Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 24/09/2009: Red Hat Profit Up 37%, Free Software Saves Billions



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • HP launches Linux-fiddling support group
    Hewlett-Packard is making an effort to support non-commercial Linux distributions on its servers and other vendors' business hardware. But you wouldn't know it from the black hole of fanfare regarding its new collaborative portal, communitylinux.org.


  • Linux Game Repository With a GUI: DJL
    Djl is an open-source (GPL licensed) game manager written in Python 2.5 for the GNU/Linux Operating Systems, inspired by Valve's Steam software for Windows for which anyone can submit games, via THIS page.


  • Celebrating the release of GNOME 2.28!
    Today, the GNOME Project celebrates the release of GNOME 2.28, the latest version of the popular, multi-platform free desktop environment and of its developer platform. Released on schedule, to the day, GNOME 2.28 builds on top of a long series of successful six months releases to offer the best experience to users and developers.




  • Distributions



    • My Arch Linux Experiment (Part 3)
      Welcome to the final part of my Arch Linux Experiment series. For those that missed the earlier entries, I was trying to find out if Arch Linux would be a viable replacement for Kubuntu. When I last left off, I had pretty much everything I needed straightened out and I was able to take care of all of my needs within my Arch Linux set up, and was ready to write about my final thoughts.




    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Sees New Future in World of Cloud
        While the base platform Linux, still remains the dominant contributor of revenue, the company has moved beyond its Linux roots. Rather than being seen as a player only in the Linux OS space, the company is now positioning itself as an infrastructure player. In the emerging world of clouds, this has huge implications.


      • Red Hat second-quarter profit increases 37%
        Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Red Hat to post second-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share, and $179.1 million in revenue.


      • Red Hat mocks Meltdown in Q2
        Commercial Linux distributor Red Hat continues to buck the economic meltdown, reporting sales up 11.7 per cent to $183.6m in the second quarter of its fiscal 2010 and net income up 36.9 per cent to $28.9m. The sales were above the high end of Red Hat's guidance.


      • US HOT STOCKS: Red Hat, Paychex Active In Late Trading
        Red Hat's fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 37% as the company again posted slightly better-than-expected results on growing revenue and higher margins. Shares were up 3.1% to $25.66 in after-hours trading.


      • Red Hat beats profit, sales estimates
        Red Hat's shares rose 3.3 percent in after-hours trading to $25.70 after closing at $24.88 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Tim Dobbyn and Andre Grenon)








    • Debian Family

      • Ubuntu Karmic: The good stuff
        Next month will see the release of Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as Karmic Koala, the latest version of the popular Linux operating system from Mark Shuttleworth's team. Going, as it will, head-to-head with Windows 7, which is also expected to be released in October, Ubuntu is going to have to make a good impression if it doesn't want to get blown away by Microsoft's latest operating system.












  • Devices/Embedded

    • USB group none too happy with Palm's iTunes hack, either
      Palm's attempt to get the USB Implementors Forum on Apple's case for blocking the Pre from syncing with iTunes has backfired. Perhaps Palm will finally give up and resolve the issue by creating its own software.


    • The other 'new' Linux: Moblin
      I really, really want to see what Google has planned for us with its Chrome operating system. Intel and the Linux Foundation aren't waiting around to see what they'll do. Today, September 23rd, they and their partners, such as Dell and Canonical, gave us a peek at Moblin 2.1.






Free Software/Open Source

  • Open Source Software Can Save India $2 BN/year--At least!
    I am glad to see a mainstream business resource like the Business Standard publishing a reasoned analysis and properly recognizing just how much waste there is in India's current procurement practices. The bad news is that the numbers are likely much, much larger. The good news is that that waste can be eliminated, and India could be much, much richer the sooner it makes a more decisive shift from proprietary dependency to open source independence.


  • Open Source Appeal: It Comes Down to Costs
    Noah Broadwater, vice president of information services at Sesame Workshop, is also keen on using open source. But as a technologist at the nonprofit group best known for its children's TV show, "Sesame Street," he approached open source from a very different perspective than that of larger enterprises.


  • Tackling The Problem Of A Sluggish Computer
    “Treacherous Computing” that stealthily takes away rights from users, so says “The Free Software Foundation” who has launched a campaign against Microsoft Windows 7. At their Boston based Web site; Windows7Sins.org, has listed seven sins that software, such as this, commits against computer users:

    Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as Open Document Format, leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management, and invading privacy.” MS has not responded to a request for comment.


  • Software Freedom Day 2009
    It was a nice, crisp fall day outside, but we had a great group of people gathered inside at Encuentro 5 in Chinatown for Boston's Software Freedom Day. There were talks on hacking your blog, women in free software, free software on mobile devices, and how free software economics works.




Leftovers



  • AstroTurf

    • Dr. Evil's Payday
      Who pulled off this publicity stunt? Credit Richard Berman, one of Washington's most notorious PR operatives, whose exploits Mother Jones and others have been chronicling for years. Nicknamed Dr. Evil—a moniker he embraces—he's the force behind several industry-backed nonprofits that share staff and office space with his very for-profit communications and advertising firm, Berman and Company. The firm promises clients it will not "just change the debate" but "start" one, and a range of companies, from Anheuser-Busch to Philip Morris to the casino chain Harrah's, have signed up for Berman's "aggressive" and "hard-hitting" advocacy. Some clients pay Berman and Co. directly, while others donate to his nonprofits—but much of the cash winds up in the same place, via hefty management fees the front groups pay to Berman's company.


    • HHS Investigates Medicare Providers' Massive Misinformation Campaign
      Today, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department took its first steps toward cracking down on misinformation disseminated by Medicare providers.

      During the recent health care reform hullabaloo, "Keep Government Out of Medicare" became a rallying call for some and a joke for others. As it became clear that tens of thousands of senior citizens across the country held irrational beliefs about the government's role in their health care, we asked, where is all the misinformation coming from? The answer: Medicare Advantage providers have been deliberately misinforming Medicare recipients about health insurance reform.


    • U.S. Chamber of Commerce Downsized
      Darbee wrote, "We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored.


    • New York Post Suspends Climate Skepticism ... For Just a Moment
      The New York Post, long noted for promoting the views of climate change skeptics, responded to the fake 32-page edition with a media release headlined '"witless spoof in flawless format."








  • Censorship/Web Abuse

    • Net Neutrality to be curbed in the EU
      AS US REGULATORS consider new legislation to protect net neutrality, European citizens are set to have their internet freedoms significantly curbed.

      The debate on net neutrality revolves around whether telcoms firms should be allowed to intentionally speed up or slow down traffic based on which service or application is being used.


    • Republicans Move to Block Network Neutrality
      Senate Republicans react quickly to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposal to expand the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality authority. Working on an unrelated appropriations bill, Republican senators push an amendment to deny the FCC funds for developing or implementing new Internet regulations.


    • Telecoms Package: Contact EU Reps now!
      It is time to act again to protect Net Neutrality in Europe, as reported by the open letter signed by 26 European internet civil society organizations.


    • Police ready to 'take on' commenters, chief says
      People who misrepresent themselves as officials in online comments could face civil, criminal penalties, Acevedo says.


    • Netflix is about to commit a privacy Valdez with its customers' viewing data
      In other words, Netflix is about to put the behavioral data about viewing choices for millions of Americans into the public domain, despite its legal duty to keep this information private.


    • Demon splurges details of 3,600 customers in billing email
      Demon Internet sent thousands of business and government subscribers an email this morning telling them all about a new e-billing system, and tacked on details, including passwords, for 3,600 customers.








  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Paramount COO Shows FCC How To File Share, Blames Tech Companies, Has FCC Hide Its Presentation
      Last week, the FCC held what was ostensibly a panel discussion about the National Broadband Plan, but which was actually focused on copyright issues. How, exactly, is copyright an issue for broadband? Well, mainly because the entertainment industry has been trying for years to get ISPs to act as copyright cops... and apparently the FCC felt the need to hear them out.


    • Lawsuit: Copyright Filtering Technology Infringes
      The suit maintains that the copying and insertion of a copyrighted work into a filtering system without compensating the copyright holder, or obtaining their consent, is a violation of the Copyright Act. The case comes as copyright filtering technology is quickly becoming a behind-the-scenes feature on university sites, user-generated content sites and online social networking venues.


    • Only 5% of web users would pay for online news, reports survey


    • France adopts law that lets entertainment goons take your family off the net if one member is accused (without evidence) of violating copyright
      The French Parliament has adopted HADOPI 2, a law aimed at establishing a so-called "three-strikes" policy in order to fight file-sharing. The Constitutional Council made groundbreaking decision on June 10th 2009 that recognized access to the Internet as essential to the full exercise of free speech, and invalidated the sanctioning power of HADOPI 1. The law HADOPI 2, despite the internet cutoff now being handled in an expedient form of judicial justice, it is as flawed and dangerous as its predecessor, for it was only designed to circumvent the Constitutional Council's decision. The war on sharing continues its way as HADOPI 2 will go through the constitutional test again. ***








Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Jim Hogg teaches GNU Linux to high school kids 12 (2008)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



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

Recent Techrights' Posts

Madame Streisand Wanted to Censor The Web, Instead She 'Created' a New Term, "Streisand Effect"
It is basically an own goal
Defending Women Isn't a Crime, Everybody Can Agree on That
Their culture is unlike ours
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VI - Influx of Spaniards and Portuguese Workers (+77%) at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Led by the 'Alicante Mafia'
There is now data supporting this assertion, new and complete data in fact
Nobody is Safe at IBM (or Red Hat)
There is no job security at IBM
Bad faith: Hugo Roy knew FSFE impersonating FSF before French tribunal, colleagues deceived
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 03, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 03, 2026
Over 1,500 EPO Workers Went on Strike Last Week
a new publication which celebrates some accomplishments of industrial actions and calls for further actions
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Failed to Detect Fraud in Law Firms... Until It Was Too Late
Earlier today we contacted some more politicians about this and received mail from them as well
Our EPO and IBM Coverage Bears Fruit
In case insiders want to get in touch with us, please ensure or at least try doing so securely
Links 03/03/2026: "Scam Altman in Damage Control" and Oil Traffic Disrupted
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/03/2026: Phones, LLMs, and Changes on the Web
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Confirms Talk in Bern Next Week
Dr. Stallman has just formally confirmed his third talk this month in Switzerland
GNU/Linux at All-Time High in Guam
there are many computers in that island
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 1 Out of 200: Claim No. KB-2024-001270 in a Nutshell
abuse of process by a law firm working for an American who was arrested for strangling women and another American whose own spouse calls a "rapist"
When EPO Team Managers (TMs) Are Harassing People Who Strictly Apply the European Patent Convention (EPC) in Patent Examination
There are two strikes planned for this month
Confirmed: Using Slop Gets You Fired
Let the story of Benj Edwards be a cautionary tale
Links 03/03/2026: "No one wants to read your AI slop" and "chatbots in the kill chain"
Links for the day
EPO and "Equivalent to More Than 100 Days of Strike"
The industrial actions continue and already have a positive effect
Streisand Effect, the Microsoft Way
Microsoft has once again proven the Streisand Effect
Keeping Track of IBM Layoffs in March 2026
IBM depends on bribery
GNU/Linux Measured at 7% in Yemen
Windows is too hostile and dangerous
Links 03/03/2026: Security Breaches, Iceland Wants EU Membership, and "Wall Street–Backed Lawmakers Want to Help Banks Gouge You"
Links for the day
Queensland Health Payroll System: IBM billion-dollar-blowout inquiry
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 02, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, March 02, 2026
Gemini Links 03/03/2026: GrapheneOS and Keyboard Shortcuts
Links for the day
Tomorrow should be sunny (at long last!) and a generally productive dayProductive Week Ahead
Tomorrow should be sunny (at long last!) and a generally productive day
Only One Slopfarm Seems to Have Targeted "Linux" Today
It certainly does feel like the slop hype is reaching the "late life crisis" and companies that benefited from this bubble are overdue for a day of reckoning
Microsoft Mass Layoffs: Being Sacked at 1AM in the Morning
Watch what happens to Microsoft employees who get pregnant
Links 02/03/2026: More Social Control Media Bans, Climate Change Woes, and "Journalist With Germany's Deutsche Welle Arrested in Turkey"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/03/2026: Small Phones, "I 3D Printed My Brain", and "Managing 5 Servers at Once with tmux"
Links for the day
IBM is Trying to Hide Mass Layoffs, Not Only With NDAs and 'Scripted' LinkedIn Posts
From what we can gather (screenshot above), today many people leave IBM and Red Hat
Richard Stallman is Giving a Public Talk This Week (Friday in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology)
His birthday is just around the corner.
Windows Falls to New Low in World's Largest Population (India)
Windows is now down to 7%
Never Miss a Good Opportunity to Shut Up and Drink Coffee
Threats come at a cost; each time you issue a threat you stigmatise yourself as a bully
Last Month Matthew Garrett Said Ridiculous Things After His Spouse Had Called Him a "Rapist", Now He's Trying to Take the Site Offline and Put My Family in Prison
The real issue of concern to him (and his alleged reputation) is the spouse and the matter is to be dealt with in America, not the UK
Machine-Generated Legal Documents, Over 2,000 Pages Sent to Us Today Alone
We now know that the papers we receive are produced using bots (algorithms)
Reporting to Our Politicians/MPs the Failure of the SRA to Stop Hired Guns Who Help Americans (Men Who Attack Women and Nowadays Also Attack British Reporters)
About a month ago my wife wrote to politicians to get the ball rolling
The Topic Many People Don't Want to Talk or Write About
"DEI" is inherently about making racial and gender patterns better reflect society's
XBox is Virtually Dead Already, What Next Will Die at Microsoft?
Now that there are mass layoffs at Microsoft datacentres it is not premature to speculate about what dies after XBox
For the First Time, statCounter Measures Internet Explorer at 0.01% "Market Share"
What Microsoft replaced it with is just a Chrome clone with extra spyware
Was a Lot of "Windows" and "Unknown" in Iran Just GNU/Linux in Disguise?
more than 1 in 10 desktop/laptop requests is estimated to be GNU/Linux
"Here in the UK, GNU/Linux rose to all-time high at Windows' expense"
Will this entail Software Freedom as well? This depends on all of us
Links 02/03/2026: Claude Code Causes a Mexican Government Cyberattack, "London Repair Week" Noted
Links for the day
2026 Microsoft Mass Layoffs in So-called 'AI' Datacentres, Why Doesn't the Mainstream Media Cover The News?
What does this tell us about the state of the media?
Don't Fall for "Top X Law Firms" in "Discipline Y", They Pay $Z to Get False Endorsement/s
It's a scheme, a scam, an elaborate fraud
More Publishers Have Turned From Slop Boosters Into Slop Sceptics and Critics
There's a "hidden cost" when one participates (for profit) in "pump and dump" schemes
TeX Live Has New Release, But Planet Debian Won't Tell You That
It 'unpersoned' the developer
LLM Slop Does Not Know People (It Knows Nothing) and Cannot Distinguish Between People. It's a Recipe for Disaster.
no way of knowing who's who
"Over 1,100 Law Firms Gone in Five Years" in the United Kingdom (UK) Alone
There are basically way too many lawyers (looking for "business", e.g. threats and lawfare) and not enough positions to fill
Microsoft FUD From Microsoft Site Helps Distract From Actual Microsoft Back Doors
Published on a Sunday
Free Software Foundation Needs to Become More Active in Europe to Avoid Impersonation by Microsoft-Sponsored Groups
So far we've hardly seen the FSF saying anything at all about the US president
Links 02/03/2026: "Not Envious of Billionaires" and Palantir SLAPPs "Swiss Magazine For Accurately Reporting That The Swiss Government Didn't Want Palantir"
Links for the day
There Has Never Been a Better Time to Quit Social Control Media
Those networks are selling something. And that something is not peace because peace does not sell "attention".
Microsoft Users Drowning in Slop, If They Complain Microsoft Censors Them
Like an authoritarian regime
IBM is Killing Red Hat's Portfolio - Including Linux - to Prop Up Ponzi Scheme ("AI")
IBM is killing Red Hat
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 01, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, March 01, 2026
Speed of Sites Matters
Being easily accessible all the time matters to us
Gemini Links 02/03/2026: Weird Phone Calls, Small Phones, and Exploring Racket
Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell on "Good Tech"
in the age of "rent everything" and "own nothing"