Bonum Certa Men Certa

Jim Zemlin's Linux Foundation Still Does Not Care About Linux Desktops

Almost as though there's an implicit agreement to leave that space to Microsoft

Zemlin loves Microsoft
Zemlin loves Microsoft
Zemlin loves Microsoft. Photo sources [1, 2].



Summary: We are saddened to see that the largest body associated with Linux (the kernel and more) is not really eager to see GNU/Linux success; it's mostly concerned about its bottom line (about $100,000,000 per annum)

SEVERAL months ago I was persuaded by my wife to break the silence on the Linux Foundation (LF), seeing that they had sold out (it irritated even her, a full-time GNU/Linux user for over half a decade). The people who run the Linux Foundation do not themselves use GNU/Linux* and the Linux Foundation is hardly about Linux anymore. It hardly even defends Linux from patent attacks, such as those of Microsoft; to make matters worse, the Linux Foundation takes money from Microsoft (as it last did only weeks ago) and then praises Microsoft.



"...to make matters worse, the Linux Foundation takes money from Microsoft (as it last did only weeks ago) and then praises Microsoft."I don't want to name anyone (for privacy reasons), but various prominent people wrote to me regarding these articles. They agree. Some are relieved that someone is finally willing to air these matters and tackle them. So perhaps we shall persist.

One reader told us about the lack of support for actual advocates of GNU/Linux who spread GNU/Linux, e.g. on desktops. Ken Starks wrote about it nearly a decade ago, bemoaning Jim Zemlin's lack of interest in "Linux desktop" (Zemlin actually told him that directly after he had been invited to an otherwise-exclusive conference). "I got the skinny on the Linux Foundation claims to "support" these orgs for 'years'," the reader noted. "It may be years," the reader added, "haven't confirmed that but get this: I actually volunteer for [a charity that brings GNU/Linux to children] and they need $ and volunteers. So I asked how LF "supports" them and got this answer: No, not financial just advertising in its network. As I understand. And with nice discounts in courses and certifications. Meanwhile, every volunteer goes on their own dime, and [name redacted] is eating table scraps to survive when he brought the content server - Internet in a box... which we should have paid. At least his foooooood!"

The reader took note of "Diversity Programs" from the Linux Foundation, potentially a cynical corporate attempt to appear ethical while not doing anything/much to these ends.

"I reached out to another 10 organizations the Linux Foundation "supports"," the reader said.

Stay tuned. This is research in progress.

In the meantime we invite anyone with similar experiences to get in contact with us. We'll protect people's identities while doing the best we can to shed light on the LF's underlying agenda, which seems to overlap the collective agenda of the LF's sponsors rather than of GNU/Linux (many sponsors have nothing to do with Linux). ____ * There's a tendency to focus on Zemlin's use of Mac OS X [1, 2], but I know many of the colleagues use Microsoft Windows -- arguably worse. "Apparently, Jim Zemlin isn’t who he says he is. I think he should be impeached," one person argued a couple of years ago. "Essentially, he’s the Terry Colby (from Mr. Robot) of The Linux Foundation. He’s the head of a company that seems to know little about what they do. Remember, in order to become the best possible employee or user of something, you have to be using that product to fully understand it. Otherwise, you’ll be left behind when someone needs your help, or when it comes to truly understanding Linux." Or as Christine Hall put it minutes ago, "I agree that Zemlin is a traitor to all the early adopters who made Linux what it is today. However, Zemlin has never uttered "the year of the Linux desktop." He's never supported desktop Linux at all."

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Now Confirmed in Western Media: Microsoft Azure Layoffs This Month
Affirmed by more sources moments ago
The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
MIT Technology Review is Part-Time SPAMfarm of Billionaires and Mega-Corporations
Does MIT operate its own "b2b" SPAMfarm?
Open Source Initiative Executive Director Leaves, Replacement Sought by Monopolists, Not the Community or OSI Members
Serves to show who runs this show...
Links 11/10/2025: China-US Tensions Grow Again, "Hey Hi" More Widely Recognised as Bubble Made of Capital That Doesn't Exist
Links for the day
Peter O'Callaghan QC represented grandparents, Westernport Hotel, at Liquor Royal Commission
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Either The Register MS Divests From FOSS Coverage or Liam Proven is on Long Holiday
Publishers perish when their audience loses trust in them
Microsoft Cancelling Another Datacentre is a Sign of Financial Trouble and Lack of Growth
The debt continues to grow
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: An Evening at the Fair and Fast Fourier Friday
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 10, 2025
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day