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Microsoft's Takedown Plot - Part I: When Linux Actually Means Microsoft

Revisionism is a powerful PR tactic

History



Summary: Media manipulation seems to be part of a longterm strategy of Microsoft, with brand dilution at the core of it

THIS mini series deals with a subject covered in two previous posts [1, 2] and this guest post. It's motivated in part by Richard Stallman's (RMS) visit to Microsoft -- an incident which we're sure will be taken out of context and misinterpreted in order to harm Software Freedom.



"It's motivated in part by Richard Stallman's (RMS) visit to Microsoft -- an incident which we're sure will be taken out of context and misinterpreted in order to harm Software Freedom."We decided to give RMS a bit more than one day to respond to our query before going ahead with this long series. It's not just about a Microsoft lecture; but it starts with it. RMS has not responded to me yet (he always does), but I imagine he received a lot of mail over the past couple of days. The FSF hasn't made a statement, either. There's a legitimate concern about lack of transparency surrounding his talk (RMS/FSF usually advertises these in advance). We'll come to this in a moment.

Readers of Techrights, both new ones and longterm/longtime ones (some people have read the site since its birth), have hotly debated the subject, mostly in our IRC channels. The atmosphere surrounding it isn't positive; it's mostly negative. People are not happy. One Techrights reader said he was "very concerned about [issues] such as MS/LF [Linux Foundation] affecting Linux badly. I've just seen on the Trisquel forum that GregKH added Sasha Levin [Microsoft] to the active kernel list then there's another link showing GregKH adding Ben and Sasha's GPG keys."

"We decided to give RMS a bit more than one day to respond to our query before going ahead with this long series."Speaking of the Linux Foundation, and looking at the past ~12 hours' "news", we're seeing more of the same pro-Microsoft agenda. Swapnil's site is still cheering for Microsoft and its abduction of Linux to make proprietary products (example from less than a day ago, akin to this Microsoft surveillance with 'linuxwashing' -- making proprietary software on Azure seem "open" or "cool" or "Linux"). Days ago he spoke about using Xbox and installing Vista 10; this is the sole editor of Linux.com! That's a problem. Swapnil and I used to be friends when he actually promoted Free software. He also did an interview with me for his site (which has changed domain names at least four times). He 'defected' some years back after Microsoft had brainwashed him, perhaps along with some other influences (being associated with the Linux Foundation won't help, will it?). This site used to be called Muktware (Free software), The Mukt and Linux Veda among other names. Now it's pushing proprietary stuff (three examples from yesterday [1, 2, 3]).

Several hours ago Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols published an 'ad' for Microsoft (at ZDNet): "Microsoft hosts first Windows Subsystem for Linux conference"

"Microsoft gleefully distorts the meaning of "Linux" and there are those eager to help it.""Microsoft will be hosting a community conference on the Windows Subsystem for Linux and related technologies in March 2020," he said.

So what?

Microsoft gleefully distorts the meaning of "Linux" and there are those eager to help it. A very short time later this article was promoted by Swapnil in Linux.com. The top of the page now promotes "Linux" as a Microsoft asset (if only they got excited about it not when Microsoft controls it; Swapnil uses Windows).

But it gets worse. This weekend (so far) when you look for "Linux" news you get only Microsoft and Vista 10 news instead (this one shows up too). This is promoted by Linux Foundation associates. Very disturbing.

Hours ago someone asked in our IRC channels: "Why is this the only place that talks about Microsoft being the same."

"This weekend (so far) when you look for "Linux" news you get only Microsoft and Vista 10 news instead..."Notice how nobody in the media (except Techrights) wrote about the Linux.com layoffs! Nobody. Unlike Linux Journal layoffs...

Why are the layoffs of many writers and several editors not newsworthy? They sacked everyone before giving Swapnil the 'keys to the castle' (as sole editor of Linux.com).

This media silence (about Linux.com layoffs) alone makes one wonder...

This isn't normal. It's similar at the EPO by the way. The media refuses to cover the scandals and in some cases the EPO bribed key publishers for it (especially publishers that used to cover some EPO scandals).

Some people's job is to control the story media -- collectively -- tells; a decade back we named the PR agencies that do this for Microsoft. They push puff pieces and pay off those who tell what the clients don't want told. Think of "Microsoft loves Linux". We saw that at the EPO; They singled out 'unwanted' voices and crushed critics, sometimes by intimidation and retribution.

"Some people's job is to control the story media -- collectively -- tells; a decade back we named the PR agencies that do this for Microsoft.""The media is not to be trusted," one person said in IRC a few hours ago (in the context of the Linux Foundation). "It's somebody's agenda they are pushing...for money or other gains."

And "that wasn't always their business model," I responded. "Things changed."

"I have noticed that since the Linus break he took, we don't hear from him," that person continued. "I think they got to him."

We wrote about that many times, e.g. in [1, 2].

Someone needs to speak out. In fact, we can't fight on our own (for the truth) and we need people to spread the word while there are sites that try to suppress it, e.g. by removing links (Hacker News censored a link to a story of ours a few days ago after it had made their front page; it didn't matter that nobody complained about it, which in itself was rather odd). Sure, we don't have money on our side, but truth too is powerful and it ought to be told. We can't fight on our own against all the lies. We try.

As one reader put it a short while ago, "not hearing from Linus makes me uneasy for the Linux Kernel."

Torvalds has done OK for himself, but what started before him in the 1980s is at risk. Sooner or later, unless we do more, people won't be able to use Free/libre operating systems but some awful 'cloud' trap controlled by government/military-connected private sector. ChromeOS is OK by their criteria/standards; it's not about freedom, it's primarily about spying.

"Torvalds has done OK for himself, but what started before him in the 1980s is at risk.""The great thing about Linux is that it's a moving target," one reader said. "Microsoft true colors will soon show."

Microsoft "are really having a department to remove the bad stuff about them," one reader said. Well, they also tried to get me fired -- a subject I mentioned here in the past. They mentioned things that I wrote about them in Techrights (to my boss at work, which is unrelated to Techrights).

"The industry is now after Google in the present and Facebook also," one person noted. "They don't talk about Microsoft. I find that peculiar."

"There's a PR campaign," I responded, and "it's promoted by sites funded by Bill Gates..."

"Microsoft pays people to discredit the privacy of Google," a person said in IRC, whereupon I noted that also professors are paid by Microsoft to do this. It pays them for "letters", for "papers" and so on and that goes back a long way; look up their "Scroogled" PR campaign and various articles we published here a decade ago. A couple of decades ago mainstream media exposed Microsoft as having paid university professors to mention Microsoft trademarks in their lectures.

"A couple of decades ago mainstream media exposed Microsoft as having paid university professors to mention Microsoft trademarks in their lectures."We're sadly moving into a bizarre (not brave) "new world" where Microsoft pops up even in its main competition's sites. Hours ago we stumbled upon this from Linux Academy (scan the page for Microsoft and Azure; this is just wrong... and it's the second time in a few days), this from Mozilla (wasting energy helping to prop up Microsoft's universe of proprietary software... openwashing the 'open core' way) and this from RedHat.com (you expect GNU/Linux news and they give you .NET). These are all examples from the past 24 hours alone! We see more such examples every day.

The next part will deal with how Microsoft now associates itself with Stallman and the FSF (by extension).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Alex Oliva, the Potential 'Successor' of RMS, Has a New Web Site
More freedom for Alex Oliva
Azure is Turning 17 This Year, Still Losing Money and Staff
Hallmark of pyramid schemes, deriving "value" out of things that do not really exist?
Richard Stallman on RISC-V and Free Hardware
Invidious is under attack by Google
IDG 'Reviews' of GNU/Linux Now Contain LLM Slop
It's typically ads or commercials... or sometimes spin disguised as news
In Gopher and Gemini Protocol People Abandon Services Based in the United States
There's no resistance whatsoever
Python and Microsoft: Pandas Should Have Known OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Microsoft Excel Are Different and Competing Things
now we're meant to think that in order to open ODF files we need some functions with "Excel" in their name
Not Only Windows, Surface, and "Hey Hi" PCs; Microsoft's Hardware Ventures Are a Dumpster Fire; HoloLens Mixed Reality Hardware Now Axed Altogether and Staff is Miserable
Microsoft is in a terrible state
Links 15/02/2025: University Price Hikes and Copyright Action Against Slop Companies
Links for the day
Slopwatch: All Those New 'Articles' Are Fake and Crafted by Chatbots (LLM Slop)
Google News is promoting these as "Linux" news; they're not even made by humans
 
Links 15/02/2025: Harms to Health, Public Domain, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/02/2025: On Autistic People, AuraGem Over HTTPS
Links for the day
The Cyber Show (C|S) Speaks of the "Rise of the Nerd Reich."
This 'Valentine Episode' is quite good
Strong Momentum for the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Winter Approaches Its End in Boston or in the Northern Hemisphere
FSF's founder, Richard Stallman, gives another talk in Italy in 9 days from now
The 'Drunken Plagiarists' Are Harming Journalism About GNU/Linux
They lessen the incentive to do real journalism abut GNU/Linux
Female Nazis and racist Swiss women
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 15/02/2025: Erasing of American Science and Tesla SLAPPing Critics
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/02/2025: Spectacles and "Before Sunset", Moving Domains Out of the US
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Only $17,482 Million Left, "Cash on Hand" Sank 40 Billion Dollars in 2 Years
Microsoft runs low on money in the bank
YouTube Layoffs Mean That YouTube is Still Losing a Lot of Money (Net Income or Profit Almost Definitely Negative)
In more recent years Google defunded many vloggers
Certificate Authority (CA) Let's Encrypt Now Down to TEN (0.3% of the Whole) in Geminispace
The number of capsules that use Let's Encrypt is, according to Lupa, about to fall to single-digit figures
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 14, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 14, 2025
Gemini Links 14/02/2025: Mysterious Friend and "Eight by Eight"
Links for the day
They Will Never Leave Linus Torvalds Alone, Rust is Just Another Way to Cause Instability and Infighting in Linux
We already identified the Rust "community" as troublemakers more than 5 years ago and we wrote about the evidence
Apple: Social Justice or Social Nationalism?
Remember to buy Apple, folks
Links 14/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Sophos, Chatbots Failing Very Badly, "DOGE as a National Cyberattack"
Links for the day
Moving Away From Certificate Authorities (CAs) Like Let's Encrypt Means Taking Away From the US Government the Power to 'Censor' Sites by Revoking Certificates
Gemini capsule is cheap to run and easy (easier than a Web site) to maintain. More people disillusioned and frustrated with social control media flock to it.
BetaNews' Managing Editor Wayne William Took Charge of GNU/Linux Articles and His Articles Are Real (He Actually Wrote Them)
We are frankly relieved to see that Wayne William recognised the problem and did something about it
Links 14/02/2025: Publicity Rights Violated (ByteDance), Bribes to Trump Passed via Social Control Media 'Settlements' Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/02/2025: Constitution, Cosmic DE, and More
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles Published by Bots, Dominating Google News
So a lot of the Web is Microsoft chatbot-generated anti-Linux FUD
Links 14/02/2025: Measles Outbreak in Texas, Zelensky Warns Russia Will Attack a NATO Country
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 13, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/02/2025: gwit and Restart
Links for the day
Links 13/02/2025: Algorithm Bots and 'Teleport' Breakthrough
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representatives Confront the President Who Says 'F--king' in Front of Female Workers Over Measurable Discrimination Against Female Colleagues
Central Staff Committee versus Lukashenko's sponsor
IBM Layoffs in 'RTO' Clothing Reported by Thomas Claburn
This "hey hi" (AI) nonsense is just a go-to excuse that IBM and GAFAM (and many others) use
Still Waiting for the EU to Abolish the Illegal and Unconstitutional Court Linked to EPO Corruption and Lobbyism by the Patent Litigation Industry
Sadly, all the blogs that used to talk about those issues have been infiltrated and then completely hijacked by the very perpetrators of the illegality
Social Engineering of the Free Software Movement is a Corporate Takeover With Code of Conduct (CoC) to Drive Out or Expel Dissent
Richard Stallman (RMS) covered "cancel culture"
Links 13/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Google (Disguised as "Buyouts"), Telecoms Price Hikes as Collusion/Price-Fixing
Links for the day
[Video] Richard Stallman Questions and Answers Session in Google's YouTube or Invidious
From last night
Gemini Links 13/02/2025: Broken Watches and Naming Types
Links for the day
Corrupt Bill Gates Worming His Way Into Richard Stallman Videos in Google's YouTube
Reputation laundering riding other people's names?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 12, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 12, 2025