● 07.17.12

●● Microsoft is Sexist

Posted in Microsoft at 5:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft writes code (for proprietary software) which is offensive, treating women like sexual objects

Microsoft’s plague of sexism is nothing new to us as it was covered here before [1, 2, 3, 4], but this new example is more blatant than previous ones. It doesn’t leave much room for interpretation. “Who said Microsoft developers don’t have a sense of humor,” writes Muktware, “[e]ven if that humor is sexist. Our own Matthew Garrett, UEFI secure boot fame, has posted a blog about the magic constant Microsoft used in its HyperV code.”

Here is the original (we would rather not quote the offensive bits): “So, full marks, Microsoft. You’ve managed to make the [Linux] kernel more offensive to half the population and you’ve made it awkward for us to rectify it.” It took a while to remove curse words from the source code and now Microsoft pollutes it, and not just in the comments.

Microsoft — not FOSS — is hostile to women. Remember that. Free software opponents love to pretend that Free software proponents are sexist; it’s usually spin and utter nonsense. Computer Science in general can be hostile to women, not FOSS. At Microsoft, where secrecy is prevalent,incidents or sexism less frequently become public knowledge. █

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