Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part II — The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement

Series parts:

  1. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part I — Inside a Den of Corruption and Misogynists
  2. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement


GitHub: Where everything comes to die
Get out while you still can...



Summary: Microsoft contemplated buying GitHub 7.5 years ago; the goal wasn't to actually support "Open Source" but to crush it from the inside and that's what Microsoft has been doing over the past 2.5 years (we have some details from the inside)

THE latest series we have is expected to last months, not weeks. Our in-depth investigation started yesterday as we began fact-checking and verifying claims. Some of them are quite astounding and the challenge will be splitting the revelations into separate logical bits.



As a bit of a teaser, last week we showed what Miguel de Icaza really thinks of the CEO of Microsoft GitHub (Nat Friedman, a rich spoiled boy like Bill Gates). Remember that it was Miguel de Icaza himself who more than 15 years ago worked on the wedding between Microsoft and Novell (the very reason this site exists in the first place) and it's mostly about patents, enabling Microsoft to basically dominate if not commandeer GNU/Linux. Also, for those who are not aware, Miguel de Icaza met Nat Friedman as a Microsoft employee (intern); both still work for Microsoft and Miguel de Icaza actually co-founded GNOME after he had attempted to work for Microsoft (but failed for immigration reasons).

"They say a fish rots from the head down; here too, as we shall see, rich spoiled boy Nat Friedman is the mastermind."This series won't be focusing on aspects that we covered before, e.g. how GitHub renders Free software projects mere "slaves" of Microsoft (Microsoft is the master of everything in GitHub, no matter what it says about the word) or why it's a huge danger (we consider it to be the biggest threat to Free software). Instead, we shall focus mostly on how GitHub is being weaponised against millions of Free software projects, especially those that use reciprocal licences. We'll see who and what is behind that plot, based on insiders' accounts. We don't want to give any spoilers away. They say a fish rots from the head down; here too, as we shall see, rich spoiled boy Nat Friedman is the mastermind. He's so vain that he's blocking, not just stonewalling, many of his critics. He's insecure if not paranoid because he has so much to hide.

"GitHub is another problem," an associate of ours has explained, as "it was only half bad at first but after it got bought out / sold out then it is all bad. I figure it was a defensive maneuver by Microsoft to also gain surveillance over competitors, but more to shut them down and control them. Similar to Mojang."

In the case of Mojang, think of the poor frog inside the warm/hot water that starts boiling and gradually kills the frog in a very cruel fashion. In the case of Minecraft (of Mojang), they stopped the Java version and made a variant of the flagship product that was Windows-only, then they went all in on that. Apparently they also require a Microsoft account to continue using the product. Bundling and social engineering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. In GitHub's case, they try to steer people away from the GPL and change users' practices; moreover, they promote a proprietary IDE, NSA-friendly hosting, and a "better" Git tool (basically pulling an E.E.E. on the original project, which was created by Linus Torvalds). The bundling increases over time. Use it the way Microsoft wants or be left behind..

Remember that ongoing scandal in .NET Foundation (as recent as this month). Microsoft constantly misuses its power in GitHub and it'll only get worse in the future because the fist tightens. The currency is control [1, 2]. That's just Microsoft being Microsoft. Robert X. Cringely once said that Microsoft "have the deepest of pockets, unlimited ambition, and they are willing to lose money for years and years just to make sure that you don't make any money, either. And they are mean, REALLY mean."

GitHub does not make money, but it gives Microsoft a lot of unjust power that it is -- as always! -- happy to abuse/misuse.

"They'll never recover that money," our associate has said about GitHub and Mojang, "but they did shut down a gateway for kids to learn about GNU/Linux and the very existence of non-Microsoft systems."

"Microsoft itself is only about 4/5 of the problem. On top of what it does itself, there is also the fact that various nation states exploit it as a vehicle for nefarious works."

"Hence the continued bailouts via "contracts", like JEDI."

"Microsoft constantly misuses its power in GitHub and it'll only get worse in the future because the fist tightens."We casually mentioned this in yesterday's Daily Links. Expect this series to also cover Pentagon and/or NSA connections. They do exist. Microsoft is more about politics than about technology.

As we focus intensely on the EPO we cannot promise daily or even weekly posts in the GitHub series. But we certainly expect this series to go on for a very long time.

In Part III we'll begin to examine some verified new evidence. In later parts we'll name some of the players (culprits) and illuminate their dark past.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
 
Links 08/07/2025: "Cyberattack Deals Blow to Russian Firmware" and "Cash Remains King"
Links for the day
FSF40 T-shirt message
by Alex Oliva
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Creativity, Gotify with NUT Server, and Sudo Bugs
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.