In this period many things that should not to come, instead are coming.
After the new about an unexpected entry that contributes with 1% of total development of Linux kernel, after the nearly certain announcement of UEFI Secure Boot implementation in Fedora (starting from Fedora 18 for the next machines branded with Windows 8), yesterday the Skype 4 (by Microsoft) for Linux has been released, like a bolt from the blue, throught the ovation from the its unwitting fans.
My first worry has been: “in this way, in a no more distant future, Fedora and in general the GNU/Linux distros will be meaningless”.
Microsoft is a multinational corporation, its target is to dominate the software business, throught proprietary software strategies and monopolistic business practices; that’s mine, is only mine; that’s not mine, could be it in future. Exactly the opposite of free and opensource software.
Microsoft imposes the UEFI Secure Boot on the machines “Windows 8 branded” and therefore indirectly imposes to the others operating systems a need of a own -Microsoft- sign.
Microsoft contributes to the Linux kernel development for the own profit (Hyper-V hypervisor implementation), not for a natural team spirit with the FOSS communities.
Microsoft builds Skype 4 for Linux to consolidate the use of the own famous VoIP software in GNU/Linux systems without release the sources; unlike Ekiga, for example, that releases the sources freely both for GNU/linux and for Windows.
All that (and much more) limits drastically the GNU/Linux prospectives; i’m not happy if Skype 4 for Linux is here, i’m not happy if the paranoias of UEFI SecureBoot “break the balls” to Fedora.
