Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Not an Open Source Company But Microsoft Bribed and Took Over Many Open Source Authorities (Rivals' Voice Hijacked)

Hostile takeovers, scuttling the opposition from within

Promoting Microsoft and/or taking over GNU/Linux. Mission accomplished.



Summary: Free/Open Source software (FOSS) and GNU/Linux are being taken over by Microsoft moles, bought by Microsoft Corporation, and the collective voice of the alternative to Microsoft and Windows is being muzzled (they tell us they "love" us while they're attacking us and sometimes suing us)

TECHRIGHTS has spent this horrible year (for FOSS) refocusing on Microsoft's attacks. Readers tell us that 2019 was a terrible year for FOSS for a number of reasons and we agree. This is why we're revisiting many of these issues, notably the infiltrations facilitated by the likes of Jim Zemlin, who turned Linux.com into a Microsoft propaganda site. A site called Linux.com nowadays helps the corporate media spread Microsoft's lies. It's really that bad.



David told us (in IRC), "here is one of those stories that maybe needs a little more attention..."

"Basically," he summarised, it explains "that Microsoft is developing AI for Chinese government use for facial recognition etc. and openwashing it through OpenAI...

"A site called Linux.com nowadays helps the corporate media spread Microsoft's lies.""We all know what media would have said had Google done this in China," I responded, "but much less has been said about what Microsoft is doing there," he added, pretty much finishing my thought. "So I thought it was an interesting article about the "new" Microsoft..."

There's another disturbing new piece; dated yesterday, some readers sent it to us and mentioned it in IRC. It's written by former The Register staff, Ashlee Vance, who left a long time ago to work for more mainstream media; it certainly seems like he has become a Microsoft propagandist for the same publisher as that of Dina Bass (doing Microsoft puff pieces for well over decade). Benjamin Henrion joked, "Github is now ICE resistant!"

So some piece of proprietary software from Microsoft now paints itself as champion and guardian of FOSS?

THIS. IS. INSANE!

"So some piece of proprietary software from Microsoft now paints itself as champion and guardian of FOSS?"The piece is classic Microsoft propaganda ("GitHub is preparing for a different kind of the end of the world.") which glorifies GitHub. Nat Friedman is pronounced "NOT a friend, MAN!" He has long been a turncoat, a mole, a proprietary software infiltrator. These people are no FOSS allies. He had come from Microsoft, came to FOSS, did a lot of damage, and then came back to Microsoft.

Now they talk about safety vaults? After attacking FOSS?

Remember that Microsoft is working for the Pentagon and ICE.

Another reader has noticed and alerted us about this new article in which Mac Asay is citing Microsoft as a source... regarding security of its very opposition!!

Who does Microsoft think it is? So now it's lecturing us on security of FOSS? The company that puts back doors in everything?

"It's like Microsoft controls every meaningful group that's associated with FOSS now. Mission accomplished?"Where are defenders against this malicious entryism? Have they all been bribed and co-opted? It certainly seems so sometimes.

When Sonatype doesn't badmouth FOSS it works for Microsoft more directly to then (yesterday) find itself boosted by the Linux Foundation. So yet more GitHub/Microsoft propaganda from the Linux Foundation. It's like Microsoft controls every meaningful group that's associated with FOSS now. Mission accomplished?

Microsoft has not changed; the PR strategy has.

“This is WAR, and in that regard, I believe we should design Janus such that if this multiboot partition (has a unique partition number (11)) is found, we should warn the user a foreign OS has been detected, give them a chance to exit and read the docs and possibly make a backup, and then repartition the disk, removing the multiboot partition. This way, we disable OS/2 2.0 in *all* cases.”

--Microsoft [PDF]

Recent Techrights' Posts

Copyleft is the Way to Go (Unless You're an Unpaid Volunteer of GAFAM)
The GPL 'family' of licences is very old and those licences were last revised in 2007
statCounter's Numbers Make Sense Given Microsoft's Falling Windows/Client Revenue
There are already articles (some last week) saying that XBox should just be ended
statCounter: New Record Highs for GNU/Linux in Its Birthplace
So Microsoft is in a tough place
Links 02/02/2025: Website Revamps, Blogging About Blogging, and Self-Harming Tariff Wars (Higher Prices)
Links for the day
 
It Seems Like BetaNews is Finally Deleting Fake 'Articles' About "Linux" by LLM Slop (aka Brian Fagioli)
Is BetaNews finally taking these problems more seriously?
Gemini Links 03/02/2025: Art is Process, Smartphones, Internet, and More
Links for the day
Links 03/02/2025: USAID Under Attack, Vista 11 Breaking Itself Again
Links for the day
About 1 in 10 Laptops/Desktops in Venezuela and Cuba Uses GNU/Linux
statCounter says GNU/Linux now exceeds 10% in Cuba
At Microsoft, Promoting Back Doors, Proprietary Lock-in and Mass Surveillance Under the Guise of Diversity ("Microsoft Philanthropy Team")
Microsoft staff enters NGOs to lobby for Microsoft and sell for Microsoft
statCounter: Android Share in Operating Systems, Per Country
Towards the bottom there are poorer countries
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 02, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 02, 2025
statCounter: In Canada, New Lows for Windows and Bing is Perishing
Windows has fallen to about 60% in desktops/laptops
Yandex Has Nearly Caught Up With Microsoft Internationally, Bing Falls to Pre-LLM Hype Levels
Of course we've been saying all along that this would happen
Germany's 'Share' of GNU/Linux Rises to All-Time High Based on This Surveyor
Many public services have made the move to GNU/Linux
Microsoft Uses the Mindset of Drug Dealers and Pays 'News' Sites to Sell 'Drugs'
Microsoft pays publishers to spread the illusion that the only viable option for developers and non-developers is "drugs" like Visual Studio and Microsoft Office, respectively
Windows Going South in the "Global South" (Africa and More)
Microsoft has long been shameless about using the tactics of drug dealers
Sharp Drop for Microsoft Windows This Month, Based on statCounter
Facebook meanwhile censors GNU/Linux advocacy
3 Months Ago Lupa Saw 4,200+ Unique Gemini Capsules; Now It Sees Nearly 4,400
many bots target our capsule (129,152 Gemini requests yesterday alone)
Gemini Links 02/02/2025: Geminispace Targeted by Chatbots, Gabbro 0.1.1 Released
Links for the day
Oracle's Debt Soars to 100 Billion Dollars (12 Billion Added in Just 9 Months!) While Larry Ellison Backs Fascism for Bailouts, Graft, and "Contracts"
Including attempts to gain control of TikTok, owing to the corrupt dictator long promoted by Larry Ellison (also via Twitter takeover)
Links 02/02/2025: Union-Busting and Censorship by Executions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/02/2025: Limits Pushing, Free Software Absolutism, and Why Gemini Matters
Links for the day
Slopwatch: BetaNews and linuxsecurity.com Have Just Published More Fake 'Articles' About "Linux"
There's probably more "Linux" slop out there, but we do our best to identify it on a daily basis
Richard Stallman Has Another Talk in India Tomorrow, at Least Fourth India Talks in Recent Days
In the past month he has given at least half a dozen talks
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 01, 2025
Links 01/02/2025: Chinese and American Censorship, Cloud-[sic]Native Targeted by Software Patents
Links for the day
Links 01/02/2025: Belated Happy New Year 2025 and Gabbro 0.1.2
Links for the day
Hiring for Tech Roles Based on Perceived Loyalty is No Better Than Hiring to Meet Diversity Quotas
What we're seeing right now is a national security disaster and it is almost purely about technology
S.E.O. SPAM by Serial Sloppers With L.L.M. Garbage is Hurting Linux
We continue to run Slopwatch
Links 01/02/2025: Administrative Chaos and Aviation Disasters Persist
Links for the day
Arrested: Albanian Outreachy whistleblowers, Sonny Piers GNOME & Debian connections
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 1/2/2025: LLM Hype Revisited, Linuxwashing by Oumi
Links for the day
Growing Evidence That the Patent Industry Has Become a Major Scam
Seeing that the patent "industry" has turned to serious crimes (sometimes to cover up corruption) and seeing that the net negative is clearer for all to see, people who argue for abolition of all patents will have a field day
IBM Says That Half of Its "Assets" is Basically Pure Fiction ("Goodwill")
It times get tough, IBM can sell "Goodwill" at the local pawn shop and pay back the lenders, right?
Planet Ubuntu Overrun by LLM Slop? Faizul "Piju" 9M2PJU Seems to be Publishing Fake Articles About "Linux"...
Maybe it is "assisted" by LLM slop, but slop is slop and it introduces many problems
Gemini Links 01/02/2025: LLMs, Analog Computer, and BorgBackup
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 31, 2025