Unrequited Microsoft, Red Hat in the Way, LinDoz

Christine Hall penned an opt-ed today saying that she remembers Microsoft's dirty tactics, tactics they still employ while professing love for Linux. The media can fawn all they want, but Hall will never trust them. Elsewhere, Jack Germain said LinDoz is a "smooth Windows-Cinnamon blend" and Jamie Watson had nice things to say about KaOS 2016.06. Mint 18 Cinnamon and MATE editions are planned for this week and Red Hat said "RHEL is getting in the way."

While the mainstream tech press is ready to embrace “the new Microsoft” as a friend to open source, many who fought in the trenches against the corporate giant will never be able to forgive and forget. Those were the opening words in today's opt-ed from Christine Hall and a good summary of many old-timers' feelings about Microsoft's new leaf. Young'ins today don't remember Microsoft's methods of destroying competition, but Hall does. She said Microsoft was "a powerful Goliath that used every weapon in its arsenal — FUD, patents, blackmail (legal and otherwise), anti-competitive tactics (also legal and otherwise) and more — with the intent of destroying open source in general and FOSS in particular." Now they're using one of their old plays in Linuxland, to befriend the target they couldn't destroy or buy to manipulate them. Microsoft is cuddling up to Linux and Linux vendors for their own survival and, they're hoping, growth. Hall said she commonly receives negative feedback for her position and says the younger crowd just doesn't know Microsoft for what they really are. "Without having experienced firsthand the battles that were fought before they came along, they will ironically see Microsoft as merely being not much different from the other bad players. Commenter Gary Frankenbery summed it best, "Distrusting Microsoft has been, and continues to be a way of life for me."

Bruce Byfield today asked if Canonical was a victim of high expectations. He said Ubuntu has gone from the "darling of open source" to the next "Microsoft in the making" in a matter of a few years. How did this happen he wondered. He said some state their association with Microsoft as a reason, but he noticed few are attacking Red Hat because of their deals with the devil. He listed as possible reasons:

* Media relations that sometimes mimic Microsoft publicity stunts
* Canonical's "perceived loss of interest in the desktop
* Canonical's own record of dealing with the open source community
* But mainly, Canonical is the victim of the high expectations it created and failed to live up to

Scott Matteson today covered Gunnar Hellekson talk at this year's Red Hat Summit dealing with the current problems with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the changes in store for this commercial Linux operating system. He said it's been getting in the way lately and it needs to be easier. Matteson summed up the plans of Red Hat:

* More available software, less software installed: "curated software library" managed by Red Hat
* Less disruptive updates and simplified cadence, software licensing agreements, and lifecycle rules.
* More automation: "automate RHEL focusing on robot users, not just humans."

Meredith Courtemanche has more on this as well. She wrote Red Hat's biggest challenge was further integration with Microsoft. Jim Whitehurst hinted at further interest in mobile and big data as well she said.

In other news:

* KaOS Linux: Not just another derivative distro

* Makulu's LinDoz Is a Smooth Windows-Cinnamon Blend

* Clement Lefebvre said in the monthly news that Mint 18 Cinnamon & MATE to be announced this week.