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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?
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Debconf 2016 Welcomes... Microsoft!
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Either I'm dead or my watch has stopped.
-- Groucho Marx's last words
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @08:23AM
Crouching Microsoft, Hidden Patents
This story is two fold:
(1) Possible moves to overthrow or replace Debian & other pressure points
(2) MS patent licensing deal with Rakuten covering Android AND
Linux devices!
###
(1) Well... THAT didn't take very long.
Ian Murdock (28 April 1973 - 28 December 2015)
Microsoft Releasing a Debian Linux Networking Distro (Jan/Feb/Mar?? 2016)
damn, that and the donation to OpenBSD is pretty much chess moves, IMO.
All MS should do is buy up Canonical/RedHat and knock over the systemd
distros with some type of patent(s) and/or buy some out and that leaves
a tiny amount of 'fringe' distros. Debian will probably be gobbled up
in the process (what happened with Corel Linux and further down the
line, that party with Novell?) and BSD wouldn't be too difficult to
buy/donate out anyway. WINE could possibly have patent(s) suits
against it...So what's left?
Hurd, my good man, where HAVE you been?
+++
(2) And So It Begins...
Microsoft and Rakuten sign patent licensing agreement (Linux/Android+)
Microsoft signs patent licensing deal with Rakuten covering Android and Linux devices
By John Callaham - Wednesday, Mar 9, 2016 at 4:23 pm EST
"Microsoft has entered yet another patent license agreement with a third-party company. This time, it's with Japan-based Rakuten, and it will cover both company consumer electronic products, including any Linux and Android-based devices."
http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-signs-patent-licensing-deal-rakuten-covering-android-and-linux-devices [windowscentral.com]
https://archive.is/2VwbO [archive.is]
+++
Microsoft and Rakuten sign patent licensing agreement
"REDMOND, Wash., and TOKYO - March 9, 2016 - Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC and Rakuten Inc. on Wednesday signed a worldwide patent cross-licensing agreement covering each company's respective consumer electronics products, including Linux and Android-based devices."
Hahahahaha: "The terms of the agreement are confidential."
http://news.microsoft.com/2016/03/09/microsoft-and-rakuten-sign-patent-licensing-agreement/ [microsoft.com]
https://archive.is/bnylI [archive.is]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @10:28AM
When they picked up systemd as the only option, they turned into Debhat. The writing is already on the wall, burned in with an industrial laser. What was Debian sold out to Redhat.
(Score: 2, Informative) by dmbasso on Friday April 15 2016, @04:15PM
When they picked up systemd as the only option
Wtf are you talking about?
apt-cache show sysvinit-core
Package: sysvinit-core
Source: sysvinit
Version: 2.88dsf-59.3
Installed-Size: 220
Maintainer: Debian sysvinit maintainers <pkg-sysvinit-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Replaces: systemd-sysv, sysvinit (<< 2.88dsf-44~), upstart
Depends: initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3), sysv-rc | file-rc, sysvinit-utils (>= 2.86.ds1-66), libc6 (>= 2.15), libselinux1 (>= 1.32), libsepol1 (>= 1.14), debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0, debianutils (>= 4)
Conflicts: systemd-sysv, upstart
Description-en: System-V-like init utilities
This package contains programs required for booting
a Debian system and doing basic process management.
.
The most important program in the package is /sbin/init.
It is the first process started on boot and continues
to run as process number 1 until the system halts. All
other processes are descended from it.
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Saturday April 16 2016, @11:25PM
Take a look at http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/sysvinit.git/log/ [debian.org] and you'll see that it's no longer maintained particularly actively. Being present in the archive doesn't tell the whole story. How many packages, particularly gnome-related ones, deliberately removed and broke sysvinit support? Running sysvinit is certainly *possible*, but that doesn't mean everything will work with it. The playing field hasn't been level for some time.
(And wow, time flies. Two years and three months since my last commit.)
(Score: 2) by dmbasso on Sunday April 17 2016, @03:02AM
Take a look at http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/sysvinit.git/log/ [debian.org] and you'll see that it's no longer maintained particularly actively.
Looks like a healthy stable mature package to me.
How many packages, particularly gnome-related ones, deliberately removed and broke sysvinit support?
That's not Debian's fault.
Running sysvinit is certainly *possible*, but that doesn't mean everything will work with it.
Just as you can't easily put a V8 engine in a Tesla car. You can, however, continue to use your Mustang with all its compatible pieces.
The sysvinit-core package works as intended, so you can't say systemd is the only option. Unless you don't mind being intellectually dishonest, as the GGP (and whoever modded my previous comment overrated).
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com