If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.
Pages that cross-reference this one
What Else is New
Links 8/12/2019: Debian Init Systems GR, NomadBSD 1.3
Links for the day
Can We Quit Celebrating DRM in GNU/Linux?
Over the past couple of days various news sites and "Linux" sites expressed great satisfaction [1-5] over the passive embrace of Disney's DRM ploy (Disney+), even when Disney itself rejects DRM, seeing the harms practically caused by it [6,7]
You Know WSL is Bad for GNU/Linux Because Anti-Linux People, Microsoft and Its Propagandists, Want People to Use That
Microsoft and its boosters (and media partners) haven’t grown tired of spreading falsehoods to stigmatise and take control of GNU/Linux by creating their own versions and traps for it
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 07, 2019
IRC logs for Saturday, December 07, 2019
5 Years Ago the Linux Foundation Turned Linux.com Into a Non-Linux Site
One can leverage the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to better understand how, over time, the Foundation called “Linux” deviated or diverged away from its mission statement for the sole purpose of raising corporate funds and selling influence to corporations (passing the community’s hard work to them — a form of tacit privatisation)
Microsoft Redefining Ownership and Identity of GNU/Linux
The idea that “Microsoft loves Linux” is as insane as it gets; but the lie which is “Microsoft loves Linux” is a powerful enabler of Microsoft entryism, e.g. if Greg steps down, does a Microsoft employee become the deputy of Linus Torvalds?
Things That Cannot Be Said
The limits on what we can say are mostly defined by what sources permit us to say publicly (for the sake of source protection)
Fake European Patents (on Algorithms) Leading to Fake Embargoes
Law firms have gotten their way in Germany; instead of supporting the productive workers the patent system is nowadays promoting the litigation 'industry' and it ought to be corrected
From Moderate Advice to FUD and Misinformation: The Case of a VPN Vulnerability (CVE-2019-14899)
What should have been a trivial bugfix in a variety of operating systems and bits of software — both proprietary and Free software — somehow became anti-Linux FUD, clickbait and worse
Dangerous Thinker
Society oughtn't be alarmed by people who say unusual things; it should be wary and sceptical of those corporations ever so eager to silence such people
Unitary Patent (UPC) Died Along With the Credibility of Managing IP and the Rest of the UPC Lobby
It is pretty astounding that Team UPC (collective term for people who crafted and lobby for this illegal construct) is still telling us lies, even in the absence of underlying supportive facts, and pressure groups disguised as "news sites" latch onto anything to perpetuate an illusion of progress (even in the face of a growing number of major barriers)
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 06, 2019
IRC logs for Friday, December 06, 2019
Links 7/12/2019: Fedora 31 Elections Results, Lots of Media Drama Over VPN Bug
Links for the day
Links 6/12/2019: DRM in GNU/Linux and Sparky Bonsai
Links for the day
The EPO Rejects Innovation
The EPO ceased caring about the needs of scientists whose work involves invention; instead, EPO management crafts increasingly lenient guidelines that yield illegal European Patents (not compatible with the EPC) that heavily-besieged EPO judges are unable to stop
Startpage CEO Robert Beens in 'Damage Control' Mode, Trying to Get Startpage Relisted After Selling to a Massive Surveillance Company
PrivacytoolsIO is being lobbied by the CEO of Startpage to relist Startpage, based on no actual refutations at all
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 05, 2019
IRC logs for Thursday, December 05, 2019
Links 5/12/2019: qBittorrent 4.2.0, Expensive Librem 5 and OpenBSD Bugs
Links for the day
Microsoft Staff Repeatedly Refuses to Tell How Many People Use WSL, Defends Patent Extortion and Blackmail of Linux Instead
The people who develop WSL (mostly Microsoft employees) get easily irritated when asked how many people actually use this thing; but more interestingly, however, they reveal their disdain for GNU/Linux and support for Microsoft blackmail (for 'Linux patent tax')
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 04, 2019
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Links 4/12/2019: Tails 4.1, UCS 4.4-3 and Proxmox VE 6.1
Links for the day
Google Tightens Its Noose
Now it’s official! Google is just a bunch of shareholders looking to appease the Pentagon at all costs
Europeans Still Need to Save the European Patent Office From Those Who Attack Its Patent Quality
Patent quality is of utmost interest; without it, as we're seeing at the EPO and have already seen at the USPTO for a number of years, legal disputes will arise where neither side wins (only the lawyers win) and small, impoverished inventors or businesses will be forced to settle outside the courts over baseless allegations, often made by parasitic patent trolls (possessing low-quality patents they don't want scrutinised by courts)
We Never Accepted and Will Never Accept Corporate Money
Corporate money is a unique problem because of its magnitude and the fact that it's impersonal; shareholders can only ever accept its supposed justifications if they're receiving something in return (of proportional worth to the payment/transaction)
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 03, 2019
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Links 3/12/2019: elementary OS 5.1 Hera, Plasma 5.17.4, Firefox 71
Links for the day
Laundering the Reputation of Criminals: That's an Actual Job
An important reminder that the manufactured, paid-for (media is being bribed) image of Bill Gates is the product of the PR industry he enlisted to distract from his endless crimes
'Priceless' Tickets to the EPO's Back End and Team UPC
CIPA's and the EPO's event (later this week) is more of the same; the EPO exists not to serve European businesses but a bunch of law firms and their biggest clients (which usually aren't even European)
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 02, 2019
IRC logs for Monday, December 02, 2019
New EPO Leak Shows That the Rumours and Jokes Are Partly True and We Know Who 'Runs the Show'
Europe’s second-largest institution is so profoundly dysfunctional, a reprehensible kakistocracy of tribalism, money-grabbing career-climbing autocrats and possibly major fraud; today’s leak looks at what motivated and enabled the formation and latest incarnation of “Team Campinos”