Microsoft's tactics against GNU/Linux have not changed much in two decades, they're just framed differently, nowadays the attacks are masqueraded as friendship and proxies are used more than before. So as a fresh look at how these established tactics are used currently to attack Free Software, a guest poster at TechRights has summarized them in a ten-chapter handbook, aptly named A Handbook for Destroying the Free Software Movement. The first two chapters cover what Microsoft is now doing through GitHub, licensing, Azure, Visual Studio, Vista10, and its other components foisted on developers. Other chapters cover manipulation of media coverage, OEM lock-in, use of attack proxies, and software patents. Most of all, these tactics have stayed true to the plans outlined over 20 years ago in the Halloween Documents.
- Introduction
- Chapter 01: Know your enemies– Act like a friend
- Chapter 02: Work with the system– Use OEMs and your legal team
- Chapter 03: Playing the victim– Show the world that too much freedom hurts development
- Chapter 04: You get what you pay for– Getting skeptics to work for you
- Chapter 05: Open Source Judo– How to bribe the moderates to your side
- Chapter 06: Damning with faint praise– Take the right examples of free software and exploit them for everything
- Chapter 07: Patent War– Use low-quality patents to prove that all software rips off your company
- Chapter 08: A foot in the door– how to train sympathetic developers and infiltrate other projects
- Chapter 09: Ownership through Branding– Change the names, and change the world
- Chapter 10: Moving forward– Getting the best results from Open source with your monopoly
It's written a bit tongue in cheek from Microsoft's perspective. Some material is drawn from Comes v Microsoft (aka The Iowa Case) and, as mentioned, the leaked internal memos known as the Halloween Documents.
(Score: -1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 12 2019, @10:20PM (1 child)
Yet another Hit Piece from the Editors' Darling, Canopic Jug. While so many VERY POSITIVE stories get rejected. Sad!!!!
(Score: -1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 12 2019, @10:24PM
(cont) If the Editors like you, no need to follow so called Submission Guidelines. "Be neutral and factual in both Subject and Summary. You can wait until the article is posted or, if you must, include your opinion clearly marked as opinion at the end of the Summary." Bullshit!!!!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @10:32PM (10 children)
Skimmed through Chapter 7. No proof of anything, no citations of Microsoft's actual current behaviors, only innuendo and quoted references from the 21 year old Halloween Documents. So no, not established tactics currently attacking free software, only what was known two decades ago. Which doesn't mean that what's said isn't true, only that there is no proof of it. Perhaps Chapter 11 should be, "Trick people by writing a whole bunch of things with no actual proof that the behaviors are current so that they can be safely ignored by anyone who actually wants evidence."
Personally, I believe that Microsoft has established much better (and scarier) tactics than these in the intervening years, such that they no longer have to extinguish free software. To the contrary, their current strategy if anything is, "embrace, exceed, ignore." But who wants to waste all that time actually assembling proof and gaining access to sources? (Just for starters, don't you think countries hostile to the U.S. would have managed to get Wikileaks to publish more damning documents by now if they existed in digital from? Like I said, changed and sharper tactics such that Halloween Documents are no longer produced because they're unnecessary.)
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 12 2019, @10:37PM (2 children)
If you must look at the "story." Start with Introduction. "Introduction of a new satirical ‘handbook’ published exclusively here (by a pseudonymous reader)." In other words, FAKE NEWS!!!!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:48PM (1 child)
Hey, Donald, I hear a real billionaire is looking for you. His name is Paul Allen. Why don't you go find him?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday June 13 2019, @12:26AM
Incredible guy, fantastic guy -- he founded Microsoft, as everybody knows. Don't worry, he did find me. Before he died, so tragically, of Windmill Cancer. Fortunately I was able to buy his beautiful Boeing 757 for only $100 million. Great price and I gave that one a TOTAL & COMPLETE make over. I call it, Trump Force One. Watch while Amanda Miller (so sexy) gives the guided tour!! youtu.be/UZq3iCn2y74 [youtu.be]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday June 12 2019, @10:46PM (4 children)
Maybe so, but it gave me a good flashback back to the SCO days when Microsoft got BTFO and Linux was actually on the rise and becoming more usable as a desktop OS. Ubuntu from around 2007 to 2010 appeared to be unstoppable and every day it looked like it was going to crush Windows as a dominant desktop OS.
Then, for some reason, Ubuntu backed down. It turned a usable Windows-like system into Macfag shit with everything useful hidden by default or moved somewhere else and a horrible new color scheme, and we all know people who don't actually buy MacFag shit don't like MacFag shit. Then they crippled Compiz-fusion so that it was impossible to show that a beat-up 10 year old laptop could have better graphical effects than a brand new Mac.
I'm still bitter about all that, fucking bastards.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:13PM (1 child)
Flashbacks are nice, but it would be great to have their actions as a timeline. That way we can remember what they did to their competitors -> how they spun it -> why the current release sucks -> why the new release will be better -> lather, rinse, discharge microplastics into the environment -> repeat, and at exactly which points we were naive enough to believe them, until we stopped.
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 13 2019, @01:54AM
So much hasn't changed. We're a mixed development shop: Windows10 and Ubuntu, and neither is perfect, but I see the Windows devs on the same f-ing treadmill that I was running back in the 90s, it never stops. When I finish something in Ubuntu, it stays finished. And, when there's a problem in Ubuntu, even the Windows guys can dig into the logs, find the problem, find the diagnosis on the web in 30 minutes or less, and have a solid fix plan. On the Microsoft side, when shit breaks down or doesn't perform as expected it's denial and obfuscation city: maybe you need to buy a better library? That's unsupported. This is the new behavior, maybe you should migrate your codebase to the new toolset?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @04:14AM
What do you mean? I LOVE the uniform blocks of light gray that replaced what the GUI used to be. The lines, so clean! All those functions you used to use only once or twice a day - GONE! Sooo clean.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @07:18AM
Have you tried Ubuntu 18.04 Mate?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @03:09AM
ZOMG, it's the Protocols of the Elders of Redmond!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @07:05AM
When lennart poettering ends up at M$ or Apple or some tivoizing corp, your comment will seem even funnier, pal.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @10:59PM (2 children)
embrace
extend
extinguish
thus that it ever was. thus that it ever shall be. amen.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 13 2019, @02:06PM
Our father, who art in Redmond
Microsoft be thy name
Thy monopoly come
Thy will be done
Throughout the earth as it is in the US
Give us this day
Our daily license activation key
And forgive us our bug reports
As we forgive our system crashes
And lead us not into competition
But deliver us from innovation
For thine is the Control and the Power and the Greed
Forever
Amen
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @02:47PM
That was exactly my point above, that it isn't that way any longer but something a bit more disturbing. But everyone is so focused on the way that they used to do things and citing that instead of current behaviors that we lose sight of the way it is working today much more insidiously.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Gaaark on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:04PM (1 child)
Can't win by being the best? Win by destroying everything around you.
Gob bless Microfuck cos everyone else hates them.
What a bunch of dicks.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 13 2019, @02:07PM
It is not merely enough to succeed spectacularly.
EVERYONE ELSE MUST FAIL !!!!
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:37PM (6 children)
It's Red Hat and their systemd that will destroy Linux.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:49PM (1 child)
It has the kernal. [wccftech.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @01:40AM
no, Commodore 64 had the "kernal"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:51PM (1 child)
IBM bought Redhat, remember?
IBM: shitting in the computing pool since 1894 (Well, sometime in the 1800s.0
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @12:04AM
What do you expect from a company named "IBM" -> "I BM" -> "I Bowel Movement"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @07:15AM
Its IBM now
They were bought out.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday June 14 2019, @12:33AM
Microsoft will be the savior of Linux by luring Poettering into the fold and going full systemd ahead.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @01:43AM (2 children)
Thanks so much for the context. Without
and references were necessary for understanding. Thanks; good job.
It's not great stuff though. It's rambling and often relies on argument by analogy and uses mostly pretty out of date info. Some of it updated in eg 2007 but most older.
It would have been better, amusingly, as a punchy powerpoint.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday June 13 2019, @04:23AM (1 child)
I haven't read it, but just thinking about it reminds me of why I prefer the GPL license, but in appropriate circumstances the AGPL is even better.
And I still believe that Microsoft, or someone associated with them, financed the SCO trial.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @06:32AM
Facts don't require "belief". M$ paid from the beginning. Groklaw used to have a lot of coverage of SCO, including how M$ was bankrolling the lawsuit. However, Groklaw.net seems delisted from the search engines, so here is crappy old ZDNet article for you on how M$ used BayStar Capital to shunt money to SCO [zdnet.com] to be able to afford to keep the lawsuit going and going and going.
By the way, the SCO zombie suit won't die [theregister.co.uk]. It's still going even now. So SCO at least is not old news. It is still current and relevant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @01:49PM (1 child)
*omg* when in heavens name is the "patent" on "remembering a previous location of a window(frame)" going to expire or be deemed non-patent able.
on xfce (w/com!z) if i open some window, say a directory listing, size it and move it then reboot the computer i have to redo the whole thing again.
i thought it was a bug, but it's actually a patent ... crazy sh1t right there ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @02:38PM
Dear Citizen,
It appears that you are opposed to promoting the progress of science and useful arts. Please sign up for one of our free
reeducation programs on the importance of intellectual property law for increasing corporate profits.(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday June 13 2019, @02:13PM (2 children)
There is a book by that name.
I first heard of it in about 1985 or thereabout on NPR.
Later I bought the book and read it. It was quite interesting. It starts with the very beginnings of IBM up to the present. All of the dirty tricks. How to build and maintain monopolies.
Make sure that a secondhand market can never exist. (IBM: rent machines, never sell them. Microsoft: it comes on a partition with no recovery disk)
Segment your market. Squeeze the segments you have a monopoly. Opportunistic pricing in other segments. For example, a competitor comes along at a higher quality and lower price with an entry level computer. IBM comes out with a new fairly similar model at half the price with barely enough memory. Clearly selling at a huge loss. Wipes out competitor. But memory upgrade is priced so high that it more than makes up for the loss. This segment of the market is now back under control. Change models, pricing, etc to get this segment back to high pricing again without the super low price starter model.
And on and on, many other dirty tricks.
My point: Microsoft has followed this playbook almost to the letter.
In the Groklaw days I wrote some on Groklaw about this.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @03:14PM (1 child)
The techrights article is describing something known as 'infiltration' and 'subversion' of an organization.
Besides the halloween articles and mountains of evidence that there is an actual conspiracy(plot, secret plan) to destroy any forms of software that provide actual privacy, freedom and free speech(or gasp anonymity), we have the sn%wden docs and ghcq docs and str*tfor docs that describe how this actually happens. People have sacrificed heavily for these truths, and it wasn't the frickin NYT or m$ or people who are actually being paid to do this.
Here's how it works, this is fact:
Find the leaders, isolate the radicals who believes in things like a bill of rights. Ruin their life, ruin their reputation, inhibit their ability to work. This is happening to RMS as we speak. Eliminate the credibility of anyone that is not on your team or manipulatable.
Infiltrate the organization and crack any consensuses with confusion, drama, chaos, or whatever works. Study the life and work of Jacob Appelba*um. find what the people in the organization need, and become that thing then once you are in, turn everything upside down.
Capture or degrade anyone with gifted intelligence.
These are military tactics being used against civilians.
The primary purpose of the bill of rights and separation of powers and anything we consider a republic or rule of law is to prevent military dictatorship.
These are all military tactics being used secretly to enable military dictatorship. Done by many individuals who have sworn to protect the constitution on penalty of death and eternal damnation, in violation of the Geneva conventions on the sanctity of civilians in conflict.
Mozilla is now one a completely subverted organization, which is why they broke all their privacy add ons and are now becoming a cloud browser, making it impossible to avoid your browser being fingerprinted and thus uniquely identifiable to anyone who owns the wires.
Giving the military the ability to read what you are reading, and thus your mind.
It is very difficult to resist someone who is trying to rule you if they can read their mind but you can't read theirs.
If this struggle is lost, you should begin teaching children now NOT to think for themselves, because their very lives will depend on it.
I am ashamed of The United States of America. Every soldier, policeperson, fbi agent and mercenary contractor should move to China where they belong, because I can promise you none of these people involved in any of these efforts deserve to be counted as citizens of the United States any more than Stalin, Mao or Xi for that matter. People who can claim to be defending freedom and even slightly participate in these efforts have such deep contradictions in their brains that one must wonder if they are a different species.
You are failures, your lives are meaningless and you defenders of the law have broken it yourselves, so you should arrest yourselves. And harass yourselves and interfere with your own livelihoods. You don't deserve to kiss the shoes of actual americans, you sell out turncoat chumps.
If you are not angry you are not paying attention. They are erasing our country before our eyes.
I am in actual physical danger and economic danger for daring to write this.
And btw, that this falls on someone like me to write, represents a monumental failure of everyone in the world who has more than $500 in their bank account.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @05:36PM
"If this struggle is lost, you should begin teaching children now NOT to think for themselves, because their very lives will depend on it."
this is exactly what most "parents" (state appointed guardianship privilege) are already doing. they send their kids to state indoctrination centers during the day so they can make fake money to rent more plastic shit they don't need, and then stick them in front of enemy media when they get home and feed them poison that makes them dumber and guarantees they don't live to collect any ssn or retirement benefits. normals are so brainwashed they will want to have you arrested for terrorism if you simply speak the truth and try to wake them up. once enough slaves are brainwashed they will change the laws to allow just that. It's already happening.