Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Wants to Remove (or Deprecate) PuTTY From Windows and Replace It With Proprietary Microsoft Software

What would Simon Tatham say?

Simon Tatham



Summary: The most prominent NSA partner wants to 'contribute' to OpenSSH, one of the thorns in the side of spies all around the world

MICROSOFT has just made this bizarre "Looking Forward" announcement, with no timetable. It's about OpenSSH.



"I haven't read the page or even tried to load the link," told us a reader, "but the URL if legit says a lot of bad if they are now targeting and may corrupt that community. Connecting to or from a Windows machine defeats the purpose of the program."

PowerShell was recently mentioned in the context of Microsoft's attempt to openwash it, trying to get UNIX/Linux people addicted to it. PowerShell is proprietary software and it is using Microsoft APIs, conventions, etc. No security-conscientious person (especially computer professional) should ever use it.

A very misleading headline from IDG says that making proprietary software devour OpenSSH is "love". IDG extended this nonsense to several sites which it owns and many people read it there first because of this spamming/repetition/googlebombing [1, 2]. There was later (due to lesser visibility, no spamming) some additional ZDNet's coverage from Linux-oriented journalists and some Linux-oriented sites like Softpedia's Linux section and Phoronix, which wrote: "In the Windows world it has been traditional to use a program such as PuTTY to remotely manage Unix boxes from Windows clients, but no more."

“Like porting a hardened steel padlock to a paper bag.”
      --iophk
Well, so it's more like an unnecessary move then, at the very least because of PuTTY (there are other reasons which we can name another day). What at all is Microsoft contributing here? PuTTY has worked for well over a decade (I first used it around 2001). It was adequately adapted/updated to all versions of Windows as there was market need/demand.

There was pro-Microsoft slant in Microsoft-supportive sites [1, 2] and increasingly (over time) Microsoft-leaning sites such as Slashdot (see coverage) or The Register (see coverage). These used to be pro-FOSS, but that was before Microsoft influence, boosters, money etc. got funneled in.

Our reader iophk, quoting Microsoft Peter as saying that "Microsoft is going to work with {sic} and contribute to {sic} OpenSSH, the de facto standard SSH implementation in the Unix world, to bring its SSH client and server to Windows," criticises this worrisome move. "Like porting a hardened steel padlock to a paper bag," to use his analogy. So a platform with back doors can compromise a network which the NSA, based on Snowden's leak, has not been so successful penetrating (some improvements have been made since there, like deprecation of old ciphers, not deliberately-compromised ciphers like those which Microsoft uses). We have legitimate reasons to be concerned when the first PRISM company and NSA ally (Microsoft) says it wants to 'contribute'. Even when a company like Red Hat wants to alter SSH we dread it a bit because of Red Hat's own relationship with its big client, the Department of Defence, as we have explained before [1, 2, 3, 4]. OpenSSH is a BSD project and the licence too is different, not just the philosophy (OpenBSD is exceptionally strict).

Recent Techrights' Posts

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'
This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
 
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
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
Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
eight-part series
Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
We Shall See...
My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
Going Offline
There was life before the Net
The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
It is basically a fake address on the face of it
There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025
Slopwatch: Slopfarms All Over Google News and Real News Sites Pushed Out of Visibility
Google News is dying (as a tool of value)
Gemini Links 25/08/2025: Numeric-only VM and Alhena 5.3.0
Links for the day
Links 25/08/2025: ‘Panama Playlists’ and Live Nation/Ticketmaster Suit Aims at Class Action
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/08/2025: Empathy Towards Autistic People and Old Gadgets
Links for the day
Links 25/08/2025: Datacentres Versus Water Supplies and "The IPv6 Divide"
Links for the day
Links 25/08/2025: Data Breaches, Politics, and Financial Strain
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Distros Ought to Replace Firefox (and Firefox ESR) With Something Like LibreWolf
Perhaps it's come to replace Firefox
Father of Julian Assange Said the US Government Was Trying to Bankrupt WikiLeaks, Now the Assange Family Promotes Fake Currencies
Using the name for bad purposes?
Bailing Out GAFAM, Giving Taxpayers' Money to Failing Companies, and Trying to Outlaw Lawsuits Against Them
What would the late Lincoln have said?
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Inc. Lost 2 Million Dollars Last Year and Its Chief Took a Salary Increase of Almost $6,000
Another year or two like this... and the SFC will be bankrupt [...] Hallmark of mismanagement
The "New Techrights" Turns Two Very Soon
Accomplishing something each year is what's important, not merely "finishing" another year
Gulf Nations Leave Microsoft Behind
How much lower will Microsoft stoop in an effort to raise money from oil-rich lenders?
How to Combat IRC Trolls (in Our Experience)
Today I want to share my experience (or knowledge) of how to deal with IRC trolls
The Register MS Needs to Stop Participating in the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype, But It Gets Paid to Participate in This Hype
the publisher (The Register MS) wants to have it both ways
Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Living With Your Parents, Zürich Zoo, and Macondo
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 24, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 24, 2025