Bonum Certa Men Certa

When Compromise Means Surrender

Item for sale



Summary: Succumbing to Microsoft managers and selling them influence inside Free software-centric organisations is suicidal because Microsoft's campaign against GNU/Linux continues, albeit it's thinly and strategically disguised as "love"

NEGOTIATION skills and diplomacy are good things. They help bridge gaps between otherwise-unwilling parties, where irreconcilable differences prevail, harming collaboration opportunities.



This isn't to say that all distrust is unwarranted and undesirable. One must assess underlying facts and establish whether one is trustworthy or not. Regrettably, the FSFE's leadership decided that it is somehow OK to take money from Microsoft, which as recently as one year ago leveraged software patents against companies that distribute Linux. As Benjamin Henrion (FFII) put it [1, 2]: "FSFE now sponsored by Microsoft, which is still applying for software patents [...] And FSFE is also sponsored by Ericsson, one of the most aggressive software patent supporter and patent troll..."

"The idea that Microsoft is somehow "Acceptable" or "Reformed" all of a sudden is absolutely laughable. Unless one falls for the PR (lying) campaigns..."We actually have more of an issue with money coming from a company that loathes Free software and attacks it constantly (e.g. with a "free" jail called GitHub). Ericsson's role in patent trolling was explained here many times before; but unlike Microsoft they never attack Linux or Free software directly.

"Microsoft hates GNU/Linux."The idea that Microsoft is somehow "Acceptable" or "Reformed" all of a sudden is absolutely laughable. Unless one falls for the PR (lying) campaigns...

Or unless one looks for excuses to pick up corrupting funds...

Microsoft hates GNU/Linux. It really does. It 'loves' it in the same sense HIV patients love their 'cocktail'.

See how their managers truly feel about GNU/Linux. We recently learned from a reliable and involved source that the WSL adoption numbers are rather laughable (maybe just hundreds of thousands of active users worldwide). The project is an utter failure, so it's being rebranded the "2.0" way. After almost half a decade 'out there', combined with loads of PR and puff pieces from Microsoft boosters inside the media.

Reaching out to corporate partners isn't in itself (or in its own right) evil; it's who you reach out to that counts.

"This isn't helping Free software "win" or become "mainstream"; it's a surrender, or a handover of Free software's soul to corporations most hostile towards Software Freedom."The FSFE was already in hot waters for a number of recent scandals/blunders, which could be traced back to its leadership. This one isn't going to help. The perception is that today's FSFE is basically far too German (like the EPO) and too often in bed with corporate interests, far more so than the FSF. No wonder many members are said to have left. If they hope to replace individual members (and their membership fees) with corporate sponsorships, then the identity of the FSFE too will change. This isn't helping Free software "win" or become "mainstream"; it's a surrender, or a handover of Free software's soul to corporations most hostile towards Software Freedom. Some people profit handsomely from this handover; see the Linux Foundation, the "market leader" in such handovers. It even outsources the code to Microsoft, just like Apache did after ASF has been taken by a Microsoft mole.

“Microsoft has a master plan for open source and it’s not good. Open Source is about Freedom, not control. Don’t you all think it’s a little suspicious what Microsoft paid for GitHub?”

--Eren Niazi, Creator of Open Source Storage



Item sold

Recent Techrights' Posts

The FSF Board and FSF Beard
So the FSF's Board has grown
Law Firms Facing the Consequences for Patently Abusive Litigation on Behalf of Microsoft Employees Who Got Arrested for Strangulation and Had Done Even Worse Things
Having spent 1.5 years bullying me with patronising letters on behalf of Microsofters, last week they got served a massive bill and, in effect, lost the Hearing
 
Censorship is a Sign of Weakness Which Invites More Censorship Attempts
revolutionaries don't succumb to pressure from bullies
Why It's Unlikely That LLM Slop Will Dominate the Web in the Long Run
Slopfarms will eventually perish (they have no actual value) and "survivors" on the Web will be sites that never depended on search engines and social control media
At What Point Does Outsourcing Constitute Malpractice?
Brett Wilson LLP's new staff page is misleading
GNU/Linux in Argentina Now Measured Near 5%
Like in central Europe, they must be seeing an increasingly hostile US
BetaNews is Fake News, Composed by LLM Slop
nothing in BetaNews is written by humans anymore
Links 22/06/2025: Giving Up on Smartphones and 'Jaws' at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Furniture Construction and Bubble for Comments
Links for the day
Links 22/06/2025: Windows TCO Tales and YouTube Getting More Hostile to Users
Links for the day
New Report From the EPO's Staff Representatives in The Hague (LSCTH) Reveals Many Unsolved Issues
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) wrote to staff just before the weekend
LLMs Breaking Everything
Computing and the Net became a playground for scammers and "bros", like people who "invented" fake currencies and also try to tell us that LLMs spewing out things will have some real value
Links 22/06/2025: More Slop Lawsuits (Copyrights) and "America’s Oligarch Problem"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Gigantic Toolchest and Annoying Bots
Links for the day
The Calling
Persist and persevere, justice will come your way
So Far Every BetaNews 'Article' is LLM Slop, So BetaNews is Officially Just a Slopfarm
They just don't seem to value what they have
IBM Rumour: Mass Layoffs (RAs) Lists Being Made for Consulting, With Effect in July 2025
Bogus companies with no viable products and no world-leading (in their field) staff are doomed to perish
Links 21/06/2025: Data Breach With 16 Billion Passwords, Dutch Government Recommends Children Under 15 Stay off TikTok and Instagram
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Notes about Typst (and LaTeX) and Opos
Links for the day
Microsoft's Competition Tactics: Sabotage GNU/Linux Installs, Block Chrome
Edge is dying
1989: Free Software as "Open" Software (OSI Didn't Coin "Open Source", It Also Predates Linux)
"One man's fight for Free software"
The Microsoft OOXML Modus Operandi: Throw 1,000 Pages of Other People's Work for a Judge to Read Ahead of a One-Hour Meeting
No time to discuss this - that's the point
Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO Are in Trouble, Reveals Internal Report
We already know, based on an HR pattern we saw at IBM and elsewhere, that reallocating roles can be prerequisite for dismissal and those who do so expect many to resign anyway
The Web is Slop and FUD, Let's Go to Gemini Protocol
Lupa sees self-signed capsules at 92.4%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 20, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 20, 2025
Links 21/06/2025: Phone Bans for Concerts, Tensions in Taiwan Strait
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Spoilers, Public Yggdrasil Node, Changes to AuraGem Search
Links for the day