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
- Plot Twist: Microsoft MSN Relays Articles Hinting at or Pointing to Mass Layoffs Soon, Other Gossip
- the narrative from Microsoft's "PR bunny" (Shaw) is showing mold already
- 'Vibe Coding' is Not "AI", It's a Sewer, It is Junk
- Linus Torvalds was wrong. 'Vibe coding' isn't good for anything.
- GNU/Linux May be Approaching 10% "Market Share" in Montenegro
- The surge started around 2021
- More IBM Layoffs in India
- If IBM cannot afford to retain workers in India, then something is truly "out of control" at IBM
- Dr. Richard Stallman Has Done No Harm to the GNU Project or the FSF (He Had Benefited Both, Always, Even After the Attacks on Him Began)
- Some people try to prevent Dr. Stallman from speaking or having a platform where many people can hear him
- Microsoft Isn't Denying the Mass Layoffs
- Still silence from Microsoft
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- there's a gradual increase in GNU/Linux usage there
- Gemini Links 09/01/2026: Pro1 X Repair and the Mercury Protocol
- Links for the day
- No, Microsoft Did Not Deny the Q1 Mass Layoffs (Microsoft Can Delay These)
- Maybe they disperse or delay the layoffs (changing plans), but the layoffs are going to happen
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- We kindly ask our readers to contact their local media and urge it to cover the scandals
-
- IBM is a Cancer That Attaches Itself to Everything
- Red Hat should have remained an independent company
- Links 09/01/2026: Google and Character.AI Implicitly Accept Chatbots Kill Kids and GLP-1 ‘Slimming Pens’ Turn Out to be a Lot Worse Than Advertised
- Links for the day
- At IBM, "Employee Reviews" (or Appraisals in the UK) Are a "Trojan Horse" for RAs (Mass Layoffs), a Waste of Time
- comments from IBMer serve to suggest that appraisals can be precursors
- Links 09/01/2026: Technical Blogging Lessons Learned and Google's Gmail Getting a Lot Worse
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- Some years ago Windows fell to a "market share" of just 11% there
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- Links for the day
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- This is not a community project, it's just a way for IBM to onboard unpaid volunteers
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- It is important to explain to people software freedom
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- not only did many in the site lose their job; there's more to come "and likely another one in February" (weeks from now)
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- In some ways, The Hague and Bavaria are becoming almost indistinguishable from Moscow
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Thursday, January 08, 2026
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- Links for the day
- LLM Slop About "Linux" Scarce and of Very Low Quality
- At this rate, we reckon there may be one (or zero) per day by year's end
- IBM's "Forever Layoffs" (to Bypass Warnings or Notices as Required by WARN Act)
- There is a bunch of speculations about when the next "major round" of RAs will be
- Attempts to Undermine This Site's Latest Series Using Intimidation, Threats, and Presumptuous Accusations
- threatening language is less effective when everyone is an alibi
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- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
- EPO People Power - Part XXVIII - A Sensitive Issue for Germany and The Netherlands
- If Germans who read this series can communicate this to public officials or to their media, maybe they can strike a nerve and get the ball rolling
- Age Discrimination at IBM Discussed Amid Mass Layoffs (Especially in the United States)
- Workers are anxious. Are they next to face the axe?
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- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 07, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 07, 2026
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Looking to Add Associate Members
- "Celebrate '26 by helping us reach our New Year's goal before Jan. 16: join as an associate member today. You will help the FSF remain strong and independent to empower technology users everywhere. Join us today and help us reach our goal of 100 new associate members!"
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- 2 days' worth of Google News spewing crap out about "Linux"
- Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Formally Announces Upcoming Richard Stallman Talk
- Room 100, Scheller College of Business
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- Links for the day
- Projection Tactics - Part II: Causing "Serious Harm" to Many People (Even Animals)
- Narcissists and sociopaths are like that
- Even Microsofters Now Speak About Microsoft Reportedly Planning to Sack 10% of Its Staff (as Early as This Month, or 2 Weeks From Now) as Real Income Falls
- Microsoft buying from Microsoft isn't real income, it is accounting fraud
- The four freedoms and GNU/Linux naming controversy, by Akira Urushibata
- Social control media owned and run by 'broligarchs' keeps attacking RMS for insisting on names that include GNU
- Crans-Montana, Le Constellation: journalists, victims' families, ProtonMail users at risk, police raids
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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- This month (and year) GNU/Linux is measured at an all-time high there, based on the data that statCounter can see
- Open Source Initiative (OSI) Not Doing Its Job, Instead It's Promoting Microsoft Ponzi Schemes
- it participates in Microsoft's Ponzi scheme, which helps Microsoft distract from or excuse the mass layoffs
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- Links for the day
- The Register MS: Installing Free Software on Your Device is 'Sideloading'
- This is a form of propaganda
- Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Soon, Just Like We've Said for Months
- IBM and Microsoft are heading in a similar trajectory and are hiding how bad things are using similar tactics
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- the books were cooked (accounting fraud) to hide what really went on
- Frankly Getting Sick of Slop About "AI" (Slop)
- Calling everything out there "AI" serves nobody and nothing but the Ponzi scheme
- Stick to the Science, the Facts, the Observable Reality
- Science is at the heart of this site
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- In Africa, as we've just noticed, Bing is moving down, even more sharply this year
- Slideshare is Slop
- Be sure fools will rewrite history online
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- Links for the day
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- the most serious harm was done to us
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- Links for the day
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- journalism became so shallow that nowadays it can be replaced by bots
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- this "AI" gaslighting is done because publishers get paid to do so
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 06, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 06, 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.