Bonum Certa Men Certa

Richard Stallman Will Likely Clarify the Role of That Visit to Microsoft (in Which He Promoted Copyleft/GPL)

"I need to see who exactly is saying what exactly. If necessary, I will complain."

Stallman at Microsoft



Summary: Stallman is not too happy about the way his visit to Microsoft may have been (mis)interpreted; the attacks on copyleft/GPL are meanwhile intensifying

Over the past few days we've published at least four [1, 2, 3, 4] articles about Richard Stallman's (RMS) talk at Microsoft. While waiting for a reply from RMS. It took about half a week. As the saying goes, however, better late than never.



RMS has just gotten back to me (after I queried about the Microsoft visit). It seems as though he will have more to say soon. RMS himself is preparing an article, so no need for us to speculate any further. We'll just wait.

“Microsoft is only one of the actors in this context. I've been following ARM's attempts of acquisition of GPL projects in embedded for many years. For some reason they push to remove copyleft from the projects they want to acquire.”
      --Anonymous
As expected, many folks have dubbed that a "mistake" (the talk), possibly due to the way it was presented by Microsoft PR people; they monopolised the narrative. RMS needs to tackle misunderstandings.

In IRC (#techrights) one person pointed out the CopyleftConf from earlier this year, showing sponsorship from Microsoft and the FSF and therefore insinuating, tacitly, there was a compromise if not ‘sellout’. He did not share my view that Stallman wasn't corruptible and was likely misunderstood instead.

“The old method of hiring the project manager to remove copyleft from the project -- see also FreeRTOS becoming Amazon FreeRTOS (this time GPL->MIT).”
      --Anonymous
That person't isn't a troll. That person knows a thing or two about Microsoft's tactics. Last night he showed me these two pages [1, 2] from microsoft.com in response to what I had published earlier in the day. To put it very succinctly, these are technical documents about Azure IoT Device Management and Windows 10 IoT Core Services. "I'm following Microsoft strategy entering IoT/Embedded market," he explained, "since it's the area I'm more involved in right now, and they are doing a lot of promotion of these around, I've seen the same people from Microsoft Germany demoing at embedded trade shows around Europe."

I decided to joke: "Microsoft loves data... I mean, Linux..."

Well, "indeed," he responded, "and cloud lock-in. And stomping on standards. So I see the market fit there, where standards for cloud communication and firmware upgrades are thin and just taking off. I saw a nice panel at RIOT-OS summit in Helsinki this week. Video will be out soon. It contains a call for action to not trust third parties for key management in IoT devices. Microsoft is only one of the actors in this context. I've been following ARM's attempts of acquisition of GPL projects in embedded for many years. For some reason they push to remove copyleft from the projects they want to acquire. That's how PolarSSL became mbedTLS at the time and lost its GPL; looks like they re-instated a GPL for mbedTLS recently (probably due to compatibility problems with Apache2 in GPL2 projects)...

"Amazon's strategy has moreover pushed some Free software projects to become borderline proprietary.""The old method of hiring the project manager to remove copyleft from the project -- see also FreeRTOS becoming Amazon FreeRTOS (this time GPL->MIT)."

In recent months we also saw Apple (and to a lesser degree Google) joining the anti-copyleft/GPL 'cause'. This is problematic and it shows that G.A.F.A.M. are no good to Free software. Amazon's strategy has moreover pushed some Free software projects to become borderline proprietary. They recently hired the person who had advocated this (Mac Asay). It's the same person who opened the gates to Microsoft at the OSI over a decade ago -- certainly a 'village fool's move'. He did that after he had sought to be hired by Microsoft. Know your friends....

As for Microsoft? In the next post we'll show that it is still attacking the GPL, but usually not directly (so as to hide its role through the likes of Black Duck).

At the end of last month Microsoft pushed its proprietary and patented file system into Linux -- something that sites in Microsoft's pockets celebrate until now. Just published by one such site:

Among the benefits of having exFAT available as a Linux kernel driver are its availability out-of-the-box, and better performance. According to Greg Kroah-Hartman, who submitted a patch to the Linux kernel adding support for exFAT, a kernel exFAT driver is much faster than its FUSE equivalent module. Specifically, FUSE modules have higher latency and worse IOPs, which is usually not a big issue on desktop-systems that have plenty of computing power and energy available but it is on embedded and IoT systems.


This is the same Greg Kroah-Hartman who rejects ZFS (even over FUSE) over licensing concerns. But he's totally OK with a Microsoft Trojan horse [1, 2] (long history to that). How very typical. Last week in an interview with a Linux Foundation puff piece generator (Swapnil) he sought to clarify that he doesn't agree with Stallman. As if that surprises anyone...

Recent Techrights' Posts

There Were Several Waves of Microsoft Shanghai Layoffs in 2025, Western Media Continues to Turn a Blind Eye to Chinese Layoffs of an Epic Scale
Sometimes select Taiwanese news sites (published in English) or automated translations are all we have
Brett Wilson LLP Spreads Trumpism to the United Kingdom, Looking to Profit From 'Legal Colonialism' (Overriding Sovereignty)
There's growing recognition of this conundrum worldwide
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Now Confirmed in Western Media: Microsoft Azure Layoffs This Month
Affirmed by more sources moments ago
 
Qualcomm and Manchester United Appear to Have Dumped Microsoft (Qualcomm Now Invests More in Linux, Apparently)
It's a relief to no longer see Microsoft logos and brands on a local football club's gear (I'm not a Manchester United fan, but not a foe either)
As Guest of Honour in Rome, Founder of the Free Software Foundation to Speak ("Distinguished Lecture") After Introduction by Leonardo Querzoni
Happy hacking...
All Things Open is Proprietary
The OSI has become a front group of proprietary software openwashers, led and sponsored by proprietary giants
When Microsoft Lays Off Lots of Workers They Say It "Invests in AI" (a Lie), Now It's "Reshuffles" or "Microsoft Tightens"
Microsoft "news" by bots
"I saw Richard Stallman give a talk in the mid 80s, which began my fear and loathing of software patents" and "Richard Stallman was always right."
"By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological."
The Demise of Shopping in Person
In a world like this, how valued is the customer?
We Are Safe in a Modern "Tech" Society, Right?
People are safer if they control their own computing
This Past Friday, "Nearly 700 People Came to Listen to RMS!" (Richard Stallman)
"Nearly 700 people came to listen to RMS!"
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT Churning Out Plagiarism and the Slopfarm LinuxSecurity Turns to Pseudonyms
Our hunch is, UbuntuPIT will sooner or later realise that this toxic approach is just harming UbuntuPIT and tainting the reputation of past articles
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: Nyctography, Gerrymandering, and Lurking
Links for the day
Links 11/10/2025: World Mental Health Day 2025, Another European Legal Defeat for Microsoft 360
Links for the day
MIT Technology Review is Part-Time SPAMfarm of Billionaires and Mega-Corporations
Does MIT operate its own "b2b" SPAMfarm?
Open Source Initiative Executive Director Leaves, Replacement Sought by Monopolists, Not the Community or OSI Members
Serves to show who runs this show...
Links 11/10/2025: China-US Tensions Grow Again, "Hey Hi" More Widely Recognised as Bubble Made of Capital That Doesn't Exist
Links for the day
Peter O'Callaghan QC represented grandparents, Westernport Hotel, at Liquor Royal Commission
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Either The Register MS Divests From FOSS Coverage or Liam Proven is on Long Holiday
Publishers perish when their audience loses trust in them
Microsoft Cancelling Another Datacentre is a Sign of Financial Trouble and Lack of Growth
The debt continues to grow
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: An Evening at the Fair and Fast Fourier Friday
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 10, 2025
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day