Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Now Uses or Leverages Software Freedom Against Free Software

"For most people, if you wanted to get on the internet, you just clicked on the big blue E on the desktop. It was right there, it worked, and that's all that mattered." (Gates was grilled, in his grueling deposition, about admitting this would be the strategy; he put that in writing)

They won't use Chrome... If we preload EDGE every time they boot their PC
Same strategy as WSL in Vista 10



Summary: A reader's explanation of what Microsoft is trying to accomplish with its so-called 'embrace' and what steps will come next (how they manifest themselves)

THIS may sound strange, but it is absolutely true. Take a moment to think about it. Read carefully because our reader seems to have hit the nail right on the head.



Last week a reader told us what he had seen at the local store, a British shop (large chain) that sells loads of magazines.

That same reader has sent us more input after researching the matter even further.

To put it very succinctly, Microsoft nowadays uses the freedom of Free software to attack both this software and our collective freedom. The company did not change. It is still run by liars, criminals and crooks (ask the US government as it has just fined them for it).

"To put it very succinctly, Microsoft nowadays uses the freedom of Free software to attack both this software and our collective freedom."An associate of ours takes note of this "spam" this morning (his words) and it comes from The Verge, a site which was edited by Bill Gates some years ago. As one might expect, nowadays it does lots of ads for Microsoft, but they're cleverly disguised as articles with insights. We've named some British 'news' sites that do the same for Microsoft. The summary says "Microsoft’s new browser takes on Chrome with some different features."

What are those features? Let's find out...

Our associate has meanwhile taken note of a similar problem (almost identical but at the OS rather than browser space). Some Microsoft-leaning, WSL-promoting "spam" (his word) is being published. People are supposed to think that WSL is a replacement for GNU/Linux? What a joke...

Or that nobody needs to download a browser for Windows anymore? Because of "EDGE"?

"Get a load of this self-serving garbage from Microsoft," our reader explained to us today. “The new Microsoft Edge... is twice as fast as legacy Edge" (tall claims from Microsoft Paul).

"People are supposed to think that WSL is a replacement for GNU/Linux? What a joke..."Get ready for the epic fake 'benchmarks'... the ones Microsoft paid so-called 'analysts' to make about GNU/Linux, especially to make GNU/Linux seem inadequate for servers.

Our reader researched the MSEdge repository and posited that: "translation: Bury core functionality in a Windows DLL that loads at boot, hide the API calls from third-party developers, then sing the praises of the faster and better graphics/media playing of Microsoft Edge. Have these people no shame? That's a rhetorical question..."

To quote the puff piece: "Outside the Microsoft Edge browser, users of other browsers on Windows PCs sometimes face inconsistent feature-sets and performance/battery-life across device types. Some browsers have had slower-progress to embrace new Windows capabilities like touch and ARM processors..."

Time for EEE, right? WSL style...

"Time for EEE, right? WSL style..."Our reader responds: "translation: As Microsoft Edge DLLs gets loaded at boot, they're not counted as impacting battery performance. Any such battery saving features we have buried in Microsoft Edge and are not of course shared with third-party developers. This is the same shuffle we've been playing on you poor fools since the dawn of the personal computer and as long as you still let us, we'll go on fooling you.

"Incidentally, I seriously doubt that Bill Gates has fully withdrawn from Microsoft. The willful distortions and historical revisionism coming out of Redmond has all the hallmarks of his speech patterns. Remember when he welcomed Mozilla onto the Internet, after Microsoft tried to buy Mozilla and then had to settle with licensing Spyglass, who Bill Gates of course cheated out of revenue. (It's in one of the Comes documents)

"Isn't it amazing, someone could go into a magazine shop and come out with a DVD containing all the software they would ever need. That software is at least equal if not better than the Microsoft innovation. And yet every year, the world spends billions on Microsoft licenses."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Workers Fly Away From IBM's Red Hat (This Year a Lot of Red Hat Staff is "IBM")
The stock (share price) of IBM says nothing about what actually goes on
Links 02/01/2026: Science, Patent Maximalism, and Public Domain Day
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/02/2026: Books, Scams, and mkscript (a Script to Make Scripts)
Links for the day
Strong Start for GNU/Linux This Year
based on statCounter
More Tools, Factorising Code
If some things in the site of Gemini capsules don't behave as expected, then that's likely due to a bug
State of Tech Journalism in 2026: Follow the Money
in order to understand what motivates an opinion piece one must follow the money
 
The More Buzzwords a Corporation Resorts To...
buzzwords are a fool's way to compensate for or disguise a lack of knowledge
So You Should Definitely Call it "Slop" and Stop Saying "AI"
with more XBox/gaming layoffs being imminent the blowback will be fun to watch
Why Are We Still Using Voting Machines?
Voting machines still seem to me like an infantile cargo cult and an act of salesmanship (like various security theatre rituals at airports)
"Works for Me!"
Who knows best?
Why IBM Workers Like Techrights (Same Reason EPO Workers Do)
IBM will likely be a daily theme (high rate of recurrence)
In 2025 We Contributed to the Headlessness of the OSI, But It's Not Over Yet
By airing some 'dirty laundry' about the OSI last year we contributed to its current state
Africa's Largest Population Sees Diminishing Impact of Windows
less than 1 in 10 Web requests in Nigeria comes from Windows
Russia Cuts Finnish Cables ("Hybrid War"), Finland Cuts Off Microsoft
the birthplace of Linux
Free Software is More Naturally Inclusive
large, intolerant, violent companies get painted as a glorious example of United Colours of Benetton
Europe in 2026: Over 5% GNU/Linux, Not Counting Chromebooks
2026 has started strongly
Slopfarm Says Microsoft's "Biggest Business" is the 'Business' Where It Loses Tens of Billions of Dollars
TOI still pretends to have a lot of output
At the Start of January 2025 Microsoft President Said Microsoft Would Spend 80 Billion Dollars on "AI" Data Centres. That Didn't Happen. Microsoft Laid Off 30,000 Workers, Debt Surged.
Maybe this coming Monday Microsoft will come up with more false promises and vapourware
Links 02/01/2026: Insurrectionist Attacks Musicians Critical of Him With Lawfare, Project Gutenberg Now Has Over 75,000 Books
Links for the day
Decline in LLM Slop About "Linux" is a Good Start for 2026
When the only remaining proponents of slop are slop, which is pretty much what's happening right now, the bubble is popping
EPO People Power - Part XXII - Contact Officials and Inform Your National Representatives (Delegates) of the EPO's Cocainegate
Europe's largest media intentionally covers up serious scandals in Europe's second-largest institution
Slopwatch Still Dead, Not Enough LLM Slop About "Linux"
this is the desirable thing
LibXML2 Will Carry on (Without or With the Name "LibXML2")
The proprietary software boosters are projecting
Gemini Links 02/01/2026: ThinkPad, SHARP Zaurus, Lagrange Handheld Support
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 01, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 01, 2026
Links 01/01/2026: "Biophobia" and Renewed Effort to Locate MH370
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/01/2026: Bot Accounts Online and Reading in 2025
Links for the day
IBM’s and Red Hat’s "Operation Evolution initiative" Just Long, Fancy Term for Bluewashing, Redundancies, Layoffs
Gerstner is still alive, but he's shorter and more arrogant
Designing a Better Mousetrap or Tools for the SSG
Static Site Generators (SSGs) - unlike all modern Content Management Systems (CMSs) - are so simple that extending them is easy
Links 01/01/2026: 1930 Works in the Public Domain, Electricity Pricing 'a Mystery'
Links for the day
Firefox is Toast Because It Got Toasted by Mozilla
Firefox cannot keep above 2% and hasn't been able to for quite some time
Ignore the LLM Slop and the Noise, Microsoft is in a Death Spiral
So what does Microsoft have left to sell?
Red Hat is Vanishing Before Our Eyes
With some Red Hat staff "transitioning" we wonder if it's an HR hack, wherein they "reset the clock" on employment duration so as to lessen severance obligations
In 2025 Microsoft Lost Palau
Palau now has GNU/Linux at steadily high levels
Microsoft Mocked UNIX/Linux for Not Handling Dates After 2038, Microsoft Breaks Down on 2026!
Only a truly moronic company would design it that way
Another New Year's Resolution: Public Domain Sources, Credits
In addition to our first one
Combatting Slop Images (and ClownFlare)
we won't use or reuse slop images
The End of Red Hat
expect many more layoffs soon
A New Year's Resolution: Maximal Transparency
We'll do our very best to be transparent about everything that's going on, even legal matters
Gemini Links 01/01/2026: 2025 Comes to a Close and Capsular Gemlog Manager
Links for the day
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Raised About 1.3 Million Dollars in the Past Couple of Months!
the FSF's Board now has 10 people in it
2026 IBM Phaseout of Red Hat
Red Hat won't fare any better than most IBM acquisitions
Microsoft Budget Issues, XBox Thrown Under the Bus
They're cutting budget. Soon they'll cut the staff.
Only Hours Into the New Year People Already Discuss the Next Round of Layoffs at Red Hat/IBM
2026 will be another tough year for Red Hat and IBM
EPO People Power - Part XXI - Europe's Second-Largest Institution Became a Corrupt For-Profit Company Run by Drug Addicts
it'll be the demise of the Rule of Law in Europe and maybe a death blow to the EU (eventually), not just the EPO
Another Very Productive Year Commences
"a total of over 17,000 pages in a year"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 31, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Fiji: GNU/Linux Has Risen From Almost Nothing to Almost 5% in Recent Years
It's not as small as people are led to believe
Gemini Links 31/12/2025: Blogosphere is Growing and New Year Begins
Links for the day
Recruiters Don't Use Microsoft LinkedIn, Spammers Use LinkedIn
One of my best friends, a university professor, lost all of his life's savings due to Microsoft LinkedIn
You've Only Wasted Your Life in Social Control Networks
In a sense, social control media is a giant delusion
2025 Was a Very Bad Year for Social Control Media
statCounter sees a gradual demise in Social Control Media access
Don't "Go Paperless", Go Paperful [sic] (for What Really Matters)
Why should we favour paper use sometimes? Well, many reasons.
Complexity Considered Harmful: We Used to Run an Operating System on 64KB of RAM, Not 64GB of RAM (a Million Times More)
"Initially confined to single-tasking on 8-bit processors and no more than 64 kilobytes of memory"
The Slop Industry is Failing So Badly (Mountains of Debt, Losses) That It's Merging With the SPAM Industry
we reckon that Google will eventually delist all slopfarms, recognising they're just a form of SPAM
Links 31/12/2025: Cheeto Pushing for More Wars, ‘Security is a Shared Responsibility’
Links for the day
Enshittification of Postal Services Isn't Technological Advancement
Societies that say the aim is to "go digital" and eliminate paper trail aren't advanced; they're moving backwards
IBM Starts 2026 a Much Smaller Company (Not Homage to Gerstner)
People who get bluewashed out of their job (or bluewashed into unemployment) are gagged by NDAs
XBox is Likely Dead Already, But the Threat It Posed to Us All for Two Decades Isn't Over
"the Xbox was never about gaming and merely served as a test bed for DRM in commodity systems."
Ahead of 2026 Mass Layoffs at Microsoft the Tree Gets Shaken to See Who 'Falls' (Resigns/Retires)
"We had a quiet meeting last week about budget realignment. No one said layoffs, but it’s clear where the focus is shifting."
Almost 6,5000 Pages in 2025, Aiming Higher in 2026
if we can keep focused, then quantity will increase
Microsoft XBox Having a "Dog Ate My Homework" Moment: No New Console Until 3 Years From Now... Because "RAM Prices"
Who will ever remember this in 2028? Nobody.
Gemini End of Year Capsules Tally (Based on Lupa) Shows About 10% Growth
What a difference a year makes
Gemini Links 31/12/2025: New Resolution, Reverse Hexdump, and Programming Languages
Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why Chatbots Became Dishonesty on Top of Dishonesty (Hiding Usage of Dishonest Salads of Words)
new article from CyberShow
Links 31/12/2025: Nvidia Faces Bubble-Bursting Moment, Saudi Oil Money Pumped Into Chatbots to Keep the Energy Waste Going (Circular Financing Again)
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's First Talk in a U.S. College Since 2018
Greetings from Georgia Tech!
EPO People Power - Part XX - Why António Campinos Chose to Put His Cokehead Friend on 'Sick Leave'
EPO Cocainegate will be covered for months to come
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 30, 2025