Microsoft loves [to hijack and repurpose] Linux

Defections at gunpoint

Summary: A strategy involving harassment and bribes drives large Android players into Microsoft's arms (PRISM and lock-in), much to Google's (and users') detriment and beyond regulators' range of visibility

LAST month we said that Microsoft was reportedly using patent blackmail to pressure Samsung into becoming a Microsoft peon. We were later proven right and Microsoft's booster (one of very many who now work for CBS) Mary Jo Foley put a positive spin on it, as if it was all kisses and roses. She continues doing that in her latest puff piece (framing that as nothing nefarious) where she says that "Samsung announced last month it would preinstall OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on the Glaxy S6 and S6 Edge. In the coming months -- some time in the first half of calendar 2015, Samsung also will preinstall Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on "select" Samsung Android tablets, Samsung announced today."

Mary Jo Foley does not mention the patent case and settlement, does she? That would upset Microsoft, which is too busy portraying itself as a friend of Linux while it is suing Linux (using software patents).

Following Microsoft's support for Cyanogen (again, do not be misled by retractions after getting caught) Microsoft's booster writes that "[i]f the rumor mill is right, Android distribution startup Cyanogen might be next up to forge a similar bundling relationship with Microsoft. A recent Forbes report claims Cyanogen is "close to finalizing a wide-ranging partnership to incorporate several of Microsoft's mobile services, including Bing, the voice-powered Cortana digital assistant, the OneDrive cloud-storage system, Skype and Outlook, into Cyanogen's devices."

Microsoft's booster also mentions Dell. How convenient. Our Dell wiki pages would help remind readers what Microsoft has done to Dell not only on the Android front but on other fronts too. Dell is nothing but a vassal of Microsoft right now.

We expect the next step to be use of patent extortion to force more Android backers into Microsoft's bed. Don't expect Mary Jo Foley and fellow Microsoft spinners to tell the whole story. Lies by omission may be the strategy.

Microsoft loves Linux like a shark loves fish. ⬆