Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Latest FUD Against GNU/Linux Hinged on SEC Filing, Boosted by Pretend 'Journalists'

Steve Ballmer



Summary: The "Linux is just a desktop" pattern of FUD gets used by Microsoft boosters (with a new hat) to rile up and ridicule supporters of GNU/Linux, which thrives in many areas and spawns new brands (like "Android")

A Microsoft booster from Directions on Microsoft (Matt Rosoff, who left them last year only to promote Microsoft, as a seemingly-independent writer) started to spread some more GNU/Linux FUD last week. We have already given many examples, some of which well covered in this site, where he was advancing Microsoft agenda and this is just his latest (no links given as that would only feed a provocateur). Brian Proffitt, whose defence against this is weak (he helps validate the false allegations), neglects to mention the conflict of interest from this shameless Microsoft booster who now pretends to be a journalist. The only proper responses we have found so far help show that this FUD also got echoed by other Microsoft boosters such as Ed Bott. We were going to just ignore this FUD rather than give it any visibility. However, rebuttals have already been posted (around Monday), so we might as well give links to those:



  1. Microsoft's 'Linux Threat Level': Down to Green or Redder Than Ever?
    Whereas said documents used to include Linux as a primary threat to Windows -- alongside Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) -- Redmond's documents now reportedly don't mention any competitive threat from desktop Linux at all, according to a recent article on Business Insider, which cites a tweet by Directions on Microsoft's Wes Miller.

    [...]

    Of course, embedded Linux is still acknowledged as a problem in that arena -- not to mention servers, of course -- but author Matt Rosoff (formerly with Directions on Microsoft as well, it most certainly should be noted) comes to a very happy conclusion anyway: "So much for all those predictions that Linux would kill Windows," he writes.


  2. Linux snickers at Microsoft's victory declaration
    Sure, on the desktop, it’s a Windows world, but guess what Sherlock; the desktop is declining in importance. The mobile, server, Web and cloud worlds are where the twenty-teens’ billionaires will come from, not the desktop. And, guess, who’s already in all those spaces large and in charge? Yes, that’s right, Linux.


In IRC, Ryan explains this morning: "They declared victory on the desktop [...] how strange that this has nothing to do with their market share [...] and comes just as the DOJ oversight is going away and they don't need to pretend they have credible competition there anymore"

"Also," I added, "they have tablets challenging desktops now. Tablets run Linux"

"Microsoft revived Apple back in the 90s," Ryan elaborates, "when they nearly bankrupted themselves after a long line of stupid business decisions [...] what's going on with Novell is the same thing, just a different market" [...] (We have competition, they even compete using our technologies) [...] not on the desktop, that has always been a misleading truth, but the money is in servers and workstations and now phones and tablets so they're the majority holder of a platform that is not growing and in fact, is starting to recede"

"Windows revenue has declined for quarters," I noted (since 2009).

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slop Ruins Development and Reverse Engineering, It Rewards Retarded "Slop Kiddies" (to Quote Andy ‘TheFlow0’ Nguyen)
Slop is just a fatal cancer that kills the body, then dies with the body it killed
Snooping EPO Management, Sniffing Up Every Staff Action
It this a problem for whistleblowers? Of course.
Don't Do That
Options do exist. People should exercise freedom.
 
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 18, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, September 18, 2026
Gemini Links 18/09/2026: Setting Goals, Tiredness, and Admissions From LLM Purveyors It Was All Along About Building Plagiarism Engines Sold as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Links 18/09/2026: Microsoft Boasted Slop is Just Copyright Infringement/Plagiarism, Floods in Europe
Links for the day
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Mailing Lists Are Still Better Than Discord, Slack, and Discourse
Discourse is "open" "bossware"
Links 18/09/2026: Disgust Over LLMs and Why "Agents" (Bots) Are Nothing More Than "Spam"
Links for the day
Software Freedom Day is Tomorrow
events coming
Illegal and Unconstitutional Tribunal That SLAPPs Critics Does the Illegal and Unconstitutional: It "Rubberstamps Software Patents"
This is not a legal system. This is mafia.
Privilege in 'Linux' Foundation (Double Standards) and What the FSF Should Avoid Doing
If RMS can talk about politics, others too should be able to talk about politics
Seems Like Many Microsoft Layoffs Are Going On Right Now (Forever Layoffs)
Like IBM, Microsoft hopes shareholders will not know of morale and financial problems
More Threats From the Person of Restricted Boot Infamy
Remember this is the man who is the principal purveyor of restricted boot and who landed restricted boot in Linux
Iran Has Debunked GAFAM and Cloud Computing as Safety of Data
Cloud of smoke?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 17, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, September 17, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 188 Out of 200: Used, Then Discarded, by Microsoft (as We Predicted All Along, It's Always Like That)
The longer they carry on with it, the more scandalous this will get
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 3 - Besieged by LLM Bots, Now Hiding Behind a Wall of JavaScript
The series began 3 days ago
Gemini Links 18/09/2026: Modern Linguistic, Boxing, Turning 40, and Solar MiniServer
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2026: Studio Closures and Negative Rumours About Microsoft XBox Again
Links for the day
What's Wrong with Microsoft's GitHub, New Article by Jacob Bachmeyer and Richard Stallman
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
EBay is Going to Die Soon
Users will flee
Red Hat PIPs. The Only Question is, How Many?
Insiders know what's coming soon
This Week The Register MS Published a Page With "AI" 34 Times in It and It Was, as Usual, Paid SPAM!
Does The Register MS understand that it is doing harm to its audience (for temporary gains)?
43rd Anniversary of the GNU Project Announcement
Coming soon
General Assembly (Meeting of All Staff) Starts in Hour Ago to Discuss Strikes at Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO), Strikes to Last Until End of 2026 (If Not Further)
The media absolutely does not cover this and that's intentional
SLAPP Censorship - Part 187 Out of 200: Reminding Ourselves of the Great Damage Garrett Did to Linux (for Microsoft)
he rejects freedom
Cancel Culture is a Cancer That Harms Democracy, Justice, and Science. It's Designed to Help Corporations Vanish Their Critics.
"Codes of Conduct" sounds benign; in practice, however, it is not
Links 17/09/2026: Class Action Lawsuit Over GAFAM's "NameTag" and Automattic Hides What It Did to CEO Mullenweg (or Why)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2026: Google Signals the End, ROOPHLOCH Coverage, EBay Uses Offensive Bots to Falsely Accuse Users of Stuff
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 16, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 16, 2026