--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

THE brand "Linux" and the project Linux are both under attack from Microsoft. We've been explaining this for years. This attack is multi-faceted and it is partly facilitated by the Linux Foundation, which does not own the Linux Mark (trademark). It is diluting it; it habitually and casually 'borrows' it for openwashing PR purposes.

"It's not a new problem, but it's important to illuminate it every once in a while."Microsoft-controlled or Microsoft-friendly media (not the same thing, but overlaps exist) is trying to use the "Linux" brand to basically legitimise Microsoft's proprietary stuff that spies (i.e. spyware). It's not a new problem, but it's important to illuminate it every once in a while.

Allow us to explain using examples from yesterday alone. We're talking about one day. It happens every day, to some extent...

"Microsoft views .NET and Mono as means to attack Free software developers by essentially making them subservient to Microsoft, which ultimately pushes proprietary software."Yesterday started with Canonical acting as a Microsoft booster, a Clown Computing reseller of sorts, under the title "Azure pricing explained" (screenshot needed here, hence the image above; it's still at the top of their official blog at this moment).

Then, Red Hat was pushing Microsoft's proprietary IDE to developers (instead of proper Free software). Microsoft views .NET and Mono as means to attack Free software developers by essentially making them subservient to Microsoft, which ultimately pushes proprietary software. A day earlier Red Hat had promoted a similar agenda (.NET) and we're meant to think that therefore .NET is 'blessed' by a large "Linux" company.

If that wasn't bad enough, hours later a site called "It's FOSS" was shilling PROPRIETARY SPYWARE of Microsoft instead of FOSS ("Microsoft Teams Progressive Web App Experience is Here for Linux"), joined by various Microsoft propaganda sites, as we noted on Monday (we showed some examples in a video).

"The Linux brand is still valuable and still relatively powerful (many people know or think they know what "Linux" is; fewer understand "GNU")."The problem isn't limited to a few vendors or Web sites. It's not limited to Microsoft-centric sites^*. Phoronix, for instance, was promoting .NET by means of a mention days after shilling some Microsoft distro that hardly anyone uses or even knows about. Some years ago I asked the founder of the site (Michael) what he had in mind when he covered Microsoft news (in a flattering way, too). He told me it's for entertainment. Like clickbait...

The Linux brand is still valuable and still relatively powerful (many people know or think they know what "Linux" is; fewer understand "GNU"). But don't assume it'll stay that way if the trends above persist. There's subjugation going on. ⬆ _____ ^* When searching for "Linux" news yesterday I was instead greeted with quite a lot of Microsoft promotion. Liam Tung, who is a Microsoft mole in ZDNet, was googlebombing "Linux" to promote Microsoft's "Teams" and IDG continues to employ Microsoft's media mole Simon Bisson, so of course he too googlebombed "Linux". Those sites hire and pay salaries to these people despite it being ever so obvious they're not journalists but PR operatives trashing sites to shill Microsoft malware (for the handlers). In fact, Microsoft's "Advertising" partnership with those sites probably requires that they employ such people, whose output even misuses the "Linux" brand to promote a Linux-hostile agenda. Everybody knows that ZDNet is a Microsoft (et al) marketing site. The people who write there very well know and understand they're not employed by a news site and they have a clear view of who the real clients are. They're there to brainwash readers for the real clients.