Links 20/02/2008: eBay Boycott, Yahoo Under Attack, Push for GNU/Linux in Russia
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-02-20 15:27:39 UTC
- Modified: 2008-02-20 15:27:39 UTC
Recent Techrights' Posts
- GAFAM is a National and International Threat to Everybody
- GAFAM is just a tentacle in service of imperialism
- Don't Cry for Gaslighting Media in a Country Which Loathes the Press
- my wife and I received threats for merely writing about Americans
- IBM Paying the Price for Treating Workers Badly and Discarding Real Talent (Because It's "Expensive")
- IBM is dead man walking
- Projection Tactics - Part III: Silencing Inconvenient Voices Online
- If X gets banned in the UK, it'll be hard to see what the spouse says in public
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- Coming Soon: Impact With EPO Cocainegate
- Will Campinos survive 2026?
- The Last 'Dilberts' or Some of the Last Salvaged (Comic Strips Which Disappeared Shortly After They Had Been Published)
- Around the time the creator of Dilbert went silent he published some strips mocking TikTok and usage of it
- Linuxiac May Have Reverted Back to LLM Slop
- Is he back on the wagon?
- The Creator of Git Probably Doesn't Know How to Install and Deploy Git
- Nobody disputes this: Mr. Torvalds created Git
- Slop is a Liability
- Slopfarms too will become extinct because people aren't interested in them
- EPO People Power - Part XXXVI - In Conclusion and Taking Things Up Another Notch
- They often say that the law won't deter or stop criminals because it's hard to enforce laws against people who reject the law
- Running Techrights is Fun, Rewarding, and Gratifying
- In Geminispace we are already quite dominant
- Red Hat is Connected to the Military, Its Chief Comes From Military Family (From Both Sides)
- The founder of Red Hat's parent company literally saluted Hitler himself (yes, a Nazi salute)
- Red Hat (IBM) is Driving Away Remaining Fedora Users
- I've not used Fedora since Moonshine
- Robert X. Cringely Has Already Explained IBM's Bullying Culture (Towards Its Own Staff)
- IBM is a fairly nasty company
- Proton Mail compromise, Hannah Natanson (Washington Post) police raid & Debian
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 14, 2026
- Gemini Links 15/01/2026: "Ode to elinks", envs.net Pubnix and Downtime at geminiprotocol.net
- Links for the day
- Still Condoning Child Labour and Exploiting Unpaid Children Developers as PR Props (to Raise Monopoly Money)
- These people lack morals. So they project.
- "Security, AI or Quantum" on "the IBM Titanic"
- Who's RMS?
- Hours Ago The Register MS Published Microsoft Windows SPAM "Sponsored by Intel." The Fake 'Article' Says "AI" 34 Times.
- The Register MS isn't a serious online newspaper
- EPO People Power - Part XXXV - Where Else Will Corruption and Substance Abuse be Tolerated?
- We need to raise standards
- Status and Capital
- People who do a lot are too busy to boast about it and wear fancy garments
- Turbulence Ahead
- I last rebooted my laptop in 2023
- Google News Rewards Plagiarism With LLMs (About Linux, Too)
- Google is in the slop business now
- Links 14/01/2026: Failing Economy and Conquest Abroad as a Distraction From Domestic Woes
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/01/2026: The Ephemerality of Our Digital Lives and "Summer of Upgrades"
- Links for the day
- Outsourcing on Microsoft's Agenda, Offshoring Also
- "In some cases, India hiring is poised to replace certain roles previously based in the U.S."
- Links 13/01/2026: 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams Passes Away With Cancer, Ban on X/Twitter Considered for CSAM Profiteering
- Links for the day
- The Goal is Software Freedom for All
- Anything to do with "Linux Foundation" is timewasting
- Reminder That Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Is Not Free, And It's Because of IBM
- software freedom just 'gets in the way'
- Under IBM, in Order to Game the Stock Market, Red Hat Resorted to Boosting the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in Human History
- This is what IBM turned Red Hat into
- Revision handed Microsoft the keys to the distortion of the past/history
- This isn't the first time The Register MS rewrites computing history in Microsoft's favour, as we pointed out several times in past years
- What Will Happen to GAFAM After the US Defaults Rather Than Bails Out the Market?
- Or tries to topple every government that doesn't play by its rules?
- EPO People Power - Part XXXIV - Bad Optics for the European Union (for Failing to Act and Tolerating Cocaine Use in Europe's Second-Largest Institution)
- There are principles in laws which tie awareness with complicity
- EPO's Central Staff Committee is Now Redacting (Self-Censoring) Due to Threats From the EPO "Mafia"
- "On the agenda: salary adjustment procedure for 2025 (as of January 2026)"
- "AI" (Slop) 'Demand' Isn't Growing, It's Fake, It's a Pyramid Scheme
- They try to resort to 'creative' accounting (fraudulent schemes like circular financing)
- Difficult Times at IBM and Microsoft Ahead of Mass Layoffs (Probably Before This Month's Results Unless Postponed to 'Prove' Rumours 'Wrong')
- IBM and Microsoft used to be tech giants. Nowadays they mostly pretend by pumping up their stock and buying back their own shares.
- Canonical: Make Ubuntu Bloated (Debian With Snaps), Then Sell the 'Debloated' Version for a Fee
- If people want a light distro, then they ought not pay Canonical but instead choose a light (by design) GNU/Linux distro
- People Don't Want "Just Enough", They'll Look for Quality
- That's why slopfarms will go away or become inactive
- Gemini Links 14/01/2026: 3D and Tiny Traffic Lights Pack
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 13, 2026
- Slop Waning Whilst Originals Perish
- Slop is way past its "prime"
- XBox's 'Major Nelson' Loses His Job Again, This Time in a Microsoft Mono Pusher
- Microsoft hasn't much of a future in gaming. XBox's business is in rapid decline and people who push Mono to game developers are the same
- Links 13/01/2026: Russia Weaponises Weather Against Civilians, Beijing-Controlled HK Attacks Legal Team of Besieged Critics
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 13/01/2026: Loss of Desire to Produce, Individual Consumption
- Links for the day
- Shobhit Varshney From IBM Pushing Slop at Large Bank, Another McDonald's Waiting to Happen?
- How long can they get away with phony narratives like "replaced by AI"?
- Links 13/01/2026: Ubisoft Layoffs, "India IT In Shambles", and Microsoft Chatbot Killing People
- Links for the day
- IBM is Not a Leftist Company, the "I" Stands for Imperialism, and Poo Floats to the Top
- Remember that AK is military from both sides of his family
- Links 13/01/2026: More Mass Layoffs in GAFAM, Catching Up With Political News of Early January
- Links for the day
- Freedom of Speech in the UK (or Freedom of the Press/Expression) and Protection From Adversaries
- undressing people without consent and in very bad taste is not "speech"
- Ending the Status Quo at the European Patent Office (EPO) This Year
- Things will continue to get worse as long as the "Digital Majority" stays silent and/or passive
- Greenland Ought to Move to GNU/Linux, Not Apple
- GNU/Linux at 4%
- So When Will British Politicians, Police, Government Departments Quit Twitter (X.com)?
- They sure bring constituents there (by being there)
- If You Care About Freedom, Don't Follow IBM Red Hat (Like Microsoft Novell 20 Years Ago)
- IBM Red Hat and Microsoft don't seem to compete
- IBM Red Hat Does Not Compete With Microsoft, It's a Microsoft Reseller
- even if employees of Red Hat dislike and distrust Microsoft
- Red Hat Layoffs, Even of "AI" Staff in India
- This is how companies die
- LLM Slop Isn't Replacing Online News, It's Just a Pest That's Gradually Going Away as Money for Slop Runs Out
- Slop likes to talk about itself (like some kind of 'web-cancer')
- Not Journalism: Almost 80% of the 'Articles' We Saw About Torvalds and 'Vibe Coding' Are LLM Slop (Sometimes Slop Images)
- The real issue is, Torvalds who created Git as a solution to proprietary prison is entertaining Microsoft's own proprietary prison
- EPO People Power - Part XXXIII - Interest From Some European Media, For a Change
- Without it, we'll become another Russian Federation
- Just Another Reminder That Microsoft Didn't Deny Mass Layoffs
- Remember that Microsoft never denied this
- GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Réunion This Year
- Population sizes like a million people are nothing to sneeze at
- Dr. Andy Farnell on Marketing Bad Things Like Slop Using FOMO (Fear of "Being Left Behind")
- many of the same themes we often cover here
- IBM Stock Compared to Bitcoin, Fake Articles About IBM Promote Myths About IBM
- The stock moves based on false marketing
- Bluewashing Continues, Red Hat Onboarding Interns in Low-Paid Regions
- It's the end of the second Monday of 2026
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, January 12, 2026
- Gemini Links 13/01/2026: ScottoRang and Outage
- Links for the day
Comments
Great
2008-02-20 15:54:42
Still want to kill Google. But they cant.
Google = Cool M$ = Sucks
Most of the top talent at Yahoo will move over to Google or some other company. M$ will be left behind with all the lousy people - and they will pay with all their cash reserves and go in debt.
That just made my day !!!
After few year the old monkey boy will be still throwing chairs around the office taking how fucking stupid they where by buying Yahoo. Difference will be they have lost a huge amount of market share to Linux and they will be in debt with their stock price spiralling downwards.
What kind of a fucking stupid company buys technology to shut it down (xen) and bribes reporters to discredit others products.
M$ is still arrogant that they will win. This will be their end. This is their last chance...
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-20 16:24:20
Gates says it's the Yahoo employees that he wants, but it's unlikely to work out. The Yahoos don't want Microsoft. See the following recent articles:
Bradley Horowitz bids Yahoo farewell
,----[ Quote ] | Bradley Horowitz, who headed up Yahoo's Advanced Technology division, bid | adieu to the company in a blog entry posted on Valentine's Day. `----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9873183-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Week in review: Yahoo snubs Microsoft
,----[ Quote ] | "The smell of fear and rage is pervasive on"The smell of fear and rage is | pervasive on campus," wrote one News.com reader to the TalkBack forum. "They | might as well have been told the Mansons were buying the place." campus," | wrote one News.com reader to the TalkBack forum. "They might as well have | been told the Mansons were buying the place." `----
http://www.news.com/Week-in-review-Yahoo-snubs-Microsoft/2100-1083_3-6230761.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Is Microsoft/Yahoo about Windows' failure as a top server platform?
,----[ Quote ] | Before my whiney enemies all get up in arms about yours truly once more | beating up on Microsoft, I'd like to point out that the idea of Microsoft | buying Yahoo being a tacit admission that Windows can't cut the mustard as a | top Internet server platform didn't originate with me. | | No, the credit, or blame if you prefer, goes to Marcelo Carvalho, an IT | manager in San Francisco and Damien Hocking, a Linux-Watch reader who brought | Carvalho's thoughts to my attention. `----
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8001941484.html
Yahoos won’t work for Microsoft
,----[ Quote ] | I work for Yahoo!, and I have had to explain to a few people recently why the | Microsoft buyout talks are so troubling for Yahoos. They don’t seem to | understand the severity of the impact that a Microsoft takeover will have. | | [...] | | Key reason #1 - Microsoft is anti open-source... | | [...] | | Key reason #2 - Microsoft is evil... `----
http://www.techyouruniverse.com/technology/yahoos-wont-work-for-microsoft
The real difference between Microsoft and Google
,----[ Quote ] | Microsoft can shuffle the deck chairs all it wants. | | It can buy Yahoo or YooHoo. It can trot out Steve Ballmer in Spandex and a | cape. | | Microsoft’s problem in competing with Google is far more basic. | | It’s organizational. | | | [...] | | It’s not about the money. It’s not about the fame. It’s not about the name on | the door. It’s not about becoming an executive. | | It’s about the work. It’s about doing something over the course of just a few | months and then seeing it online. It’s about trying, and sometimes failing, | then trying again. | | [...] | | So far I’ve seen no evidence this is going to happen. I think Microsoft’s bid | for Yahoo is proof of that. Once the deal goes down, all those smart | Yahoo-ers will be free to leave. The dumb ones will be left, waiting for | orders from Redmond. `----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2025
Also see this new bit:
,----[ Quote ] | Would you believe... that Microsoft has dropped down to #86 within the | Fortune Best Places to Work survey? That's down from #50 in 2007 and #42 in | 2006. Like a rock. In a bad way. And who is #1 for two years in a row? Grab | that chair and give it a big effen toss in the air to Google! Toot! They get | bigger and they're still #1. `----
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-quick-quips-yahoo-86-and-mspoll.html
Lastly consider:
Why Microsoft Should Fret
,----[ Quote ] | But what if at stake in the battle isn't just Microsoft's position in selling | ads, but the very survival of its core software business? Microsoft would | never admit that so much is on the line. `----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277476716860601.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
Microsoft's Last Big Beat: Internet Domination or Death
,----[ Quote ] | What can $44.6B USD mean? Well, for Microsoft (MSFT) it may mean the cost of | survival. `----
http://seekingalpha.com/article/63876-microsoft-s-last-big-beat-internet-domination-or-death?source=yahoo
Microsoft to partners: It's time to change
,----[ Quote ] | Aiming to rally its partners around the reality of hosted software, Microsoft | Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told them it was a matter of financial | life and death. `----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6195764.html
Microsoft's executive shuffle expected Thursday
,----[ Quote ] | The move will see three top executives--including two prominent outside | hires--out of a job. Leaving the company are: Senior Vice President Steven | Berkowitz, the former Ask.com CEO who had been heading Microsoft's online | services unit, and Mike Sievert, the former AT&T Wireless executive brought | in to run Windows marketing. Both Sievert and Berkowitz had already seen some | duties handed off to others at the company and their departures were largely | expected. | | Also leaving is Pieter Knook, longtime head of Microsoft's Windows Mobile | unit. `----
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9871715-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Microsoft is Dead
,----[ Quote ] | A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking | to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo. | I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of | Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media | company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face | and realized he didn't understand. It was as if I'd told him how much | girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 80s. `----
http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
Will Microsoft Survive the Next 10 Years?
,----[ Quote ] | I am not really an expert in this but when I read all the negative | headlines and articles I ask myself if Microsoft really will survive | the next 10 years. | | [...] | | I am pretty sure that the Open Source Community, the new Ubuntu, | Google and of course Apple are those companies that are ready for | our century and they will get more and more people that know what | they really want. `----
http://websquirrel.blogspot.com/2007/03/will-microsoft-survive-next-10-years.html
Great
2008-02-20 16:58:06
Google is keeping its arm open for them - a welcome red carpet. It must have already started to woo them.
Google is going to annihilate M$. I think Google doesnt even care about M$+Yahoo merger - they care more about the consumers and making their products better - rather than crushing down competitors.
See a huge amount of deflection of best open source developers to Google after the hostile takeover.
Go Google !!!
M$ will be left with nothing but poo on their face. This will be their end.
Great
2008-02-20 17:10:13
They are no longer the industry leaders - just playing catchup
Look at the number of mass migration away from Windows platform - US army, Hardware OEM (asus, dell, hp, etc) Colleges, International Governments, developers, etc.
Last advatange they have is lot of money - that too is gone with Yahoo.
Great
2008-02-20 17:16:19
Miles
2008-02-20 18:53:59
1. cheaper dvds ($20 vs $40+) 2. cheaper players ($120 vs $350+) 3. same quality as blueray (used the same codecs) 4. harder to damage than Blu-Ray 5. HD DVD doesn't have region locking, Blu-Ray does.
Blu-Ray winning the battle doesn't hurt Microsoft nearly as much as it hurts consumers. HD DVD wasn't even Microsoft's format anyway, it was Toshiba's... which is the underdog compared to Sony.
IMHO, Sony is another Microsoft wannabe and that has made me very nervous about Blu-Ray.
If you look back over history, Sony has always tried to push some alternative media format - always more expensive for the consumer. And until now, they've always lost.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-20 23:25:59
BoomBoom
2008-02-21 01:48:45
I've been reading for awhile, and have been a happy PCLinuxOS user since last December, thanks to the dismal failure known as Vista + M$'s attempts to sabotage my XP pro install through the autoupdate feature. My solution to this mess, since I like my old games and Wine can't run some of them, was to reinstall XP with XP-lite, removing all the web services, Internet Exploiter, Outhouse Excess, ect, and setting up a dualboot with PCLOS, since M$ products can't be trusted on the web. I've always preferred Firefox and T-bird over IE/OE anyway. Despite the FUD that M$ shills and fanboys spew, I've found PCLOS easy to use and quick to pick up. This coming from a poweruser that hacked on XP to try to get it to do what I wanted. That's my personal middle digit salute to M$.
Now for the news I have. Scope this out and laugh: http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero/
Keep in mind that an 'evildoer' in M$'s view is everyone that has had enough of M$ brand FUD, crap code and malware.
Damn, I hope those bastards go out of business soon.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-21 02:17:01
Yes, I read about this site (it has been known of for a while, at least by Microsoft watchers) and I was going to ignore it. Giving that desperate attempt from Microsoft a mention is giving it publicity, which is why Slashdot has already done.
Prepare for Microsoft to pretend that it has changed in attempts to regain people's love. Sun already does this using its "we're a little bit pregnant with open source" gesture, but Sun is not malicious.