on people who make money from Microsoft, courtesy of IDG 'News' Service

"Appeasement, said Winston Churchill, consists of being nice to a crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last. At the moment, the biggest crocodile in the world is Microsoft, and everybody is busy sucking up to it," wrote John Naughton for The London Observer.



Microsoft is like the crocodile that has already eaten many companies while committing heinous crimes and antitrust violations. We can't go though them today because there is just too much ground to cover. What worries us greatly is that Microsoft has been rewriting the past quite a lot recently. We gave an example just a couple of weeks ago.

“I wonder if it's as simple as this, that many people are a little afraid of computers, so they felt reluctant to swap in something new until there was a page saying it was OK and nothing would break?”
      --Pamela Jones, Groklaw
Microsoft's booster, Preston [1, 2], is doing that again and it gets promoted by Microsoft Nick. They are desperate to pretend that Microsoft has legitimately earned its current position and with so many Microsoft boosters in the press (even in publications that used to say the truth about Microsoft before they got intruded), there is a danger of whitewashing of scary proportions.

Microsoft Nick is boosting Microsoft in many other ways and another Microsoft Nick trivialises the situation with the browser ballots as we addressed it a few days ago. "I wonder if it's as simple as this," writes Groklaw in response to Nick, "that many people are a little afraid of computers, so they felt reluctant to swap in something new until there was a page saying it was OK and nothing would break?"

One must not forget the crimes against Netscape and others. People do not choose Microsoft's browser and if they use it, then it's because Microsoft previously broke the law and had people associate the "Blue E" with "the Internet" (the BBC perpetuates this myth). Given choice, people do not choose Microsoft, but they are rarely allowed to choose. Despite all of this, Microsoft's products continue to lose market share. From Reuters we have:

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has lost market share in major European markets, such as France, Britain and Italy, after the U.S. software firm started to make it easier for European consumers to use competing browsers.

Microsoft's pledge to allow easier access to rival browsers in Windows by the middle of May, ended a long antitrust dispute with the European Union.


People must remember that Microsoft was forced to do this. It's not about Microsoft giving opportunities for a diversity, it's about antitrust regulators responding to Microsoft's abuses. We are disheartened to see how Microsoft has spun this debate, but then again, the monopolist is controlling media with new companies and appointments involving Microsoft employees (new example in [1, 2]). Those who want an accurate description of Microsoft's historic role in computing can start here.

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
 
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
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