The annual Debian developers conference, debconf 16, is taking place July 2-9 in Cape Town, South Africa, featuring for the first time ever Microsoft as a silver sponsor.
This seems consistent with the strategy, that pessimists may define EEE (embrace, extend, extinguish), of seeking close integration with the GNU/Linux system.
The move, from a traditionally hostile company that recently started showing enthusiasm towards open source software, is causing a mixture of derision and opposition in the community. As the grey beards in the IT community might recall, most of Microsoft partners, from IBM to the humble dev, tend to end up screwed in the long term. Will GNU/Linux be the exception?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by dltaylor on Friday April 15 2016, @05:19AM
Since systemd (too much in one service, ridiculously complicated and arcane, buggy) now makes desktop linux works so much more like Windows, it is only natural for them to come along.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by aristarchus on Friday April 15 2016, @06:02AM
Be afraid! Be very afraid! We have not yet seen the end of this. And this is not the beginning. Perhaps it is the beginning of the beginning of the end. Or the end of the beginning. The past is prelude. But when you stare into the Microsoft, Microsoft stares into you. Literally.