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Microsoft Loves Linux, and Open Source. We know this because the press is telling us this almost every day.
The TechRights Blog, and writer Dr. Roy Schestowitz, explains that this is part of the Microsoft master plan. Just when you thought Embrace, Extend, Extinguish was going away, the article explains the multi-prong attack that Microsoft is quietly working in the background. And they are relying heavily on their friends in the press. Microsoft has always had its share of shills in the press, but, with the focus on Google Android and Apple its quietly become less of a Journalist career killer to be openly Pro Microsoft. Schestowitz explains the attack as killing Linux Softly with APIs and the lock-ins they bring as more Microsoft packages and services are ported to Linux, and by getting appointments to key Linux Foundation subcommittees, by slinging dollars and software contributions.
By becoming financially dependent on Microsoft partners like Nokia and Intel (Wintel) the Linux Foundation lost its ability to antagonize rivals and it might not be long before the Linux Foundation silently tells Torvalds not to denounce Microsoft because of his new senior colleagues from there and because “Microsoft loves Linux”, according to Microsoft. As we have shown before, several Linux Foundation sub-committees are having heads appointed to them from Microsoft (Neela, Ramji and more). It is like a coup in slow motion as we are gradually witnesses more of its impact.
In the area of cloud services, for storage, virtual machine platforms, communications - skype and email, Microsoft is moving slowly but steadily into the Linux world.
And of course we've already discussed Microsoft's Trojan Horse attack on Android via their $70 Million dollar investment in Cyanogen.
The press seems to be lapping it up, because Google has now become the company to hate, and many of the Journalist starting out today don't remember the never ending supply of dirty tricks used in the past.
I recommend you read the long-ish article, or at least scan its major points. It may explain why you will be seeing more and more stories about a company you had come to believe was irrelevant. [Corrected at 17:54 UTC]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday February 23 2015, @03:26PM
Or perhaps they hope that in the future they can start some kind of legal battle which will drag Linux down, and they can then regain lost ground? (I confess that I keep my tinfoil hat fairly tightly on my head - but you cannot blame me for that.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday February 23 2015, @03:41PM
Legal battle with whom?
The legal aspects of the kernel are well taken care of. The core repository is well managed, and submitted patches are reviewed for who originated(and thus owns) them, and that those people have agreed to abide the GPL.
Releasing code to work with Linux doesn't mandate that anyone use it. You can allege a conspiracy all you want, but you have some obligation to suggest how the hell it would work.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Monday February 23 2015, @03:51PM
I know for a FACT that the SCO/Caldera fiasco was covertly funded and supported through interesting arrangements - like investment in 3rd companies - by Microsoft.
I can name names. But won't do so here.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 23 2015, @07:12PM
Do So Here. Please.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Monday February 23 2015, @08:45PM
I've met these people's children. Not going that way. For them or for mine. ;-)
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Monday February 23 2015, @04:09PM
systemd is replacing the OS, basically, and using product tying to require exclusive use of only its components and elimination of all competition.
So, there's this patent MS owns on .... which is done in some component of systemd, which is basically a open source reimplementation of the monolithic windows architecture so I'd be surprised if there is no infringement.
Now in the past, you sue redhat, and worst case is everyone moves to gentoo / debian / whatever. Now you sue systemd and as whats engineered to be a single point of failure incompatible by design with everything that isn't itself (basically a cancer), then a judge awards ownership of all systemd project IP to MS because they don't really have any other resources, and all the linux distros are simultaneously dead.
Its a likely strategy. Think in MS's shoes. Your competitor insists on making an inflexible brittle deeply interconnected system? Well, if you insist, I'll crack one tiny part making the whole thing shatter like glass.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 23 2015, @05:39PM
This actually sounds like an excellent idea.
1. Have Lennart Poettering dragged in front of a court for infringement of Micro$haft patents
2. Have infringing systemd pulled completely from GNU/Linux
3. Reimplement freedom of init system choice to all.
4. ...
5. Profit?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24 2015, @02:30PM
Agreed, that wouldn't work.
Now, try the other way around. Microsoft embraces Linux, ports SQL Server to Linux. Lennart then adds a hard dependency for MS SQL Server to systemd.
Now who will you be paying for Client Access Licenses for your Linux servers?
Gentoo and Slackware? Who cares, only irrational systemd hating geeks use those.