08.12.08
Bill Gates is Still Fighting Against Free/Libre Software, Quietly
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
–Bill Gates, about the Chinese people
Look who’s coming to town to ’save’ the Chinese youth from the ‘horrid’ thing that is Free (libre) software. No, it’s not a suppressive regime; rather, it’s Bill Gates who, despite claims of retiring, is still being spotted lobbying for Microsoft behind the scenes. For information about Gates’ embrace of ‘piracy’ in the fight against GNU/linux, see this article.
In any case, here is the very latest:
Chinese State Councilor Liu Yandong met with U.S. billionaire Bill Gates and Microsoft’s chief executive officers here on Monday, agreeing to a stronger collaboration between the software giant and China’s education and science sectors.
The next time people tell you about the ‘charitable works’ of Mr. Gates, remind them what occupies the man. Apart from the publicity charade (such as the recent glorifying placements in The Time, courtesy of the husband of The Gates Foundation’s former manager), not much has changed. █
“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not”
–Bill Gates
Related posts:
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.