01.12.19

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

Linspire ‘Reborn’ is Still Working for Microsoft and Facilitating Surveillance on GNU/Linux Users

Posted in GNU/Linux, Linspire, Microsoft at 4:56 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Avoid, avoid, avoid…

Linspire in Google Trends

Summary: GNU/Linux spyware scandals may be back (and it’s not about Canonical and Amazon but Linspire and Microsoft); Microsoft is meanwhile exposing innocent kids to pedophiles and it refuses to explain or defend this

TECHRIGHTS barely covered Microsoft for more than half a decade, due for the most to patent focus, notably EPO scandals (since 2014) and the demise of software patents after Alice (also since 2014). Later tonight we’ll explain why the USPTO cannot bring such patents back; only courts can.

Written by Michael Larabel earlier this weekend was this article about a new plan:

The resurrected Linspire Linux distribution formerly known as Lindows is planning to enter the Linux server market as well as an upcoming “Office 365″ edition.

More than a decade ago we wrote many articles about Linspire after it had signed a patent deal with Microsoft, causing us to inevitably suggest a boycott. Why is Linspire still in Microsoft’s pockets? And perhaps worse — why does it help the spy agencies spy on GNU/Linux users? Have these people lost their minds again? For a moment I believed that the new efforts were motivated by a morally reformed team, but it doesn’t seem so anymore.

Thanks to Edward Snowden we now have pretty undeniable evidence that it is linked to the NSA. In the name of “combating child abuse” Microsoft engages in surveillance — even GDPR-violating (i.e. illegal in the EU) surveillance — on everything one does online. Even Office. This was widely publicised in the media some years ago. It said that in the name of “protecting kids” Microsoft would scan every single picture a user has. Does it help? Does it work?

“In the name of “combating child abuse” Microsoft engages in surveillance — even GDPR-violating (i.e. illegal in the EU) surveillance — on everything one does online.”No, it’s nonsense.

Microsoft “loves children” a little bit too much (naked even). It’s probably not deliberate, but as some journalists are putting it (to quote a new headline), “Microsoft Refuses to Answer Key Questions About Child Porn in Bing’s Search Results” (stay classy!).

Some have reported that Microsoft not only presents such results, but also recommends them (leading errand searchers to child pornography by means of refined search terms).

“Microsoft’s Bing search engine is facing heat for reportedly including images of child pornography in its search results,” it says in the summary and there are many similar articles. So Microsoft is finally good at something; It’s good when you’re a pedophile…

“Microsoft has clearly not changed…”Microsoft’s connection to child porn is rather irksome and it’s definitely not about neutrality or free speech because, as TechDirt put it three days ago, Microsoft “LinkedIn Is Helping The Chinese Government Silence Critics” and Microsoft has already been censoring search results for China (somehow the media only blasts Google for merely thinking about doing the same).

Microsoft has clearly not changed; as we pointed out in our latest daily links, for example, “Microsoft Deactivated Some Windows 7 PCs With an Update” (as many had feared and repeatedly warned). There is no ‘new’ Microsoft. █

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