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: 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 It's rambling and often relies on argument by analogy and uses mostly pretty out of date info.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.