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A Sincere, Non-Revisionist History of Techrights

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Summary: Looking back at the progress made, including GNU/Linux becoming more mainstream and 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101/Alice (SCOTUS) obliterating many software patents, we're proud to say that there's a potentially bright future ahead; there will also be a number of milestones and announcements, so we look back at what happened here since 2006 (33,611 blog posts ago)

We are very excited by a number of things. As we noted moments ago, Techrights turns 16 later this year. We must recognise the fact that many people aren't familiar with the history and thus tradition of the site.



It would not be the first time we tell the story, but looking back at 16 years perspective varies a tad bit. In 2006 I was very active in Digg.com (I was in fact ranked 17th in the entire site, which was a very major hub on the Web back then).

Shane, like me, was very upset about what Novell had done with Microsoft. It was a patent collusion. Almost everyone in the GNU/Linux community was furious. Shane wanted me to join him in opposing the patent deal. So I did. That was way back in 2006. By that point I had already been very actively in USENET and in my own site. Social control media wasn't quite a thing yet.

It's perfectly sincere to say this site was always about patents. It was also about GNU/Linux and the way Microsoft misused of patent schemes to undermine GNU/Linux (in retrospect it failed because GNU/Linux is very much iniquitous these days).

Novell was sold or tentatively sold around 2010, so we refocused a bit on software patents and Microsoft's misdeed, which soon haunted Nokia (2011) and other companies. The E.E.E. tactics culminated around 2015 with "Microsoft loves Linux" (a lie) and "joining" the Linux Foundation not so long after that.

In 2014 we started focusing on EPO abuses and one year later the gangster Benoît Battistelli sent not one but several British law firms to intimidate me. This had the unpredictable effect of encouraging me to focus even more on the EPO -- something we do to this very date with António Campinos (a total phony, a friend of Battistelli) in charge.

In November we can proudly say that we've survived 16 years. Since we never relied on social control media we have been very stable and relatively robust to censorship. We've received more legal threats than I care to recall, but we never got sued because the facts and the law were on our side.

And the journey continues.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Copyleft is the Way to Go (Unless You're an Unpaid Volunteer of GAFAM)
The GPL 'family' of licences is very old and those licences were last revised in 2007
statCounter's Numbers Make Sense Given Microsoft's Falling Windows/Client Revenue
There are already articles (some last week) saying that XBox should just be ended
statCounter: New Record Highs for GNU/Linux in Its Birthplace
So Microsoft is in a tough place
 
The Latest Microsoft Layoffs Are a Wake-up Call: The Company is Running Low on Money
in most areas it is not even profitable
Links 03/02/2025: Microsoft's Termination Controversy and EU Hey Hi (AI) Act Compliance Day
Links for the day
It Seems Like BetaNews is Finally Deleting Fake 'Articles' About "Linux" by LLM Slop (aka Brian Fagioli)
Is BetaNews finally taking these problems more seriously?
Gemini Links 03/02/2025: Art is Process, Smartphones, Internet, and More
Links for the day
Links 03/02/2025: USAID Under Attack, Vista 11 Breaking Itself Again
Links for the day
About 1 in 10 Laptops/Desktops in Venezuela and Cuba Uses GNU/Linux
statCounter says GNU/Linux now exceeds 10% in Cuba
At Microsoft, Promoting Back Doors, Proprietary Lock-in and Mass Surveillance Under the Guise of Diversity ("Microsoft Philanthropy Team")
Microsoft staff enters NGOs to lobby for Microsoft and sell for Microsoft
statCounter: Android Share in Operating Systems, Per Country
Towards the bottom there are poorer countries
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 02, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 02, 2025
statCounter: In Canada, New Lows for Windows and Bing is Perishing
Windows has fallen to about 60% in desktops/laptops
Yandex Has Nearly Caught Up With Microsoft Internationally, Bing Falls to Pre-LLM Hype Levels
Of course we've been saying all along that this would happen
Germany's 'Share' of GNU/Linux Rises to All-Time High Based on This Surveyor
Many public services have made the move to GNU/Linux
Microsoft Uses the Mindset of Drug Dealers and Pays 'News' Sites to Sell 'Drugs'
Microsoft pays publishers to spread the illusion that the only viable option for developers and non-developers is "drugs" like Visual Studio and Microsoft Office, respectively
Windows Going South in the "Global South" (Africa and More)
Microsoft has long been shameless about using the tactics of drug dealers
Sharp Drop for Microsoft Windows This Month, Based on statCounter
Facebook meanwhile censors GNU/Linux advocacy
3 Months Ago Lupa Saw 4,200+ Unique Gemini Capsules; Now It Sees Nearly 4,400
many bots target our capsule (129,152 Gemini requests yesterday alone)
Gemini Links 02/02/2025: Geminispace Targeted by Chatbots, Gabbro 0.1.1 Released
Links for the day
Links 02/02/2025: Website Revamps, Blogging About Blogging, and Self-Harming Tariff Wars (Higher Prices)
Links for the day
Oracle's Debt Soars to 100 Billion Dollars (12 Billion Added in Just 9 Months!) While Larry Ellison Backs Fascism for Bailouts, Graft, and "Contracts"
Including attempts to gain control of TikTok, owing to the corrupt dictator long promoted by Larry Ellison (also via Twitter takeover)
Links 02/02/2025: Union-Busting and Censorship by Executions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/02/2025: Limits Pushing, Free Software Absolutism, and Why Gemini Matters
Links for the day
Slopwatch: BetaNews and linuxsecurity.com Have Just Published More Fake 'Articles' About "Linux"
There's probably more "Linux" slop out there, but we do our best to identify it on a daily basis
Richard Stallman Has Another Talk in India Tomorrow, at Least Fourth India Talks in Recent Days
In the past month he has given at least half a dozen talks
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 01, 2025
Links 01/02/2025: Chinese and American Censorship, Cloud-[sic]Native Targeted by Software Patents
Links for the day
Links 01/02/2025: Belated Happy New Year 2025 and Gabbro 0.1.2
Links for the day
Hiring for Tech Roles Based on Perceived Loyalty is No Better Than Hiring to Meet Diversity Quotas
What we're seeing right now is a national security disaster and it is almost purely about technology
S.E.O. SPAM by Serial Sloppers With L.L.M. Garbage is Hurting Linux
We continue to run Slopwatch
Links 01/02/2025: Administrative Chaos and Aviation Disasters Persist
Links for the day
Arrested: Albanian Outreachy whistleblowers, Sonny Piers GNOME & Debian connections
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 1/2/2025: LLM Hype Revisited, Linuxwashing by Oumi
Links for the day
Growing Evidence That the Patent Industry Has Become a Major Scam
Seeing that the patent "industry" has turned to serious crimes (sometimes to cover up corruption) and seeing that the net negative is clearer for all to see, people who argue for abolition of all patents will have a field day
IBM Says That Half of Its "Assets" is Basically Pure Fiction ("Goodwill")
It times get tough, IBM can sell "Goodwill" at the local pawn shop and pay back the lenders, right?
Planet Ubuntu Overrun by LLM Slop? Faizul "Piju" 9M2PJU Seems to be Publishing Fake Articles About "Linux"...
Maybe it is "assisted" by LLM slop, but slop is slop and it introduces many problems
Gemini Links 01/02/2025: LLMs, Analog Computer, and BorgBackup
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 31, 2025