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Greg Kroah-Hartman Gripes About Microsoft's Linux Contribution; MS Renews Effort
dp619 writes "Microsoft's developers were missing in action after the company donated GPL-licensed drivers to the Linux kernel community in July, leaving significant work to the Linux community, according to Linux driver project lead and Novell fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman. The company rekindled its involvement after Kroah-Hartman published a status report this week. Kroah-Hartman said that other companies were also laggards in Linux development, and that Microsoft's lack of involvement was nothing out of the ordinary."
First I don't blame MS for doing what they did, I do thank them, though I don't use or benefit from their code.
Second, how can anyone actually defend MS actions here. They got caught benefiting from public efforts and were forced to release the minimum code. They put little effort into the task and delivered crap (as usual). So Good on you MS, now can you please clean up the pile of $%# you left in the corner, thank you.
astonishing
Why bother
That's true, but it also demonstrates the Microsoft's Linux developers are second-rate, at best. If I were a hiring manager, and I got a resume from a Microsoft employee who claims to have worked on the Linux kernel, I would assume that can't write code properly.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Get over yourself... nobody here cares what you think.
I submit the GP's moderation, and my aforementioned karma, as evidence to the contrary. ;)
You're right about one thing; my freaks list genuinely is rather extensive. However, I view it more or less as a roll call of Stallman's footsoldiers here on Slashdot. They know exactly who they are.
Predictably, you got modded Offtopic.
Thank you for this, however. :)
Just curious, will anyone ever be able to do enough to get the GPL fanboys to stop their fucking whining?
Truthfully, they only really got bad after 2005. Before that point, the FSF was gradually sliding towards irrelevance; but unfortunately, Microsoft had to go and start the DRM flap. Because of that, Stallman was able to reinvent himself and change focus to real-world activism, (since actual code development of the GNU Project had been taken over by either Red Hat or Debian a few years earlier) and the cult came back.
These days, the slide back towards irrelevance has resumed, but they're resisting it every step of the way. They have a #gnu_generation channel on FreeNode which targets teenagers, (interesting when you consider that one of the key allegations levelled against Microsoft by the FSF on the Windows7Sins site is poisoning education) and there are reasonably regular reports of them taking on (and brainwashing) new interns as well.
Then there's the ever-present Trotskyite Debian cheerleading squad, as well. Because Ubuntu is Debian-based, and the Debian crowd are as heavily Stallmanite (and Communist) as they are, the cult is managing to skim off a steady trickle of the Windows refugees who are adopting Ubuntu.
Eventually the FSF are going to hang themselves. The Windows7Sins campaign doesn't look like anything other than a byproduct of toxic, crippling autism; it is pure preaching to the choir, and won't be earning them any credibility points at all with the general public.
The literature of cults provides very few examples of a cult outliving its' founder, as well. Stallman could hypothetically be around for as long as another 35 years yet; but it is unlikely that he could remain active as its' leader for all of that time. I could see Kuhn definitely becoming the FSF's David Miscavige, although that will probably depend on how old he is when the time comes.
Either way, they won't last forever; but the real issue, as you've pointed out, is how much damage they stand to do to Linux's reputation in the meantime. Linux is already largely recognised as being synonymous both with Stallman and with cultic radicalism by the online trade press. Red Hat might be doing well enough in the enterprise, but the non-profit community are generally regarded as hard leftist, extremist loons, and all too often with good reason, tragically. You'll never see a single article from the online trade press which dissents from the FSF party line, where the author isn't subjected to the most foul, blistering forms of abuse in the comments/talkback sections, if they have one.
Another recent issue of some concern is the "Linux Youth," phenomenon that has begun to be observed among Ubuntu users. These are generally teenagers, and are usually both fanatically pro-Ubuntu and pro-Stallman. They may be a product of the "GNU Generation," initiative, or they may simply be developing due to Ubuntu's aforementioned association with Debian. Either way, it is troubling, if only because it demonstrates the FSF's ability to gain new victims/footsoldiers from diverse sources.