Bonum Certa Men Certa

Googlebombing 'Microsoft Open Source' Even When Microsoft Shuts Down Its 'Open Source' Proxy

Putting news into reverse

Top gear



Summary: A massive failure by the press to cover the most basic news, which is Microsoft putting an end to a supposedly 'Open Source' effort

Microsoft has turned the media into somewhat of a joke. The technology 'news' sites that we can thus far see covering the shutdown of Microsoft's "Open Tech" proxy (we took a very comprehensive look) are simply misleading their readers on behalf of Microsoft. It's an insult to journalism. There is no scepticism, no fact-checking. It's what some people call industrial journalism and it's clear which industry is being served.



Here are some Microsoft "Open Tech" articles that we wrote here before:



"Open Tech" is not 'Open Source' but rather a mole whose goal is to derail 'Open Source' as we know it. It's about making 'Open Source' Microsoft-dependent, i.e. dependent on Windows, SQL Server, Office, and so on. "Open Tech" from Microsoft is better at anti-copyleft propaganda (or anti-Free software), as Microsoft's former manager who founded Black Duck hsd been doing for years (even a decade ago). Here is a reminder from Black Duck, whose anti-Free software press releases are still being republished (we saw this one last night, following last week's media blitz). Black Duck, which came from Microsoft, began as an anti-GPL entity, by its very own admission. Microsoft is just joining it a little later. It's a 'divide and rule' strategy.

To share with our readers some of the poor journalism, see this article which called shutdown "absorption" and see Microsoft's booster Jeffrey Schwartz from the Microsoft-connected sites (a Microsoft boosting network) misleading readers [1, 2] in Redmond and elsewhere using appalling spin. "Microsoft believes enough in its open source commitment that it no longer feels it has to have an offshoot to emphasize," he said. What utter nonsense. It's followed by some more openwashing, such as: "Mark Russinovich, CTO for Azure, earlier this month raised eyebrows when raising the specter of Microsoft open sourcing Windows, saying "it's definitely possible.""

So they return to the googlebombing of "Open Source" -- a gross googlebombing campaign to which Matt Hartley too (despite being a GNU/Linux advocate) is not so reluctant to help/assist.

Saying that Microsoft's shutdown of a so-called "Open" entity is proof of Microsoft's commitment to "Open" is not just counter-intuitive; it's total nonsense, it is make believe, and some fools are falling for it (or maliciously playing along).

We can understand why Microsoft boosters such as Mary Jo Foley and Darryl K. Taft would spread the lies and deceive for Microsoft's agenda (they were among the earliest 'journalists' to cover this 'scoop' with 'damage control' embedded in it), later adding a Microsoft propaganda video. What's harder to justify is reporting from non-Microsoft-affiliated sites doing the same, perhaps refusing to do the most basic research. They are repeating the shameless spin from Microsoft, casting something bad as "good", so it is not really journalism, it is more like PR in disguise and they are complicit in it.

Witness what Microsoft apologists wrote or what Microsoft propaganda sites wrote. Also see some of the more colourful headlines, such "Microsoft Open Technologies to ooze its open source vibes through Microsoft proper" (what a bizarre way to explain a shutdown).

Brian Fagioli, at times a Microsoft troll and propagandist, did the same thing, but the most misleading headline, "Microsoft's open source ambitions pick up speed", came from TechRadar, an occasional Microsoft troll.

How can a shutdown of a unit called "Open Tech" be interpreted as "Microsoft's open source ambitions pick up speed"? Are these journalists drunk, bribed, or just satirical? A better headline would be "Microsoft closes Open Tech open source subsidiary" (in the British press).

All in all, we hope that our readers do understand that the corporate media, saturated with Microsoft friends (pretending to be objective journalists), is lying through its teeth. The above is a complete summary, based on what we were able to find with search tools. It was extremely hard to find accurate reports on this. History is being warped/shaped/revised by friends of Microsoft and the biggest victim is truth itself.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Meme] One Person, Singular Pronoun
Abusing people into abusing the English language is very poor diplomacy
New Article From Richard Stallman Explains Why He Says He and She for Unknown Person (Not 'They')
"Nowadays I use gender-neutral singular pronouns for a person whose gender I don't know"
 
Gemini Not Deflated Yet (Soon Turning 5!)
Gemini numbers still moving up, the protocol will turn five next summer
Links 30/11/2023: Belated End of Henry Kissinger and 'Popular Science' Shuts Online Magazine
Links for the day
Site Priorities and Upcoming Improvements
pages are served very fast
Ending Software Patents in Recent Years (Software Freedom Fighters MIA)
not a resolved issue
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 29, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 30/11/2023: Rushing Patent Cases With Shorter Trial Scheme (STS), Sanctions Not Working
Links for the day
Links 30/11/2023: Google Purging Many Accounts and Content (to Save Money), Finland Fully Seals Border With Russia
Links for the day
Lookout, It's Outlook
Outlook is all about the sharing!
Updated A Month Ago: Richard Stallman on Software Patents as Obstacles to Software Development
very recent update
The 'Smart' Attack on Power Grid Neutrality (or the Wet Dream of Tiered Pricing for Power, Essentially Punishing Poorer Households for Exercising Freedom Like Richer Households)
The dishonest marketing people tell us the age of disservice and discrimination is all about "smart" and "Hey Hi" (AI) as in algorithms akin to traffic-shaping in the context of network neutrality
Links 29/11/2023: VMware Layoffs and Too Many Microsofters Going Inside Google
Links for the day
Is BlueMail a Client of ZDNet Now?
Let's examine what BlueMail does to promote itself
Just What LINUX.COM Needed After Over a Month of Inactivity: SPAM SPAM SPAM (Linux Brand as a Spamfarm)
It's not even about Linux
Microsoft “Discriminated Based on Sexuality”
Relevant, as they love lecturing us on "diversity" and "inclusion"...
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 28, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Media Cannot Tell the Difference Between Microsoft and Iran
a platform with back doors
Links 28/11/2023: New Zealand's Big Tobacco Pivot and Google Mass-Deleting Accounts
Links for the day
Justice is Still the Main Goal
The skulduggery seems to implicate not only Microsoft
OpenBSD Says That Even on Linux, Wayland Still Has a Number of Rough Edges (But IBM Wants to Make X Extinct)
IBM tries to impose unready software on users
[Teaser] Next Week's Part in the Series About Anti-Free Software Militants
an effort to 'cancel' us and spy on us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Permacomputing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constraints Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 27, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, November 27, 2023
When Microsoft Blocks Your Access to Free Software
"Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." [Chicago Sun-Times]
Techrights Statement on 'Cancel Culture' Going Out of Control
relates to a discussion we had in IRC last night
Stuff People Write About Linux
revisionist pieces
Links 28/11/2023: Rosy Crow 1.4.3 and Google Drive Data Loss
Links for the day