Links 19/05/2008: Important Windows Refund Precedence, Unbundling Near?
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-05-19 14:23:27 UTC
- Modified: 2008-05-19 14:23:27 UTC
GNU/Linux
- French court orders Windows refund [Not the first time]
In France, it is illegal to bundle software and to refuse to reimburse the customer for unwanted licences, under Article L.122-1 of the French Consumer Code. The Tribunal de Grande Instance ruled that offering an expensive refund option was tantamount to offering no refund option at all, hence finding for the consumer and requiring that Asus stump up.
- Uxi, a Cuban magazine dedicated to Free Software and Open Codes by the University of Information Sciences
- University of Havana Finally Switches to Free Software
- Avnet Electronics Marketing launches complete MicroBlaze Processor Linux Design Solution
- LM_Sensors 3.0.2 Released
- I swear, this is not another Unixfication post
Is Sun talking with Linus about moving ZFS to GPLv2, with the objective of fast tracking ZFS into a native Linux kernel implementation of the file system driver? Or is Linus considering moving the kernel to GPLv3, with Sun doing the same for OpenSolaris? Is Linux and Solaris DNA going to swap much quicker than previously thought?
- AMD FireGL V8600 On Linux
If we would have looked at the FireGL performance under Windows and Linux a year ago, the results would have been vastly different -- Linux would have lagged far behind the Windows driver. With the new OpenGL driver, however, these results are rather pleasing. In 3DS Max and UGS NX tests from SPECViewPerf, the Windows driver had a small performance lead over the Linux driver. However, in the CATIA, Maya, and Pro/Engineer tests, the Linux driver wound up on top.
- Mandriva 2008.1 KDE hits a sweet spot
Ubuntu
- Hate Ubuntu? It's normal!
The fact that many people dislike the top distribution is not really a problem. The problem is that many of these folks are extremely vocal on the Internet to express their opinions. While no intelligent reader will ever take them seriously, they do give the Linux community a bad name and discourage potential Linux users from joining us.
- [Ubuntu] Weekly Newsletter #91
F/OSS
User Security vs. Vendor 'Security'
- Microsoft confirms Windows adheres to broadcast flag
News that the world's largest software maker has voluntarily agreed to help broadcasters control the recording of their shows is bound to outrage enthusiasts of digital video recorders, as it represents the biggest threat to the practice known as time shifting since the FCC's attempt to require flag adherence.
- Microsoft Stockholder? Take Stock in This...
While we are passing along the subject of anti-virus and spyware, let me ask you this. While MS does offer a somewhat crippled product to protect Windows, they push me toward a subscription purchase to get the full monty. Why am I being cornered into purchasing a "fix" for a problem Microsoft created? Shouldn't the full application be offered as part of Windows? Let me ask you this as well. Why should I purchase and use a product that necessitates I purchase and use another product in order for the first product to work the way it is supposed to?
- Hackers compromise Red Cross earthquake relief site
- Spain arrests 'prolific' hackers
Law and Crime
Leftovers
Recent Techrights' Posts
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre (in Portugal) Falls Apart…
- Luís Montenegro became embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy
- Links 10/06/2026: More Microsoft Layoffs, Sweden to "Ban Mobile Phones in Schools"
- Links for the day
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- SLAPP Censorship - Part 103 Out of 200: Telling People What They Know and Don't Know About Death Threats They Receive
- patronising letters sent on behalf of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
- IBM Genies in the Bottle
- for ordinary people working who at at IBM, it's not hard to see that IBM is floundering
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, June 10, 2026
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- Links for the day
- IBM Lost About 18% of Its "Market Value" This Month
- In IBM's case, a lot of the latest "pump" was Arvind's "quantum" hype/fantasy
- Gemini Links 10/06/2026: Signal to Noise, Cancer, and Permacomputing
- Links for the day
- Communities and "Prosumers."
- today's meetup will be about community
- Gemini and Gopher Links 10/06/2026: Roasting, Changes, and Harms of Slop
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Azure Shrinking With More Mass Layoffs
- "Reports suggest the layoffs will impact close to 200 out of 400 workers, who are set to cease employment at Azure on July 6"
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 09, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, June 09, 2026
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre-Right "Social Democratic Party" in Portugal
- Quite an achievement for a former Maoist radical and aspiring champion of the Portuguese proletariat to be invited to join Goldman Sachs
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 102 Out of 200: Maybe One Day Whistleblowers From Brett Wilson LLP Will Tell Us What Really Happened
- Maybe one day some former staff of Brett Wilson LLP will also approach us to blow the whistle
- What LibreOffice and TDF Get Right About Document Formats (and What They Get Wrong)
- OOXML is a phantom - it is something nobody implements, not even Microsoft!
- Gemini Links 09/06/2026: "The Mist of the Lands Between", Board Game Concept
- Links for the day
- 2026: The Year Slop Companies "Made an Exit" (Threw in the Towel Over to Wall Street)
- Remember 2026 as the year two major slop companies (which we won't name) sought an IPO
- Links 09/06/2026: NSO Group still cracking, "FOI tribunal throws out £14k costs claim against journalist Barnie Choudhury"
- Links for the day
- Links 09/06/2026: "Smartphones Broke Dating" and "EU Open Source Strategy"
- Links for the day
- Cannot Speak About IBM Wrongdoing or Jobs Being Sent Overseas (Lower Salaries)
- IBM has long attacked the media, the whistleblowers, and even online forums
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The CIA-Funded Centre-Left in Portugal
- In the political turmoil which followed the fall of the old regime, the communists seemed to be acquiring a dominant position and there was a very real risk that Portugal could end up aligned with the Eastern Bloc if they were not stopped
- This Coming Friday
- Richard Stallman (RMS)
- Yesterday Afternoon The Register MS Published a Fake Article That Says "AI" 31 Times Because It Got Paid to Do This
- What will happen when all those loans for slop (Ponzi scheme) stop and companies' marketing budgets - which include media bribes for hype campaigns - are no more?
- Extraordinary General Meeting of Staff Union of the European Patent Office Ahead of Intensifying Strikes
- We will, in the meantime, run a series about EPO corruption, which is now connected to corruption in Portugal and to corruption inside the EU
- Several Slopfarms That Target "Linux" Seem to Have Died
- Or perished severely
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 08, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, June 08, 2026
- Gemini Links 09/06/2026: Tanana River, Cassette Beasts, and Emacs
- Links for the day
Comments
fruit of the loon
2008-05-19 23:02:34
Roy Schestowitz
2008-05-19 23:09:41
So Fia lore Inn
2008-05-19 23:19:25
It should be argued, at least for PC gaming, they have a monopoly on the desktop with gaming, as most people need to use DirectX properly in order for the games to work. Sure Wine, Cedega, and other projects are making some progress and some games may work, and believe me I try every few weeks to see how it is coming along, but again Microsoft still continues its dirty deeds. They lie about Linux and Windows interoperability, "They said it couldn't be done!" Novell agreement bullshit just like the Corel agreement in 2000 or 2001, where Corel Linux was promptly spun off and money/support from Corel to Wine apparantly dried up. Time and time again they come in and either buy out or pollute the environment with thier proprietary crap, and we read another dismal Microsoft article after article every few weeks or more.
If Microsoft is so devoted to bringing Linux and Windows together, I don't see anything on their vast labrynth of shit at Microsoft.com indicating this. Where is the repository of interoperability Linux and Windows software on Microsoft.com? Oh, but you can still get their bullshit "Facts" on Windows and Linux, and that's about it. At least Google has a repository you can add to your Linux install for software from them. In my opinion, don't think Moonlight ("Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I ask that of all my friends") will last much longer or work well for Linux users should Silverblight (Silverlight) suddenly become popular through payoffs and slight of hand corporate tricks.
If you ever want to have Microsoft come clean, no, I don't believe it would ever happen unless the DOJ finally came down hard and raided their offices, took their hardware and software and forced them to release the code and all of the various undiscovered backdoors waiting to be found, it just won't happen. IMO, Microsoft has demonstrated time and time again it will fight tooth and nail against any punishment against them.
We will all be cleansed if true justice were ever to prevail, but in the "United States of Advertising", most of the people in power are paid off, with big pharma and other corporate overlords always padding the handshakes and votes. It is a lost cause, you know it, I know it, but you'll still piss away your vote to one of the two parties who bend over for big pharma to slide in the money and the overpriced medications pop out the other end as we all struggle under the yoke of this dismal fucking world.
Come clean? Microsoft? The whole system is mired in filth.
Good luck.
We now return you to your normal life, ostrich head in the sand, millions of tokers/beer drinkers who raise their fist while watching Fight Club and return to their soap opera pitiful lives of slavery as the credits roll.
Vote for Wesley Snipes for President in 2008, neither one of the big parties will get anything done, they are a part of the problem.