Links 19/05/2008: Important Windows Refund Precedence, Unbundling Near?
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-05-19 14:23:27 UTC
- Modified: 2008-05-19 14:23:27 UTC
GNU/Linux
- French court orders Windows refund [Not the first time]
In France, it is illegal to bundle software and to refuse to reimburse the customer for unwanted licences, under Article L.122-1 of the French Consumer Code. The Tribunal de Grande Instance ruled that offering an expensive refund option was tantamount to offering no refund option at all, hence finding for the consumer and requiring that Asus stump up.
- Uxi, a Cuban magazine dedicated to Free Software and Open Codes by the University of Information Sciences
- University of Havana Finally Switches to Free Software
- Avnet Electronics Marketing launches complete MicroBlaze Processor Linux Design Solution
- LM_Sensors 3.0.2 Released
- I swear, this is not another Unixfication post
Is Sun talking with Linus about moving ZFS to GPLv2, with the objective of fast tracking ZFS into a native Linux kernel implementation of the file system driver? Or is Linus considering moving the kernel to GPLv3, with Sun doing the same for OpenSolaris? Is Linux and Solaris DNA going to swap much quicker than previously thought?
- AMD FireGL V8600 On Linux
If we would have looked at the FireGL performance under Windows and Linux a year ago, the results would have been vastly different -- Linux would have lagged far behind the Windows driver. With the new OpenGL driver, however, these results are rather pleasing. In 3DS Max and UGS NX tests from SPECViewPerf, the Windows driver had a small performance lead over the Linux driver. However, in the CATIA, Maya, and Pro/Engineer tests, the Linux driver wound up on top.
- Mandriva 2008.1 KDE hits a sweet spot
Ubuntu
- Hate Ubuntu? It's normal!
The fact that many people dislike the top distribution is not really a problem. The problem is that many of these folks are extremely vocal on the Internet to express their opinions. While no intelligent reader will ever take them seriously, they do give the Linux community a bad name and discourage potential Linux users from joining us.
- [Ubuntu] Weekly Newsletter #91
F/OSS
User Security vs. Vendor 'Security'
- Microsoft confirms Windows adheres to broadcast flag
News that the world's largest software maker has voluntarily agreed to help broadcasters control the recording of their shows is bound to outrage enthusiasts of digital video recorders, as it represents the biggest threat to the practice known as time shifting since the FCC's attempt to require flag adherence.
- Microsoft Stockholder? Take Stock in This...
While we are passing along the subject of anti-virus and spyware, let me ask you this. While MS does offer a somewhat crippled product to protect Windows, they push me toward a subscription purchase to get the full monty. Why am I being cornered into purchasing a "fix" for a problem Microsoft created? Shouldn't the full application be offered as part of Windows? Let me ask you this as well. Why should I purchase and use a product that necessitates I purchase and use another product in order for the first product to work the way it is supposed to?
- Hackers compromise Red Cross earthquake relief site
- Spain arrests 'prolific' hackers
Law and Crime
Leftovers
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Throwing Money at Lawyers Can't Stop Us (It Never Did)
- Even just trying to censor things can result in the opposite of the desired outcome
- BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
- It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
- Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
- Links for the day
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- Links 14/06/2025: FDA Changes Priorities, Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Steam Next Fest and Thoughts on Gemini
- Links for the day
- Site/Datacentre Maintenance Next Week
- speed things up
- Bulgaria: GNU/Linux Near 10%
- The Bulgarian market seems to be changing
- I Never Spoke to BetaNews. But BetaNews Wants to Ensure I Never Will, Either.
- Sometimes just the reluctance to talk about it can say a great deal
- Online Search or Large Search Engines Aren't Working Anymore
- business models that directly compete with interests of Web users
- Holidays and Breaks
- I've hardly taken any long breaks since I got married
- Danish OpenDocument Freedom
- "year of Linux"
- When Abusive Law Firms (Working for Microsofters Against Us) Assert That Someone Writing in Social Media About Himself is Confidential Information
- There was no reason to throw "GDPR" into 2 SLAPPs; they know it, but the goal was to increase the cost of a Defence and lessen the incentive to challenge the SLAPPs
- Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
- Links for the day
- Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
- Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
- Links for the day
- Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
- Links for the day
- X11 is Free Software
- Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
- The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
- At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
- Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
- a form of extortion
- UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
- No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
- Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
- Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
- American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
- Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
- When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
- Microsoft is having a very tough year
- The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
- It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
- Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
- Today's Slopwatch will be short
- Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025
- Links 12/06/2025: Portland Homeless Deaths Quadruple, COVID Cases Surge in Asia
- Links for the day
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
- Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
- "The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
- 'polite' bullying
- Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
- let's revisit the subject
- EPO's Gareth Lord Asked About "Quality and Productivity" or, Put Another Way, Why the EPO Keeps Granting So Many Invalid/Illegal Patents
- letter to Lord
- EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Scrutinises the Man Who Illegally Grants (and Forces Others to Illegally Participate in Granting) Software Patents in Europe
- EPO compels examiners to break the law in the name of obeying illegal "rules" or "orders"
- The Latest Rumour Says The Next (as Correctly Predicted Before) Wave of Layoffs at Microsoft is 3 Weeks Away, "Larger Than the First Wave"
- Step 2
- TV Licensing Used to SPAM Your Postbox, Now It Does the Same to E-mail
- First they ask for your E-mail address; then they start nagging you via E-mail
- The Toxic Playbook
- Either you support Prince Mohammed bin Salman or you're a nazi
- It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
- It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
- Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
- Links for the day
- Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
- This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
- Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
- Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
- Politics Will Impact Software Choices
- Will those systems respect users' freedom?
- EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
- Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
- Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
- We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Comments
fruit of the loon
2008-05-19 23:02:34
Roy Schestowitz
2008-05-19 23:09:41
So Fia lore Inn
2008-05-19 23:19:25
It should be argued, at least for PC gaming, they have a monopoly on the desktop with gaming, as most people need to use DirectX properly in order for the games to work. Sure Wine, Cedega, and other projects are making some progress and some games may work, and believe me I try every few weeks to see how it is coming along, but again Microsoft still continues its dirty deeds. They lie about Linux and Windows interoperability, "They said it couldn't be done!" Novell agreement bullshit just like the Corel agreement in 2000 or 2001, where Corel Linux was promptly spun off and money/support from Corel to Wine apparantly dried up. Time and time again they come in and either buy out or pollute the environment with thier proprietary crap, and we read another dismal Microsoft article after article every few weeks or more.
If Microsoft is so devoted to bringing Linux and Windows together, I don't see anything on their vast labrynth of shit at Microsoft.com indicating this. Where is the repository of interoperability Linux and Windows software on Microsoft.com? Oh, but you can still get their bullshit "Facts" on Windows and Linux, and that's about it. At least Google has a repository you can add to your Linux install for software from them. In my opinion, don't think Moonlight ("Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I ask that of all my friends") will last much longer or work well for Linux users should Silverblight (Silverlight) suddenly become popular through payoffs and slight of hand corporate tricks.
If you ever want to have Microsoft come clean, no, I don't believe it would ever happen unless the DOJ finally came down hard and raided their offices, took their hardware and software and forced them to release the code and all of the various undiscovered backdoors waiting to be found, it just won't happen. IMO, Microsoft has demonstrated time and time again it will fight tooth and nail against any punishment against them.
We will all be cleansed if true justice were ever to prevail, but in the "United States of Advertising", most of the people in power are paid off, with big pharma and other corporate overlords always padding the handshakes and votes. It is a lost cause, you know it, I know it, but you'll still piss away your vote to one of the two parties who bend over for big pharma to slide in the money and the overpriced medications pop out the other end as we all struggle under the yoke of this dismal fucking world.
Come clean? Microsoft? The whole system is mired in filth.
Good luck.
We now return you to your normal life, ostrich head in the sand, millions of tokers/beer drinkers who raise their fist while watching Fight Club and return to their soap opera pitiful lives of slavery as the credits roll.
Vote for Wesley Snipes for President in 2008, neither one of the big parties will get anything done, they are a part of the problem.