10.18.21
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part II — The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement
Series parts:
- Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part I — Inside a Den of Corruption and Misogynists
- YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement
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. █
ᶃ Gemini Space
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