Microsoft begins "Extinguish" phase of dealing with Open Source.

Date:
Fri, 08 Jul 2022 19:29:24 GMT

Description:
Embrace? Check. Extend? Check.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Yesterday, we discussed Microsofts growing control of the Linux and Open Source world. Purchasing influence and power over large portions of the FOSS world (which, until very recently, Microsoft regarded as Enemy #1).

I posited that these actions by Microsoft bear a striking resemblance to both the Embrace and Extend portions of the famous Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy that Microsoft has used, in the past, to defeat other competition.

Well, it appears that the Extinguish phase has begun.

On June 16th, Microsoft updated the policy for the Microsoft store to include the following restriction for all software sold:

to prohibit charging fees in the Store for open-source or other software that is generally available for free

Yes. You read that right.

Microsoft is going to begin prohibiting charging for any and all open source software effectively killing a critical method for funding Free and Open Source Software projects. (We werent the only one to notice this. Bradley Kuhn of the Software Freedom Conservancy wrote an excellent article
discussing why this is a bad thing.)

One of the Krita developers had this to say :

As one of the ~8 paid, full-time Krita developers, I can tell you all for a fact that, for better or worse, a big chunk of our development funding comes from stores like Steam and the Windows Store, without which we have very little chance of keeping up the current scale and pace of development .

Lets see. Heres the order of events

Step 0) Talk about how evil Linux and Open Source are for years and years. Declare it to be a major threat to everyone. When that fails to destroy
Linux and Open Source proceed to Step 1

Step 1) Get involved in Open Source and build a business around it. [
Embrace ]

Step 2) Make Open Source dependent on Microsoft (both for infrastructure and funding). [ Extend ]

Step 3) Choke off other forms of funding for Open Source. [ Extinguish ]
(We are here)

But, dont worry, Microsoft totally loves Linux. *wink wink*

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Link to news story: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/microsoft-begins-extinguish-phase


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