The Linux Foundation Needs to Change Course Before GNU/Linux (as a Free Operating System) is Dead

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2019-04-20 09:48:34 UTC
Modified: 2019-04-22 01:59:42 UTC

Freedom is eroding while Linux is "winning" (by being assimilated to everything it was meant to replace, e.g. DRM, back doors and a monolithic nature a la systemd)

An angel in cemetery

Summary: The issues associated with the Linux Foundation are not entirely new; but Linux now incorporates so many restrictions and contains so many binary blobs that one begins to wonder what "Linux" even means

THE monotonicity at which Linux gets "worse" is a subject we touched earlier this year. Are we striving for freedom or mere branding? GNU is not Linux and over time it seems like the projects diverge because one pursues digital freedom, whereas the latter seeks to maximise profits.

We want to move the site in another direction, seeing that software patents are partly resolved in the US (the EPO is sadly just granting these while its reputation is rotting).

In the coming weeks if not months we will be peeling off layers of an onion.

"If the LF stands up for nothing (but money), it will fall for anything."Jim Zemlin "served as Vice President of Marketing," says this biography of his (about his time at Covalent Technologies^*), but not much has changed since then because the Linux Foundation (LF) is mostly PR/marketing. It pays fewer developers than it pays marketing people. These are the people who actually run the Linux Foundation (not just him): Nontechnical marketing people who pay themselves more than they pay Torvalds. They started this job by justifying it poorly, e.g. by stating they would be in charge of paying Torvalds' salary. What has the LF become? A money-making operation, willing to sacrifice just about anything for a quick buck. If the LF stands up for nothing (but money), it will fall for anything. ⬆

^* Covalent Technologies too was at times a Microsoft bridge, with press releases such as this one from OSCON: "Today at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Covalent Technologies announced Apache 2.0, as available in Covalent Enterprise Ready Server, is now compatible with Microsoft ASP.NET. Using Covalent Enterprise Ready Server (ERS), customers will now be able to use the world's most widely deployed Web server -- Apache -- with Microsoft .NET technologies. Apache 2.0's increased performance on Microsoft Windows 2000 along with the compatibility with Microsoft .NET combine to create a best-of-breed development and deployment solution for Web services."

Zemlin and Microsoft

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The Linux Foundation Needs to Change Course Before GNU/Linux (as a Free Operating System) is Dead

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