Microsoft Devoured the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Now It's Just a Chain of Blunders
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is against openness
Recent: The 'Other' Bruce... on Openwashing at OSI (and Not Bruce Perens, the OSI's Co-founder)
New:
Several years ago Hall left the OSI's board. In private she told me why. It wasn't just her. The OSI, nowadays a Microsoft front group, lost a lot of credibility in recent years. It also lost both of its cofounders. They're still alive, but they choose not to be associated with the OSI anymore.
In recent days people could see posts such as:
- I'm running for the OSI board... maybe
- OSI to Faraone: Too Friggin’ Bad
- Is OSAID to Blame for OSI’s Latest Election Misstep?
- OSI’s Continually Changing Election Story
- Luke Missed the Memo
Let those speak for themselves.
There's no lack of election blunders at the OSI, even in recent years. We covered some in articles and videos. They repeatedly failed to run elections, not only for technical reasons. That was around the time their General Manager left.
3 years ago Nathan Willis wrote: "So it’s a troubling ballot to look at. There’s an ostensibly non-profit organization that’s an official OSI affiliate trying to run its CEO as an individual candidate while also running a second member (a board director) on the appropriate, affiliate ballot in the same election. There’s also two financial sponsors running candidates on the individual ballot, one of them (Red Hat) running two candidates at the same time for the two open seats."
"Comments are closed" in the original blog post, but not in LWN (link above).
Microsoft gets the 'fast lane'. It skips the elections. It just passes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the OSI (directly) and then gets to pick which staff runs the OSI (Microsoft lobbying, Microsoft propaganda, even worse things). It is worth noting that Microsoft's main operative inside of the OSI or at the OSI's management (Nick Vidal) has not blogged there since January 22nd; it's a bit unusual, but merely mentioning that can cause a reaction (OpenSource.net appears to have published nothing since 15 January 2025). The Open Source Initiative (OSI) should generally be regarded or seen as a defunct organisation, hijacked and now run by its original "enemies". █