Bonum Certa Men Certa

Even If Google Deserves Government Scrutiny Over Abuses Against Privacy (and Beyond) We Must Not Discount Microsoft's Role

Playing games of "lesser evilism" (knowing both options are harmful)

Lesser evilism



Summary: Antitrust action against Google may well be what Google's behaviour merits, but we must not forget the role played by Microsoft, trying to get regulators off its back and paint Google as the worst devil of all (while the greatest enemy of Software Freedom undoubtedly remains Microsoft, which now controls GitHub and bribes/infiltrates key institutions including the Linux Foundation)

THE "[D]EVIL YOU DON'T KNOW..."



We live in a world of "lesser evils" with a political sphere/arena where voters are encouraged to vote for pre-approved (by Power) supposed 'not-so-evils'... to get rid of the 'greater evil'...

"And Microsoft is still attacking Free software, including GNU/Linux."So... what about Google anyway? What has it ever done for us, the Free software movement? Not much. A fair bit of harm and a little of benefit...

Forget about GSoC slush funds; it can be seen as marginally beneficial to GNU/Linux and to cross-platform projects like LibreOffice, having to adopt and train inexperienced developers, but to Google (in their view) it's a cheap PR stunt that helps 'pacify' potential critics.

Does that mean Google is mostly benign? Hell no.

But is Google a threat to GNU/Linux? Not exactly, perhaps hardly so...

See, it's difficult to find examples throughout history where Google actively and directly fought or even undermined Free software. Sure, it pushed proprietary software and "services" (SaaS) that could replace Free software. Many of those were all along based on Free software and Google didn't pay agencies to run FUD campaigns against the Free software options.

"Google has the Gentoo-based (or derived) ChromeOS, which also has Crouton (still Microsoft-hosted unfortunately) and nowadays Crostini in Chromium OS."That was Microsoft. Microsoft did that all the time. Microsoft still does this. Watch what happened to the "Open Source" news earlier this month (Black Duck and all that).

And Microsoft is still attacking Free software, including GNU/Linux.

Look no further than this week's nonsensical and highly misleading announcements from Microsoft, which boil down to googlebombing and -- as an associate of ours put it -- EEE tactics. He characterised that as "Windows-only "Linux" graphical programs... EEE now reached the second E... Microsoft tried before to inject a broken version of DirectX into the distros this is now in their own distro..."

Google has the Gentoo-based (or derived) ChromeOS, which also has Crouton (still Microsoft-hosted unfortunately) and nowadays Crostini in Chromium OS. Those are not really helping GNU/Linux; they co-opt it, but users typically have the option to wipe Chrome OS and replace that with a proper GNU/Linux at no charge (not even Windows/Microsoft tax).

So, we're definitely not defending Google; but in some senses, as far as Software Freedom goes, it's safe to call it the "lesser evil"...

"Thankfully Uber seem to be going away (too big a loss to be worth subsidising for much longer)."Necessary evil? No! We're rather have a world with neither Google nor Microsoft (heck, get rid of GAFAM as a whole). Those monopolies or oligopolies (at best) with their social control media and all those surveillance (disguised as "communication") tools are more like data-harvesting operations. Add Twitter, Spotify and Netflix to the mix. It's not the communication/transmission that's the operative model/business model but control of the communications. Budget devoted for militaristic imperialism is set aside and funneled into these on occasions. Thankfully Uber seem to be going away (too big a loss to be worth subsidising for much longer).

Now, back to Google...

Microsoft's role in regulatory action against Google (at least in Europe less than a decade ago) was well documented here, as well as in Groklaw. It was almost a decade ago; it has not stopped since, we just don't observe it so closely anymore. Prior to that we had also demonstrated that many groups and people who prominently spoke against Google were in fact Microsoft funded and often nothing but front groups. Microsoft's idea of creating alternative 'scapegoats' to keep regulators off its back is hardly a new plot. It goes back well over a decade ago. This tactic is used a lot not just in the technology sector.

"Microsoft's idea of creating alternative 'scapegoats' to keep regulators off its back is hardly a new plot."I'd probably be the last to defend Google's practices, in particular with regards to privacy (there are several other troubling aspects). But that does not mean that it's inappropriate to point out Google antitrust serves to distract from Microsoft's greater abuses, disguised using a thin veil of "Microsoft loves something" (which it actually hates and combats) du jour.

For those uncertain about Microsoft's role in siccing regulators on Google, here are some older articles of relevance, sorted by year (chronologically):

2020





2019





2015





2014





2013





2012





2011





2010





2009





There are more (about twice as many), but these may do for now...

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
Brett Wilson LLP Seem to Have Had Only One Litigation Client in 2025, He Was Previously Charged, Just Like the Serial Strangler From Microsoft (Whom They Now Represent)
Karma is superstition, regulators are not
Project 2030 to Cover How "Project 2025"-Styled Anti-Media Zealots From America Targeted Techrights and Tux Machines
The common denominator is also their attacks on women
Brett Wilson LLP Failed to Meet Deadlines Set by Judge 7 Months Earlier, Tried to Ruin Our Holiday, Then Had the Audacity to Ask Us for Over 3,000 Pounds for Its Own Lateness
As a matter of principle we will never respond to assassin while we are on holiday
Americans Attacking British Sites Only Months After They Leave America
We find it kind of funny if not ironic that this site, originally an American site, got legal harassment only from Americans and only months after it had moved to the UK
Despite Losing Over a Quarter Million Dollars a Year Software in the Public Interest (SPI) Gives Helping Hand to Libreboot
SPI's financial state depends a lot on its public image or its reputation
If You Want to Know the Future, Listen to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Andy Farnell
We're sure the FSF will have plenty of its own output
 
Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
Links for the day
Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025
On Claims That After Bluewashing Red Hat Will Increasingly Become an Indian Company
Discussed this week (long and detailed)
Slopwatch: Google Helps Plagiarism and Sends Traffic to Ripoff Artists
That Google as a company helps spamfarms is noteworthy
Links 18/09/2025: A Taliban Ban on Internet Access and Troubled US Job Market
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/09/2025: Computer Literacy and Accessing Alhena's Database
Links for the day
Links 18/09/2025: US War on Media (Truth Banned, Cancel Culture by the Hard Right), NYT Chief Executive Warns Cheeto is Deploying ‘Anti-press Playbook'
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, Fake Text, Fake Images, Negative Slant on "Linux"
Google News has lost its value; the signal-to-noise ratio has fallen off a cliff
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Relax-and-Recover on Proxmox and New Smolweb File Transfer Service
Links for the day
Fact: EFF Got Corrupted by Corporate Money. Microsoft Lunduke (Political Noise): The Issue With EFF is, It Kills Babies.
Microsoft Lunduke - as usual - finds a way to make it about abortions
Pacing Publication Up a Bit
The news cycles have gotten rather light and slow
Links 17/09/2025: Power Outages, Digital Controls, and Attacks on the Mainstream Media (by Insecure and Corrupt Dictators)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Flashing LineageOS and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Long COVID Study, "Exposing Pegasus", and Chatbots Exposing Sensitive Data
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Secret Settlement for Internet Archive and Google’s LLM Slop Summaries Attracting Lawsuits
Links for the day
The True Cost of 'Generative Models'
Funded and promoted by the companies that profit from the waste
'Big Slop' Attacks Contemporary Information/Knowledge and Creative Works, 'Big Copyright' (Cartel) Attacks the Old
Someone at IA will hopefully "blow the whistle" on what they actually agreed
Why We Find It Difficult to Trust Rust
A comparison between C/C++ and Rust
Slop Nihilism is Funded by Big Oil
Eventually human civilisation will destroy itself
Watching the OSI: Our Series Will Carry on Irrespective of the Chief's 'Resignation'
the OSI isn't even the real guardian of the term "Open Source"
Professor Eben Moglen Recovering From Open Heart Surgery
From his public pages (this is not secret)
Just What LibreOffice Needs? Another Language? (Rust)
what's all this concern about memory safety?
Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
"Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company
There Are Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs, But Google News is Infested With Slopfarms
It contributes a lot to misinformation and it encourages plagiarism
Tomorrow, Microsoft's Tim Anderson's 'The Register MS' Offshoot Will Have Been Inactive for 2 Months (There's Also a Slop Problem)
We've already caught The Register MS using LLM slop for articles
Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
And not retiring
Even Windows Users Are Having Problems With "Secure Boot"
When it comes to security - Microsoft strives for the very opposite
Another Competition Crime of Microsoft, Long Facilitated and Advocated by a Bad Actor, Who is Funded by a Third Party to Commit Extortion Against People Who Have Correctly and Repeatedly Warned About It for Over 13 Year
We must always go back to the core issues
3 More Reasons to Replace Mozilla Firefox With LibreWolf
Thankfully there are de-enshittified versions of Firefox
USA Not a Place for Free Speech
In America, as in the US, the attacks seem more enhanced or advanced these days
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Links 17/09/2025: Google Layoffs in "Hey Hi" (AI), Perplexity Hit With More "Hey Hi" (Plagiarism) Lawsuits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Reclaiming Things in a Digital Age and Moon Phases in CGI
Links for the day