Bonum Certa Men Certa

Busy Disparaging the GNU/Linux-Powered Competition of Microsoft

How about a hot cup of FUD?

Zack Whittaker
From Twitpic



Summary: An apparent attempt by Microsoft boosters to crash the highly-anticipated launch event of Ubuntu hardware

Former Microsoft employee Zack Whittaker, who has a reputation for saying nonsense, spread FUD about Ubuntu Forums in order to heighten and increase the fear. Rather than feed the FUD let's just say that some proprietary software which Canonical has been using got cracked. But what level of media exposure does this deserve given the abundance of such stories (tens or hundreds of thousands of sites get cracked every day)? Zack hardly covers anything FOSS; he has been busy defending his former employer, Microsoft, from antitrust regulators, as we noted numerous times. He was the first with access to a media platform through which to write an article about a negative Ubuntu occurence, before Monday even!



CBS's ZDNet rarely publishes anything in the weekend, but Microsoft Zack's piece was published on Sunday. This is an effective way to distract from Ubuntu's big announcement today (please don't click this link, it is for future reference only).

I may not be a fan of Ubuntu anymore, but its phones and tablets ambitions/projects really fascinate me. It brings GNU to decent hardware and it is not expected to be locked down like Android (WebOS, Sailfish. Firefox OS, Tizen and Vivaldi have potential and are Linux-powered also). So today's announcement is important and it comes just days after Microsoft collapsed, partly owing to the failure of Surface. Microsoft sure would love to distract from Canonical's big day in the press, occupying the media with bad news about Ubuntu. Canonical has gotten some industry partners and it is looking for more right now. It's good timing, too,

Vista 8 is so widely rejected/hated by so many that OEMs are exploring alternatives to Windows. The Vista 8.1 nonsense won't change their mind because it is fundamentally "stupid" just like Vista 8. As one blogger put it some weeks ago: "Windows 8 was an attempt by Microsoft to change the way PC users use their PC. According to them, touch screen, is the wave of the future, and everyone should embrace it. While touch screens are a great way to ACCESS content on a TABLET. Nothing can beat CREATING content on a PC like the keyboard and mouse, and everybody knows this! Windows 8 has been by every definition, a failure because of this truth."

Here is where Microsoft stands right now:

When it comes to Surface RT and Pro tablet sales, Microsoft (MSFT) PR has lost all credibility. Why's that? Just look at Microsoft's statements about special Surface RT price discounts and sales on July 15 -- and then fast forward to July 18, when the software giant said it's taking a $900 million writeoff for the Surface RT tablet failure. Here's the update.

As you may recall, Microsoft started slashing Surface RT prices by roughly 30 percent about a week ago. The media sensed that sales of the low-end tablet were bombing. But Microsoft put its best spin on the story, offering this quote to The Wall Street Journal on July 15:

"We've been seeing great success with pricing and cover promotions over the past several months on Surface RT in the U.S. and other markets. People who buy Surface love Surface, and we're excited about all those additional people out sharing their excitement for Surface with other people."


Some years ago there was a perception that if you support GNU/Linux nobody will buy hardware from you, whereas now Microsoft is in this position (Nokia being one example of several, large PC OEMs being others). It's Android that's increasingly perceived as the winner, but Canonical built sufficient brand recognition around Ubuntu and it can actually pull off a hit. Don't let Microsoft or its minion distract journalists right now,

According to reports like this, Microsoft has been trying to hide just how much of a mess it's in. ValueAct Capital Management LP wants to grab board seats and maybe the CEO will get ousted some time soon.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October