Bonum Certa Men Certa

Raspberry Pied in the Face -- Part III: Eben Upton's Response and Its Significance

Video download link



Summary: The founder of the "Pi" could tackle (and should have tackled) the issue swiftly and with great determination; sadly, however, his early reaction suggests passivity and a miscalculation of the harm caused

IN Part I and in Part II we explained there was no rush or urgency covering this issue, as new information emerges over time. We put accuracy first. There has been too much speculation, which was exploited by Microsoft apologists to insult the critics (e.g. "Microsoft bashing").



What we're planning to do is, we'll present one chunk of facts each day for at least a week. The following "Twitter RPI thread," as a reader put it, shows the founder of the whole thing responding to the scandal when it was still rather young (5 days ago). Maybe back then they thought the whole blunder would just go away and "age gracefully" within a day or two, at most (we keep track of some media coverage in this page; it's still in the news this morning).

The tweet does not show us a worrying/worried Microsoft apologist (the video above says more about that), as we don't suppose he cares much for Microsoft personally, but judging by context, he underplays the severity of what was done, maybe even behind his own back.

Eben Upton



"Sorry," he said, "I can't understand why you think this was a controversial thing to do."

It doesn't sound like this troubles him; he's even defending what they did, even though we thought (or hoped) he'd be the one to get them out of this mess. We broke this story a week ago. Better responses would have been something along the lines of, "we're going to look into how that happened, investigate, etc etc..."

"I gather he has not made a statement for more than a few days," an associate of ours noted. "So his position in that statement might (hopefully) be outdated. [Either way,] Twitter is blocked by JavaScript." (Since December)

"I presume he's in massive denial about making a mess of things. Whoever was behind the decision to allow microsofters into RPT and RPF set this up and cost him massively in the area of reputation. It will be very, very hard to earn it back especially with the unapologetic denial. It's to early to say what the economic impact will be for RPT and RPF but it will be felt on top of Brexit. They probably have just lost far more than the paltry >= 500k that Microsoft bribed them with."

The source of that figure will become more apparent later in this series. We're still verifying a number of things.

One noteworthy comment:

"€£500,000 – €£999,999" https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/supporters/ I would be very surprised if there was not both a non-disparagement clause and a non-disclosure agreement or other similar limitations attached to the money; didn't Microsoft Frontpage used to have a license prohibiting its use in making web pages critical of Microsoft? see: http://www.microsoftvolumelicensing.com/userights/Downloader.aspx?DocumentId=1095 scan for 'disparage'


"The discussion about Microsoft attack on RPF seems to focus on gathering information for possible advertising purposes," our associate said, having been scanning a large number of online comments. "That's lame. Microsoft use to have the EDGI programme to assault institutions that were found to not be using Microsoft products or considering abandoning them. The real danger is that Microsoft uses the geolocation data to identify institutions to attack. Advertising is the least of the worries that the tracking can incur."

We also don't know how the inclusion of a repository can extend (as in "E.E.E") into something yet worse over time.

"After almost a decade of gaining trust," to quote someone from Hacker News, "Raspbian has now lost a huge amount in a single bad decision. It's yet even clear they even understand the depth of the mistake."

We've seen people very angry about this, even people who did not themselves buy and use such a device. The change in question can be traced back to someone from XECDesign, who certainly did not follow proper procedures and practices. The way this was done was technically shady and "whoever this microsofter's supervisor is, plus whoever signed off on the deal itself, all need to go," one reader told us. If there's someone who probably has enough clout to do this on the spot, it is Eben Upton. Hence the importance of the otherwise-meaningless tweet. It doesn't seem he has the courage to address the blunder 'head-on'.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Lies Need to be Corrected
the Court never invited us
Slopwatch: Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com), Slashdot, Google News, and More
Maybe one day, once the bubble pops completely, Google News will just outright delist all slopfarms
Lufthansa Modern Slavery, Joerg Jaspert (ganneff) & Debian NSB Softwareentwicklung charade
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/10/2025: US Starting More Trade Wars With China, CIA War on Venezuela
Links for the day
SUSE Blog is Still LLM Slop, Marketing Manager at SUSE Cannot Write
Would you buy from a company or seek support from a company that cannot even write (or fakes writing)?
Pretend You're Not Dead: Microsoft Spent Almost Two Decades Rebranding Things as "Cloud, Then "AI", Now "XBox" and "Quantum"
"AI" bubble pops, Microsoft harping about "quantum" already
IBM Allegedly Found New Tricks for Silent Layoffs: LPI, Then MIS (Not PIP)
Remember that "Red Hat layoffs" won't be reported after the bluewashing
Links 16/10/2025: Red Lines and Feeding of Microsoft Trolls
Links for the day
MIT as a Propaganda Mill of GAFAM, Paid by GAFAM
"the news" today
Links 16/10/2025: Lies Euphemised as ‘Dueling Versions of Reality’ and Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Resorts to Porn as No Business Model Was Found
Links for the day
The Local Staff Committee Munich (Representation of the EPO's Staff) Explains When Cluster of Pregnancies May Result in Reduced Pay
"...even one week of part-time working is sufficient to reduce the salary you perceive during the entirety of your maternity leave."
Another Black Eye for 'Secure Boot', Microsoft Media Tries to Blame "Linux"
It enables Microsoft to remotely control computers, even computers that don't run Windows and never had any Microsoft software installed
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, linuxsecurity.com, and Various Slopfarms in Google News Attacking "Linux"
A new survey of the Web said that the majority of the Web is now slop (that's being said in the news this week)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Links 16/10/2025: Increased Use of Social Control Media Surveillance in US, French Rage Over Pensions
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Qantas Airways Loses Control of Sensitive Data and Software Patents Are Being Thrown Out
Links for the day
Vista 10 is 'Dead', Here's Why People Should Move to GNU/Linux (or the BSDs)
Today we try to make an outline of reasons move away from Windows to GNU/Linux
Our Sites Continue to Improve
LLM slop has had no noticeable impact on us
Gemini Links 15/10/2025: Neovim, Helix Compared and Gemlog.blue Now Closed
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon, OneDrive Spyware Revved Up, More 'Gen Z Protests'
Links for the day
The EPO's Staff Engagement Survey 2025 is Already Tainted by Intimidation by EPO Management (Trying to Influence Outcomes by Scaring Genuine, Honest Critics)
"[W]e have received reports that, following the previous survey, teams with negative responses were reproached or questioned about their answers..."
The DDoS Attacks by Microsoft's Scam Altman and Other Slop Charlatans and Frauds is Hurting the FSF, Delinking It From Copyleft Projects
This impacts a lot more than access to the licences
Microsoft Scanning Faces in Photos People Upload to Microsoft (Even Unconsciously), Slashdot Turns Report About It Into "Microsoft Sez" (Says)
Or "let's repeat the lies from a PR person/Microsoft's publicist"
[Teaser] Angel Aledo Lopez the Manipulator (Nepotism, Poll Rigging, and Other EPO Corruption)
We'll discuss this later today or tomorrow, based on internal EPO material
Attacks on Techrights Are Only Making Techrights Bigger and Even More Popular
A week ago they offered to settle with us
Epic Metaphor for End of IBM: "The IBM Demolition is Down to the Last Shards!"
Nothing lasts forever
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Proprietary and DRM Prisons Spiralling Down the Sinkhole? Not Just Yet.
Let's hope that more people will flee to GNU/Linux
The European Patent Office (EPO), the Second-Largest Institution in Europe, is Cracking Down on Recreational Activities
Without AMICALE activities, and as staff already says it's pressured to work more for less, how can the EPO recruit bright people?
Transparency: FSFE financial reports exclude speaker fees and expenses
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Many Developers Have Many Political Views, They'll Never Agree on Everything
It's an effort to divide and destroy, not build
Gemini Links 14/10/2025: An Opportunity to Consider GNU/Linux and Another Simple IRC Client
Links for the day
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, LinuxSecurity, Google News, and the Serial Slopper Brian Fagioli
Nothing of merit here, just more slop
Links 14/10/2025: Lack of Trust in Slop and "Retirement Challenges"
Links for the day
EPO Staff Can Go Listen to Richard Stallman Next Week in Munich (Technical University of Munich, Rudolf-Diesel Hörsaal (MW2001) on Campus Garching at 18:00)
"The talk is open to the public and attendance is free. Registration is not required."
Rhonda D'Vine, Gerfried Fuchs, Pronouns & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
At IBM, Relocation Means Layoffs (Downsizing)
Silent or 'invisible' layoffs?
Central Staff Committee of the European Patent Office (EPO) Warns That EPO Management is Robbing or Manipulating Pension Funds Again
Faking "growth" is just about as bad as forgery
Probably a Lot Worse Than LLM Slop: GNOME Tying Itself to Divisive Politics, Even Where It's Clearly Not Relevant
Something has gone terribly wrong in GNOME
Links 14/10/2025: Microsoft OneDrive Scanning Faces in Photos (Without Asking First), "OpenAI Says It Will Move to Allow Smut"
Links for the day
They Generally Don't Like Scholars, as They're Less Compelled or Pressured to Repeat What Corporations and Oligarchs Say
People who loathe scholars have an agenda in mind that, unlike that of reasonable people, revolves around controlling people
Dystopian Trends in Technology Make Richard Stallman More Relevant Than Ever
It's good to see him attracting vast audiences
Belated New Article About Last Thursday's Lecture by Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
there are good reasons to pay with cash, not limited to privacy
Attacking Richard Stallman Has Become 'Career Suicide'
If you're going to viciously attack somebody, make sure your arguments are rock-solid
Microsoft's Failing XBox Business Has Turned Games Into Funerals
How does it feel to depend on Microsoft?
Yesterday's "Distinguished Lecture" by Richard Stallman Possibly Attended by Close to 1,000 People
The capacity of the place is about 900
Slop Poisons Everything
Imagine wanting to find what Torvalds has just said or what has just been released
Taking Software Freedom 'Mainstream'
interest in Software Freedom must have grown
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 13, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 13, 2025
Gemini Links 14/10/2025: Ada Lovelace Day, Sony CLIE PEG-TG50 Review, Why to Avoid Network Solutions
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Announced His Talk Less Than 24 Hours Before It Took Place and Still Filled Up the Auditorium at Sapienza Università di Roma
Photos from yesterday evening [...] It looks like it was a very successful event