Video download link | md5sum 4acde7aa8d1e6582a533b3a678a539c3 Blaming the Victims Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: A Microsoft-friendly revisionist history says that GNU/Linux isn't more widely adopted simply because people aren't used to it; while it's true that people typically resist change, this guy completely fails to mention Microsoft's past and ongoing crimes (as recent as this summer), so I respond to the first half of his latest video

THE above is a rebuttal or commentary regarding "year of the Linux desktop" videos; this new one (hours-old) misses a lot of important points and apparently some other people with a YouTube channel do the same thing. They serve to trivialise Microsoft crimes. They're not Microsoft apologists, but they unintentionally help Microsoft.

"They serve to trivialise Microsoft crimes. They're not Microsoft apologists, but they unintentionally help Microsoft."An associate asked me: "Did he acknowledge the OEM monopoly that Microsoft abuses?"

There are so many examples of that, including sub-notebooks and OLPC. Developing countries didn't reject GNU/Linux and that had nothing to do with old habits; it was sabotage by Microsoft. It keeps happening and nobody from Microsoft gets punished for the crimes. They also did this 16 years ago in Walmart.

Apparently many people in YouTube fail to talk about this 'difficult' subject. We have extensive material, even leaked documents, that clearly show what Microsoft does behind the scenes ('secure' boot requirements, massive bribes, OEM lockouts that restrict distribution of other operating systems and so on). Microsoft corruption, such as bribery and other crimes, isn't the subject of mere speculation. Microsoft whistleblowers speak about those things.

"It keeps happening and nobody from Microsoft gets punished for the crimes."As our associate explained, "without acknowledgment of the anti-competitive abuses, specifically stuff like restricted boot and the OEM monopoly, there is really no point and in some ways is kind of blaming the victim:

"if only vendors saw the market potential ..."

"if only distros were easier to use ..."

"if only there were fewer distros ..."

... and so on with the FUD they are reinforcing. Remember that Microsoft successfully fought against and got laws blocking whitebox systems."

"DT [Derek Taylor/DistroTube] often makes the same mistakes. Though I can't guess the reason for DT's mistakes, it can't be naivety because he has been around the block enough times to know how Microsoft operates. If he is trying to project his own values onto the crowd or mob known as Microsoft, then that is a major error in judgement. Without having seen Jay's video(s), I may be off, but say again that projecting ones own values is a common error. There may be other reason for missing or pretending not to see the ongoing anti-competitive behaviors."

My own thoughts are in the video above. ⬆