Software Freedom won't be accomplished with proprietary things like Chrome, GitHub, Linux-powered surveillance 'clouds' and Linux-based listening devices

Summary: Openwashing and similar tactics have helped malicious software portray itself as the very opposite of what it really is (and confuse the public to the detriment of Software Freedom); even the concept of "Ethics" has been hijacked

"Open Source has won!"

How many headlines like these have we seen in recent years?

What they mean to say is, the openwashing of proprietary software is "mission accomplished!"

"This phenomenon is like a "Cancer" or "Disease" or "Disaster" and over the past month about 80-90% of news articles I've seen about "Open Source" aren't about Free/libre software but some phony 'open' thing that's actually proprietary software (or gateway towards it).""Microsoft is an Open Source company..."

How many articles and sometimes headlines tell us that ludicrous lie?

Seriously. How many? Loads. We responded to a wave of these articles last month. It wasn't the first such wave. Think of it as the journalistic equivalent of articles/headlines that tell us Facebook values privacy (usually parroting what some lying executives from Facebook publicly said).

We get the same feeling any time European Patent Office (EPO) presidents like Campinos or Battistelli tell us they value "Quality", "Transparency", "Respect" and so on.

"To me, personally, the whole Open Source 'movement' (more of a corporate campaign) is dead."Over a month ago we ended our Openwashing Reports altogether -- just a week or two (fortnight) after we spoke of the need to make these daily rather than weekly because the "openwashing" phenomenon had spread spectacularly. This phenomenon is like a "Cancer" or "Disease" or "Disaster" and over the past month about 80-90% of news articles I've seen about "Open Source" aren't about Free/libre software but some phony 'open' thing that's actually proprietary software (or gateway towards it).

To me, personally, the whole Open Source 'movement' (more of a corporate campaign) is dead. Unless its goal all along was just to hijack the FSF's work and then 'defuse' it. If that was the goal, then well done, you're succeeding. The FSF lost almost half of its Board members in a month.

“Open Source is dead. Long live (or be resurrected) Free software.”So later today we will, as usual for Sundays, have an extensive section on "openwashing" in our Daily Links; there's too much of it all to break down and explain individually. That used to take many hours every weekend when we did the "Openwashing Report"; how many hours? All in all, nearly 7 hours per week. That's too much. Let's instead put it like this. Open Source is dead. Long live (or be resurrected) Free software.

So-called 'journalists' who write stuff like "Open Source has won!" wouldn't know Software Freedom if it hit them right in the face. They're more like corporate writers going by the official 'script' -- like the people who nowadays run Linux.com while promoting proprietary software in their personal sites ('on the side'; also promoting non-Linux stuff and bashing Linux). Two examples of this yesterday (SAP), but we won't link to either of these...

As for the official "Open Source" site (OSI), look under "Sponsors". Microsoft is listed there three times -- more than any other company! It figures. From publishing the Halloween Documents (exposing Microsoft's attack on "Open Source") to be sponsored by Microsoft, which lies about "Open Source" and attacks in all sorts of ways (still). Whose mission was accomplished? ⬆