"Loves Linux" like python snakes love mice... or AT&T loves net neutrality

Summary: A reminder of the fact that Microsoft very much hates GNU/Linux, lobbies against it (e.g. in Munich), blackmails companies that distribute it (using software patents) and shares all data stored by its software through back doors (for access by the NSA and other Western spy agencies)

We really don't want to write about those sorts of things, but the GNU/Linux/FOSS news feeds are getting stuffed with marketing of proprietary Microsoft software which neither runs on GNU/Linux (it runs on DrawBridge) nor is final (it's just some RC). It's all about promoting surveillance of database by the first company in the NSA'a PRISM programme, knowing darn well that Microsoft is particularly close to the NSA. Virtually every bit of software from Microsoft (even disk encryption) comes with back doors. That's just how it's meant to be.

"For those who still foolishly believe that Microsoft "loves Linux", well... wake up. That's as ludicrous as AT&T's claims (last week, due to popular online action) that it supports net neutrality (while suing to undermine it)."Microsoft staff and MVPs have already been 'thrown' at me in Twitter in an (failed) attempt to refute what I was saying, but it's clear that Microsoft is simply pulling strings in the media to sell the lies that it "loves Linux" and that proprietary databases from Microsoft are both acceptable and desirable. That's pure 'spam' and it's not as though there is a final product, either.

For those who still foolishly believe that Microsoft "loves Linux", well... wake up. That's as ludicrous as AT&T's claims (last week, due to popular online action) that it supports net neutrality [1-3] (while suing to undermine it). Microsoft continues to use threats of patent lawsuits to compel OEMs to preinstall Microsoft (in exchange for money and 'protection'). That's how Microsoft even interjects its malware into a lot of Android devices and Nokia now helps Microsoft do this to Xiaomi. Pro-Microsoft sites like IAM twist it like this:

Comparatively, the synergies between Xiaomi and Microsoft was straightforward: Xiaomi can put Microsoft’s software in front of a lot of smartphone users. I put this idea to Lin, and he explained that where Xiaomi’s and Nokia’s business interests dovetail is in the cloud.

As we explained a year ago, it was a patent settlement in disguise when Microsoft did it. What we have here is a bully trying to convince its victim that obedience comes from "love" rather than fear or terror.

As for Microsoft FUD against GNU/Linux, it carries on as usual but Microsoft now prefers to 'outsource' it to companies such as Accenture and Black Duck. Clever ploy which works only if people don't look far enough. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. AT&T is joining tomorrow’s net neutrality protest, but it hates the FCC’s net neutrality rules

   AT&T is hardly a fan of net neutrality, at least as most people understand it. The company has been accused by the FCC of violating open internet protections, and has forcefully lobbied against the current rules. It’s even joined in lawsuits to block them.
   
   





2. AT&T joins net neutrality protest—despite suing to block neutrality rules

   AT&T says it is joining a big protest to save net neutrality—even though the company previously sued the US Federal Communications Commission in a failed attempt to get the commission's rules thrown out.
   
   "Tomorrow, AT&T will join the 'Day of Action' for preserving and advancing an open Internet," AT&T Senior Executive VP Bob Quinn wrote in a blog post this afternoon.

3. AT&T Pretends To Love Net Neutrality, Joins Tomorrow's Protest With A Straight Face

   You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger enemy of net neutrality than the fine folks at AT&T. The company has a history of all manner of anti-competitive assaults on the open and competitive internet, from blocking customer access to Apple FaceTime unless users subscribed to more expensive plans, to exempting its own content from arbitrary and unnecessary usage caps while penalizing streaming competitors. AT&T also played a starring role in ensuring the FCC's 2010 net neutrality rules were flimsy garbage, and sued to overturn the agency's tougher, 2015 rules.