Bonum Certa Men Certa

Linux Foundation Inc. Buys Press About Itself and Media Coverage for Sponsors

Indistinguishable from 'blackhat' marketing

Linux Foundation media services
Brochure from the Linux Foundation (LF) reveals how they market themselves to sponsors



Summary: Sponsoring so-called 'news' sites is bad enough; it is even worse when such media then covers you and your sponsors, such as Snyk (a Linux Foundation sponsor/member, fancier word for client)

THE Linux Foundation sponsors/members know what they pay for. It has nothing to do with Linux. It's marketing. Today's LF is, in effect, a PR agency. It's a well-connected PR agency; as one of its PR operatives describes himself in his bio, "I am extremely well connected with the industry and very resourceful."



"It's their business model. They spy on visitors, study them, and lie to them. They do this for their clients (sponsors)."They use the media to promote their clients (the euphemism is sponsors/members).

"Lie and spy."

This is what these so-called 'news' sites do. It's their business model. They spy on visitors, study them, and lie to them. They do this for their clients (sponsors).

"It's obscene and it is antithetical to the core values of Linux, not just GNU. It's something we've come to expect from Microsoft, not the LF."Over the past week we have researched the subject. We found that the LF spends money paying all the major publications that focus on the LF and then links to them from Linux.com. What have we done other than an "open source investigation" (based on publicly-available information)? Tried to get marketing brochures; they don't present these to the public and one needs to make a formal request, specifying one's role in a company, giving a phone number, explaining what the intention is and how the material or "service" will be used. Very secretive. They're also fusing "sponsored" 'content' with legitimate reports.

Waste of LF budget? In effect corrupting media? For sure. But look what sort of partners they choose to work with and pay to. It's obscene and it is antithetical to the core values of Linux, not just GNU. It's something we've come to expect from Microsoft, not the LF. Maybe they're not so different after all.

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