05.12.08
Posted in News Roundup at 1:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Links 27/11/2020: Jolla is 7, Diffoscope 162, MNT Reform Production
Links for the day
The Time Coronavirus Helped EPO Management Prevent Staff From Protesting and Going on Strike (March 26th)
"In view of the spreading of the New Corona Virus, the planned General Assemblies have to be cancelled," the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) wrote in the wake of the crisis across Europe back in March (weeks ahead of a planned strike)
Guarding Your Privacy With E2EE: Primer
"As with all security, there is assumed risk no matter how careful you are. There are no security guarantees but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try."
Links 27/11/2020: Systemd 247 and Cockpit 233
Links for the day
A Free Speech Deficit Harms Software Freedom
Free software and Software Freedom cannot possibly succeed if we keep accepting or even just tolerating systematic censorship of opinionated people in our community; failing to speak out on this matter (for fear of supposedly offending someone, risking expulsion) is part of the problem — complicity by passivity
Perception of Difficulty
New poem by figosdev
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 26, 2020
IRC logs for Thursday, November 26, 2020
Cartoon: After Gambling With Workers' Savings the EPO Can Do Real Estate
New EPO cartoon from EPO insiders (the one on the right certainly looks a lot like António Campinos and the one on the left can be his EUIPO ‘import’ or Benoît Battistelli‘s INPI ‘import’)
Free as in Freedom Should Not be Associated With Cost
It's important to remind people that so-called 'free' services (Clown Computing, centralised spaces that 'farm' their so-called 'users') aren't really free; we need to advocate freedom or free-as-in-freedom alternatives
[Meme] UPC's Pyrrhic Victory
Contrary to what Team UPC says, what happened earlier today is hardly a breakthrough
Many Thanks to Free Software, the Demise of Software Patents (in Europe and the US), and So Much More
On a positive note we're heading into the end of November, one month before Boxing Day; we take stock of patent affairs that impact software developers
Links 26/11/2020: PHP 8.0, Proxmox VE 6.3, UNIGINE 2.13
Links for the day
29,000 Blog Posts and Recent Site Improvements
Over 29,000 blog posts have been posted here, but more importantly we've made the site a lot more robust and resilient, accessible in more formats and protocols (while improving transparency, too)
[Meme] Trump is Out. Now It's Time to Pressure the Biden Administration/Transition Team on Software Freedom Issues.
The Biden transition is in motion and tentative appointments are underway, based on news reports (see our Daily Links); now is the time to put pressure, e.g. in the form of public backlash, to ensure it's not just another corporate presidency
Boycott ZDNet Unless You Fancy Being Lied to
ZDNet's Catalin Cimpanu continues to lead the way with misinformation and lies, basically doing whatever he was doing to land that job at ZDNet (after he had done the same elsewhere)
The UPC and Unitary Patent Song
On goes the UPC symphony, as the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is almost here, always coming "real soon!"
Open Letter to the German Greens on UPC and Software Patents: Don’t Betray Your Voters and Your Promises, or You Will Regret it
Dear Members of the German Greens in the Bundestag. By Benjamin HENRION.
[Meme] One Step Away From Replacing Patent Examiners With 'Hey Hi' (AI)
If it's not legal for 'Hey Hi' (AI) to get a patent, why should it be legal for patents to be granted by those who are invisible (and sometimes in de facto house arrest)?
European Patent Office (EPO) Reduced to 'Justice Over the Telephone' and Decree by E-mail
The EPO is trashing the EPC and everything that the Office was supposed to stand for, as it wrongly assumes demand for monopolies (typically from foreign corporations) comes before the rule of law and Europe's public interest
Making Free Software Work for Users
The latest reply to a non-developer concerned about software freedom; guest post by figosdev
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 25, 2020
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Links 26/11/2020: AV Linux 2020.11.23 and Blender 2.91 Release
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2020: GamerOS and Biden Transition in Motion
Links for the day
An Orwellian December
With December around the corner and states tightening the screws on the population (or employers on employees) at least we can look forward to spring
The Non-Technical (or Lesser Technical) Software User That Wants Software Freedom
Assuming that Free software should care about what users — not only developers — really want (and need) it’s important to understand how they view the current situation (with growing waves of corporate takeover and compromises, even expulsions)
The European Patent Office Should be Run by Patent Examiners (Scientists), Not Politicians
Europe would be better off (and patent quality much improved) had people with an actual grasp of science and reality were in charge of the EPO, not a money-chasing kakistocracy (which is what we have now)
Member of the EPO's Boards of Appeal Explains Why VICOs (or ViCo/Video Conferences/Virtual 'Hearings') Are Not Suitable for Justice
It's interesting to hear (or see/read) what people inside the EPO have to say about the "new normal" when they enjoy a certain level of anonymity (to avert retribution)
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Co-founder Bruce Perens: Open Invention Network (OIN) is Protecting the Software Patent System From Reform and OSI Approves Faux 'Open' Licences (Openwashing)
Richard Stallman was right about the OSI and the fake 'movement' that claims to have 'coined' the term "Open Source" (it wasn't a new term at all; it had been used in another context and the Free software community spoke of things like "Open Hardware" years earlier)
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 24, 2020
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Making JavaScript Suck Less
"Other than that, the first rule of JavaScript is: Do not use JavaScript. But this article is for people who break the first rule."
Content is available under CC-BY-SA
Challenger said,
May 12, 2008 at 11:43 am
Sometimes I think that M$ is responsible to some extent to the growth of FOSS and Linux. If it wouldn’t be for the exploitation of M$ – we wouldnt have seen such rapid adoption of FOSS by other companies.
Challenger said,
May 12, 2008 at 11:44 am
there would be no GPL/FOSS/Linux/OpenJDK/OpenOffice…if it wasnt for M$..
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 12, 2008 at 12:32 pm
The Free Software movement predates Microsoft’s dominance. Had it not been Microsoft, it probably would have been someone else, unless of course there was diversity in the market and far less abuse of power.
Watching the iTunes/iPod monopoly, however, not to mention Intel’s recently-exposed corruptions (been going on for ages), I believe the problem is a regulatory one. The market rules just don’t work. That’s what anti-Trust laws were made for a long time ago, but some governments neglect them (possibly given some dosh to do so).
Roy Bixler said,
May 12, 2008 at 1:10 pm
In the case of the US, the reason for the lax anti-trust enforcement is largely the ideological bent of the current administration. They strongly prefer that the government takes a passive role when it comes to regulating the market. A rally cry during the Reagan years was to “get government off your back.” Now, it is very clear to that he was referring to big business.
ZiggyFish said,
May 12, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I wonder if the soon to be new government, well fix US’s stand on Microsoft.