Dear Ubuntu User Reader,

The latest strategies emanating from Redmond are forcing Linux and open source communities to reevaluate how we look at Linux/Microsoft relationships and redefine the language we use to refer to them. Take, for example, the phrase "Microsoft bashing"; it acquires a whole new meaning in light of recent events. Allow me to explain.

As I've said many times before, having a lot of proprietary software running on an open operating system does not ultimately help Free Software in any discernible way. At least, not for us end users.

Bringing freedom, not just apps, to end users is the aim. It is the only way to move technology forward while also avoiding placing most of the population at the mercy of a tech-corporate elite. It is the only way to progress technologically in a socially, environmentally, and politically responsible way.

The aim is to get more developers developing Free Software on whatever platform, as long as it is a free one. The aim is to get more users adopting Free Software, because they realize that not only is it often on par with proprietary software, it is also more sustainable, and it makes protecting their rights easier. The aim is to have tools that, by dint of the number of people who use them, can be used to pressure large IT corporations with the threat of losing their market share if they misbehave and can help relieve the stranglehold in which some companies keep the IT market locked.

Believe it or not, in the same way that porting proprietary games and office applications to Linux is not going to help that cause, porting Bash to Windows will not help either. Quite the contrary. Porting Bash to Windows is bait that Microsoft dangles in front of the developer community. It does not take into account end users at all. Microsoft wants more developers to feel more at home on Windows and develop for their own operating system. At the same time, Microsoft wants to reinforce the myth that GNU- and Linux-related technologies are not for your average user, precisely because of Bash.

Please watch the video they used to announce the "breakthrough" of Bash on Windows 10 [1]: two slightly overweight white dudes in T-shirts droning on and on while typing at a console. One would be hard-pressed to find a more unattractive way of presenting a new technology – no offense to the guys doing the presentation. Now, compare that to how Microsoft sells Office 365 [2] or the HoloLens [3]. Notice the production quality, the smiling, fit actors, some of whom are (*gasp*) women and not all of whom are (*double-gasp*) white.

True, Bash doesn't lend itself to the glamorous song-and-dance, slim-guru-on-stage style of presentation or the slick corporate ad format. But, if Microsoft loves Linux so much, why doesn't it throw its weight also behind the likes of KDE, or Unity, or LibreOffice, or Krita? The answer is simple: They all look too good – at least too good for what Microsoft wants you to think Linux looks like. They would destroy the myth that Linux is only for techie guys that get unexplainably excited by terminal commands. They would destroy the myth that GNU/Linux doesn't really have apps for everybody.

I nearly respect Microsoft for their slyness. This is almost Machiavellian. If you can't beat 'em join 'em – by making believe you support one part of the ecosystem while you are really undermining the other. If anything has changed from the days of Gates and Ballmer, it is this: the realization on behalf of Microsoft that a full, head-on attack against Free Software will not work. You must use a two-faced, subtle roundabout sleight of hand to try and kill Free Software.

For the end-user market, Microsoft is still as bitter, jealous, and nasty with competition as ever. Microsoft still regularly shakes down Linux/Android companies on bogus patent claims, which are then charged to the buyers – I mean they call us "end" users for a reason: We are the ones that "end" up paying. No Microsoft games have been ported to Linux. Microsoft regularly and arbitrarily changes their office suite document formats so LibreOffice can't ever get it completely right; they then cajole ignorant MS Office users into blaming LibreOffice for the failings. And the list goes on.

All this leads me to conclude that "Microsoft Bashing" – note the capital "B" – should now mean:

"To implement or encourage the implementation of FLOSS technologies, such as Bash, in Windows to (a) spirit away developers from free platforms and (b) cement the myth that FLOSS is not really for end users. "

As you can see, in the new definition, Microsoft is the subject. Scary.

Paul C. Brown,

Editor in Chief