Bonum Certa Men Certa

To Understand Why “Inner Source” is a Cheap Corporate Ploy if Not a Free Software-Hostile 'Scam' Look Who's Behind It

Like "private" repos in proprietary GitHub

InnerSource Commons (ISC) President



Summary: It's rather easy to see that the O'Reilly-connected and Bill Gates-connected leadership of InnerSource Commons (ISC) doesn't register this fake 'charity' to promote Software Freedom but to fight against it under the guise of "open" (openwashing)

LAST year the term "InnerSource" made a temporary comeback, whereupon we looked at who's looking to gain/profit from it (and kept promoting it). "The organization may still develop proprietary software, but internally opens up its development. The term was coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2000," Wikipedia says. But behind the latest incarnation exist curious actors. It's related very closely to openwashing -- another subject we covered extensively last year.



ISC leadership
Oh! Reilly... ORLY?



"Around the same thing I took note of who had become President. It's listed in this press release."There's this thing called InnerSource Commons. Their opening statement says: "The InnerSource Commons (ISC) is a growing community of practitioners with the goal of creating and sharing knowledge about InnerSource: the use of open source best practices for software development within the confines of an organization. Founded in 2015, the InnerSource Commons is now supporting and connecting over seventy companies, academic institutions, and government agencies."

Some months ago they established themselves, as per this press release, as something akin to Linux Foundation. It is a corporate front group.

Around the same thing I took note of who had become President. It's listed in this press release. It's a person who used to work directly for Bill Gates and who crafted a licence whose goal was to be deliberately incompatible with GPL/copyleft. Have things changed? Not quite. "She also runs DaneseWorks, an open source consultancy whose clients have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," it says here. So even after working directly for Gates she still worked for him at some capacity. You know where the salaries come from. Here she is speaking on behalf of "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation" 4 years earlier.

"If their true motivations are purely corporate, why are they exempted from tax?"So from a career of anti-GPL she moved on to work for Bill Gates. Now President of The InnerSource Commons (ISC).

Any further investigation into their motivation would likely be spurious. These people aren't friends of Free software but foes of it.

Mind the fact that similar issues have surfaced at the Linux Foundation, where Microsoft employees (salaried 100% by Microsoft) are now bossing Linus Torvalds and speaking officially for the Foundation. We saw an example of this as recently as days ago. We left a couple of links in Daily Links.

The InnerSource Commons (ISC) is nothing more than a think tank for proprietary software companies, even if it calls itself a charity. It's an insult to legitimate charities and it may cause the IRS to grow ever more suspicious of such "open" groups. If their true motivations are purely corporate, why are they exempted from tax? Just like the Gates Foundation, this seems like a tax dodge. The apple doesn't fall and roll far from the tree...

"There's free software and then there’s open source... there is this thing called the GPL, which we disagree with."

--Bill Gates, April 2008

Recent Techrights' Posts

Sounds Like IBM is Preparing for Mass Layoffs/Redundancies in Red Hat, Albeit in "PIP" (Performance Improvement Plan) or "Relocation" Clothing
This isn't the "old" IBM; they're applying pressure by confusion and humiliation
Gemini Links 17/04/2025: Role of Language and Back to Mutt for E-mail
Links for the day
Microsoft's Attack Dogs Have Failed. Now What?
It would be utterly foolish to assume that Microsoft has any intention of changing
All Your "Github Projects" Will be Gone One Day (Just Like Skype)
If you have code you wish to share and keep, then start learning how to do so on your own
Fedora Already Lost Its Soul Under IBM
Fedora used to be very strict compared to many other distros and it had attracted very bright volunteers
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 18, 2025
Links 18/04/2025: "Fentanylware (TikTok) Exodus Continues", Chinese Weapons Allegedly in Russia Already
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/04/2025: Price of Games and State of Tinylog
Links for the day
"Sayonara" (さよなら), Microsoft
Windows had fallen below iOS in some countries
Links 18/04/2025: Layoffs at Microsoft Infosys and Qt Becoming Increasingly Proprietary (Plus Slop)
Links for the day
Google News is Dying
treating MElon's algorithmic/biased site as a source of verified news
To Understand Who's Truly Controlling You Follow the Trail of Censorship (or Self-Censorship)
Do not let media steal and steer the narrative; CoCs are not about "social justice", they're about corporate domination
Microsoft is Still Attacking GNU/Linux and the Net
Microsoft bribed the government using money that did not even exist
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 17, 2025
Gemini Links 18/04/2025: Pinephone Pro and Linux is too Easy
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2025: Calling Whistleblowers at Microsoft, Slop Doing More Harm Everywhere
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2025: Russian Bot Farms Infect TikTok (Which US Government and SCOTUS Decided to Block January 19), US Hardware Stocks Crash Due to Tariffs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/04/2025: Sticking to Free Software, Smolnet, and Counting the Reals
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: In Conclusion and Enforcement Action Proceeds Against OSI at the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
There's too much to cover in one single part
When You Fail to Filter Your Clients You End Up SLAPPing Reporters on Behalf of Bad People From Microsoft in Another Continent
“American Psycho”
Links 17/04/2025: LayoffBot and Tesla Cheats Buyers
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 16, 2025