Bonum Certa Men Certa

Poisoning Mobile Linux With Microsoft Staff and Mono

Rat poison



Summary: How Microsoft interferes with the success of Linux-powered platforms, notably using entryism and software patents

MICROSOFT is losing the mobile race. It's not even a contender anymore. The Register's pro-MAFIAA and freedom-hostile Andrew Orlowski blocked comments when he linked to reports that we mentioned last night about Nokia's threat from Microsoft. Elop seems to be 'pulling a Maritz' (not Putting on the Ritz) by considering en masse dismissals and a Microsoft deal. But not only MeeGo seems to be at stake (Novell's Mono team is also trying to put Mono in it). The emerging market leader, Android, is also being harassed by Microsoft.



“The emerging market leader, Android, is also being harassed by Microsoft.”The king of Android (and formerly a Java promoter at Sun), Eric Schmidt, helped create what's probably the most commonly used distribution of Linux. Schmidt's role at Novell is still noted by a lot of Web sites which speak about his departure from Google's throne (latest examples can be seen at [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]). Android is now under patent attacks by Microsoft and some allies of Microsoft, so the fact that Novell helps Microsoft must not give him much comfort.

The main vector of attack against Android seems to be patents. Most major distributors of Android already pay Microsoft for Linux, for alleged software patents they would never name. To make matters worse, Novell is trying to put Mono inside Android and friends of Microsoft (the writer is Wallace McClure in this case) are currently offering free promotion of .NET/Mono for Android in a two-part series [1, 2]. It can help infect Android with Microsoft patent traps that later the monopolist will use, even after warnings. Watch this new piece from SD Times (occasional Mono booster):

Furthermore, a new set of .NET controls for Android comes in beta version optimized for MonoDroid. As soon as Novell releases a full version of MonoDroid, the Android Edition of Resco MobileForms Toolkit will go live in full version.


Mono is becoming a real pain in the bum and it is a joint product of Microsoft and Novell (Mono codebase includes bits from both companies).

Docky is one popular Mono project that we wrote about before (it extends others but gets extended too) and its developer works for Canonical now, helping to port a Vala project to C (Unity). Over at Identi.ca, "Toros" says that he got "elementary Wingpanel and Plank dock (Docky rewritten in Vala) in action (screenshot)," which means that there is hope for a move towards C as well.

“Such people carry the baggage of Novell influence even after leaving the company, experience suggests.”As one last item of interest, consider this new press release about former Ximian staff becoming a Vice President: "Over the past 20 years, Mancusi-Ungaro has held senior marketing positions in technology companies ranging from start-up to leaders in their respective markets. He is best known for his work at open source start-up Ximian, which was acquired by Novell. During his tenure as director of marketing for Linux and Open Source at Novell, he was a leader of Novell’s worldwide Linux and open source marketing efforts, developing and refining Novell’s approach to marketing open source technologies in the enterprise space and serving as key company spokesperson on open source issues and direction. While at Novell, Mancusi-Ungaro developed Novell’s Lizard Blizzard strategy and was one of the co-founders of the award-winning openSUSE project. He also held senior marketing leadership positions at Lotus/IBM, Webhire, Deltek Systems, and Health Allianze. Mancusi-Ungaro holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Hamilton College."

Chris Mellor said about it that "Greg Mancusi-Ungaro joins the Enterprise deduplicating data protection array vendor after stints at Novell and Ximian, which was bought by Novell. Attachmate bought Novell in November last year." Another news site said that "Sepaton Inc. named of Greg Mancusi-Ungaro VP of marketing. Mancusi-Ungaro previously worked at Novell, Lotus/IBM, Ximian, Webhire, Deltek Systems and Health Allianze."

Such people carry the baggage of Novell influence even after leaving the company, experience suggests. There is this tendency people have to use what's familiar from the previous employer or former colleagues and amid new memories of IPX, one must also consider Novell history in relation to other moves between companies, e.g.:

The company clearly lists its management team, which includes financial and technology veterans who previously worked at Paine-Webber, Novell and US Internetworking.


The Microsoft-backed Novell is turning out to be a lot of trouble. That's what makes it so necessary to keep track of Novell's folly. Based on its latest announcement, Novell brings to market nothing but proprietary software. Gone are the days of 2005 when Novell truly dabbled in some FOSS. Novell is now batting for Microsoft and it causes real damage to Linux (not SLE*, which pays Microsoft).

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Naming Culprits in Switzerland
Switzerland is highly secretive about white-collar crime
Sanitised Plagiarism as "AI" (How Oligarchy Plots to Use Slop to Hide or Distract From Its Abuses, or Cause People Not to Trust Anything They See/Read Online)
This isn't innovation but repression
Recent Layoffs at Red Hat (2026 the Year of Ultimate Bluewashing)
I found it amusing that Red Hat's CEO has just chosen to wear all blue, as if to make a point
Team Campinos Talks About SAP Days Before EPO Industrial Actions and a Day Before the "Alicante Mafia" Series (About Team Campinos Doing Cocaine)
EPO staff that isn't morally feeble will insist on objecting to illegal instructions
Stack(ed) Rankings and Ongoing Layoffs at Red Hat and IBM (Failure to Keep Staff Acquired by IBM)
IBM is mismanaged and its sole aim is to game the stock market (by faking a lot of things)
Linuxiac May Have Reverted Back to LLM Slop (Updated Same Day)
Is he back off the wagon?
 
Writing About Corruption
Fraud is everywhere
The B in IBM is Brown-nosing and Buzzwords (or Both)
International Buzzwords Machines
IBM's 'Scientific-Sounding' Tech-Porn Won't Help IBM Survive (or Be Bailed Out)
Who's next in the pipeline?
IBM Was Never the Good Guy
its original products were used for large-scale surveillance, not scientific endeavours
The Bluewashing is Making Red Hat Extinct (They All Become "IBM", Little by Little)
IBM does not care what's legal
Slopfarms Push Fake News About Microsoft Shutdown, 30,000+ Microsoft Layoffs Last Year Spun as Only "15,000"
The Web is seriously ill
Countries Take Action Against Social Control Media and 'Smart' 'Phones', Not Slop (Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems or P.I.S.S.)
None of this is unprecedented except the scale and speed of sharing
Sites That Expose Corruption Under Attack, Journalism Not Tolerated Anymore (the Super-Rich Abuse Their Wealth and Political Power)
Sometimes, albeit not always, the harder people try to hide something, the more effective and important it is for the general public
Links 16/01/2026: Social Control Media Curbs in Australia Underway, MElon Still Profiting by Sexualising Kids 'as a Service'
Links for the day
More People Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux"
We still see many distros and even journalists that say "GNU/Linux"
LLM Slop on the Web is Waning, But Linuxiac Has Become a Slopfarm
I gave Linuxiac a chance to deny this or explain this; Linuxiac did not
More Signs of Financial Troubles at Microsoft, Europe Puts Microsoft Under Investigation
The end of the library is part of the cuts
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part I - An Introduction to the Mafia Governing the EPO
Are some people 'evacuating' themselves to save face?
Pedophilia-Enabling Microsoft Co-founder Cuts Staff
Compensating by sleeping with young girls does not make one younger
Microsoft Shuts Down Campus Library, Resorts to Storytelling About "AI" to Spin the Seriousness of It
Microsoft is in pain
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Back to Advertising the Talks of Richard Stallman
A pleasant surprise
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 15, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 15, 2026
Gemini Links 16/01/2026: House Flood and Pragmatic Retrocomputing Dogfooding
Links for the day
Links 15/01/2026: Starlink Weaponised for Regime Change (by Man Who Boasted About Annexing South American Countries for Tesla's Mining), Corruption in Switzerland Uncovered by JuristGate
Links for the day
GAFAM and IBM Layoffs Outline
a lot of the layoffs happen in secrecy and involve convincing people to resign, retire, relocate etc.
Links 15/01/2026: Internet Blackouts, Jackboots Society in US
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Impact With EPO Cocainegate
Will Campinos survive 2026?
The Last 'Dilberts' or Some of the Last Salvaged (Comic Strips Which Disappeared Shortly After They Had Been Published)
Around the time the creator of Dilbert went silent he published some strips mocking TikTok and usage of it
The Creator of Git Probably Doesn't Know How to Install and Deploy Git
Nobody disputes this: Mr. Torvalds created Git
Slop is a Liability
Slopfarms too will become extinct because people aren't interested in them
GAFAM is a National and International Threat to Everybody
GAFAM is just a tentacle in service of imperialism
EPO People Power - Part XXXVI - In Conclusion and Taking Things Up Another Notch
They often say that the law won't deter or stop criminals because it's hard to enforce laws against people who reject the law
Running Techrights is Fun, Rewarding, and Gratifying
In Geminispace we are already quite dominant
Red Hat is Connected to the Military, Its Chief Comes From Military Family (From Both Sides)
The founder of Red Hat's parent company literally saluted Hitler himself (yes, a Nazi salute)
Don't Cry for Gaslighting Media in a Country Which Loathes the Press
my wife and I received threats for merely writing about Americans
Red Hat (IBM) is Driving Away Remaining Fedora Users
I've not used Fedora since Moonshine
Robert X. Cringely Has Already Explained IBM's Bullying Culture (Towards Its Own Staff)
IBM is a fairly nasty company
Proton Mail compromise, Hannah Natanson (Washington Post) police raid & Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Gemini Links 15/01/2026: "Ode to elinks", envs.net Pubnix and Downtime at geminiprotocol.net
Links for the day
Still Condoning Child Labour and Exploiting Unpaid Children Developers as PR Props (to Raise Monopoly Money)
These people lack morals. So they project.
"Security, AI or Quantum" on "the IBM Titanic"
Who's RMS?
Hours Ago The Register MS Published Microsoft Windows SPAM "Sponsored by Intel." The Fake 'Article' Says "AI" 34 Times.
The Register MS isn't a serious online newspaper
EPO People Power - Part XXXV - Where Else Will Corruption and Substance Abuse be Tolerated?
We need to raise standards
Status and Capital
People who do a lot are too busy to boast about it and wear fancy garments
IBM Paying the Price for Treating Workers Badly and Discarding Real Talent (Because It's "Expensive")
IBM is dead man walking
Turbulence Ahead
I last rebooted my laptop in 2023
Google News Rewards Plagiarism With LLMs (About Linux, Too)
Google is in the slop business now
Links 14/01/2026: Failing Economy and Conquest Abroad as a Distraction From Domestic Woes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/01/2026: The Ephemerality of Our Digital Lives and "Summer of Upgrades"
Links for the day
Projection Tactics - Part III: Silencing Inconvenient Voices Online
If X gets banned in the UK, it'll be hard to see what the spouse says in public
Outsourcing on Microsoft's Agenda, Offshoring Also
"In some cases, India hiring is poised to replace certain roles previously based in the U.S."
Links 13/01/2026: 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams Passes Away With Cancer, Ban on X/Twitter Considered for CSAM Profiteering
Links for the day
The Goal is Software Freedom for All
Anything to do with "Linux Foundation" is timewasting
Reminder That Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Is Not Free, And It's Because of IBM
software freedom just 'gets in the way'
Under IBM, in Order to Game the Stock Market, Red Hat Resorted to Boosting the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in Human History
This is what IBM turned Red Hat into
Revision handed Microsoft the keys to the distortion of the past/history
This isn't the first time The Register MS rewrites computing history in Microsoft's favour, as we pointed out several times in past years
What Will Happen to GAFAM After the US Defaults Rather Than Bails Out the Market?
Or tries to topple every government that doesn't play by its rules?
EPO People Power - Part XXXIV - Bad Optics for the European Union (for Failing to Act and Tolerating Cocaine Use in Europe's Second-Largest Institution)
There are principles in laws which tie awareness with complicity
EPO's Central Staff Committee is Now Redacting (Self-Censoring) Due to Threats From the EPO "Mafia"
"On the agenda: salary adjustment procedure for 2025 (as of January 2026)"
"AI" (Slop) 'Demand' Isn't Growing, It's Fake, It's a Pyramid Scheme
They try to resort to 'creative' accounting (fraudulent schemes like circular financing)
Difficult Times at IBM and Microsoft Ahead of Mass Layoffs (Probably Before This Month's Results Unless Postponed to 'Prove' Rumours 'Wrong')
IBM and Microsoft used to be tech giants. Nowadays they mostly pretend by pumping up their stock and buying back their own shares.
Canonical: Make Ubuntu Bloated (Debian With Snaps), Then Sell the 'Debloated' Version for a Fee
If people want a light distro, then they ought not pay Canonical but instead choose a light (by design) GNU/Linux distro
People Don't Want "Just Enough", They'll Look for Quality
That's why slopfarms will go away or become inactive
Gemini Links 14/01/2026: 3D and Tiny Traffic Lights Pack
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Slop Waning Whilst Originals Perish
Slop is way past its "prime"
XBox's 'Major Nelson' Loses His Job Again, This Time in a Microsoft Mono Pusher
Microsoft hasn't much of a future in gaming. XBox's business is in rapid decline and people who push Mono to game developers are the same