Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Turncoat Quits

Geisha



Summary: Like his predecessors Bill Hilf and Martin Taylor, Sam Ramji decided to give up the game

YESTERDAY afternoon we wrote about Miguel de Icaza joining a Microsoft board and shortly afterwards it was discovered that Sam Ramji is leaving Microsoft. Good timing.

Then there is the whole issue of patents and the old school anti-Linux FUD (like the recent BestBuy case). I've seen Ramji stand at the front of a seemingly hostile open source crowd defending Microsoft. It didn't look like much fun to me, but he did it.


Some folks were not entirely sure at the time, but it is now confirmed by Ramji himself. This is good news for Free software because Ramji was doing harm to it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Will someone like Robert Duffner take over? Maybe another new hire? This position is repeatedly left vacant after less than two years. Screwing Free software is not a fun job and those who subscribe for it are not liked; they very well know it.

Speaking of screwing Free software, in his announcement about joining the CodePlex Foundation, Miguel de Icaza makes a seemingly snide remark. He takes a little shot there at the FSF, maybe.

I hope that I can last more on this foundation than I lasted at the FSF, where I was removed by RMS after refusing to be an active part of the campaign to rename Linux as GNU/Linux.


It is not surprising that Miguel de Icaza -- just like Novell -- is siding with Microsoft and distancing himself from the FSF after they expressed concerns about Mono. In Novell's case, there is the whole GPLv3 issue.

Also, yesterday in the news we found this report:

MonoDevelop, the IDE for Mono and .NET, has officially gone cross platform with support for Windows and Mac OS X in the new beta of version 2.2. In his blog, Miguel De Icaza says that this is more than just a "plain GUI port" as it also provides "installers, deep operating system integration and support for native debugging on each platform."


"I was thinking," writes our reader Seller Liar, "Monodevelop 2.2 does not work using Mono for Windows. It needs .NET framework 3.5 to run.

"MonoDevelop for Windows does not work with Mono for Windows."

We pointed this out before [1, 2, 3]. MonoDevelop is a win for Microsoft, for Windows, for .NET, for C#, and maybe even for Visual Studio. It's like a migration route/ramp to all of those things.

Regarding Microsoft's so-called "Foundation" that is about PR and about embracing and extending "Open Source", Redmonk, which has Redmond (Microsoft) as a client, says:

The foundation looks like it will feature an open source community around Microsoft-centric technologies, said analyst Michael Cote of RedMonk.

"Thus far, that world hasn't benefited as greatly from the open source world as say, Java has, but there have been several notable tie-ins over the past years," Cote said. "Setting up a separate entity along with getting all of the IP and patent hoopla ironed out should start to fill that vacuum, namely, where do I go if I want to do open source in the Microsoft world?"


Here is how another person put it: "Microsoft - In need of a bloodless coup"

So here's the real question... can this foundation be used by external collaborators to start driving the process of cultural change inside Microsoft with regard to patents?

[...]

Or people who want to see Microsoft's patent litigation culture change can engage and participate in something like this foundation and try to drive a cultural change from inside Microsoft's own ecosystem.

I think ultimately we are going to need both...both the carrot and the stick. We've gotten a good handle on hold to wield the stick. I'm not so sure we know how to comfortably hold the carrot without risking our fingers getting bitten off.


To most of the world, this foundation may seem like a farce; but for dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft developers it might be a place to escape to, pretending that they too are part of "Open Source".

Microsoft desperately needs more people because when it comes to engineers, Microsoft is massively outnumbered by Free software developers. To make matters worse, Microsoft's recent additional layoffs show no signs of stopping and on top of the canceled picnic Microsoft is now scaling back on its employee meeting. Todd Bishop writes:

The meeting, traditionally closed to the public and press except on rare occasions, gives Microsoft executives a chance to rally the troops. But given the company's unprecedented job cuts, the cheerleading stands to be more subdued this year, as highlighted in a recent post by the anonymous Mini-Microsoft employee blogger.

"Folks are going to come into Safeco, grab their box lunch, sit down with their co-workers and friends and as they fold their pink paper airplane, they are going to remark, 'I can't believe they are spending all this money for today. <<Fill name in the blank>> and more could have kept their job if they just cancelled this horse and pony show.' "


The "new Microsoft" is a smaller Microsoft and a more aggressive Microsoft, as we last showed yesterday [1, 2].

"Do you feel like you're screwing a porcupine and you're one prick against thousands?" the OSCON audience member asked Ramji. Ramji politely replied: "It takes time to change and I knew that I'd be unpopular when I took this job..."

--Microsoft: Not worried about open source patents

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day