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.
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: 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]