Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Lobby Against Linux

FUD attacks on Linux are increasing, particularly in "patent" flavour

Diagram



Summary: The role played by Microsoft (and parts of the media it controls) in daemonising Linux, not just in the form of Android but Red Hat servers too

EVEN though the world has a lot to gain from Linux, there is a virtual coalition that has a lot to lose, so it really hates Linux. Microsoft is not alone among those haters, but it is a major part of it and it has a lot to lose. For example, if Linux becomes a dominant operating system on large devices that are not servers, then Microsoft's Office franchise is at great risk.



It is abundantly clear that, just as in many cases, the media plays a major role in shaping people's opinions and thus can affect outcomes, defining winners and losers based on who it sidles with. It is therefore not too shocking that a lot of former Microsoft UK staff occupied the MSBBC, which even in this new article about Stars completely fails to mention Microsoft and Windows as that would damage the brands. Likewise, the MSBBC is misrepresenting a legal case in order to create fear of Linux. It's Maggie Shiels again and she calls Microsoft Florian "Intellectual property activist" while quoting his tripe. Why does she even quote him and his FUD? Anyway, Groklaw once challenged Florian Müller to say he does not get paid by Microsoft or a Microsoft partner and he refused to do so multiple times (about a dozen times). We know that he is injecting anti-Linux bias into the news by mass-mailing journalists, but good journalists should know how to avoid being used. The Register, for example, does not do it this time around. Dana Blankenhorn, who has been sympathetic towards Müller, berates him now. Yes, he does this despite the fact that he previously helped Microsoft Florian get his FUD a platform. To quote:

This did not stop some from taking Florian Mueller's Oh Noes as gospel. Florian's German, not Texan. He knows there are courts there who can be as loony as any in Texas, but the appeals process there is shorter, and what happens in Germany usually stays in Germany. (He's also a very nice guy, as I learned when I visited him in Munich last year, where this picture was taken.)

[...]

But don't let that stop a reporter from scaring the pants off people. Especially a lazy one. Don't spend a half-hour with the Google, guys. Write first, and ask questions later.


Thanks to Dana and his honesty. He is not afraid of expressing him mind on this and maybe even change sides; "thought it was a good write up to counter the recent patent FUD," wrote Barnie Giltrap, who gave us the link in IRC.

Watch how the MSBBC ignores Linux even in mobile unless there is something bad like a "virus" (malware) in it. There is clearly bias here and it is always against GNU/Linux; the BBC got slammed a few years ago when it finally, after many years, reviewed a GNU/Linux distribution and actually bashed it using unsubstantiated myths. Those who ignore the origin of the editorial team will probably think these convictions are very innocent and coincidental; they are not. We covered this thoroughly around 2008 when a lot of Microsoft folks took positions of power inside the BBC. The whole broadcaster is shooting itself in the foot by accommodating corporate bias, which is what it was designed to be resistant to. What we need are more independent sites.

Wayne has decided to write about Pamela Jones and he also mentioned some of the types who belittle and taunt her. To quote:

Her background as a paralegal meant that she knew about little details like Pacer, and could tell us about them. And things like how to ask for courthouse filings. She knew there were local court rules. We didn’t even know there were local courts. She knew about the need for lawyers to be admitted to the local courts to practice. The sort of details that if you hadn’t some experience with the legal system, you just wouldn’t know.

And let’s face it. Most of us had little experience with the legal system. Sure, at one time or another most of us had hired lawyers for one reason or another. Real estate. Wills. Business setup. But in most cases we hadn’t had to deal with the courts. Most legal issues never go near a court.

[...]

Contrast that with my sparring partner Florian ‘The Sky is Falling’ Müller (who can’t even spell his own name correctly – he spells it Florian Mueller). He’s always willing to give you the 100% benefit of his non-existent expertise. Out of all of the articles he has written on the Fosspatents blog which have made predictions I cannot remember a single one which was correct.

Or take Rob Enderle, who once told me in email that he knew that Linux programmers had ‘stolen Unix code’ and put it into Linux (sorry, I no longer have that email, the account went dead when we moved and our ISP messed up the transfer of our broadband connection). How many times has Rob been right in his predictions?

Or Maureen O’Gara who kept writing the most fascinating accounts of how The SCO Group was bound for victory, only to watch them sink like a stone. We now know from her deposition which was entered as evidence in court that she was being fed false information from inside the company. Some of her articles were demonstrably based on that information, which is why she got it so wrong. Rather than following the facts, she trusted the people, and it turned out that the people involved at The SCO Group weren’t very trustworthy.

Another reason has to do with PJ’s legacy. A lot of people have a lot of money tied up in companies like Microsoft. Many of you know that I’ve predicted Microsoft’s filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the fall of 2014. One of the reasons I made the prediction is the Network Effect.

Most people think that the Network Effect favors Microsoft, the industry leader, with a huge market presence. This is incorrect. What the Network Effect actually favors is an open market using open systems, using open standards, where Free Software Darwinism can drive innovation at faster and faster speeds.

PJ’s backing of the Gnu General Public License, the Free Software Foundation, the Creative Commons, and other forms of openness is dangerous to those who have their money invested in legacy businesses like Microsoft. It may also be dangerous to Apple, I think that it’s quite possible that Apple may peak within the next five years, and unless it adopts Steve Wozniak’s suggestions, may begin to fail.

In short, by being honest, and telling the truth as she saw it, Pamela Jones annoyed some rich and powerful people. Rich and powerful people don’t like being annoyed. They have a tendency to strike back.


There are more challenges ahead and even though Groklaw declares victory, there is a lot left to be done, especially now that entities like CPTN get formed, owing to Novell's sellout. CPTN also includes SCOracle and Apple, which is apparently feeling the pinch from Linux even in tablets now, not just phones. To quote the sceptical Register: "The iPad sold 4.69m tablets, fewer than the 6.1m predicted by analysts or the 7.3m of the holiday quarter. It remains to be seen whether this is a short-term supply issue or an indicator of limited demand for the form factor."

No wonder Apple is suing Samsung. But Apple does not have patent superiority. In fact, the CPTN too may get defanged, in which case it won't do much to help Apple's cause. The patents there won't be effective against Linux, so both the FSF and the FSFE replied and the latter's response opens with encouraging words:

Competition authorities in Germany and the United States today highlighted the fundamental role that Free Software plays for competition in the software market. After several months of discussions, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the German Federal Competition Office (FCO) have allowed a consortium of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC to acquire 882 patents from Novell only subject to conditions clearly intended to prevent their use against Free Software players.

"This is an historic step", says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe, which was involved in the FCO investigation since the beginning. "The regulators acknowledge that Free Software is crucial to competition; that patent aggression can well be anticompetitive behaviour; and that fear, uncertainty and doubt serve to push smaller competitors out of the market."


This is a struggle against big proprietary software, which naturally favours patent monopolies. In the next post we will explain and introduce our preparations for the next steps in this battle for software freedom. We might create another site for this. As in Sunday's morning post, this text is intended to gather links of interest and we encourage readers to follow them. In the future we plan to have in-depth analysis of issues rather than aggregation with commentary. I am currently writing 80 pages of technical text documenting computer science research, so my time contributing to Techrights is limited.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
 
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol