Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Severe Linux Foundation Conflict of Interest (Microsoft Staff in Charge of Linux Foundation)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 23, 2024,
updated Oct 24, 2024

THINGS are not exactly improving. Linux affairs are just getting less transparent. 'Legwork' online becomes necessary. As an associate put it today, "evil does not go away, it just moves around. One has to know where it has moved to."

Latest from the Linux Foundation's site:

Stephen Walli

That's a new addition (recent months). Walli has been attacking the Free software community from the inside for at least two decades. He moves back and forth between Microsoft and organisations it tries to influence from within. We wrote about him for many years. Microsoft even buys him keynote slots at events; therein he does the attacks, too. It's a very toxic actor. Readers keep sending us information about the harms that he has done. Don't underestimate these tactics.

Yet worse: (different person)

Stormy Peters

Sarah Novotny left Microsoft 6 months ago and left the Linux Foundation (Board Of Directors) 18 months ago... after nearly 5 years there. In her role there she tried to outsource Linux to Microsoft! Last year Microsoft had 3 board seats - more than any other company! That's also impermissible, as per the Linux Foundation's rules (it is in the formal IRS filings), so for a bribe from Microsoft the Linux Foundation would even break its own rules... just for Microsoft.

Active (on Microsoft payroll) Microsoft staff is still in the leadership team of the Linux Foundation. One of them left that team and apparently left GitHub/Microsoft as well (it does not say when). From "At-Large Director" to MD at Redpoint...

As far as we can tell, the 'Linux' Foundation has - for the first time - hired someone black (it took nearly two decades). And yet they had the sheer audacity to troll others about "inclusion". The main thing 'Linux' Foundation is good at including is Microsoft. That's inclusion?

And speaking of inclusion, 6+ countries are banned (that's hundreds of millions of people banned from 'Linux' Foundation projects because of their nationality alone).

So you can call Linux "cancer" and still do anything you want inside the 'Linux' Foundation. Even break its rules with impunity.

Just make sure you don't hold a Russian passport (or birth certificate):

The two links above are new and circulating right now.

Contrary to how it's framed (above and elsewhere; put the politics aside), it's not the first time this is happening inside Linux. Microsoft even shut Linux developers out of their own Linux projects. Yes, Microsoft now has this kind of control over Linux. Are you Russian? Then we orphan your own project. Novotny wanted to outsource Linux (the kernel) to GitHub too. Novotny was the community leader for NGINX, which is both Russian and Microsoft. Strange world and how rules are applied (or not) in it. It's not even about politics, it's just all about corporate power and every oligarch's ambitions (no matter the oligarch's loyalties/allegiances).

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Many Articles About Layoffs Are Still Fake, Still LLM Slop, Even About IBM Layoffs
No wonder tech and tech journalism are getting so much worse
Slappification: Using More SLAPP to Cover Up SLAPP and Chaining SLAPPs (From Microsoft) in a Failed Bid to Censor Techrights
How low can a person with a law degree stoop?
Hidden from coroners and the public: tech industry cultural contagion
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman on Patents
uploaded a day ago by Aleksandar Popovic
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Leaking Information of Members (Even in 2025)
More nonsense about Hey Hi (AI), which OSI has been openwashing on Microsoft's payroll
 
Links 21/03/2025: "IBM cuts Thousands" and Outlook Outage Again (Microsoft Looks for Excuses)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2025: "Happy Spring" and Leaving "The Enterprise"
Links for the day
Speak More About the GNU Manifesto (40 Years Old This Month), It Helps Remind People That GNU/Linux Was Started by Richard Stallman and the Ultimate Goal is Freedom
We generally encourage people to speak about Software Freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 20, 2025
Recommended New Article From Dr. Andy Farnell and Some Site Miscellany
Andy says he and his daughter successfully avoid GAFAM
Links 20/03/2025: Executions in China and Crackdowns on Science in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/03/2025: Ubuntu Shafting Common Sense and Blocking of Bots of the Net
Links for the day
Links 20/03/2025: IBM Layoffs (Thousands Reportedly Laid Off) and Lots More Corruption in the White House
Links for the day
Techrights Will Never Capitulate to Threats From Microsofters
Set aside violence against women and all sorts of other things; it's not about personal issues
The Microsoft-Led Open Source Initiative (OSI) is Hurting, It'll Try to Hurt Its Critics and Exposers Now
The OSI's chief meanwhile issues a bunch of meaningless waffle, a sort of "damage control" or "face-saving" platitudes
Apple is Still an Enemy of Open Standards and Software Freedom
Apple did not get any more benign
Gemini Links 20/03/2025: Wanting the Future Back and "Society That Lost Focus"
Links for the day
Fake Articles About GNOME
betanews again
Richard Stallman's Personal Site Says He's Looking for More Opportunities to Speak in Europe
He does not charge people for the talk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Debian Pregnancy Cluster, when I stopped using IRC
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Mass Layoffs at IBM Confirmed
Thousands believed to have been laid off
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, cybersecuritynews.com, gbhackers.com, and techmonitor.ai (Fake 'Articles' About "Linux")
Almost all of them (75%) show up in Google News
Is Ubuntu Compromised? Push Away From GNU and GPL Led by Army Officers.
Perhaps people should ask Canonical what the thinking behind it was...
Gemini Links 19/03/2025: go-gopherproxy and 'Small Web' as Self-expression
Links for the day
Links 19/03/2025: Attention's Cost and Media Still Besieged by Dictatorships
Links for the day
Phoronix Seems to be Trying to Kill Discussion About "Asahi Lina" and the Anti-Torvalds Brigade
Our informed guess is that by reporting this news Phoronix got caught up in flamewars that divide and fracture the community
Claiming to Love What You Reject or Seek to Totally Own, Control
The Russia analogy is political
LinuxTechLab Became Just LLM Slop and SPAM
Another dead (former "Linux") site
The Rust Song
It's about control
Facts on the Case Already Disclosed by US Authorities
NGOs in the UK (several keep abreast of this, judging every recent move) are truly unimpressed
The Times Group (and The Times of India) Basically Died Again
This time a death by LLM slop/plagiarism
The Death of The Economic Times (India Times): LLM Slop Presented as 'Articles', Containing Errors and Revisionism
They'd be better off shutting down operations with some dignity than resort to bots giving the false impression (illusion) of authorship
In Belgium, Android is Finally Measured as Bigger Than Windows
In Belgium, the lobbying capital of Microsoft, it wasn't easy to get there
"Rust People" Are a Threat to BSD Too (the Licence Isn't the Main Issue, Nor is the Proprietary Microsoft Hosting)
BSDs aren't written in Rust, so BSD developers should buckle up
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Sami Tikkanen Explains Rust Language and Its Goals
"Sompi" (the nickname of Sami Tikkanen) has weighed in
Links 19/03/2025: Gardening Season and the Web Without an Audience
Links for the day