--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
THERE'S a lurking danger which we recognise not everyone understands (some understand it but underestimate it). It happens a lot in politics and it happens a lot everywhere, technology included. Microsoft does this a lot, but a lot of people don't fully encounter that. A company or a political party (or ideology) seeks to control its opposition. There are many strategic advantages associated with such a move. They know it. Sometimes it's about control of a government or a publisher (Microsoft does plenty of that too; we've documented plenty of examples).
"Sometimes it's about control of a government or a publisher (Microsoft does plenty of that too; we've documented plenty of examples)."We'd like to share some new (from last week) examples.
Isn't it always pleasant (not) to see an "Open Source Technical Panel" stuffed or stacked by proprietary software companies? "Haivision and Microsoft Host SRT Open Source Technical Panel at IBC 2019" says this title of a new press release. Can't wait for the Green Conference with a keynote by BP, panel discussion of Chevron and Texaco, and sponsorship from Exxon.
The SRT Alliance helps bring streaming to more companies without having to pay loads of money for patents 'pools' (thickets), but this press release says "Haivision and Microsoft are hosting the SRT Technical Panel at IBC2019 featuring video experts from Bridge Technologies, Globo, Haivision and Red Bee Media..."
"Is Microsoft an adequate host for the panel ("Open Source Technical Panel")? Of course not; for one thing, Microsoft is a proprietary software company."Microsoft has long backed the very enemies of patent-free streaming and multimedia. Why is it in this thing? And worse -- why is it hosting the panel? "The SRT Alliance, supporting the SRT Open Source Project, announces that Bridge Technologies, Tencent and 60 other broadcast and streaming solution providers have endorsed the SRT Open Source protocol for low-latency video streaming and file transport," says the press release. Is Microsoft an adequate host for the panel ("Open Source Technical Panel")? Of course not; for one thing, Microsoft is a proprietary software company.
As we noted here some days ago, Microsoft is also infiltrating all sorts of 'Open Source' news sites, including Red Hat's. We've noticed something that disturbs us. Twitter accounts of writers in opensource.com are omitted (and bios are left intentionally empty) when they're Microsoft employees. This is likely because they anticipate the backlash.
Also, as we said over a week ago, Stormy Peters defected to Microsoft well over a decade ago. Now it's official and Microsoft advocates are celebrating it. Now she's just 'coming home' to pick up the reward, like her associate Miguel de Icaza did, as did Nat Friedman (now he controls GitHub). They're all connected to GNOME and Microsoft.
Some people would therefore blame GNOME (but it's a tad hyperbolic).
"As we noted here some days ago, Microsoft is also infiltrating all sorts of 'Open Source' news sites, including Red Hat's."On "the FSF is rewriting history," one reader told us, "speaking of history, we are done cracking the what happened to free software case, right? De Icaza, Stallman called a traitor. Stormy, is a traitor. Halloween Documents -- all mention desktop and patents as vectors to take over. Unless GNOME is a giant decoy, that pretty much wraps it up, right? It was GNOME, all along. GNOME was the main attack point for Microsoft. Red Hat and GNOME both added all that desktop shit to freedesktop, and we are done. That's it, right? I mean, I'm not saying there isn't more. As far as what has happened so far -- that was the plan all along -- right?"
We don't share that view. However, no doubt GNU/Linux as a whole, including the Linux Foundation, gets increasingly infiltrated. It's done by hostile people ('enemies' or 'moles') who do not even (themselves) support GNU/Linux and who rarely use it. The chief of the Linux Foundation never uses it. ⬆