Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Effort to Silence (Squash) GNU/Linux Advocates and Press Coverage

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 07, 2023

If nobody even mentions it anymore, does it still exist and is it considered potent?

Social Media, Google

THE Google 'News' (Gulag Noise [1, 2]) mentions of "Linux" diminish again, partly because sites that used to cover GNU/Linux every day suddenly stopped a few weeks ago (our coverage of it had struck a nerve, attracting about 3,000 readers). No need to shame the publisher or anything (it had done a great job until it stopped almost a month ago). I wrote to the editors:

Linux coverage

Hi,

Regular reader here.

I want to thank you for several years of good coverage regarding FOSS and GNU/Linux, with splendidly detailed reviews, HowTos, commentary, and relevant news items. It has helped raise awareness and is widely appreciated by us users. I can humbly say that your did a good job.

I am concerned that over the past fortnight or so the coverage of these topics/themes quite suddenly stopped. I can see that David Delony, Ummara Mushtaq, Bertel King, Hannah Knight, Sharqa Hameed, Chioma Ibeakanma and others who write in this technical domain, either habitually or regularly, are not actively publishing or barely active anymore.

It is starting to look like the site may have divested and perhaps laid off ~5 people who covered GNU/Linux, 3 of them regularly. Can you please consider assigning more budget/people to coverage (as before) or is there an unknown factor here?

It has been a few days and I got no reply (I've just checked my inbox again very carefully).

What's going on? We don't want to guess aloud, but there are many possibilities.

Remember that Microsoft still bribes to the tune of billions of dollars (we gave the essential context the other day) to approve multi-billion-dollar acquisitions that were otherwise denied (then Microsoft blackmailed an entire nation, the UK). One associate of ours called it "bribery to distract from the anti-trust action starting now" in the UK (and we suppose it's also possible that they reward CMA for its Activision reversal).

To repeat a couple of links from the latest News Roundup:

  1. Amazon slams Microsoft’s business practices in UK cloud market probe

    Amazon’s concerns regarding Microsoft follow similar criticisms made by Google to the CMA in October. In the letter published on Tuesday, Google claims Microsoft’s licensing practices were harmful to UK customers because they leave them with “no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals.” Google said these licensing practices were the biggest issue preventing competition in the UK cloud-computing market.

  2. AWS accuses Microsoft of clipping customers' cloud freedoms

    AWS has publicly called out Microsoft's software licensing terms, claiming they "restrict choice" and make it "financially unviable" for customers to choose anyone other than Microsoft – something Google and other rivals have complained of.

    This was one among the many points addressed by Amazon in its submission [PDF] to Competition Markets Authority, the regulator charged with inspecting the health of the UK cloud sector with special attention to be given to egress fees; committed special discounts; interoperability; and cloud software policies.

    Amazon reckons that the first of these four "hypotheses" are "based on fundamental misconceptions about the IT sector, global networking technology, the actual interoperability of IT services, and discounts on offer."

Is it possible that Microsoft also interferes with publications about GNU/Linux? Using threats or some pseudo-legal agreement with an odious NDA? Don't rule that out, as that happened before. And we also saw how GNU/Linux OEMs stopped promoting GNU/Linux (or lessened that) after Microsoft has paid them to become "partners". In Canonical's case, they even began marketing Windows (WSL).

The latest major Windows news is this: (from British publisher)

Microsoft on Tuesday warned that full security support for Windows 10 will end on October 14, 2025, but offered a lifeline for customers unable or unwilling to upgrade two years hence.

Where's the UK-based Canonical? Why does it not use this to promote Ubuntu?

We've checked their blog meticulously. It's not even mentioned there! The Ubuntu blog is barely about Ubuntu anymore, or barely about "the desktop". It often promotes Microsoft's proprietary software and back doors, even TPM.

We should politely (if at all possible; truth hurts!) note that Microsoft has its share of British moles (who later move to the US to better serve GAFAM, even Microsoft) inside GNU/Linux distros, notably Debian and Ubuntu, or both. They promote Mono/.NET and TPM, even in spite of a lack of relevant qualifications.

What's wrong with all this? Look at the big(ger) picture. Look at the long-term agenda, not just the stepping stones.

It's also about pushing DRM deeper into the market via TPM requirements, an associate reminds us. First, TPM is:

1) optional

Then:

2) required but off by default

3) required and on by default

4) required and no choice but on

We're at step 2 there, especially with Vista 11. And Canonical helps Microsoft get to 4, as does IBM.

The impending doom of Vista 10 is something that Canonical ought to make hay with, according to an associate. It's not acceptable that they continue to pass up such opportunities for increasing Ubuntu market share. It's a repeat of an old problem that started once they got infiltrated by Jo Shields and co.

Prior to Microsoft's Jo getting MoU access, the associate explains, Canonical was keeping Microsoft on the defensive. Then Canonical hired a worker from Microsoft to manage Ubuntu on the desktop (Spencer).

Microsoft took advantage and Canonical never recovered.

Does any or all this stuff sound familiar? To us it most certainly does.

Remember that in Novell, in late 2006, workers censored the site. Novell basically censored its own site to avoid "disparaging" Microsoft after it had signed the notorious patent "deal" (collusion).

Here we go again...

Microsoft's Jo of Team Mono went on to become a direct Microsoft employee (not just their mole or/and shill/shell gamer) and now he's openly friends with Matthew J Garrett, who is also a friend of other Microsoft moles (like the one inside the OSI's Board).

They're still scheming to take down our site based on vicious lies or a false narrative, wherein the saboteur gets misframed as the helpless victim.

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