Bonum Certa Men Certa

Remembering That Free Software Does Not Mean 'Free' Market (Deregulation) and It's Typically a Response to Obscenely Deregulated and Monopolised Markets (Overt Concentration of Power and Therefore Wealth)

The trajectory of things at the moment is, monopolies (or proprietary software 'drug cartels') are 'progressively' taking over their most potent substitute/alternative

No smoking sign



Summary: In the same way the Establishment took over the antiwar movement (or pro-peace activism), currently we're seeing the silent but very swift takeover of freedom-respecting software by those looking to take away that freedom and exploit the free labour of millions of volunteers worldwide

THE Linux Foundation represents not Linux but large corporations that use GNU and Linux somewhere in their stack. Those with most clout inside the Foundation are, as expected, super-affluent monopolies with proprietary software clowns (as in Clown Computing, sometimes known as "cloud" when marketing clowns rebrand servers/stacks/DCs).



"If we let/allow/permit -- even by mindless passivity -- the very same thing/s GNU/Linux was intended to replace become the new "master" of GNU/Linux (e.g. GNU projects inside Microsoft's GitHub and WSL/Azure), then we've already lost all the important battles."This has created somewhat of a paradox. When GNU/Linux started some time around 1983 (the exact date may be debatable depending on which milestone counts, e.g. the manifesto) it was a reactionary movement looking to put control back in the hands of ordinary developers (not employees of monopolists) and users, who may also be capable of programming, documenting and advocating Free software.

Blank Protest SignEarlier this year I stopped following "Open Source" news for the first time in more than 15 years. "Open Source" became so meaningless that one OSI co-founder quit and another got banned. Today's OSI works for Microsoft, just like the so-called 'Linux' Foundation does. Earlier today (a few hours ago) Slashdot was still pushing this whole “Linux is Microsoft/Windows” line -- about a fortnight in circulation now.

If we let/allow/permit -- even by mindless passivity -- the very same thing/s GNU/Linux was intended to replace become the new "master" of GNU/Linux (e.g. GNU projects inside Microsoft's GitHub and WSL/Azure), then we've already lost all the important battles. Microsoft did lots of those same thing back in the 1990s, as the Bill Gates deposition tapes serve to show. Remember "wrest control of Java"?

Don't let them fool you into this idea that "Open Source has won" because Microsoft is taking control of everything. If our aim was to be absorbed by our adversaries, then what is really being accomplished? Recall what the current chief of GitHub thinks of Free software; it's just some zero-cost "commodity" to him... to promote proprietary software and perpetuate monopoly. He now works for one. Tomorrow we'll start publishing Bill Gates deposition transcripts and afterwards we'll commence with analysis comparing what was done back then to what's being done today.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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Neither legal nor useful
 
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
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That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
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Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
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Firing Away With Nonsense
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The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
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Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
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Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
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Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
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Over at Tux Machines...
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Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
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If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
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EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
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After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
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The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
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Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
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New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
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GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
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Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
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Over at Tux Machines...
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Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
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