Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's President Elop is Allegedly Killing Linux Inside Nokia/Intel, Just When MeeGo Gets Android Compatibility (Updated)

"Where are we on this Jihad [against Linux at Intel]?"

--Bill Gates



Summary: The sociopaths from Microsoft seem to be harming Intel's and Nokia's main Linux push (MeeGo) by abolishing its development

THE SITUATION seems rather familiar. Big hardware companies are moving towards Linux and people from Microsoft soon intervene, trying to stifle further development of this kind. A few days ago we wrote about the Mono issue that the FSF recognises and explained how Microsoft/Novell put Mono inside everything Linux-powered, including MeeGo (which is planned for in-car systems, sub-notebooks, phones, and just about everything compact). A new interview which we linked to yesterday has Richard Stallman elaborating on Mono:



Question: Many see Mono with its patent issues as possibly a big problem for GNU/Linux and Free Software; do you think using, developing and contributing Free Software written in Mono is better or worse in the long run for a user's freedom than using proprietary software?

Stallman: That's a comparison between growing apples and eating oranges. Instead of responding in those artificial terms, I will explain the issues of C# and Mono.

Mono is a free implementation of C#. Programs can't be "written in Mono"; they can be written in C#. If you have a program written in C#, it is better for you to run it using Mono (free software) than to run it using Microsoft .NET (proprietary software).

When you write a program, I recommend that you choose a language other than C#. If you write it in C#, then its use in the free world could be threatened by Microsoft's patents. So write in some other language, and avoid the problem. This is true whether your program is meant for release as free software, or meant just for private use as private software. (If it is meant for release as proprietary software, you should refuse to participate regardless of the language used.)


MeeGo's Mono problem is now the main issue right now. A lot has also been said about the role of Microsoft's President, Mr. Elop, who is now the CEO of Nokia. See for example the following posts:

  1. If You Can't Beat Them, Hijack Them (Microsoft Joins Nokia and It Already Shows)
  2. Linux Battle in Mobile Phones Becomes Primarily Legal, Not Technical, Due to Software Patents
  3. Taking Over Linux, by Proxy
  4. Microsoft Passes More of Its Executives to the MSBBC. What About Nokia?
  5. Microsoft President Quits, But is Nokia the Next Victim?
  6. Microsoft Insiders Galore: BBC, Nokia, Others Already Damaged by Microsoft Hires
  7. Linspire/Ballnux in Tablets; HP Possibly Experiments With Vista 7 in Slate After Abandoning It, Then Hiring From Microsoft
  8. New Article Says Nokia Might be Bought by Microsoft After Appointing Microsoft President as CEO
  9. Entryism Watch: Yahoo! Keeps Being Abducted by Microsoft Executives, HP Cancels Android Projects After CEO Appointment From SAP
  10. As Expected, Nokia and HP Betray Linux Under Microsoft-sympathetic New Leadership
  11. Head of Microsoft Romania Quits, Entryism Revisited
  12. Microsoft's Favourite 'Reporters' Are Attacking Nokia, Pushing it Into Microsoft's Arms
  13. Will Elop Choose the Future (Linux) or His Past (Microsoft) for Nokia?
  14. Analyst Wants Microsoft's Elop (Now Nokia CEO) to Shoot Down Linux Programmes


According to yet another update, the 'new Nokia' (which is run by Elop) suddenly feels different about its crown jewels and its behaviour becomes suicidal. It sure seems like Yahooism (giving all traffic to the Google scraper called Bong [sic]). Will Elop adopt the rubbish Vista Phony 7 [sic] or will he carry on with the current direction, along with Intel? The former editor of Linux Today asks: "Nokia: Losing Faith in MeeGo?" Elop losing "faith"? Well, no. He has Microsoft "faith". It's a mindset system. The piece says:

Topping the rumor list: that Nokia may drop the MeeGo platform in favor of another operating system.

If true, this would be a huge blow to the MeeGo project, which has not enjoyed much progress in the mobile sector. Nokia contributed its Maemo platform to the MeeGo initiative, along with Intel's Moblin operating system, so if effectively one-half of the founding team abandons MeeGo for another OS, that could spell the end for MeeGo's future chances of success.

Fueling this rumor is Elop's direct mention of MeeGo as one source of Nokia's troubles.

"We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market," Elop's memo read.

[...]

But if one of the project's founders has lost faith in the platform, how can anyone else but their faith in MeeGo?


MeeGo is actually a wonderful, standards-based platform which could soon inherit all the applications from Android, so what's the matter? MeeGo is a lot more compatible with desktop GNU/Linux than Android will ever be and hypePhone [sic] after Steve Jobs' departure is starting to suffer from "fragmentation", which is the term Apple and Microsoft used against Android. To quote the new allegations:

Today may be remembered as the day the iOS platform became fragmented like Android. The announcement today by Telenav that its GPS app has been released for the Verizon iPhone may carry unexpected ramifications for apps on the iOS line of products.


MeeGo can beat hypePhone and Android now that it can inherit all applications from Android and be a lot more free/open than both. Only a Linux-hostile CEO would conceivably depart from MeeGo now that there is a new announcement about the Android-to-MeeGo bridge (we posted links about it last night and today).

Meanwhile it turns out that Nokia is cancelling Linux/MeeGo phones while Wafaa says the netbook plans too are off:

Sound a bit morose? Well in a way it is. Basically by all accounts MeeGo is stopping all work on the Netbook UX. Yup, all our hard work is now almost for nothing :-(


Here is another article/post about it.

Well, that was fast. Nokia has reportedly killed the N9-00 MeeGo phone before most people even knew it existed.


It sure looks like our suspicion that Elop will ruin Linux at Nokia gradually becomes more substantiated. That's how Microsoft's sociopaths work: either they tilt the competitor towards Microsoft (e.g. Novell, Corel) or they simply take them out of business. Who benefits from such a behaviour? This is not capitalism, it's entryism.

Update: A Microsoft booster says that "Former Nokia Exec Claims CEO's "Burning Platform" Memo a Hoax," but this may not change some of the other references above. Here is another sceptic.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Meme] The Ponzi Scheme That Eats Rivals (by Paying Them to Stop Competing)
Why compete when you can bribe and defang antitrust authorities?
In 2006 We Had a Novell Problem and Now We Have Several Novells
Microsoft thorns inside the community
Richard M. Stallman (RMS) Debunks Misconceptions About What Free Software Means and Explains How It Works
Free software means people (including users and developers) exercise control over the program, not the programmers
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Has Fallen From 12% in Geminispace to Just 1.2% in Two Years (Capsules Usually Self-Sign Their Certificates)
Don't ask the imposters about security
Dispelling the Notion That Microsoft is Political Left
Microsoft not only got bailed out (several times) by Donald Trump but also approached him to take over TikTok without paying for it
 
Links 11/09/2024: EPO Patents Tossed Out by Courts, Software Patent Reveals Ford "Tech That Listens to Driver Conversations to Serve Ads"
Links for the day
More "Linux" SEO SPAM, Wrapped Up as Clown Computing, Composed by a "Bullshit Generator" (LLM)
linuxsecurity.com at it again this week
"Linux" and Linux.com Diploma Mill
The front page of Linux.com right now is the usual nonsense
Links 11/09/2024: ROOPHLOCH Report, Small Web Experiences, and Cohost Effectively Dead
Links for the day
Links 11/09/2024: Russia Enters Latvia With Drone, Truth Social Stock Crashes
Links for the day
The "IT Industry" is Full of Imposters (It's a Growing Crisis)
They often manage the companies
Richard Stallman Explains Stochastic Parrots (LLMs)
From his latest talk
The Toys of Today's Kids and Coordination Woes, Not to Mention a Lack of Social Skills
Too much time indoors, too much screen time
Linus Torvalds, the Son of a Politician, Tries to Stay Out of Politics (or Political Topics)
"I'm just a geek" has its limits in practice
Richard Stallman Still Deals With Politics
Stallman's gonna Stallman
GAFAM Not Invincible
The US has an election very soon and Microsoft is already bribing candidates for deregulation and favours, based on press reports
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 10, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 10, 2024
The Greatest Show on Earth (Buzzwords Circus)
What next? Being denied medical service because you don't have a Facebook account?
Gemini Links 11/09/2024: Happiness, Improvised Nebuliser, and olden Age of Palm OS
Links for the day
Julian Assange's Father Turns 80 and They Show Themselves in Melbourne
Will he be active in Wikileaks soon?
Slow But Ongoing Mass Layoffs at EPO, Estimates That Nearly Half of the FOs Will be Made Redundant Soon
When you cease to care about validity and quality of patents you're granting why bother with humans at all?
[Teaser] EPO Tightening Its Belt
who didn't see this coming?
Are Lawsuits Over EPO Corruption Next?
Why does the mainstream media not cover it?
Europe's Second Largest Institution, the EPO, Exploits Lack of Oversight to Commit Crimes Every Day
Immunity begets impunity, which in turn begets crime
[Video] Richard Stallman's New Talk in Germany Covers What Free Software Means, Why LLMs are "Bullshit", and Lots More (Web3 Summit 2024 Berlin)
Closing Keynote Day 3 - Dr. Richard Stallman - Web3 Summit 2024 Berlin
Transcript of Latest Public Talk by Dr. Richard M. Stallman (RMS), Delivered Last Month at Web3 Summit 2024 Berlin
quick-and-dirty transcription
Links 10/09/2024: Big Brother Awards Germany 2024 and Telling the Unemployed to 'Drive Uber'
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/09/2024: DUIs and Useless Analytics
Links for the day
The Peril of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Illuminates the Dangers of Founders Leaving or Being Forced Out
Whatever you may think they stand for, you risk being fixated on what they originally were and perhaps what their Web sites still say
Difficult Times at Soylent News
We hope that Soylent News will recover from this
New Article in redhat.com: How to Install Microsoft Windows
That's just about as bad as that sounds...
Crimes of the EPO Are Costing Everybody in Europe
Since virtually everyone in Europe is a user of software (almost nobody is a forest dweller like in countries near the equator), this impacts everybody
OSI's Blog is Still 100% Microsoft-Sponsored Attacks on Free/Open Source Software
OSI is a compromised, defunct body. It exists to serve the enemies of its original mission.
A Decade Ago Things Became So Bad at the European Patent Office (EPO) That Staff Jumped Out the Window During Working Hours
Colleagues saw the suicide; the EPO's response wasn't to tackle the causes but to bolt down the windows (like factories in China installing controversial 'suicide nets')
Red Hat is Suing to Protect From Patent Trolls
Why doesn't Red Hat (IBM) also lobby to eliminate all software patents once and for all?
COVID-19 Ushered in Attacks on Human Rights and Things They Said They Had Introduced Temporarily Are Still in Effect/Operation Today
COVID-19 changed a lot of things
Quitting Academia When Its IT Systems Are Dominated by Clowns Who Outsource
It seems like a common trajectory
Why the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Owning or Renting Office Space Mattered
"In the long term, the FSF needs to own its future office space, but then the deadly risk is that the property ownership becomes the end goal rather than software freedom."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 09, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, September 09, 2024
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Probably Has No Choice But to Shut Down Its Office
Net Income -$686,366
Nearly Two Years After Quitting My Job
My colleagues and I were bullied by managers (grievance complaint got filed) who didn't even know what "Linux" was
Terms of Service (TOS) Under Scrutiny - Part XVIII - In Conclusion
Many activities can be done offline without having to sign anything
Modern spyware and the problems of "Discord newspeak"
The history of modern instant messaging...
Links 09/09/2024: More Trash Balloons and Collapse of Real Estate Market in China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/09/2024: ROOPHLOCH and More
Links for the day
Wrong Priorities at IBM
Lavish spendings on a 16-year contract for the most expensive place while firing tens of thousands of staff
Links 09/09/2024: LLMs Manipulated to Lie, More Corruption Found in COVID-19 Contracts
Links for the day
The Best Interface is Outdoors, It's Nature!
Not everything should be replaced by or emulated by digital devices
Terms of Service (TOS) Under Scrutiny - Part XVII - A Personal Perspective
The bottom line is, it's possible to reduce (albeit not entirely eliminate) how many things one signs, presses "OK" on and so on
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 08, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, September 08, 2024
Always Taking Things Up a Notch
Nothing will stop us
[Meme] EPO Keeps Masking Its Corruption With "Diversity and Inclusion" (Hiring the Wife of a Friend of Someone Who Bribed His Way Into EPO Presidency)
chain of nepotism
Very Large EPO Applicants Now Threaten a Boycott of the EPO (the EPO Management is Trying to Bribe Them to Change Their Plans/Minds While Hiding It From Staff)
If corruption prevails to this extent, it will have severe international effect
Gemini Links 09/09/2024: Gemini Application Developer Guide and ROOPHLOCH 2024
Links for the day
Links 09/09/2024: 'Dieselgate' Criminal Trial Starts Late, Mass Layoffs at Volkswagen
Links for the da