Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Response to GNU/Linux Adoption: Roundup of Latest Incidents

Time seems limited and tight today, but here are a few themes and brand-new stories you might not want to miss. These are categorised using satirical headings, accompanied by quick commentaries. Perhaps tomorrow -- just perhaps -- time will permit to elaborate further. This stories are all new, so it's important to at least throw them out there for attention and proactive response/rebuttal.

All Your FOSS Are [sic] Belong to Windows



For background on this issue, see the recent Blender conundrum, whose outcome we don't know yet. Some decent further analysis of the takeaways from South Africa, which we last mentioned this morning, comes from Glyn Moody. As a reminder, Microsoft is pressuring the government to abandon plans of freedom and crawl back to proprietary prison. That's the gist of it anyway.

One of the interesting things about Microsoft is that its official commentary on the way things are tends to reveal, rather, how it perceives them. In this case, a completely general open source mandate is morphed into an insane government plot to replace Windows by GNU/Linux.

It's nothing of the kind, of course; it's just about regaining control over a core part of government infrastructure, something that open source provides automatically – and that the proprietary Windows never can. But Microsoft just can't bring itself to admit this, because its entire business model is based on dictating to the customer: Thou Shalt Upgrade to Vista, etc. Instead, it has to frame things in crude, Manichean "Us vs Them", terms. Let's hope that its 2015 strategy is a little more nuanced.


Glyn might not be aware of this, but the government indeed plans to move to GNU/Linux. Here is an older reference of interest: (highlight in red is ours, but the article is not longer locatable)

SA Government's OSS plans revealed



Migration of current systems is also planned. This will be done in a phased approach, beginning with applications such as replacing MS Office with Open Office or KOffice and replacing Internet Explorer with Firefox. This will in time lead up to the operating system, replacing Windows with a Linux distribution. Migration to Apache for the running of government websites has already occurred within a number of departments.


Regarding that latter bit from Glyn (about Microsoft and "Open Source"), Dana Blankenhorn too has commented on that "2015 open source strategy" fluff from The Register, which we critically commented on here.

2015? (Spit take.)

20-ohmygoodness-15?

[...]

Jinkies, even John McCain now says he can get us out of Iraq by 2013.

[...]

In his post, Ramji calls the decision to deliver automated management through System Center across heterogenous environments a “great day.” Great for Microsoft maybe. For the rest of the world, not that big a deal.


That indeed happens to be very self-serving (leaning outwards, to Microsoft's benefit).

Further to this, consider the tongue-in cheek proposal of a response to Microsoft's plot.

So, Microsoft puts out its hand and offers help with porting open-source software, to make it run best on the Windows platform. How mean. Understandable from marketing and business point of view, but mean anyway (and hey, that's my opinion!).

I have a proposal then, a simple one. Since Windows users are already used to trial versions, time-limited, feature-limited, shareware and other pieces of software which they constantly have to "unlock" by using codes found on the net (or keygens), so let it be!

Let's give Windows users what they already know:

1. Limited editions of Free and Open-Source Software for Windows. 2. Full-featured versions, including source code, for all other Operating Systems.


Aras: Putting the Sheet in Bull-Something



Remember SourceForge and Microsoft? It seems like O'Reilly may be jumping on that same wagon now (been told this half an hour ago). Either way, Microsoft continues to use its partners/fakers to further dilute the meaning and intensity of "Open Source". It's a good thing that more people begin to wake up and finally identify the role of the likes of Aras, whose attempt to be associated with "Open Source" (and rave about Microsoft love) seems malicious at best and Microsoft-centric/faithful by the more conservative of yardsticks. Here it is summarised in IT Business Edge:

OStatic blogger Reuven Lerner reiterates that the problem still exists today. Despite OSI’s best efforts and intentions, there really is no one meaning for “open source.” The only way to know what you’re getting is to “read the fine print,” he says, and ask the vendor a lot of questions regarding what open source means for its business.


Microsoft Lawyers: Linux is Illegal!!!11



Not much is new under the Sun. The "patent terrorism" (not our own term, but one that was used by a Sun executive, in reference to Microsoft) is a tactic that lives on. Watch the stance Microsoft's lawyers continue to take against GNU/Linux.

So here are eight things Microsoft could do to add real teeth to its commitment to openness:

1. Reveal the patents allegedly being violated by open source products, or take back claims that Linux and other open source software violate at least 235 of Microsoft's patents.

While we haven't heard more on any patent threats from Microsoft in recent months, they're still out there. "This is in no way removing the issue of patents in the context of infringement," one of Microsoft's top intellectual property execs told me earlier this year, when chatting about Microsoft's recently announced interoperability principles.


Classic Microsoft: You Win? We Dump.



In other less related news, watch out for Microsoft's attempted comeback that combats motherboards with embedded Linux. And no, it's not a EULA this time. It'll just dump and dump and dump. Microsoft rarely competes. It attempts to just suffocate others. It can be easier because crime pays, assuming there's poor or absent oversight.

Quick update: The source which brought up that latest one suggested that motherboards were targeted, but that's not the case. It sure doesn't look like it.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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Neither legal nor useful
 
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
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That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
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Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
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Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
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The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
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Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
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And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
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Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
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Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
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Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
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If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
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Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
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Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
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EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
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"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
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IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
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Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
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They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
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Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
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New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
"Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
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Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
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Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
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