Bonum Certa Men Certa

Miguel de Icaza is at Microsoft, Attacking Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Miguel de Icaza
Wikipedia image modified for humourous purposes (this Wikipedia article about Miguel de Icaza says that "[i]"n summer of 1997, he was interviewed by Microsoft for a job in the Internet Explorer Unix team")



Summary: Miguel de Icaza, who is at Microsoft right now (Microsoft MVP Summit), is attacking Ubuntu/Canonical along with his Microsoft-funded colleagues

Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza keeps focusing only on Mono. It is hard to argue that the person splits his time between Microsoft and non-Microsoft projects because the other project he is associated with right now is Moonlight, not GNOME. The Microsoft/Novell crossover can also be seen in his very recent post which says:



Next week I will be in Bellevue, WA from Sunday to Wednesday to participate in the 2011 Microsoft MVP Summit.


That's why we said he should be ostracised. He is no better than a Microsoft employee steering for certain directions to be taken in the FOSS world. A fellow Microsoft MVP (in the site of another Microsoft MVP, Chris Pirillo) says that Vista 7 SP1 will harm dual-boot Linux, as always [1, 2]. And this is the sort of company de Icaza wants us to trust and collaborate with? This morning's post about Micromoles ought to serve as a warning because de Icaza went to Microsoft for a job interview. He works for de Icaza, not for software freedom; Microsoft is where he finds dividends (while publicly saying/implying in Microsoft-organised events that there is no money in FOSS).

"Novell's interest is in spreading Mono, the product it co-develops with Microsoft and has exclusive protection for use (until next year)."At Novell, de Icaza is more than just this one man. He manages a team of like-minded people to whom Microsoft is a partner and also a source of revenue/paychecks (Microsoft funnels a lot of money into Novell for the company to behave the way Microsoft wants it to). There are many articles regarding the Ubuntu/Banshee argument which we covered at its earliest stages. Almost none of the articles dares to say that the Banshee developers are Novell employees (possibly bossed by de Icaza). "I'd refine that good advice in one respect," wrote Groklaw about this Banshee controversy. "Canonical has lawyers, after all. It's the community that needs to realize they need lawyers too. Lawyers of their own. Not lawyers they share with a company whose interests are not identical with their own."

Novell's interest is in spreading Mono, the product it co-develops with Microsoft and has exclusive protection for use (until next year). Novell is paid by Microsoft to be this sort of parasite and Canonical is now allowing a Microsoft patent liability to enter millions of GNU/Linux desktops. That's a very foolish decision and it works in Microsoft's (and Novell's) favour.

“Canonical has lawyers [...] Not lawyers they share with a company whose interests are not identical with their own.”
      --Pamela Jones, Groklaw
Miguel de Icaza is already exploiting the controversy by making Ubuntu look bad (in Twitter). He links to derogatory Mark Shuttleworth cartoons that make Shuttleworth look greedy, whereas de Icaza will never say a word about the bad behaviour of Bill Gates. Welcome again to the world of spin, where "Linux people" are greedy, zealous, and evil, whereas Microsoft is all fair, professional, and pro-choice (that's what they would have us believe).

This whole maneuver from Novell's Micromoles has harmed Ubuntu's reputation and led to articles such as this one. Canonical is now victimised by Novell/Microsoft Micromoles like de Icaza who conveniently mock it; Canonical is not the problem, it is the victim. The problem is those who want to harm Ubuntu, e.g. by pushing Microsoft patents into it. Edward Wyatt says that a Patent Bill was debated yesterday. To quote: "The Senate on Monday will begin debating a bill that critics say will undermine American strength abroad, plunder the United States economy and exceed the government’s constitutional authority." Patrick Leahy, Orrin Hatch, and Chuck Grassley pushed for the Patent Reform Act of 2011, as we have been noting recently.

As long as software patents are valid in the United States, the likes of de Icaza are knowingly polluting GNU/Linux, priming it for lawsuits and extortion from their beloved Microsoft. Why is this allowed to carry on?

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries