Posted on 09/04/2019 4:10:46 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Summary: Microsoft and its boosters (media insiders) spread the illusion that Microsoft is “opening up”; the reality, however, is that it’s looking to tighten control over Linux while at the same time profiting from exFAT patents owing to back room deals
TECHRIGHTS has come to the saddening realisation that entryism inside Linux is in an advanced phase if not a “terminal” stage.
The “4 Freedoms” of Richard Stallman (RMS) are probably not enough for Software Freedom. There are glaring loopholes or workarounds. We’re not talking about stuff like systemd here. We talk about changes/passage of ownership/control. If you allow moles, entryism and other forms of infiltration into key projects — and those projects are too complicated (or vast) to fork because that doesn’t scale well — these projects are screwed. Again, we’re not talking about Devuan/Debian here but mostly about Linux, the kernel.
It’s extremely sad for me to say it, but access to source code (and permission to modify, run, redistribute) is not enough for Software Freedom anymore. We see a lot of evidence of this in Linux. That’s aside from the fact that openwashing — a term I believe I coined more than a decade ago — is a massive threat to Software Freedom (yes, right now more than ever before). We’re losing the battle… we’re ceding control. It’s all about control.
Microsoft doesn’t come to Linux “in peace”. It’s hostile. It did the same thing to Yahoo, to Nokia, and to Novell. My wife’s view on Microsoft ‘helping’ Linux is the same as mine. Microsoft needs to belately adopt EXT4 if it cares about Linux; but it’s only entering Linux to advance Microsoft’s ‘standards’, APIs and proprietary software inside Linux… through Linux. It’s exploitative, pure and simple.
Microsoft loves Linux like Donald Trump loves the women whom he groped, illegally, by his very own admission. We’re only glad to see that a lot of Linux sites reject Microsoft’s dishonest ‘storytelling’ about how it ‘fell in love’ with Linux — the most laughable story since Temer and Bolsonaro claiming to serve people of Brazil. But let’s leave politics out of it, at least for a second (they’re used only for analogies here).
Steve R. at Linux Questions wrote: “Can’t argue against better interoperability, but I’m skeptical. Why should the Linux community adopt Microsoft technology while Microsoft is apparently reluctant to incorporate Linux technology.
“For example, Microsoft could adopt the “EXT4″ file system instead of pushing exFAT. Obviously Microsoft won’t do that to preserve its proprietary nature, even though they are opening up exFAT.”
fido_dogstoyevsky responds as follows: “They could, but as you say they won’t. It’s just the scorpion promising to not sting.
“If only we had the wherewithall to embrace what they’re offering and then extend it…”
Many of the comments we see are more or less the same. Unless one asks proprietary software front groups such as OIN for their views…
I should know; Many years ago on the phone (he phoned me) OIN’s CEO told me that many of Microsoft’s shakedown actions over Linux involved exFAT patents — some software patents that Alice/Section 101 likely would invalidate (if it went to court).
OIN, being a pro-software patents group, won’t bother actually invalidating these patents. It never even tried, e.g. at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). And suffice to say, my image of OIN ‘darkened’ over the years because it turned out it was more interested in fronting for proprietary software giants than in Linux or anything “community”. It’s like the Linux Foundation.
What does the Linux community (i.e. users and developers) actually think of all this? See the comments here; Microsoft spinners won’t be able to catch up with honest, frank, unpaid-for opinions.
Microsoft made a fortune from exFAT blackmail and it is likely still being paid ‘royalties’ for it, owing to large and high-profile OEM patent deals it signed years ago (even under Nadella).
“Microsoft made a fortune from exFAT blackmail and it is likely still being paid ‘royalties’ for it, owing to large and high-profile OEM patent deals it signed years ago (even under Nadella).”Obviously, and perhaps inevitably, Microsoft helpers like Greg K-H are happy to help, willing to oblige. Greg’s 'professionalism' notwithstanding, we’re supposed to think that this ‘mature’ (read: industry-friendly) man has no choice but to do what Microsoft says, never mind the community’s views.
Michael Larabel of Phoronix wrote about the Microsoft-friendly (Novell past) Greg carrying water for Microsoft, yet again, with its “horrible” code (like he did Hyper-V). To quote “The Existing Linux exFAT Code Is ‘Horrible’ But Could Soon Be In Staging”:
Following Microsoft’s approval of seeing exFAT support on Linux and at long last releasing public specifications to the file-system, the existing out-of-tree Linux driver code was quickly volleyed on the mailing list for review and hopeful inclusion into the kernel.
The existing out-of-tree exFAT Linux driver is the several year old one that was accidentally leaked by Samsung though later cleared up back in 2013. Due to uncertainty over Microsoft’s exFAT patents and the company previously not publicly giving their blessing to this file-system Linux support, it’s never been mainlined.
Tom’s Hardware did a relatively good job reporting on this, having researched it further than press releases and blog posts from Microsoft. Nathaniel Mott actually went on to dig some actual responses from actual Linux developers to Microsoft’s EEE-like move against Linux file system components/parts. “Phoronix reported today that Linux developers weren’t particularly enthused about what Microsoft released, with one kernel developer calling it a “pile of crap,” which is exactly the kind of frankness we’ve come to expect from Linux developers,” he said. Sometimes the truth needs to be said. Free as in speech, right?
In our previous post about it, a month after we wrote about this plan and the associated patent issues, we mentioned that this agenda of Microsoft is mostly being promoted by Microsoft boosters who pretend to care about Linux (after bashing it for years if not decades). Bogdan Popa, Microsoft News Editor [sic] (propagandist for over a decade), has just proven our point again (“Microsoft loves Linux” lie as an image). Microsoft Tim did so too. Notice how all the Linux haters suddenly pretend to care about Linux; They try to UNDERMINE it and they know what Microsoft has in mind.
We have meanwhile noticed some more shallow puff pieces. This one says that Microsoft “Opens Up exFAT”; It did not open it up, there are still patents on it and it’s controlled by a company that attacks Linux. Making a statement about patents isn’t the same as “opening up”. “Microsoft opens up the exFAT filesystem” was this headline in bit-tech.net. So much for “open”. Like a hunter opens a bear trap, waiting for the bear to come. It’s only about cementing monopoly or monoculture.
“Microsoft publishes exFAT spec” was a more accurate headline, but it continues/proceeds to saying that “it attempts to woo Linux…”
Errr… nope, to control Linux. Not the same thing. How about this article? This is really bad code, according to Phoronix, so why is it being added? Shouldn’t Torvalds make a public rant? Is he afraid to speak out now in light of recent events? As far as we’re aware, he has said not a word about it.
Puff pieces still dominate the news; there are quite a few more like the above-cited ones. There are also spammy press releases from Paragon Software (we saw them several times so far this week). Paragon has long profited from perpetuation of Microsoft’s patent blackmail against Linux and now it wants more money. We’ve found lots of puff pieces later in the day yesterday. Microsoft totally controls the narrative here (few people would bother reading comments). Reactions from actual users and developers of GNU/Linux don’t seem to matter.
Ryan Farmer, a former Microsoft MVP who over a decade ago turned against Microsoft and became a regular in our IRC channels, had a lot to say about it.
Last night he asked me: “What did you think of Microsoft saying it will “donate” exFAT patents to get a kernel module into Linux? They published the specification of exFAT and announced that they would be giving a patent license to all OIN members with the goal of getting a kernel module merged. They said it won’t be them that writes the kernel module though.”
MinceR responded in IRC with a joke: “good, at least it can be good then…”
<“Well,” Ryan pointed out, “there’s already at least one GPL licensed kernel module out there. That one that initially leaked out of Samsung. It just hasn’t been merged because Microsoft has sued people over file system patents so many times. Microsoft was quick to point out that they are not “currently engaged in any ongoing litigation related to exFAT patents”. Of course they aren’t. Litigation is what happens when threats don’t work.”
I showed him the latest reports about Microsoft moving to second “E” [1, 2]. “More gifts,” Ryan joked.
So yes, it’s really happening!
“Lawsuits work the same way plea bargaining does,” Ryan said. “Microsoft doesn’t want to sue people over patents that may be found invalid. It wants money.”
“Quite a few OEMs already pay Microsoft for exFAT patents. Now that there aren’t any large ones left to ‘milk’ Microsoft is ‘opening up’…”The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should never have granted these patents in the first place.
“The way to get money isn’t to nuke everyone,” Ryan concluded. “It’s to threaten them if they don’t pay up. Usually like part of what the cost of going to court and losing would be. As long as you never go to court, you don’t risk anything.”
Quite a few OEMs already pay Microsoft for exFAT patents. Now that there aren’t any large ones left to ‘milk’ Microsoft is ‘opening up’…
Quite the publicity stunt!
Tech Ping
After reading that line, I would discount every word by the author.
Yep
Reading this gave me a headache. The author is talking to himself and a very small audience. MS hasn’t ever liked Linux. It took market share.
While it is obvious that the author is a Liberal twit and all-around douche bag, his points about Microsoft are SPOT ON!
Unless MS releases ALL patents concerning the use of exFAT, then they will own the rights and will ultimately control Linux users.
This is a very good example of the old saying, “If you lay down with dogs, you’re going to get up with fleas.” MS is a parasite to any and all “partners” with whom they sleep!
I reacted in exactly the same way. Disingenuous, provably false, and utterly irrelevant.
Now my primary OS at work is RHEL. We use a few Win10 boxes for the things we absolutely have to use Win10 for by agency mandate. But primary development is on RHEL. At home I run one of several flavors of Linux and I have an Android phone. My wife, for better or worse (seems I've heard that phrase before in that context) is solidly in the Apple camp. The upshot is, we have one Win10 laptop, that actually dual-boots into Linux too. I boot Win10 about once a month or so to pick up updates. When this laptop dies, (it's a 4 year old hand-me-down as it is) I probably will not replace it with any other machine running Win10 as we no-longer seem to need it for anything.
All that said... I don't see this as a particularly nefarious move by MS. Oh, I am sure, 100% sure they are not doing this for the good of the Linux community. I do believe MS intends to gain a few things from this.
One, apparently the code for exFat is fairly ugly/crufty. They probably figure the open source community will clean that up for them and they'll incorporate it back into their own OSes.
Two, it "throws a bone" to the Linux community - for pure PR purposes. It makes them (at least on the surface) appear to be working with Linux, not against it.
Three, as I understand it they've garnered quite a bit of cash from their patents. Perhaps they're offering this up as a sacrificial lamb because they think they've just about run this cash cow into the ground?
Four, while exFat is terribly handy, it is really only useful (at least from a Linux standpoint) on thumb drives you intend to exchange with other users who are on some non-Linux box. I don't see exFat ever becoming all that important inside Linux. If MS starts making noises about patents and code now in the kernel - it'll be summarily pulled.
Five, exFat's usefulness is probably on the wane. Everyone seems to believe the Internet Of Things (IOT) is coming - with rampant IPv6 connectivity between everything with a little bit of power and room for a grain of rice sized chip. The thumb drive will go the way of the CD-ROM, floppy disk, cassette tape, etc. Who needs to transfer files via "sneaker net" when everything is connected and inter-operable? Pervasive networking will provide the transport. There is literally nothing in my house now that stores or uses data (particularly media such as photos/video/music) that isn't connected via wifi and/or bluetooth. Then only "island" is my car - a few years old now and just a commuter econo-box. It does require a thumb drive to play my music.
The upshot is, while I have no doubt MS's motives are far less than pure and are focused on what is in MS's best interests... I don't see that they can do anything to harm Linux directly with this move. They're only option would be to let exFat into Linux, then try to re-assert their patents. I believe that would be a tough sell legally, and as I mentioned, would see exFat pulled right back out to today's status-quo with hardly anyone in the Linux community noticing.
> After reading that line, I would discount every word by the author.
Yep. What an egregious, unnecessary, and totally irrelevant statement. Microsoft's many business sins and mistakes are its own.
Curiously, Microsoft has embraced (and has no intent to extinguish) the LBGTQWERTY movement, to the point of hoisting that movement's flag high above their headquarters. But I guess no amount of woke ass-kissing is enough for the Left.
Sheesh.
Reads like a rant from a leftist dweeb.
My reaction was the same. A partisan cheap shot is no way to get people to take you seriously.
Let me know how the article turns out - I’m done.
These idiot leftist authors don’t realize they lose all of their credibility and over half of their audience when the diss Trump and real republicans. Stopped reading at that point.
Maybe he just meant Creepy Joe Biden ...
“Microsoft loves Linux like Donald Trump loves the women whom he groped, illegally, by his very own admission.”
Well, if it is a choice between Donald Trump or Linux, I choose Donald Trump.
Excellent summary of the situation. Agreed on every point.
My frustrations and distrust of MS are just that - mine based on my experiences which are heavily colored by being a software developer. Having "grown up" programming in DOS and later Windows environments I simply much prefer to program in a Linux/POSIX environment. That gets into a whole host of reasons - a mix of technical and personal preferences - that aren't really appropriate here.
I'll make a prediction. 5 years from now I'll bet I don't even have any thumb drives in my desk drawer, and no exFat file systems anywhere to be found on my systems. I did use a thumb drive yesterday - I put a couple dozen movies on it in preparation for a trip. I could have loaded them directly on my Chromebook, but space is limited on that and I haven't gotten around to putting a high capacity microSD card in it. Prior to yesterday, I literally cannot remember the last time I used a thumb drive. I know last winter I updated the music on the thumb drive for my car. That may have been the last time - 9 months or so ago. That's really why I have a hard time attaching any nefarious motives to MS's move - I think they, like me, see the writing on the wall, exFat's importance is on the way out.
Thanks ShadowAce.
^
Yep... I knew it... NEVER TRUST MICROSOFT!!! EVER!
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