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Posted in GPL, Microsoft, VMware at 5:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Related and older: The Openwashing of VMware, Sponsored by the Linux Foundation (in Turn Sponsored by VMware) | Openwashing Report: The Linux Foundation Champions Openwashing of GPL-Violating VMware
Summary: A former insider’s confession reveals the degree to which Microsoft/VMware people violated the GPL and then covered it up — to the point of forcing staff to lie about these GPL violations
THIS article is based on new information and it can hopefully be followed by another with leaks or further evidence. It’s based on an important confession made by a former VMware insider, responding to a well known Red Hat employee (his name does not matter to this story).
“This article is based on new information and it can hopefully be followed by another with leaks or further evidence.”To spare people unnecessary details and irrelevant context, it all started when the person said, “if there are GPL violations I am sure [Software Freedom] @conservancy would be interested…”
Remember that the Conservancy sued VMware, his employer. Once challenged by the Red Hat employee he insisted again: “I believe in informing people so they know the possible repercussions. Many many companies knowingly and purposefully violate the GPL (such as VMware when I worked there, they actually told me to lie about them using it my first day). I don’t think governments are much better […] yes, my boss at @VMware told me to not speak of the fact that they were using BusyBox illegally, and to not use email to talk about it because lawyers were reading those. They asked me to automate the deletion of LICENSE files in code repos, oh yes they did! But I wouldn’t.”
“Remember that the Conservancy sued VMware, his employer.”He later got in touch with me, seeing I was interested in this confession (years after it was legally relevant). He told me: “since you seem interested, this is when the CloudFoundry product was launched internally at VMware, 9+ yrs ago, which used BusyBox. Every developer (many dozens) knew it was wrong but just wanted their paycheck. VMware owned their souls […] you would not be surprised to hear that the person in charge at the time was ex-Microsoft and wrote large parts of the NT kernel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lucovsky Probably now doing the same stuff at his current job… I will let you discover where [Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat; Face with monocle]”
He’s alluding to Mark Lucovsky, whom Steve Ballmer allegedly threw a chair at (even Wikipedia mentions this).
The Linux Foundation has become and is still becoming more rogue than rogue. It won’t talk about the GPL anymore, except when it says something negative about it (even though Linux uses it!). Mr. Zemlin should have resigned ages ago, but his “real bosses” love what he does. Microsoft people taking over VMware is a well-documented fact (we wrote many articles about it over a decade ago) and the same is true for the Foundation.
“It sure makes one wonder who really “runs the show” at the Foundation.”I’ve been in touch with the above person (again, we’re omitting names as they don’t matter to this story), noting that the Linux Foundation is nowadays anti-Linux or at least anti-GPL. Many people remember how VMware removed from the Foundation staunch supporters of the GPL.
Remember that Jim Zemlin approached (by his own admission) Microsoft’s Sam Ramji to run CloudFoundry. They’re shameless about this! And around the same time another former Microsoft/VMware executive was put in a powerful position at the Foundation with a massive salary of nearly half a million dollars per year. It sure makes one wonder who really “runs the show” at the Foundation. It calls itself “Linux”, which is more of a misleading façade considering what it does (and who for).
We hope to receive some documents and communications soon. We realise the legal risk associated with ‘leaking’ those. It takes courage (of the source, who can be intimidated, e.g. withdrawal of pension). █
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