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I have covered Microsoft's interference with FOSS for over a decade and carefully studied even pertinent antitrust documents. I know the company's way of thinking when it comes to undermining their competition, based on internal communications and strategy papers. Even days ago we got this in the news.

The pattern of embrace and extend (to extinguish) -- all this while leveraging software patents to make Linux a Microsoft cash cow or compel OEMs to preinstall privacy-hostile Microsoft software/apps with proprietary formats (lockin) -- never ended. What I see in the Linux Foundation right now is what I saw in Nokia 5 years ago and in Novell 10 years ago -- the very thing that motivated me to start Boycott Novell, a site that has just turned 10 with nearly 22,000 blog posts.

It is a saddening day because it's a culmination, after years of Microsoft 'micro' payments to the Linux Foundation (e.g. event sponsorship in exchange for keynote positions), which will have Microsoft shoved down the throats of GNU/Linux proponents and give an illusion of peace when there is none, not just on the patent front but also other fronts (see what Microsoft's partner Accenture is doing in Munich right now). The links below are a complete list of the bad (in my view very bad) news. █

"We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger….If you’re going to kill someone, there isn’t much reason to get all worked up about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Any discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger."

--Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Platform Group Vice President

In the news today:

• Microsoft Steps Up Its Commitment to Open Source

  Today The Linux Foundation is announcing that we’ve welcomed Microsoft as a Platinum member. I’m honored to join Scott Guthrie, executive VP of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group, at the Connect(); developer event in New York and expect to be able to talk more in the coming months about how we’ll intensify our work together for the benefit of the open source community at large.

• Microsoft Joins The Linux Foundation As A Platinum Member

• Microsoft's Linux love affair leads it to join The Linux Foundation

  No, this isn't The Onion and it's not April Fool's Day. Microsoft has joined The Linux Foundation.

  Microsoft announced that it was joining forces with The Linux Foundation at the Microsoft Connect developer event in New York.

• Microsoft announces the next version SQL Server for Windows and Linux

• Microsoft joins The Linux Foundation as a Platinum member

• Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation

• Microsoft—yes, Microsoft—joins the Linux Foundation

• THE END TIMES ARE HERE: Microsoft embraces Google, Apple, Samsung and even Linux in one go

• Microsoft's open source love fest continues as it joins Linux Foundation

• Microsoft Goes Linux Platinum, Welcomes Google To .NET Foundation

• Microsoft joins Linux Foundation in another nod to open-source code

• Microsoft Is Joining the Linux Foundation

• Microsoft Joins Linux Foundation

• Microsoft joins Linux Foundation in another step toward greater openness

• Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation, 15 years after Ballmer called it 'cancer'

• Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member, Google joins .Net community

• Microsoft is now a Linux Foundation Platinum Member

• That's an expensive Linux install! Microsoft gives the Linux foundation $550000

• Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation because 2016 isn't weird enough already

• Microsoft just got its Linux Foundation platinum card, becomes top level member

• 4 no-bull takeaways from Microsoft joining the Linux Foundation

• Microsoft announces the public preview of the next release of SQL Server on Linux and Windows

• Microsoft Joins Linux Foundation, Google Joins .NET Community

• Microsoft just joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member

• Linux has won, Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation

• Microsoft is joining the Linux foundation as a platinum member

• Microsoft joins Linux Foundation, Google added to .NET community

• Microsoft seeks to grow Azure platform with products, partnerships

• Microsoft Joins Linux Foundation As Platinum Member

• Microsoft Fortifies Commitment to Open Source, Becomes Linux Foundation Platinum Member

• Microsoft contributes to open ecosystem by joining Linux Foundation and welcoming Google to the .NET community

• Linux Academy Partners with Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials Program

• Microsoft Joins the Linux Foundation as the World Remains the Right Side Up

• Hell freezes over as Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation

• Microsoft Joins Linux Foundation as a Platinum Member

• Microsoft Connect: Visual Studio 2017, SQL Server v.Next for Windows and Linux and More

• SQL Server joins the Linux party, new preview comes to Linux and Docker

• Microsoft joins The Linux Foundation

• Google joins .Net Foundation

• Microsoft and Google bury the hatchet in one small way

• Google joins Microsoft's .NET Foundation

• Microsoft announces Visual Studio for Mac, preview of the next SQL Server with Linux and Docker support

• Microsoft's SQL Server Next for Linux, Windows hit public preview [Ed: Proprietary software with surveillance is not a gift]

• Google signs on to the .NET Foundation as Samsung brings .NET support to Tizen

  Microsoft is hosting its annual Connect(); developer event in New York today. With .NET being at the core of many of its efforts, including on the open-source side, it's no surprise that the event also featured a few .NET-centric announcements...

• Samsung launches Visual Studio Tools for Tizen preview, lets developers build apps with .NET

• Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation, welcomes Google to .NET community

• Microsoft releases SQL Server Preview for Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux

• Microsoft says Linux is no longer 'cancer,' joining Foundation

Read at LinuxAndUbuntu