Bonum Certa Men Certa

Googlebombing 'Linux' With Microsoft Public Relations

Microsoft loves Microsoft lovers (and apologists who facilitate entryism)

Swapnil Zemlin



Summary: Microsoft is fully engaged in "brand dilution" tactics*, associating itself and Windows with "Linux" even though GNU/Linux is its (and Windows') rival

SO, this morning I search for "Linux" news... and then I find this site called Linux.com ("The source for Linux information," according to its title/byline) linking to Microsoft's unofficial PR reps. It's linking directly to Microsoft PR reps from a tabloid of corporate media Microsoft is funding (CBS), with headlines like "Microsoft looks to 'do for data sharing what open source did for code'" (well, at least Swapnil is consistent).



“The LF is poo. Corporate toadies all about money, with no understanding of Linux and FOSS.”
      --Carla Schroder
Former Linux.com writer
I searched for "Ubuntu" some hours ago and got results like this one; this became very typical in recent months. Some readers tell us that most news they stumble upon when searching for Linux is actually Microsoft, not Linux.

"What saddens us is the degree to which Zemlin and his PAC actively participate in all this."The above pattern has sadly become rather common. It's the type of puff pieces Microsoft Peter did in another tabloid, where he hijacked the "Open Source" section to post nothing except Microsoft propaganda. Yes, their entire "Open Source" section is still just Microsoft lies! Even 2 months after Microsoft Peter was arrested (he had been raping children while Microsoft used him as a courier, for nearly one decade).

What saddens us is the degree to which Zemlin and his PAC actively participate in all this. Carla Schroder, who wrote for Linux.com, said yesterday that "[t]he LF (Linux Foundation) is poo. Corporate toadies all about money, with no understanding of Linux and FOSS." ____ * As per one example: "Brand dilution is when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in, like Reese’s Puff Cereal or Gerber’s baby clothes."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Chatbots Are Not Data-Driven, They're Human-Censored and Rely on Wage Slaves (and Sometimes Unpaid Volunteers)
This is the Microsoft wage slavery
Gemini Links 12/01/2025: No Country For Old Men, Burned Homes, and "Planet P is Clean"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Brittany Day and Brian Fagioli Are Still at It, Googlebombing "Linux" With LLM Slop (Taking Away Traffic From the Articles They're Plagiarising)
Some more sites that used to cover GNU/Linux have turned into slopfarms
[Meme] Being High on Drugs Isn't Happiness (Likewise, Being a "Star" in Social Control Media is Temporary)
Many entities - or people - will regret telling everybody "follow me on Twitter"
 
Links 13/01/2025: GitLab Enshittification and Minimalism and Efficiency with Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Links 13/01/2025: Hardware, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Microsoft Appears to Have Fallen to Only 15% in Maldives
This is a problem for Microsoft
Rumours of IBM Canada Layoffs
We'll keep a vigilant eye on this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 12, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, January 12, 2025
Bots Covering Debian Releases
It would be quite safe to guess that chatbots were at least partly leveraged for that text
Links 12/01/2025: Microsoft Admits It's Laying Off Staff Only Where Staff is "Expensive" (Race to the Bottom)
Links for the day
[Meme] They Say That RMS Says the "F" Word (Freedom) Too Much...
About 32.7k US dollars are now left for the FSF to raise (in 6 days)
Links 12/01/2025: More Sanctions Against Russia, SCOTUS Signals Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban Will Stay
Links for the day
[Meme] A Jihad Against Servers the User Controls
We need to strive for and work towards greater control by users over "their" servers
Microsoft Azure-Only Bugs in "Linux" Can "Compromise the System."
From ubuntu.com and linux.org a few days ago
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 11, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, January 11, 2025
Gemini Links 12/01/2025: DHL Express Does Not Deliver, Oddmuse Update
Links for the day
Links 11/01/2025: Social Control Media Facing Sanctions, Carter Respected at Funeral
Links for the day
If TikTok (China) Has the Rights of American Persons, Then ByteDance Can be Sentenced to Death
TikTok - like Julian Assange - does not enjoy any protections of the First Amendment and since it's not a person it would lack these protections as an American company, too
After a Year of Layoffs in Microsoft Nigeria (and Microsoft in Africa at Large) Windows Falls to New Lows and Bing Falls to 0.46% "Market Share"
Of course Microsoft gave bribes in Nigeria to suppress GNU/Linux adoption
An Important Lesson About Patents and Patent Maximalism (They Drive People and Companies Away)
This previously happened in Texas, where companies perceived their presence (in any form) to be a liability as patent trolls could drag them to friendly courts and win "damages"
When It Comes to Fentanylware (TikTok), a Digital Weapon of a Hostile Entity, Common Dreams is Jumping the Shark Again (Years After It Ran Out of Steam or Money)
Or maybe it likes the agenda promoted (curated) by Fentanylware (TikTok) and its parent company, Bytedance or Chinese Community Party (CPP)
BetaNews is Now Officially a Spamfarm With Phantom Authors and Fake Text (SPAM and Linkspam Made With LLM Slop)
That's it, the site is virtually dead now (maybe that was the plan all along)
Hazem Abbas of medevel is Ruining His Site With LLM Slop
Some of his articles are original, but now everything is suspect
[Meme] Real and Fake (or "several influential "open source" organizations [which] have come to be dominated by large companies")
The Free Software Foundation has not sold out
Free Software Foundation: Anchoring the FSF in its values
Original by Free Software Foundation
GNU/Linux Surges to All-Time Highs in Greenland, Windows Sinks to All-Time Lows
a lot of GNU/Linux gets detected there lately
Microsoft's "Donald Trump First" Doctrine
national deficits growing
Microsoft in Trouble as Azure Breaks and Only Days After Promising Investment in "Datacentres" Construction of Actual Datacentres Paused (Expect More Azure Layoffs Very Soon)
No wonder many people who got trapped inside Azure quit Azure, which keeps bleeding (losses and layoffs)
Gemini Links 11/01/2025: Wildfire, Militia and the Mole, IRC vs Social Control Media
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 10, 2025