Links 12/07/2008: Impressions of KDE4; New GNU/Linux Appliances
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-07-12 20:03:19 UTC
- Modified: 2008-07-12 20:03:19 UTC
KDE
Fedora/Red Hat
Distributions
- New Wolvix website up and running
- Ubuntu: Challenge the Mac
- SliTaz, a mighty micro Linux distro
- Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 2 Screenshot Tour
As the Ubuntu developers failed to deliver a Live CD with this alpha version (it will be available in Alpha 3), we've tested one of the current daily Live builds. Here is the screenshot tour of this second alpha version of Ubuntu 8.10...
- I converted to Ubuntu…
I was really surprised when it automatically downloaded a driver for my wireless card, without the need of me to look for it. Now I have to admit that Ubuntu is the No.1 Linux distro for desktop user.
Oh, good bye XP…
- Sabayon 3.5
- ELive
- Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter #129
- Distro Review: Linux Mint 5 Elyssa
Overall I would say Mint 5 is more a case of evolution than revolution, there are of course improvements here which are welcome but it feels more a case of fine tuning things than adding big new features. The distro already does so much that it's hard to see what new features are really needed, though I'm sure the developers have plans. It should also be noted that this is based on Ubuntu 8.04 which is an LTS release and itself could be considered quite conservative on the feature front, it's about stability and consolidation which makes sense.
GNU/Linux: General
- Finally, Notes on Linux is here and ready
- [Wine 1.1.1 Released]
- A new way to use Linux.
- Linux in schools: a teacher speaks
Catching them young is a popular slogan and one that yields dividends too, no matter whether one applies it to the adoption of software or the learning of a language. And with a small window seemingly open for Australia's FOSS community to push for the use of free and open source software in schools, the question arises - how does one go about making the first inroads?
- A Simple Guide to Making the Perfect Recording in Audacity
- New Compiz plugins
Besides these additions, Freewins plugin from our one and only C-F dev/journalist SmSpillaz has improved leaps and bounds, keep up the great work. Freewins plugin allows you to rotate any window in any direction (yes including in 3D).
- Another reason to love FOSS - Software Kill Switches
One thing I hate above almost anything else is when a vendor tells you what you can and can't do with your software. That drives me bonkers. Sure, they wrote it and it's theirs to do with as they wish, but once they sell/give it to me, it's mine to do with as I see fit - within the confines of the software itself. Unceremoniously switching me off or making me pay more, forcing me to upgrade, stopping me from using the software, or making me bow to other ludicrous demands is just blatant power mongering and extortion. If they want me to do something, they had better have a really good reason why I should do it, and it had better not be "just because we want more money."
So what brought on this little bout of ranting and bitterness? Well, several things really, but the biggest is the ever infamous software kill switch. It's been around for years, but really didn't start coming into its own until Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) came onto the scene. Since then, proprietary vendors have looked at Microsoft's success with the Software Kill Switch and realized the money making potential of it. They also have seen the power it can give them and it's become an intoxicating drug to them.
- What is so good about Linux?
- Is Linux ready for your Small Business?
Devices
Firefox
F/OSS
Bad Day for Apple
Leftovers
Recent Techrights' Posts
- The four freedoms and GNU/Linux naming controversy, by Akira Urushibata
- Social control media owned and run by 'broligarchs' keeps attacking RMS for insisting on names that include GNU
- Open Source Initiative (OSI) Not Doing Its Job, Instead It's Promoting Microsoft Ponzi Schemes
- it participates in Microsoft's Ponzi scheme, which helps Microsoft distract from or excuse the mass layoffs
- The Register MS: Installing Free Software on Your Device is 'Sideloading'
- This is a form of propaganda
- Mozilla's Assisted Suicide, Assisted by GNOME
- Firefox is meant to get better all the time, but instead it gets worse
- Frankly Getting Sick of Slop About "AI" (Slop)
- Calling everything out there "AI" serves nobody and nothing but the Ponzi scheme
- Media Gaslighting Dooms the Media
- this "AI" gaslighting is done because publishers get paid to do so
- GNU/Linux at 4% "Market Share" (Even According to Steam Survey)
- Another milestone
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- Even Microsofters Now Speak About Microsoft Reportedly Planning to Sack 10% of Its Staff (as Early as This Month, or 2 Weeks From Now) as Real Income Falls
- Microsoft buying from Microsoft isn't real income, it is accounting fraud
- Crans-Montana, Le Constellation: journalists, victims' families, ProtonMail users at risk, police raids
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in Tanzania
- This month (and year) GNU/Linux is measured at an all-time high there, based on the data that statCounter can see
- Links 07/01/2026: Microsoft ChatGPT Killing People and Microsoft "Github monopoly is destroying the open source ecosystem"
- Links for the day
- Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Soon, Just Like We've Said for Months
- IBM and Microsoft are heading in a similar trajectory and are hiding how bad things are using similar tactics
- Now It's a Mainstream Media (MSM) Story: Microsoft Layoffs Coming, They'll be Vast (and They Blame "AI", As Usual!)
- the books were cooked (accounting fraud) to hide what really went on
- Stick to the Science, the Facts, the Observable Reality
- Science is at the heart of this site
- Africa's Search Market Has Been Unfavourable to Microsoft
- In Africa, as we've just noticed, Bing is moving down, even more sharply this year
- Slideshare is Slop
- Be sure fools will rewrite history online
- Gemini Links 07/01/2026: Looking at 2026, Linux Anti-Minimalism, Diode Function Generators, and Inkscape
- Links for the day
- Projection Tactics - Part I: What is "Serious Harm"? Or Whose?
- the most serious harm was done to us
- Links 07/01/2026: More Signs XBox the Console is Dead/Dying, Convicted Felon Repeats Threats of Greenland Annexation
- Links for the day
- EPO People Power - Part XXVII - Science- and Principles-First Journalism About Issues That Matter
- journalism became so shallow that nowadays it can be replaced by bots
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 06, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 06, 2026
- Gemini Links 06/01/2026: Collective Responsibility, Pico2DVI, and TV Detox
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Loves Freedom, Democracy... and Linux? No, Microsoft Laying Off Because "Microsoft Loves Linux" Was Failed Posturing, Its Former Staff Moves to GNU/Linux
- "What are the running totals for IBM and Microsoft layoffs?"
- Links 06/01/2026: Neglect of the Elderly, Abandonment of International Laws
- Links for the day
- Links 06/01/2026: More Reports Point to Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Later This Month), Greenland/Denmark Cautions the Dictator Who Illegally Invaded Venezuela
- Links for the day
- Internet Policy/Net Reality: You Must Never Ever Rely on Google (no "S.E.O." Either)
- Stack Overflow is dying
- Ahead of Mass Layoffs Microsoft Tries to Rebrand or Redefine XBox (Because the XBox is Tentatively Dead)
- 2026 will be the last year of XBox in all likelihood
- Richard Stallman (RMS) Announces His Georgia Talk 2.5 Weeks in Advance
- A lot earlier than usual
- Dr. Andy Farnell on Technology That Harms People (and Lack of Regulation Which is Needed to Address This Problem)
- Dr. Farnell's article is long but well worth reading
- GNU/Linux Rising to 5% in Cameroon and It's Hardly the Exception
- "AI" is just a smokescreen as losses pile up
- Rumours: Microsoft to Lay Off 12,500-25,000 Workers Soon (Tentatively Wednesday, 15 Days From Now)
- "Layoffs are coming third full week of Jan. Likely 21st but these things can move around a bit based on last minute developments."
- EPO People Power - Part XXVI - European Media Has Become Part of the Problem
- it is as clear as daylight that Cocainegate is real
- IBM 2026 "Organizational Change/s" Means Layoffs Resume Soon, Some Claim "Forever Layoffs."
- It's about "narrative control"
- Microsoft Layoffs in January 2026
- Get ready
- Google Still Boosting Slopfarms
- Slopfarms will probably all perish as soon as Google News quits sending them visitors
- Links 06/01/2026: Cryptocurrency Scam Emails and Greenland's Fear of Getting 'Venezuelad'
- Links for the day
- Links 06/01/2026: DIY Projects and Inertial Music
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, January 05, 2026
- To The Register MS, ARM Means Microsoft Windows (Follow the Money)
- the Free software community can campaign and run sites (like the one below), but it cannot afford to bribe so-called 'news' sites like Microsoft and its OEMs do
- IBM's CEO Makes No Sense
- "IBM CEO Aravind Krishna on what’s really driving tech layoffs"
- Links 05/01/2026: Tensions in Korea, Ukrainians See "Double Standard" in a US Russia-Style Invasion
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/01/2026: Farewell to CBS Reality, Being On-Call, Digital Ad Spendings
- Links for the day
- Remember That Nobel Prizes Are All Named After the Inventor of Explosives (Even a "Nobel Prize for Peace")
- These rewards are only as valuable as the reputation they earn for themselves
- Baidu and Yandex Have Overtaken Microsoft in Asia
- how about all the Bing layoffs?
- Googlebombing for Bill Epsteingate
- Maybe the slopfarms too can help him cover up
- Of Course GNU/Linux Has Reached All-Time High in Africa in 2026
- Africa will, on average, gravitate towards Free software or whatever costs less
- From GNU/Linux Boosting to Slop-Boosting Career
- It is sad to see someone who devoted many years of his life producing GNU/Linux stories stooping down to this "AI" boot-licking
- IBM Buys, Then Disposes/Sacks, the Staff (That It Paid For)
- Any money gained is spent buying some more companies to add/join up their revenue, even if the debt surges and there's little integration going on (misfits absorbed)
- Time for Microsoft to Rebrand to Fit the Vapourware (Ponzi Scheme)
- something between Meta and Alphabet
- Links 05/01/2026: Slop Ruining Children's Minds, "Complicity of the Press in US Violence"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft's Windows Falls Below 20% in the UK
- After a lot of years of advocacy and hard work
- The Real GNU Anniversary (Not Manifesto or Announcement) is Today
- the development, not the manifesto
- GNU/Linux Usage Said to Have Doubled in Oceania
- it's hard to discount or dismiss Oceania as a bunch of "coconut islands"
- There's No Such Thing as "AI Godfather", Stop Repeating This Pure Nonsense!
- Infantile or corruptible media that plays along with slop or uses slop will perish
- Gemini Links 05/01/2026: "Poverty and Hunger", "Entrepreneurial Family", "Abandoning Obsidian for Logseq"
- Links for the day
- Links 05/01/2026: A Shrinking Canadian Economy, Brigitte Bardot's Environmentalism Recalled, Unredacted Epstein Files
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Allegedly Uses Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) to Hide the Massive Scale of Company-Wide Layoffs
- Just like IBM; they meanwhile talk a bunch of nonsense about "AI" to distract from their commercial calamity
- Battles Are Won in the Court of Public Opinion
- Many "systems" rely on the mere perception or appearance of legitimacy
- No, Writing Isn't in Decline, Some of the Large and Centralised Platforms Are
- Slop isn't really competition, just a passing fad and pure noise
- GNU/Linux Share in Mongolia More Than Doubles
- they probably lack any genuine excitement for "hey hi PCs"
- Whistleblowing is About Understanding Boundaries and Risks
- The bottom line is, people typically find out the truth at the end
- EPO People Power - Part XXV - While EPO Managers Snort Cocaine the Staff Compiles 'Insurance Files' to Expose EPO Corruption
- In this increasingly authoritarian world we need more whistleblowers
- "The European Patent Reform" That Represents a Gross Violation of Laws, Constitutions, and Conventions (in Order to Make the Rich Even Richer, Mostly Outside Europe)
- How far and how long will EPO corruption go?
- The Reputation Issue Is Not Our Fault
- Trying to squash words (and people) merely diverts more attention to them
- GNU/Linux Distribution "Ultimate Edition" Fixes Its Web Site (Apparently Compromised Months Ago)
- they dealt with the issue before media shame and a catastrophe of trust
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 04, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, January 04, 2026
