"An analogy [of Microsoft] would be the owner of a toll bridge, which is the only bridge across a river, paying the owner of land to deny access to a site where a competitive bridge is partly built."

--Judge Robert Bork, former US Supreme Court nominee

Summary: There's a tendency to focus on just one "Evil Empire" (a reductionist over-simplification), but at the moment software freedom faces threats from GIAFAM and more; even Intel (the "other I") is problematic

THE threat posed by Apple (to software freedom) is real and has long been recognised, even if Apple is posing as "UNIX" something. But a lot of people wrongly assume that Google is our friend because of programs such as Summer of Code (never mind abuses of privacy and 'GPL condoms' like Google's attempt to replace Linux in Android) and that IBM, being the owner of Red Hat, is mostly benign if not beneficial. We increasingly find that IBM is the new Novell, not just because many people from IBM ran Novell and both companies fought in court against SCO but because both bought GNU/Linux vendors and then (still) leveraged software patents, liaised with Microsoft, and attacked the Free software community in a number of ways.

"And IBM would do just about anything -- even desperate measures like killing CentOS -- in pursuit of money, just to meet quarterly targets."Microsoft is still very dangerous (for many different reasons), but let's not lose sight of the potent threat posed by what figosdev called "GIAGAM" (I for IBM). IBM is dying but not dead yet. And IBM would do just about anything -- even desperate measures like killing CentOS -- in pursuit of money, just to meet quarterly targets. To better understand what goes on inside IBM watch these threads any day (I watch these about 10 times a day) as many are from insiders and former insiders. They think IBM is going down the bin, just like Novell did. They live on borrowed time, profiting from legacy products/profits/clients while they still last (and while they experience brain drain, a staff exodus, never mind layoffs). ⬆