Bonum Certa Men Certa

Anguish of Monopolies

"We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger….If you’re going to kill someone, there isn’t much reason to get all worked up about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Any discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger."

--Jim Allchin, Microsoft VP



And you are here: 'First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.' - Mahatma Gandhi
Original from Nicholas Klein. They are fighting us while smiling (schmoozing) at us.



Summary: Government bailouts for Microsoft (passing money or national debt from taxpayers to Microsoft's tax-evading management) won't last forever; Microsoft as a business is becoming unsustainable or barely sustainable

THE people who have sympathy for Microsoft are either working for Microsoft or they might simply be mentally weak. Some are exceptionally gullible.



This past week we saw several US "tech" giants falling on their sword; Microsoft too isn't doing well, it has been faking its performance for decades while taking de facto bailouts from the US taxpayers. Nowadays the levels of bailout are unprecedented and barely sustainable.

"Microsoft's influence in the Web has never been more meager."Seeing the rapid demise of Windows (relative to Android in particular), Microsoft resorts to illegal tactics again, this time tightening the screws on Linux and BSD [1, 2, 3, 4] while even bigger things happen at the 'sidelines'.

Microsoft's influence in the Web has never been more meager. In spite of plenty of acquisitions, Microsoft descended into oblivion on the server side. Its Web browser, even when almost imposed on Windows users, continues to lose market share. The same is true for Microsoft's search engine, which Microsoft now markets by proxy in DuckDuckGo (DDG). Yes, DDG is like a Microsoft-hosted Bing proxy that allows Microsoft to spy on everybody. DDG's management now openly admits this while refusing to spill all the beans, citing an NDA. We won't even mention "Azure" being an utter failure because it's not even clear what that brand is; like "clown computing", everything gets rebranded to fake growth while Azure itself quietly lays off staff. It's not growing. It's technically hopeless. Military ("defence") budget cannot eternally bail out "Azure". Sooner or later taxpayers will realise who's causing inflation and why. The shareholders are being conned and a lot of the money in this game is people's pension funds. They're going to lose it. It's like a pyramid scheme, gambling and riding totally fictional valuations.

"The shareholders are being conned and a lot of the money in this game is people's pension funds. They're going to lose it. It's like a pyramid scheme, gambling and riding totally fictional valuations."Mentioned in passing the other day was Netcraft's report for the end of July. The latest Netcraft report, showing sharp decreases for Microsoft yet again, isn't mentioned by the mainstream or "tech" media. Microsoft barely registers in the charts anymore. From what we can gather, a lot of businesses appear to have moved to apache/nginx during the pandemic. Some chose third-party (not locally-hosted, e.g. with Varnish) caches and CDNs. For some that meant "clown computing" or Clownflare, which isn't so good either (Clownflare loses money, it's not really a viable business). Not "so good" to say the least or to put it very politely... they view the "customers" as products and site visitors as something to be sold.

On the desktop ("client") side, Microsoft is throwing wrenches at the cogwheels at hardware level. This whole UEFI thing is obnoxious and they've infiltrated a lot of organisations such as OSI and the Linux Foundation, rendering them Microsoft advocacy groups, i.e. the very antithesis of their original purpose/s.

"When Microsoft goes under we’ll have a new (another) problem to deal with: staff from Microsoft that ends up in a lot of other companies, spreading unfit-for-purpose pseudo-engineering."Microsoft is definitely fighting us. It is using the tactics of Nicolo Machiavelli, but a lot of people aren't familiar with Machiavellian tactics, so they just aren't seeing it. As Machiavelli himself put it: "Men rise from one ambition to another. First they seek to secure themselves from attack, and then they attack others."

Maybe Microsoft was "underdog" in the 1980s, but back then it already sabotaged the rivals and broke the law. By the 1990s Microsoft was already on a killing expedition. Sadly, many of today's young people don't know this. The media distorts their perception and lies to them about the past.

When Microsoft goes under we'll have a new (another) problem to deal with: staff from Microsoft that ends up in a lot of other companies, spreading unfit-for-purpose pseudo-engineering. That has already happened in some companies, including Nokia and Canonical. ⬆

"...yesterday we were notified that the Microsoft representative in charge with the education strategy had requested the organizers to pull the Ubuntu presentation because it is 'unfair competition' to hold such a presentation at an event sponsored by them. They are indeed co-sponsors but the conference is organized by the Ministry of Education and its local office, and is being held on the premises of a public University."

--"Then, they fight you," May 2008



Recent Techrights' Posts

Nearly 1,000 People at EPO 'Met' to Plan Further Strikes and Impending Action to Dethrone Corrupt Leadership
Exploring the purchasing "power" of EPO leadership (buying elections while doing cocaine in public)
 
Gemini Links 24/09/2026: Laziness, Outdoor Seating, "AngelNova’s Interview Malware and Its North Korea Connection"
Links for the day
Links 24/09/2026: Slop "Linked to Disturbing Culture of Sexual Assault"; "Zelensky Warns Russia’s War Will Expand if It Is Not Ended Soon"
Links for the day
Winding-up petition served on Reform UK Party Limited (Nigel Farage)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Appliances Should be Dumb
Any "Smart Home Appliance" is basically a thing that does not last long, does not work as advertised, and is generally unfit for purpose
SLAPP Censorship - Part 198 Out of 200: It Sounds Like Garrett is Now Sending People to Silence Critics (Including His Own Spouse)
This week Garrett is having a somewhat karmic experience
Links 24/09/2026: Slop Contaminating KDE, Slop-Focused Data Centres Have Severe Environmental Impact
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 197 Out of 200: Garrett Became So Poor That He Wants Others (in Another Continent) to Pay for His Own Legal Work Being Faulty
They lie to courts
The Register MS Has Become a Slopfest
This is the behaviour of a perishing publisher
Gemini Links 24/09/2026: Requiem for a Season, Philosophy, Rube-Goldberg Machine, ROOPHLOCH 2026, and Git over Gemini
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 23, 2026
IBM Grapevine: Development Outsourced to LLM Slop and It Results in Many Bugs
IBM is circling down the drain and every insider knows it
Microsoft Gives Many People the 'Booty' This Week, Not Counting PIPs (Silent Layoffs and 'Voluntary' Layoffs)
Microsoft PIPs allegedly target "20-25% in some teams."
Links 23/09/2026: Pax Silica Hub Ruins a Country for a Pyramid Scheme (Slop), Convicted Felon's Press Block Resembles Iran, Russia, China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/09/2026: Stuck, Gambling, Fury Road, IPFS, and More
Links for the day
The Register Got Paid Today to Spew Out "AI" Almost 50 Times (Keeping the Pyramid Scheme Buzzing in Headlines)
paid-for spam
SLAPP Censorship - Part 196 Out of 200: Sending Someone to Our Doorstep to Ship Approximately 5 KG of Legal Papers (Instead of to Our Representatives)
it is not about law, this is lawfare
IBM's Anderon Already Smells Like a Fraud and IBM Insiders Heckle the Lies From the Management
Sabine Hossenfelder recently made some videos which explain in simple terms why IBM is lying and has already lied about this for years
Links 23/09/2026: Mass-Surveillance by Clownflare and "Data Centre" Crunch Commences
Links for the day
Same Name/Brand, Not the Same Project/Product
What is Linux becoming?
Germany, Like Switzerland, Will Dump Microsoft's Proprietary Software and Disservices, Then Dump Windows for GNU/Linux
This impacts not only the Windows revenue; this corrodes any "rents" Microsoft was getting from "subscriptions"
3 Years Divorced From Americans
Next year we plan to pursue the UK's Court of Appeal
The Register MS Uses Slop About Slop (in Images)
Months ago we caught The Register MS using slop for text as well
There Are Likely Over a Thousand Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Networks Online, Net Gain of 16 Seen This Month by Andreas Gelhausen's netsplit.de
It's good that they're still tracking that sort of stuff
SLAPP Censorship - Part 195 Out of 200: Two Years Since Garrett, Graveley and Lozza Worked in Parallel to Censor Techrights
It began in September 2024, shortly after we had sued Garrett
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 8 - In Conclusion
this can invite more SCO-like problems in the future
Microsoft Shuts Down More Studios, Morale Low, More Mass Layoffs Ahead of Reports
They pretend it's not happening or that it's a lot smaller than it actually is
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 22, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Gemini Links 23/09/2026: Ljubljana, Poetry, and FORTRAN
Links for the day
The EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Shows Job Insecurity at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
Who would want to join a company with such low job security?
There Are Thousands More Microsoft Layoffs (Including Silent Layoffs), Not Hundreds
Microsoft does have layoffs and today is no exception (except Microsoft talks about it)
Gemini Links 22/09/2026: Disability Studies, Slop Boosters, and TkInter
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2026: Flock is Collapsing Amid Mass Backlash and Internet Society Collaborates With the 'Epstein Class' (Trafficking of Women)
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 194 Out of 200: The Court Needs to Also Look Into Microsoft-Controlled Restricted Boot Advanced by An American (Garrett) to Promote Monopoly and Back Doors Everywhere
Kill switch sold as 'security' is like euthanasia sold as a cure
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 7 - Infested With or Plagued by Bot-Generated Slop, Committed by Microsofters
Slop is a security threat; even the person committing slop to Linux might not be aware that there's a back/bug door in the code
Raspberry Pi Has Microsoft Secrets Inside, Now DRM
now we deal with SBCs that have DRM in them, put there for commercial reasons
Edward Snowden Lost His Voice, Then His Leaks Lost Exposure (Access Denied)
When states want to deny people access to some information they have many tools at hand
2 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Page That Says "AI" 42 Times Because It Was Paid to Do So
Still inflating the bubble for money
Gemini Links 22/09/2026: Scout Night, Cybernetic Capitalism, and Thoughts on Companies Forcing People to Adopt Plagiarism Engines
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2026: "An Arsenal of Surveillance" and Slop Bots Suggest Starting Wars
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 193 Out of 200: Breaks GNU and Linux, Tries to Silence Critics, Loses All Money, Looks for Microsoft Allies and Sponsors
The latest emotional knee-jerk reactions serve to confirm what we have long said
Things Will Only Get Better (as We Go Backwards)
It only gets better. If you go back in time.
UK High Court Shows SRA is Totally Useless in Curbing SLAPPs, This Has Impact on Our Reporting on the SRA Next Week
We'll carry on our coverage and soon finish the current series that so we can get on with more time-sensitive ones
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 21, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, September 21, 2026