Links 20/02/2008: eBay Boycott, Yahoo Under Attack, Push for GNU/Linux in Russia
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-02-20 15:27:39 UTC
- Modified: 2008-02-20 15:27:39 UTC
Recent Techrights' Posts
- The Empty Suits of IBM Managers (NIH or "Nothing Invented Here")
- IBM's management adopted the business model of parasites
- Dr. Stallman’s Work Will Never be Considered 'Mainstream' Because He Rejects and Works Against the So-called 'Mainstream'
- Try to be more like Stallman
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part IX - Cocaine Addicts in Charge of the EPO Attacking Families of EPO Staff
- Things like being high-profile and being a serious drug addict aren't opposites
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- SLAPP Censorship - Part 22 Out of 200: When You Complain People Impersonate You in IRC (But You Yourself Impersonate People in IRC and Lock Them Out of Their IRC Handles)
- We'll cover this with direct evidence some time soon
- Gemini Links 24/03/2026: Junk Drawer Time Capsule and Building Outside Alire
- Links for the day
- Not Much LLM Slop About "Linux" Lately, It Only Ever Comes From the Same Few Sites
- As long as only few such sites use LLM slop we can skip and avoid them
- Links 24/03/2026: "Epic Lays Off Over 1000 Employees" and US in Financial Trouble According to the Fed
- Links for the day
- The "Media" Does Not Only 'Miss' Mass Layoffs
- "The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it"
- 2012: 'Secure' (Microsoft-Controlled) Boot Has Not (Yet) Been Made Obligatory. 2026: systemd Has Not Implemented Age Verification
- should we stop calling "nazi" everyone we don't agree with?
- More Threats (Including Physical Threats) Against Us Are a Dumb Move
- It's like a "hit list" (targets list) and I shall keep the police duly informed
- New Example of Pentagon in "Feminist" Clothing Inside Fake News of Publishers Paid to Promote Outsourcing to US ("Clown Computing") and American Slop
- Google now pays money to promote Google as a friend of women
- Hating Techrights is a Career
- but is it good for civil society?
- The New Layoffs: 'Silent Layoffs', 'Secret Layoffs', 'Quiet Layoffs', 'Passive Layoffs' 'Stealth Layoffs', and Unannounced Layoffs Disguised as Return-to-Office (RTO Mandates)
- The US needs to revisit and fix the WARN Act
- What Feminism in Science Means (Codes of Conduct Don't Tackle the Real Issues)
- Universality matters, more so in a project or community that's said to build the "universal operating system" (Debian)
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 21 Out of 200: It's About Behaviour Online, Not How Much Money From Shadowy Third Parties Gets Spent on Lawyers and Two Barristers
- 75+ KG of legal papers, 2 cases, 2 barristers (one hiding in the metadata) and maybe two law firms (also hiding in the metadata) against two modest people in Manchester seems disproportionate and vindicative
- Links 24/03/2026: "Airports on ICE" and "Have You Paid Your “Intuit Tax”?"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 24/03/2026: Slop Interview and Why Slop Makes Lousy Code
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk This Thursday at the University of Bologna (Italy)
- Hardly the first time he speaks in Bologna
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 23, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, March 23, 2026
- Gemini Links 23/03/2026: "Mandatory" Bad Things and Dangers of Perfection Aspirations
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 20 Out of 200: All Roads Lead to Rome and to GAFAM Funding
- Now about 10% into this series
- Last Week's EPO Strike Was the Biggest (Highest Participation Rate), Hours Ago General Assembly Discussed Next (Growing) Intensity of Strikes
- Well done and well attended
- Mass Layoffs at HashiCorp, IBM Hid Them
- The media did not mention those layoffs
- Microsoft Downgraded on Concerns (Lack of Growth) Amid Silent Layoffs in 2026
- The press isn't functioning anymore
- Links 23/03/2026: Gulf Water at Risk, Heatwave in Malaysia
- Links for the day
- Slop Means False, New Article by Cybershow
- "We are living in a world that is rapidly divesting from reality."
- Debianism election 2026 community poll created, everybody can vote
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 23/03/2026: "Shocking Peter Thiel Antichrist Lectures", Robert Mueller Remembered
- Links for the day
- The Scandal Bigger Than IBM/Red Hat Layoffs is the de Facto "Media Blackout" About Those Layoffs
- So we have a media crisis, aside from the economic crises
- Gemini Links 23/03/2026: Geminispace/Elpher Enhancement and the Cerberus Cinco
- Links for the day
- Fear is Not a Legitimate Factor
- Smart people know that trying to prevent moral people from doing the "Right Thing" will backfire
- Fuel Autonomy and What It Teaches Us About Software Autonomy (or Software Freedom)
- Need we wait until a "software Pearl Harbor" or protect ourselves proactively by weaning ourselves off of GAFAMware?
- Scheduled Maintenance This Coming Wednesday
- Other than that, all is the same and we carry on as usual
- Most Press Articles About IBM Are LLM Slop, Sometimes With Slop Images
- IBM basically laid off almost 1,000 people last week [...] At the moment about 75% of the 'articles' we see about IBM (in recent days) are some kind of slop
- Links 23/03/2026: Security Breaches, Energy Shortages, Another SRA Scandal, and Patents on Nature
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 22, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 22, 2026
- Streisand Effect and Justice
- This weekend this site has served over 8 million Web requests
- Gemini Links 22/03/2026: "Woman of Tomorrow" and "First Steps in Geminispace"
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 19 Out of 200: They Were Ill-prepared for Tough Questions in Cross-Examination
- Very ill-prepared for the deteriorating situation caused by their clients' past behaviour towards many people, including high-profile figures who offered to testify
- The Media Sold Out to Slop Bros
- If you wish for the hype to stop, then stop participating in it
- EPO Strike a Week From Now, After That Strikes Can Become Permanent
- A week from tomorrow there will be another strike
- The Only Non-IBM Staff in Fedora Council/Leadership Attacks Booting Freedom (Just Like the Master Wants)
- Last week IBM laid off almost 1,000 people in Confluent and the media didn't write anything about it, so don't expect anyone in what's left of the media to comment on Fedora's demise and silent layoffs at Red Hat
- Just Like a Founder of XBox Said, Microsoft XBox is Collapsing, Management Continue to Jump Ship
- Nowadays Microsoft tries to promote this idea that Windows is XBox and XBox is Windows
- Links 22/03/2026: Slop Triggers Emergency at Meta, Energy Prices Rise Sharply
- Links for the day
- Links 22/03/2026: Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' in Legal Trouble (Plagiarism, Distortion, Misrepresentation); Facebook/Meta Kills Off "Horizon Worlds"
- Links for the day
- Racism Dressed Up as "Choice"
- Racism is rampant at IBM
- Probably an All-Time Record
- Our investment in our own SSG is paying off
- Your Site Should Implement Its Own Search (Before It's Too Late)
- GAFAM was never trustworthy
- Gemini Links 22/03/2026: LLM Slop Attacks USENET, Announcing Pig (New Game in Gemini Protocol)
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 21, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 21, 2026
Comments
Great
2008-02-20 15:54:42
Still want to kill Google. But they cant.
Google = Cool M$ = Sucks
Most of the top talent at Yahoo will move over to Google or some other company. M$ will be left behind with all the lousy people - and they will pay with all their cash reserves and go in debt.
That just made my day !!!
After few year the old monkey boy will be still throwing chairs around the office taking how fucking stupid they where by buying Yahoo. Difference will be they have lost a huge amount of market share to Linux and they will be in debt with their stock price spiralling downwards.
What kind of a fucking stupid company buys technology to shut it down (xen) and bribes reporters to discredit others products.
M$ is still arrogant that they will win. This will be their end. This is their last chance...
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-20 16:24:20
Gates says it's the Yahoo employees that he wants, but it's unlikely to work out. The Yahoos don't want Microsoft. See the following recent articles:
Bradley Horowitz bids Yahoo farewell
,----[ Quote ] | Bradley Horowitz, who headed up Yahoo's Advanced Technology division, bid | adieu to the company in a blog entry posted on Valentine's Day. `----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9873183-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Week in review: Yahoo snubs Microsoft
,----[ Quote ] | "The smell of fear and rage is pervasive on"The smell of fear and rage is | pervasive on campus," wrote one News.com reader to the TalkBack forum. "They | might as well have been told the Mansons were buying the place." campus," | wrote one News.com reader to the TalkBack forum. "They might as well have | been told the Mansons were buying the place." `----
http://www.news.com/Week-in-review-Yahoo-snubs-Microsoft/2100-1083_3-6230761.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Is Microsoft/Yahoo about Windows' failure as a top server platform?
,----[ Quote ] | Before my whiney enemies all get up in arms about yours truly once more | beating up on Microsoft, I'd like to point out that the idea of Microsoft | buying Yahoo being a tacit admission that Windows can't cut the mustard as a | top Internet server platform didn't originate with me. | | No, the credit, or blame if you prefer, goes to Marcelo Carvalho, an IT | manager in San Francisco and Damien Hocking, a Linux-Watch reader who brought | Carvalho's thoughts to my attention. `----
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8001941484.html
Yahoos won’t work for Microsoft
,----[ Quote ] | I work for Yahoo!, and I have had to explain to a few people recently why the | Microsoft buyout talks are so troubling for Yahoos. They don’t seem to | understand the severity of the impact that a Microsoft takeover will have. | | [...] | | Key reason #1 - Microsoft is anti open-source... | | [...] | | Key reason #2 - Microsoft is evil... `----
http://www.techyouruniverse.com/technology/yahoos-wont-work-for-microsoft
The real difference between Microsoft and Google
,----[ Quote ] | Microsoft can shuffle the deck chairs all it wants. | | It can buy Yahoo or YooHoo. It can trot out Steve Ballmer in Spandex and a | cape. | | Microsoft’s problem in competing with Google is far more basic. | | It’s organizational. | | | [...] | | It’s not about the money. It’s not about the fame. It’s not about the name on | the door. It’s not about becoming an executive. | | It’s about the work. It’s about doing something over the course of just a few | months and then seeing it online. It’s about trying, and sometimes failing, | then trying again. | | [...] | | So far I’ve seen no evidence this is going to happen. I think Microsoft’s bid | for Yahoo is proof of that. Once the deal goes down, all those smart | Yahoo-ers will be free to leave. The dumb ones will be left, waiting for | orders from Redmond. `----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2025
Also see this new bit:
,----[ Quote ] | Would you believe... that Microsoft has dropped down to #86 within the | Fortune Best Places to Work survey? That's down from #50 in 2007 and #42 in | 2006. Like a rock. In a bad way. And who is #1 for two years in a row? Grab | that chair and give it a big effen toss in the air to Google! Toot! They get | bigger and they're still #1. `----
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-quick-quips-yahoo-86-and-mspoll.html
Lastly consider:
Why Microsoft Should Fret
,----[ Quote ] | But what if at stake in the battle isn't just Microsoft's position in selling | ads, but the very survival of its core software business? Microsoft would | never admit that so much is on the line. `----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277476716860601.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
Microsoft's Last Big Beat: Internet Domination or Death
,----[ Quote ] | What can $44.6B USD mean? Well, for Microsoft (MSFT) it may mean the cost of | survival. `----
http://seekingalpha.com/article/63876-microsoft-s-last-big-beat-internet-domination-or-death?source=yahoo
Microsoft to partners: It's time to change
,----[ Quote ] | Aiming to rally its partners around the reality of hosted software, Microsoft | Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told them it was a matter of financial | life and death. `----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6195764.html
Microsoft's executive shuffle expected Thursday
,----[ Quote ] | The move will see three top executives--including two prominent outside | hires--out of a job. Leaving the company are: Senior Vice President Steven | Berkowitz, the former Ask.com CEO who had been heading Microsoft's online | services unit, and Mike Sievert, the former AT&T Wireless executive brought | in to run Windows marketing. Both Sievert and Berkowitz had already seen some | duties handed off to others at the company and their departures were largely | expected. | | Also leaving is Pieter Knook, longtime head of Microsoft's Windows Mobile | unit. `----
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9871715-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Microsoft is Dead
,----[ Quote ] | A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking | to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo. | I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of | Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media | company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face | and realized he didn't understand. It was as if I'd told him how much | girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 80s. `----
http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
Will Microsoft Survive the Next 10 Years?
,----[ Quote ] | I am not really an expert in this but when I read all the negative | headlines and articles I ask myself if Microsoft really will survive | the next 10 years. | | [...] | | I am pretty sure that the Open Source Community, the new Ubuntu, | Google and of course Apple are those companies that are ready for | our century and they will get more and more people that know what | they really want. `----
http://websquirrel.blogspot.com/2007/03/will-microsoft-survive-next-10-years.html
Great
2008-02-20 16:58:06
Google is keeping its arm open for them - a welcome red carpet. It must have already started to woo them.
Google is going to annihilate M$. I think Google doesnt even care about M$+Yahoo merger - they care more about the consumers and making their products better - rather than crushing down competitors.
See a huge amount of deflection of best open source developers to Google after the hostile takeover.
Go Google !!!
M$ will be left with nothing but poo on their face. This will be their end.
Great
2008-02-20 17:10:13
They are no longer the industry leaders - just playing catchup
Look at the number of mass migration away from Windows platform - US army, Hardware OEM (asus, dell, hp, etc) Colleges, International Governments, developers, etc.
Last advatange they have is lot of money - that too is gone with Yahoo.
Great
2008-02-20 17:16:19
Miles
2008-02-20 18:53:59
1. cheaper dvds ($20 vs $40+) 2. cheaper players ($120 vs $350+) 3. same quality as blueray (used the same codecs) 4. harder to damage than Blu-Ray 5. HD DVD doesn't have region locking, Blu-Ray does.
Blu-Ray winning the battle doesn't hurt Microsoft nearly as much as it hurts consumers. HD DVD wasn't even Microsoft's format anyway, it was Toshiba's... which is the underdog compared to Sony.
IMHO, Sony is another Microsoft wannabe and that has made me very nervous about Blu-Ray.
If you look back over history, Sony has always tried to push some alternative media format - always more expensive for the consumer. And until now, they've always lost.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-20 23:25:59
BoomBoom
2008-02-21 01:48:45
I've been reading for awhile, and have been a happy PCLinuxOS user since last December, thanks to the dismal failure known as Vista + M$'s attempts to sabotage my XP pro install through the autoupdate feature. My solution to this mess, since I like my old games and Wine can't run some of them, was to reinstall XP with XP-lite, removing all the web services, Internet Exploiter, Outhouse Excess, ect, and setting up a dualboot with PCLOS, since M$ products can't be trusted on the web. I've always preferred Firefox and T-bird over IE/OE anyway. Despite the FUD that M$ shills and fanboys spew, I've found PCLOS easy to use and quick to pick up. This coming from a poweruser that hacked on XP to try to get it to do what I wanted. That's my personal middle digit salute to M$.
Now for the news I have. Scope this out and laugh: http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero/
Keep in mind that an 'evildoer' in M$'s view is everyone that has had enough of M$ brand FUD, crap code and malware.
Damn, I hope those bastards go out of business soon.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-21 02:17:01
Yes, I read about this site (it has been known of for a while, at least by Microsoft watchers) and I was going to ignore it. Giving that desperate attempt from Microsoft a mention is giving it publicity, which is why Slashdot has already done.
Prepare for Microsoft to pretend that it has changed in attempts to regain people's love. Sun already does this using its "we're a little bit pregnant with open source" gesture, but Sun is not malicious.