Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Corporate 'Cancel Culture' Industry — Part III: Non-Technical People Trying to Ruin the Lives of the Geeks

Video download link | md5sum 2a0e0a8564e17efb26b9f0cccd911048 Against Code Quality and Community Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Series parts:



Summary: Corporate takeover (over the code produced by volunteers who like to code and are good at it) should be a cause for concern to communities composed of altruistic people who share; to the people who see everything as "assets" and "IP" we're just temporarily-valuable resources to be discarded like "slaves" or "serfs"

THE other week I was contacted by someone who had been a cause for concern and then decided to do this series, of which we've done two parts of [1, 2].



"The recent investigation started because Intel exercises too much control over the Linux Foundation, protecting its turf using money..."Today's third part deals with the example that started this whole debate. Towards later parts we'll explain the phenomenon in general. It was explained 1.5 years ago in the "peak code" series by Dr. Andy Farnell [1, 2, 3]. The gist of his series was, we're being robbed by corporations. We must always be apprehensive regrading motivations, as we recently saw in the case of Red Bait. They used an army for volunteers for about 2 decades (Fedora) and now they're putting paywalls on the code. There have been other examples lately of either walled gardens or paywalls. It's rather "trendy" right now...

To put it in very simple terms that everybody can understand, they get people to work for free for "everyone's sake". And then all of a sudden it's not for everyone and you need to buy a subscription even just to access your own contributions, which you gave for free. Academic/scholarly publishers can be a lot like this.

The recent investigation started because Intel exercises too much control over the Linux Foundation, protecting its turf using money; it is "the Intel vs ARM thing is what I've talked about before," psydroid told me. "Linux ran better on x86 chips for a long time because Intel spent a lot of money on optimising it for x86, not because ARM and other chips weren't capable" and "it's not just Linux, it's the whole stack... the thing to understand is that x86 is different from everything else."

It's not unlike OSDL, which predates the Linux Foundation despite this gross distortion in Wikipedia. Intel was a cofounder.

"Some time has passed (nearly a fortnight already) and not a single article on this matter showed up anywhere."Another person argued people out there still misunderstand the Linux Foundation, or LF for short, because of the misleading name. They should not read anything into the name of the LF. It exists to represent the interests of the members in Linux development rather than to promote and advance Linux in society and industry.

Some time has passed (nearly a fortnight already) and not a single article on this matter showed up anywhere. In the next part I'll explain why I refused to participate in any of this. Someone with an axe to grind merits caution, not cooperation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Evri (HermesUK) is Now Run by Bots and Hallucinating Scammers
Years ago they virtually removed support and tried chatbots instead
Clown Storage Without Backups
Setting up several reliable copies of the data, plus several off-site backups (this data is nowhere as sensitive as medical data), should only cost a few grand
FreeCAD is Becoming Slop-ware, Use LibreCAD Instead
It has regular releases and "Qt5 is mandatory" now [...] they at least audit what they add
GAFAM Loyalty Has Come to an End, Morale Low, People Whose Future is Uncertain Choose to Become "Lifers"
morale is low and there's no loyalty anymore
SLAPP Censorship - Part 152 Out of 200: Injunctions Do Not Cover Criticism, They Have Scope
self-incriminating communications
 
Clownflare Sees One in 7 Web Requests in Libya Originating From GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux has taken a (foot)hold there
Openwashing and Manifestos Composed in Private by Dictators With Deliberately Addictive (and Subsidised, Bundled) 'Tech'
It's long, so make a cuppa first
SLAPP Censorship - Part 153 Out of 200: Decades of Debt, Weaponising Borrowed Money to Try to Put Their Critics in Debt
they've always had a financial report by now
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 17, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 17, 2026
Gemini Links 18/08/2026: Solar Power, Kipple and Impermanence, Catastrophe Ethics
Links for the day
Less Technology, More Life
Technology is being associated (sometimes rightly) with physical and mental problems
Google Search Has Gotten Worse (a Lot Worse)
getting worse
Birthday in 80 Days
we'll start decorating and party online with our community
Loans and Massive Debt at Microsoft, This Won't End Well.
Microsoft running out of money to pay salaries (to the point of paying people for 'voluntary' layoffs) is a positive sign?
Gemini Links 17/08/2026: Life in Plain Text, Mimicking KARL, Release of Jugulans, Avoiding Slop
Links for the day
Cuba and Venezuela High in Adoption of GNU/Linux
some of the "communist" nations
Links 17/08/2026: Myanmar’s Cholera Outbreak, China Sends Commercial Vessels Through Arctic
Links for the day
Clownflare Sees About Quarter of Web Requests in Ireland Coming From GNU/Linux
Well, in Ireland it seems like many people adopted GNU/Linux
Clownflare: In Australia and New Zealand GNU/Linux Peaks at Over 10% During Working Hours
That right there is interesting in its own right
Slowing Down by Intention
At the moment we have 6 or 7 ongoing series
Gemini Links 17/08/2026: Chamboree, Partial Solar Eclipse, Lady Macbeth
Links for the day
Links 17/08/2026: "Bluesky Is Down Again!" and "Anti-Social Media"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 16, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 16, 2026
A Vortex of Beacons (or "Bluetooth Everywhere" Vision)
If someone (or someones) calls you paranoid for taking about "beacon"-like functionality, there will be no lack of authoritative citations (e.g. Web links) they can be provided to prove them wrong
Falkland Islands: GNU/Linux Elevated to 6%
GNU/Linux usage seems to have increased a lot there
Links 16/08/2026: Reading Outside, Going Offline More, and Art of Computer Programming
Links for the day
The Question of Patience
Is there a lesson here somewhere?
IBM May be Sued for Mass Layoffs Via PIPs
Some whole threads (with all the long comments in them) recently got nuked by thelayoff.com
Links 16/08/2026: Ceuta Reports Social Control Media Used as a Weapon
Links for the day
Links 16/08/2026: Europe in Crisis of Droughts While Energy- and Water-Consuming, Pollution-Emitting Chatbots Are Spread by GAFAM (US) to Keep a Ponzi Scheme Going
Links for the day
GNU/Linux is a Platform for Work (Usage Surges in Daytime)
GNU/Linux 15% in daytime
We Need Rain, Not Chatbots
There's no "anti-AI" (it's not even AI), there's opposition to fraud, to plagiarism, and to companies that profit more when there's global warning (caused in part by their business activities)
SLAPP Censorship - Part 151 Out of 200: Dealing With Sleazy People and Companies That Steal (While Employing These Sleazy People)
we offer a quick summary and we're reflecting
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 15, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 15, 2026
Gemini Links 16/08/2026: Sterrenkijker Releases, Solar Gemini Server
Links for the day