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
- We Need Less Gadgets, More Humanity
- If people are being honest with themselves, many of the gadgets they claim they "cannot live without" are just excesses and distractions they could definitely leave behind
- Daniel Pocock in The Guardian This Morning
- There is an opportunity here to spread a message, even if Pocock won't win a seat
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- What a Difference Six Years Make...
- We are also beta-testing a new feature for the site; we plan to announce it some time soon
- When It Comes to Slop, Richard Stallman is Opposite of Linus Torvalds
- When it comes to computing, Dr. Stallman has long been a voice of reason
- Daniel Pocock is in Mainstream Media This Week
- Pocock's haters will absolutely hate this
- In His Departure Post, Poul-Henning Kamp (phk) Explains Why Linus Torvalds is Full of "Hot Air" and Slop Bubbles
- Having lived through previous bubbles as a UNIX geek, phk cannot be ignored
- Whistleblowers Keep Flowing
- Later today a police investigator should phone us regarding death threats we've received
- Technology and Gadgets Got Obese, Just Like Their Users
- They now sell us so-called 'phones' for slop
- "Samsung Recently Projected a 19-fold Surge in Second-Quarter Operating Profit", Now There Are Mass Layoffs
- In a 9-month period Samsung's debt rose by about 80%
- Gemini Links 20/07/2026: Dungeon Meshi/Undertale Crossover, "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Dark Web and Beyond"
- Links for the day
- IBM's Control of the Media "Just Showed What Taking Accountability Does Not Look Like"
- It is no secret that IBM pays the media
- Microsoft Loses XBox Lawsuit, But There Are More
- The collapse of studios continues
- GNU/Linux Approaching International Average in Djibouti
- One can envisage further gains for GNU/Linux, seeing Microsoft is in such a bad shape
- Daniel Pocock "[t]he Australian Taking on Nigel Farage — from Down Under"
- This can help raise awareness of some issues
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 19, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, July 19, 2026
- Misleading Coverage in Slashdot Promotes and Openwashes Slop
- Piggybacking RMS for the headline seems like a PR stunt of sorts
- As Envisioned, a Rebellion and Many Whistleblowers at Microsoft
- Whistleblowers ensure Microsoft has totally lost control of the "narrative" (face-saving PR)
- Microsoft is a Right-Wing Company
- Just remember that when people call Microsoft "woke"
- GNU/Linux "Market Share" Rises to About a Quarter in Sudan
- Can anyone explain to us why?
- Gemini Links 19/07/2026: Visiting Ethiopia, Two Dreams, and Price of Skinnerboxes
- Links for the day
- Tears in IBM, Company Falls Apart While Management Fakes "Performance" to Take Bonuses
- Wall Street is a naked emperor
- Telling Our Story
- In the coming years we'll have some high-impact stories to share and generally tell without fear of reprisal
- Microsoft XBox Studio Leaders Upset at What the New CEO Did
- From what we can gather, in 2024 XBox was already entering what's known as a "death spiral". Now it's literally moving down the drain/pipe.
- IRC Started in Finland, GNU/Linux Did Not
- History is like that
- GNU/Linux Rises to 8% in Bhutan, Same as the International Average
- Taking note of estimated GNU/Linux share in that country, we see it hovering around the international median/average this month
- Links 19/07/2026: "The Voice of Google" and "Chinese Surveillance Tech a Threat to Privacy"
- Links for the day
- Keep Both Eyes on the Ball
- At the moment we have six series running in parallel; two of them concern the EPO
- 'Journalists' Who Help IBM Cover Up Fraud
- Journalistic malpractice
- The "Modern Linux" Song
- Join us now, make the kernel
- XBox Layoffs Vastly Bigger Than Microsoft Told the Press, Microsoft Keeps Trying to Change the Subject
- Many so-called "XBox fans" are no more
- Microsoft Lost 1,200 Billion Dollars in "Market Value", Take a Look at What Happened to Windows
- while Windows continues to fall unstoppably GNU/Linux is surging
- Links 19/07/2026: People in China Are Buying Feelings and 404 Media Has Third Anniversary
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/07/2026: Camping, Health, and Hardware
- Links for the day
- The State of Slopfarms
- Slopfarms or LLM slopfarms are a menace and a problem on the Web
- GNU/Linux Rising to 6% in Brunei
- seventh in the world for GDP (PPP) per capita
- Free Software is Like an 'Activist Movement'
- People who argue strongly in favour of something (even very good things) will attract the wrath of those whom they oppose
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 18, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, July 18, 2026
- UKIP TV (GBNoise) Covers Challengers to UKIP Nigel, Daniel Pocock Mentioned
- Way to get noticed
- Links 18/07/2026: Chinese State Media Depicting Neighbours as Monkeys, US "Stocks Sink on Anxiety About Tech and Hey Hi (AI) Spending"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 18/07/2026: "Business Idiots Everywhere", "The Siren Song of DePIN", and Entering Geminispace
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux in Lithuanian Desktops/Laptops Climbs to 8%, the Global Average
- For its own national security it would be wise to abandon Windows
- This Bubble is Bursting, Piecewise
- It's nice to see Wall Street getting some reality checks
- It's Not About XBox, Microsoft is Already Firing Hundreds of People Who Do "Security [sic] Engineering" [sic]
- The official reason/excuse/lie told is something about slop, but no sane person would buy it (not even insiders who are impacted)
- Can We Finally All Agree That UEFI 'Secure Boot' is a Sham That Harms Security and Gives Microsoft Remote Control Over All PCs and Servers (Even Those That Don't Run Any Microsoft Software)?
- Cui bono?
- Bolivian People Adopt GNU/Linux (They Have a Domestic Distro Too, PluriOS)
- Notice Windows falling to an all-time low
- No Technical People Write About UK Parliamentary Elections
- Almost none of them work in the media, which seems to favour parrots, slop, or parrots that use slop
- "But Stallman is Scaring Away Women..."
- Such dishonest projections (projection tactics) needs to be called out and refuted
- First Female Debian Project Leader (DPL) Affirms Low Profile and Inferior Status of Women in GAFAM
- 3 months ago Sruthi Chandran was elected as Debian Project Leader (DPL) for a period of 12 months
- After 5 Years Vista 11 Still Adopted Less Than Its Predecessor (Orphaned, End of Life Since Last Year)
- Notice Windows going down to 40%
- We Don't Depend on Google (or Search Engines in General)
- there's a lesson here and it extends beyond sites
- Only "Torvaldos" (Linus Torvalds) Can Use the F-Word, CoC Does Not Apply to the Enforcer, and Richard Stallman Punished for Using the Other F-Word ("Freedom")
- "Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off"
- Explaining the Culture of Bulletin Board-Style Chat
- Only desperate detractors would try to present something (cherry-picked) from IRC as some sort of official statement for Techrights
- Independent, But Not Fringe
- "Daniel Pocock is an Independent Candidate."
- In Free Software, Nobody Gets Fired
- Way to own one's code and project
- PIP-Styled Mass Layoffs Allegedly Coming to Microsoft by 12 August 2026
- Microsoft has been doing "silent layoffs" (PIPs and more) for quite some time
- Daniel Pocock's Candidacy (Election of Member of Parliament) Mentioned in BBC and Over a Dozen News Sites Since Yesterday
- Funnily enough, albeit not surprisingly, the same people who attack Pocock also attack us
- Links 18/07/2026: Spotify Uses Slop Song Descriptions, "San Francisco Demands Removal of Nudify Apps"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 17, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, July 17, 2026
- Gemini Links 18/07/2026: A Manifesto by The Dissident, Shokz Headphones, and Gemini Tinylog Reader (GTL)
- 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.