They Say Free Software is Like Communism When They, the Proprietary Software Giants, Constantly Pursue Government Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
THE news from the past week showed Microsoft, Google and Palantir receiving government money or "defence" budget, sometimes not just from the United States government. What do you call it when the state governs funding and operations of corporations? Oh. Definitely not Free software.
The old smear or the mis-portrayal of Free software as innately incompatible with capitalism was never based on facts. It was hinged on a desire to distort the truth and associate sharing (between people of the same country) as malicious, suspicious "foreign" activity. As if some Finn from Helsinki making a kernel or a Dutchman who makes a programming language would somehow take down the US, ending its dominance. Guess where they live now...
We have plenty to say about the Russian invasion of Ukraine (an act of obscene aggression by the way), but we'll focus on technological aspects. At the moment Ukraine is at most risk due to its dependence on Microsoft (inside its infrastructure). In that sense, as we repeatedly noted in 2022, Microsoft is Putin's best friend. █