Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 14/08/2009: New Unbundling Fight in Denmark, Sneak Peek at Firefox 3.6 (Alpha)



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • The Three Button Mouse Phenomenon: A cultural trait found in those who love their computers
    Where I come from, we call that a de-lusion. And it is pretty typical of Mac Lovers, to be delusional about their operating system and their hardware. But they should not feel bad. It is also typical of Windows users. They think their system is great, that it works fine, and that they have not been assimilated into the Microsoft Borg.


  • Sharma: Big-Name Distro Disenchantment
    The results are plain to see. All three of the big names – Fedora 11 ‘Leonidas’, Ubuntu ‘Jaunty Jackalope’ and Mandriva 2009.1 ‘Spring’ – have taken different approaches to reducing boot times, and boy has it worked. Booting up is also much cleaner, with service start-up messages hidden behind beautifully crafted splash screens. The desktop itself loads in about 30 seconds, and the remainder continues to load in the background, which is exactly how things should be.




  • Desktop



    • Fighting against the Microsoft Tax (Original: Kamp mod Microsoftskatten)
      I have paid for at least 10 Windows licenses over time, all the machines were purchased to run only FreeBSD.

      We must stop this distortion and Lenovo would not reimburse the Vista license for my new laptop, I have chosen to sue them.


    • Podcast: Why ZDNet AU loves Linux desktops
      In this podcast, ZDNet.com.au staffers Renai LeMay and Chris Duckett discuss why they use Linux full time where they can and what they like and don’t like about it.


    • Desktop Choices: Mac, Linux, Windows, Browser -- Browser?
      First up is Always On PC. Sweet and secure, Always On PC presents you with a full Linux GNOME desktop environment with 2GB of storage via a Java-based Virtual Network Computing (VNC) console. It's a full-blown desktop system, and it's Linux. If you aren't a Linux user, you might want to pass on this one. However, if your heart belongs to Linux, you're set.








  • Server

    • IBM Unwraps Linux-Powered Mainframe Packages
      IBM today announced the System z Solution Edition Series, seven combined packages it says are designed to assist customers migrate off older HP and Sun Unix systems and onto IBM's mainframes running Linux.








  • Kernel Space

    • Signs show Linux moving into the driver's seat
      Kroah-Hartman said Linux has reached mainstream status on the desktop, at least on the enterprise space. "There are very large companies that are well known users of Linux in this manner: all of the movie companies, Ford, Peugeot, all of the Wall Street companies, almost all banks [and] the stock exchanges," he said.


    • Which operating system is best for SSDs?
      According to Far, Mac OS X runs "a little faster than Vista" with an SSD drive, but Linux is "always faster" than Vista or Mac OS X - to the tune of 1 percent to 2 percent - because like Windows 2000, "it never runs anything in the background."








  • Distributions







  • Devices/Embedded

    • Overcoming the challenges of embedded Linux product development
      Linux is the OS of choice for an increasing number of embedded devices. Markets for devices such as home automation systems and health monitoring, which previously did not require an OS, are now adopting Linux as a way to provide enhanced product features at low cost.

      [...]

      Maciej Halasz is director of product management at Timesys Corporation, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.




    • Phones

      • Palm responds to Pre privacy talk
        Palm has responded to the story that its Pre handset was beaming information back to customers – insisting that it offers ways to turn off the collecting 'services'.

        Joey Hess' 'Shy Jo blog showed codes being sent back to Palm, but the company insists that the information only includes information about "potential scenarios in which we might use a customer's information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience".










Free Software/Open Source



  • VistA HTML Note Rendering Now Available
    A whole new era for Veterans Affairs VistA has begun with Kevin Toppenberg, MD's new TMG-CPRS 1.0.26.76 (TMG v1.1) client. The new tmg-cprs client enables clinical notes to be rendered in html.




  • Mozilla







  • Business

    • KnowledgeTree Takes Root in New ECM Markets
      Entering the ECM market with an open source product gave Chalef a leg up. The ECM world of documents and files has few open source options in it, according to Alan Pelz-Sharpe, analyst at CMS Watch.


    • The patron model of open source commericalisation
      In short, while the company’s web content management software is not open source, Day Software makes use of and contributes to a number of community open source projects, such as Apache Jackrabbit, Apache Sling, and Apache Felix. In fact, as the company notes: “in total, Day Software contributes to over 12 Apache projects and 25 open source projects. www.ohloh.org, an independent website that tracks open source contributions, shows that over 75% of Day engineers are active committers to open source projects.”


    • Talk Slides: The Commercial Open Source Business Model








  • Fog Computing

    • Doug Cutting joins Cloudera
      Back in October, I promised to keep marketing and sales out of this blog. We wanted to concentrate on technical topics and to choose signal over noise. Mostly, that’s meant that I let other people do the writing.


    • Why open source clouds are essential ...
      In a world where the standard is provided as such an open source reference model (under GPLv3), then you'll need the creation of an assurance industry to provide end user assurance that providers still match the standard (despite of any competitive modifications or operational improvements). This is how you create a truly competitive marketplace and by encouraging diversity overcome the most dangerous risk of all which is systemic failure in the cloud.

      We have already staked the ground with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, our intention is to continue to push this and create truly competitive markets in the cloud using the only viable mechanism - open source. Of course, this is at the infrastructure layer of the computing stack. Our attention will shortly turn towards the platform.








  • Licensing







  • Openness







Leftovers



  • Censorship/Web Abuse







  • Legal

    • Recap The Law: Getting Public Legal Data Back To The Public
      There's been a push by people both inside and outside the government to get public court documents out to the public. As it stands now, most court documents can be found via PACER, the court system's own online service, which charges $0.08 per page. PACER notes that it's charging for the documents to cover its own costs of managing its system, but this still bothers many who don't like the fact that important public domain case law is so costly. There are some private services, like Justia trying to fill the void, and Carl Malamud is pushing hard to get the government to put public documents up for the public to read.


    • Use RECAP To Bypass Court Document PACER Paywall
      If the RIAA can’t stop music sharing, the U.S. government is going to have an even harder time trying to stop the sharing of federal court documents hidden behind a paywall. Those documents aren’t protected by copyright law.










Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Thomas Batrol, computational neuroscientist for the Salk Institute 04 (2005)



Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Mainstream Media is Paid to Link "AI" Criticism/Boosting to Jeffrey Epstein Enablers, in Effect Showing How Corrupt This Media Became
Many readers will have noticed what was a paid-for PR campaign of a global scale
GNU/Linux Does Not Need Social Control Media to Succeed
When it comes to Social Control Media, Richard Stallman was right
SLAPP Censorship - Part 163 Out of 200: Attack on Computer Science and on Computer Security (or Associating Back Doors and Kill Switches With "Security")
Nowadays there are many who pretend to be security professionals
 
Gemini Links 27/08/2026: Oklahoma, Tennessee, Haiku OS, Digital Resistance, and Staying Offline
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2026: Facebook to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion to Cover Up Known Harms, Nepal Landslide Kills Many
Links for the day
The Register MS Has Just Published Paid Spam That Says "AI" 19 Times
1.5 hours ago
RSS is King: Why Having Subscribers or Followers in Sites You Neither Own Nor Control is Loss of Autonomy and Search is Mostly Slop (Plagiarising Sites, Not Linking to Them)
Because digital connections in third parties aren't assets; they endow another party with tremendous power over people (e.g. MElon getting to decide who can and cannot reach people or what messages to "dim down")
Claims of Tens of Thousands of 'Silent Layoffs' at IBM (and Red Hat)
Looking at recent activity in thelayoff.com, about 80% of the comments and posts are about PIPs
Links 27/08/2026: "Flock’s CEO Is Lying to Cops" and Microsoft's GitHub Actions Breaks Down Again (Too Many Layoffs, Loss of Knowledge)
Links for the day
Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux and ChromeOS at Over 13% in Bahamas
Narrowing down to desktops and laptops, and judging by Web requests that go through Clownflare, many people there use GNU/Linux or Google's 'bastardised' version of it (with spyware preloaded)
Richard Stallman Complains That Linux Gives a Bad Name to GNU and Asks for Feedback on What's Wrong with Systemd (and Wayland)
Maybe some people want to send him a detailed, polite explanation
Increasing Focus on Patent Injustices
We'll soon cover the EPO a lot more
There's No "Next XBox"
Nothing comes ahead except layoffs and price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Gemini Links 27/08/2026: Conditioning, Lagrange 1.21, and Computer Games
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2026: Patent Troll InterDigital Utilises Software Patents in Unconstitutional Court, "WikiHow Launches Copyright Infringement Suit Against" LLM Plagiarism
Links for the day
The Register MS Has New Fake Article ("SPONSORED FEATURE") With "AI" 21 Times In It
The Register MS is one among many culprits
Gemini Links 26/08/2026: “Doomsday Clock”, Rwanda Genocide, and Boasting About Using LLMs Instead of Writing Code (Due to Employer's Pressure)
Links for the day
No Allure in Omarchy, the Political Hyenas Only Give it More Free Publicity
To me, Omarchy seems like a weak project because of the slop (an HR problem)
Twitter is Not an API or a Communication Site, It's a Really Bad Site That Forces You to be Enslaved by Its Algorithm (Amplifying Its Owner's Worldviews)
the crackdown on Nitter means we should all avoid accessing or linking to x.com (Twitter)
Don't Let Bastards and Haters Grind You Down
They say "jealousy is the sincerest form of flattery"
GNU/Linux Rose in Caribbean Islands
combined population is measured at 44,182,048
IBM's Quantum Computing Lies Explained Again by Sabine Hossenfelder
To become a CEO at IBM one must lie
Controlling Culture and Social Behaviour by Digital Locks
if you don't fully control the technology in your possession, then you're not using that technology, this technology covertly uses you
Goodbye, Dolly
This week we say "goodbye, Dolly."
Links 26/08/2026: Election Bribery (aka Vote-Buying) Deemed "OK" in the US, "Nitter is Shutting Down After a Cease and Desist Letter" by MElon
Links for the day
Analogue So Much Better and Faster
From what we can gather, the tram ticketing system does not use Windows; we never saw it crashing or rebooting (or showing some Windows logo) in decades, so we assume it runs some kind of Linux
Linux Today Dumped All Social Control Media Last December
Linux Today seems to have concluded that all Social Control Media is just a waste of time
Don't Say X.com is OK Because People Can Access It by Alternative Means
Can Mozilla please clarify who inside Mozilla greenlit a return to X.com?
The Reach of techrights.org Is Increasing
We are on the side of women victims
SLAPP Censorship - Part 162 Out of 200: An Outline of Events
An outline of events
Pushed to Live
We still have some other work - stuff related to the editing of pages - which is work in progress and has been subjected to testing for many months
GNU/Linux Measured at 10% in Germany, Based on Cloudflare
It's peaking late at night
Richard Stallman's GNU Project Began 42 Years Ago With GNU Emacs and More
GNU Project announced almost 43 years ago (next month it's the anniversary)
Fake Articles "Sponsored by HPE" Published in The Register MS
Selling proprietary products as 'alternatives' to other proprietary products
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Gemini Links 26/08/2026: Journal Plans and Extending Finger Protocol
Links for the day
How Many Web Requests From "Linux"...
If one was to assert that "Linux == Android" or "Android == Linux" (it's not that simple), then "Linux" already accounts for about 30% of Web requests
An Explainer About Injunctions Done Wrong - Part I - Saving Money Where Money Cannot be Saved
Of course Garrett not being able to afford his own case is a key factor here
Links 25/08/2026: "U.S. Marines Cancel Drill With South Korea", "UK Prime Minister Burnham Arrives in Ukraine"
Links for the day
Not for the First Time This Week, Site Called "It's FOSS" is Promoting Software That is NOT FOSS (And It Knows It)
Is this an editorial choice? Advertising? What is it?
Gemini Links 25/08/2026: Geometry and FidoNet History, "Goodbye I2P and Yggdrasil, Welcome Telnet!"
Links for the day
Links 25/08/2026: Microsoft Salaries Leaked Again, "Oasis Photograph Sparks Copyright Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Microsoft Trots Out Its Propaganda Agent Preston Gralla to Make It Sound Like Microsoft Breaks Up With China (Reality: Microsoft Got Dumped by China)
This discredits any publisher that plays along
GNU/Linux Did Not Start in 1991 and America Wasn't Discovered by Europeans
it'll be 43 next month
SLAPP Censorship - Part 161 Out of 200: Low Standards in Defamation Cases Just Muddy the Waters and Distract From Legitimate Cases
The judge at the trial said that Garrett's case was a waste of the court's money
Rolling Out Some Changes Soon
To the regular reader no change will be seen
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 24, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 24, 2026
Gemini Links 25/08/2026: Separated by Plexiglass, Low-Tech Information Networks, Jörg Rippel Comes to Geminispace
Links for the day