Bonum Certa Men Certa

Corporate Media Should Stop Pretending That Former Microsoft Staff is Now FOSS and Linux 'Analysts'

Demonstrating the rogue business model of much of today's media

Linux InsiderSummary: A site called Linux Insider, which many people may assume to be a Linux news site, is stuffed with Linux-hostile material from people who are connected to Microsoft

The 'cancer' (on the Web) which is IDG (dominating technology coverage in many languages and usually attacking GNU/Linux whilst accepting money from Microsoft and Apple) is officially up for sale, but in the mean time we see that not only its writers but also its other employees (e.g. in IDC) produce some FOSS-hostile propaganda. This needs to stop. A lot of people still complain about Galen Gruman (even in our IRC channels) for his latest facts-free attack on GNU/Linux, but the problem is much broader than this and we have been writing about it for almost a decade.



"This was posted in a site called Linux Insider, but it's anti-Linux nonsense promoting a Microsoft-connected firm, using talking points from a Microsoft-connected 'analyst'."Richard Adhikari, who for a number of years has published many anti-Linux (or anti-Android) pieces such as this, usually along the 'security' theme, is now talking to Hilwa from Microsoft. Well, it's not as bad as speaking to Enderle (which ECT does very often, allowing him to smear Microsoft's competitors without disclosing his ties to Microsoft), but it's still pretty bad. ECT previously spoke to him without disclosing his relationship with Microsoft (and so have others). This time he helps bolster the marketing for Black Duck, an anti-FOSS firm that came from Microsoft. To quote parts of this promotional piece from Adhikari (promoting fear of FOSS and helping Black Duck drive sales):

"Containers have caught the imagination of developers because they provide convenient bundles for deployment," said Al Hilwa, a research program director at IDC.

"We have been expecting a variety of software development tools to add support for containers, and in this context, it makes perfect sense to see leading code-scanning players like Black Duck support Docker containers," he told LinuxInsider.

[...]

Scanning tools do enable more secure deployments, but developers still have to take action, IDC's Hilwa said.

Code-scanning technology is analogous to virus-scanning software, he continued.

"A repository of vulnerability metadata or signatures has to be maintained, and the code is scanned against it." Hilwa said. "The role of the scanning software is to keep this metadata up to date."


Does Adhikari know where Black Duck came from? Did he check where Al Hilwa came from? This was posted in a site called Linux Insider, but it's anti-Linux nonsense promoting a Microsoft-connected firm, using talking points from a Microsoft-connected 'analyst'. It demonstrates a lot of what's wrong with today's corporate media. Thankfully, Jack Germain still writes for ECT's Linux Insider and unlike Adhikari he doesn't just write articles that attack Linux.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Windows is an Unnatural Disaster, It is Also Avoidable
there's a wide window of opportunity opening
Killing the News With Spam and Slop Benefits Those Whose Desire is an Uninformed Population
adoption of Free software depends indirectly on political activities/activism
 
The LLM Bubble is About to Implode, Gimmicks and Financial Shell Games Cannot Prevent That, Only Delay It
To inflate the bubble MElon is now doing the classic trick of buying from oneself for a fictional value
Links 30/03/2025: Contagious Ideas, Signal Leak, and Squashing Lousy Patents
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: "Quantum Randomness" and "F-1 Visa Revoked" in US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: US as a Threat, Returning to the WWW
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOA, Turkey Arrested Many Journalists
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 29, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 29, 2025
Judges Would Never Rule for Men Who Strangle Women or Against Women Who Merely Wrote Articles About Abuse They Had Received From Men
We don't intend to do "trial by media", so we won't be disclosing claims and defences until it's over
Gemini Links 29/03/2025: Less YouTube and More Station
Links for the day
In Some Countries, Such as Thailand, Firefox is Already Measured at Less Than 2% (One Day Firefox Will Get Blocked, Not Only Lack Support)
Web consolidation around Chrom-isms will doom the Web as we know it
Links 29/03/2025: Trademarks Battles, Fires Destroy More Than 3,000 South Korean Homes
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: An Introduction
Perhaps tomorrow or perhaps next week we'll share more information about what happened and what was reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency
Links 29/03/2025: More Crackdowns on Science, "Hey Hi" Slopping is Flopping
Links for the day
IBM's BS (Bait, Switch) Regarding Ways to Stay Onboard
PIPs, RTOs, and forced relocations are just an illusion of choice (or ability to recover)
Costa Rica Almost Bankrupt Because of Microsoft
the incidents in Costa Rica are Windows incidents
Gemini Links 29/03/2025: Art of Looking, Wireguard, EMacs
Links for the day
Links 29/03/2025: Attacks on Social Security and War Updates
Links for the day
Banned evidence: Ars Technica forums censored email predicting DebConf23 death, Abraham Raji & Debian cover-up
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 28, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 28, 2025
Intimidation, Threats, and Bullying Not Tolerated by Techrights
When it comes to our reporting, safety always comes first
A World Without Rules
We're long insisted on better laws and actual enforcement of them (applicable to all, not selectively applied)
statCounter Sees Microsoft Windows Falling to New, Unprecedented Lows in Palau
Taking Android into account, Windows is now down to an all-time low of 14%
Google News Lost the Fight to LLM Slop (While Google Itself Sells Slop, Nowadays Under the Name "Gemini")
Many people say that "Google is getting worse"; that's almost an understatement
Links 28/03/2025: AirAsia Trouble Again, UMich Culls All DEI Programs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Alexa is for Gullible People, Rant About Feature Overload
Links for the day
The SLAPPs From the Microsoft Strangler (and Sidekick) No Better Than Patent Trolling
one must never settle with trolls
Something to Celebrate in Gemini Protocol
More capsules and users join in
Links 28/03/2025: Last Reminder "to Delete Your 23andMe Data", "UK's First Permanent Facial Recognition Cameras Installed"
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical Continues Its FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) Campaign, Reveals Google Too Sponsored It
They're paid-for lies from a Chinese company that takes GAFAM money to write puff pieces about them
Android Rises Above 76% in Mozambique, Leaving Windows in the Dust
Windows may soon be measured as smaller than Apple's iOS
IBM, Red Hat and Microsoft Probably Also Manipulate Metrics (It Helps Con the Shareholders)
Wall Street's credibility will depend on enforcement of "checks and balances"
Slopwatch: trendhunter.com and Other Pure Junk From "Google News"
The need to vet sources is hardly new; anyone can spew out anything, anywhere. There's a need for vetting.
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Rewatching The X-Files, Slop Concerns, and NOSTR Censorship
Links for the day
Links 28/03/2025: Australia at Risk, EPO Grants Illegal Patents With Illegal Effect
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 27, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 27, 2025