Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Uses Novell, Likewise, and Ignorance to Market Its Products

Monkey freedom
Mono: Microsoft prison



Summary: Another look at the ways in which Microsoft markets itself with the help of former employees and submissive companies

Microsoft's internal talks about evangelism [1, 2] explain very clearly that the company's goal is to spread and reinforce Microsoft as an industry standard. Microsoft may not publicly promote Mono as much as it can, but that's because, as a Microsoft evangelist put it, "I saw that internally inside Microsoft many times when I was told to stay away from supporting Mono in public. They reserve the right to sue."



Microsoft's victory with Mono is two-fold; it holds GNU/Linux legally accountable and at the same time it spreads .NET at the expense of superior competition such as Java. Sam Varghese has just published an article which elucidates all this:

Mono fits in neatly with the Microsoft vision



[...]

It fits in very neatly with the definition of evangelism at Microsoft: "Evangelism is the art and science of getting developers to ship products that support Microsoft's platforms". (thanks to greygeek on the linuxtoday forums).

The definition is contained in a highly confidential document titled "Effective Evangelism" which came to light during the Comes v Microsoft trial.

The author, James Plasmondon, writes in his introduction: "Every line of code that is written to our standards is a small victory; every line of code that is written to any other standard, is a small defeat."

Novell would probably have a view on this and with this in mind, I rang Michele Bartoline, the company's marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, who was listed as a press contact on the media release. She wasn't available so I left a message.


The answer would be interesting. To suggest that Novell can beat Microsoft at its own game is not only naive; it is self destructive.

“Like Mono, this group actually comprises Microsoft employees, not just a guy who wanted to become one and joined hands with another...”Regardless of this, Miguel de Icaza and his followers carry on promoting Microsoft and its software. Serving as further proof that Microsoft gains from this, worth noting is the fact that it is mostly promoted by Microsoft boosters like Gavin Clarke, even at this very moment. Miguel brags about companies that move to ASP.NET and he is preaching to his choir (which includes Microsoft employee) to reinforce his own beliefs. Who does this guy really work for? We have always reckoned that Likewise, in light of this latest news, are former Microsoft employees* putting Trojans horses in *NIX (software patents) and spreading Microsoft as a standard. Like Mono, this group actually comprises Microsoft employees, not just a guy who wanted to become one and joined hands with another (Nat Friedman, who worked for Microsoft back then; now he works at Novell)

The Microsoft press at Redmond is spreading the myth that Microsoft is all fine and dandy with open source. Here are a couple of examples from a few days ago ("Microsoft Open to Open Source?" and "Why Does Microsoft Pretend To Be Open Source-Friendly?").

There is obviously some justified skepticism that Microsoft is aware of, but Miguel, as usual, is defending them although he never commented about the TomTom/FAT case.

Microsoft releases ASP.NET MVC under the MS-PL License - Miguel de Icaza replying to comments explains why MS-PL incompatibility with GPL code is not an issue within C# and ASP.NET code.


Whether he actually believes in this publicity stunt or not is irrelevant because he is totally ignoring everything negative which Microsoft is doing; it's like in Beauty and the Beast.

Blackboard, which was funded by Microsoft and finds itself under pressure from Free software as well, responds in a similar fashion by pretending right now. It hopes that some uninformed schools will simply forget its (ab)use of software patents against competitors and clear hatred of "open source". Speaking of schools, Microsoft's Twitter AstroTurf [1, 2] lives on with this attempt to turn more students into the company's vassals (MSPs).

And now that key Microsoft products fail to arrive, one person in the 451 Group suggests that Microsoft ought to have gotten itself some code vassals.

Would an open source approach have helped with ILM2 delay?



[...]

I can’t comment on the technical challenges involved - but the delay of close to a year in the release of Microsoft’s Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2.0 is clearly a blow to the Microsoft identity ‘ecosystem’. There are sure to be competitors who feel like they can breathe a sigh of relief, but not having a strong Microsoft set of products for provisioning and credential lifecycle management has to be seen on balance as a negative for the market as a whole and certainly technology buyers.


Why would anyone voluntarily help this company? ____ *In their own words, "Krishna, several of our developers and I are all ex-Microsoft folk."

Recent Techrights' Posts

This is Why Codeberg Issues an Apology Today
This response was clear and relatively swift
Destruction and Distortion of Information, Including Facts About Linux (Bonus: This is Destroying the Planet)
All that LLMs have going for them is hype, and moreover media that intentionally misrepresents them and their supposed capabilities
Google Seems to Have Just Killed All Instances of Invidious
YouTube is rapidly becoming just "another Neflix"
 
Gemini Links 12/02/2025: "Bream Gives Me Hiccups", Making Chinese Tea, and More
Links for the day
The Register Studies (to Affirm) Reports of IBM Layoffs "at the Finance and Operations business unit"
something about that specific unit
Links 12/02/2025: SSL FUD, DEI Phase-out, Felonies Committed by MElon (Data Breaches)
Links for the day
Italian Media Covers Richard Stallman's English Talk Ahead of Tonight's Public Appearance
article in La Stampa
Microsoft Skype in a Freefall: About 20% Decrease in Site Traffic in 3 Months (Amid Microsoft Phasing Out Credits)
Microsoft axing more services/features may mean that now they scrape the bottom of the barrel and Skype will simply die, discontinuing service (like ICQ) in a matter of years
Gemini Links 12/02/2025: Depression, Gabbro, WikiTok, and More
Links for the day
Links 12/02/2025: Health, Security, and Monopolies
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol is Increasingly Important to the Net
Gemini Protocol will turn 6 this summer
Former EPO Manager Warns That the Illegal 'Court' for "Unitary Patents" Enables “Law Shopping”
Daniel X. Thomas opposed the very existence of the UPC, which any honest person could recognise was both illegal and unconstitutional
Like GAFAM, the EPO is Passing the Financial Pains to Staff
the EPO is operating illegally at this point
Morale at Microsoft Ruined by the Company Labelling Thousands of Workers 'Low Performers', Sacking Them on the Spot and Denying Them Basic Benefits
people laid off as "low performers" go to social control media to bemoan the label
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Links 11/02/2025: Current state of the Internet and Smallnet Information Services (SIS)
Links for the day
Conservative Estimate: Over 10,000 IBM Workers to Be Laid Off in the Next Two Waves
The morale is low and layoffs are expected soon, with mass layoffs likely happening next month and then again later
Links 11/02/2025: Trade Wars and "Crisis for American Universities"
Links for the day
Parasitic LLM Slop Sites Destroy the Ability to Find "Linux" News in Google News
Remember that Google News laid off lots of its workers
Richard Stallman's English Talk in Italy Less Than 24 Hours Away (Torino) and Then Another Talk in Italy Scheduled (University of Bozen-Bolzano)
He's active and he travels a lot in spite of his medical condition
IBM Layoff Rumours, Large-Scale Implementations Weeks Ahead (in March 2025)
There are some people corroborating
Links 11/02/2025: Nutritional Poverty, Closure of USAID, More Fictional 'Valuations' Around Buzzwords
Links for the day
Perl Programming Leftovers
recently in perl.org
Microsoft in Africa: From 98% to Less Than 10% in Just 16 Years
Microsoft being on less than 1 in 10 Web-connected devices in Africa is a very big deal
Almost as If MElon Reads Techrights
The joke we started appears to be spreading
Microsoft Blasted for Adding Insult to Injury: Workers Laid Off Without Prior Notice, Without Severance Payment and Basic Coverage (Like Health), Then Stigmatised as Bad Performers So They Cannot Find a Job Elsewhere
Such stereotypes end entire careers
Gemini Links 11/02/2025: NeoVim and Deploying Other People's Code
Links for the day
BetaNews is Still Publishing LLM Slop/SPAM About "Linux"
Assuming it is indeed LLM slop, it seems clear BetaNews has no intention of improving or is simply unable/unwilling to improve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 10, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 10, 2025
Scheduled Maintenance Tomorrow and on Valentines
If the site (or Gemini capsule) is offline for a bit, the maintenance windows are likely the root cause
If Matthias Kirschner Loves Free Software, He'll Change the Name of the Microsoft-Sponsored Organisation He Governs (in Order to Avoid Confusion)
The FSF-EEE does not really like Software Freedom, it just loves money (including Microsoft's)
Soylent News Lessens the Scope of Discussion Due to Persistent Trolling and Online Abuse
if they make it a lot harder for new people to participate, then they limit the "general appeal" and reach
EPO's Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in The Hague: Workers Are Getting Sicker, Conditions in Which to Assess Patent Applications Deteriorate
"According to the Office statistics the total number of days of absence has gone up from 12.4 to 13.1 total number of sick days per Full Time Equivalent (FTE) from 2023 to 2024."
The Standard Needs to Improve Its Standards for Fact-Checking, Aaron Swartz Had Nothing to Do With Reddit and He Detested the Company That Created It
The Web is already bad enough as it is
When the Livestream of Richard Stallman is Apparently Bury-Brigaded Offline You Finally Learn to Avoid Google/YouTube for Streaming
Please, people, stop uploading to Google/YouTube
New Paper From the EPO Highlights Large-Scale Discrimination at the Office, Where People Are Rewarded for Granting More and More Illegal Patents
Even the Kremlin is probably more competent than this
Links 10/02/2025: Ban on D.E.I. Language, Listeria Risk/Outbreak
Links for the day
Links 10/02/2025: Announcing "Stringless" and Mental Health Improvement
Links for the day
Links 10/02/2025: Facebook Mass Layoffs, "Meta" Did What Aaron Swartz Had Done But to the Tune of 81.7 Terabytes
Links for the day
Microsoft Tarnishing the Brand of Arch
Of course Arch can do whatever it wants, but being associated with Microsoft is a badge of shame
The Ultimate and Inevitable Fall of OpenAI (Even Brave is 'Bigger' Now)
"When you advertise at the Super Bowl, you’ve reached just about every consumer in America. It’s the last stop. If you’re not profitable yet, you never will be."
Adding Slop to Your Blog Only Makes One Assume All the Text is LLM Slop
Simon Coter from Oracle has turned to slop
Macao is Leaving Microsoft Behind
Windows is falling to new all-time lows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 09, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 09, 2025
Microsoft's WSL (LSW) Shows That It Can Never Love Linux, Only Windows
that's just how Microsoft rolls
Activism in Times of War and a Coup
'Linux' Foundation works for fascism
What the Silencing of Neatnik Tells Us About Linus Torvalds Inside a Microsoft-Dominated 'Linux' Foundation
Is Linus Torvalds free to express his mind as he wishes about every topic, even just any technical topic?
Windows Down to 11.35% in Senegal, as Measured by statCounter
Another all-time low (Windows was at 99% in 2009)
"Latest Technology News" in BetaNews is LLM Slop Promoting OOXML and Proprietary Software at the Expense of LibreOffice and OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Remember that "open-source" and Open Source aren't the same; the former is fake