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
- Car Companies Fail Because They Don't Manufacture What Costumers Actually Want
- They try to impose their dumb vision on purchasers
- Links 24/07/2026: Mass Layoffs at Patreon, Netflix Deemed Bad for People's Brains
- Links for the day
- Google Spreads Misinformation, Google's Slop Makes Stuff Up and Calls That "Intelligence"
- Google very well understands (and even publicly admits so, albeit only for legal reasons) that the slop does not work
- US is Insolvent, GAFAM is Buying Time by Hiding (Not Disclosing) Its True Debt Which Explains Never-ending Layoffs (Unrelated to Slop or "Efficiency Drives")
- Five Tech Giants are Hiding $1.65tn in AI Debt, Using the Trick that Toppled Enron
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- Earlier This Year Dan Williams Prepared for Scenario Where Linus Torvalds Dies
- He had only just started a job at NVIDIA
- Links 25/07/2026: Data Breaches Abundant and Attribution Imperiled in the Age of Slop Hype
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/07/2026: Poetry and Plaintext Pages
- Links for the day
- What is Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- In many cases, the acronym became a misnomer
- IBM PIPs Continue Until Morale Improves, Silent or Quiet Firings at IBM Explained
- IBM is a dying company
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 24, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, July 24, 2026
- Gemini Links 24/07/2026: Animal Friendship, Squirrels, and Lagrange
- Links for the day
- Links 24/07/2026: IOC Drops Russia Ban, New Internationalist Raises Money
- Links for the day
- Poor Piece From Valnet: Microsoft Keeps Sabotaging GNU/Linux, So You Should Quit Using GNU/Linux
- Really awful take
- We Need More Encryption, Not Less of It
- Use Free software and use encryption to ensure sources are fully protected
- At 3PM on a Friday The Register MS Collects Some 'Pyramid Scheme' Money From Communist China (ZTE)
- This won't age well for The Register MS
- What Freedom Does Not Mean
- Tell Warren Buffett to go skiing; he'll soon understand how much freedom he truly has
- Linuxiac is Plagiarism
- We won't link to it, we're done [...] If you wish to support journalism about GNU/Linux, do not visit or link to slop
- Verizon is Over 200 Billion Dollars in Debt (US Telecoms Collapsing, Wrapping Up the Failure in "Hey Hi" Clothing)
- They will tell us this is "innovation", not a failure, and that only "Luddites" would oppose this
- You've Been Conned If You Ever Believed That MElon (MUSK, Elon) Was a Trillionaire
- Connected to corrupt officials
- The People Who Tried to 'Cancel' (or Deplatform/Censor) Daniel Pocock Are Annoyed That He's Mentioned in Dozens of Press Articles
- If Pocock's words did not matter, there would not be such a huge effort to silence him
- Cybershow Explains Why Only Sociopaths Gravitate Towards Leadership Position in 'Tech'
- The general thesis is a familiar one
- Give Me Your "Dumbest" (Devices)
- Why can't people accept that a "modern "smart" "phone" isn't necessary to check the time (overkill) and playing social control media "on the go" is far from necessary?
- Speeding Up 'Down Under': Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania...
- As things stand, the best we can do is let people retrieve pages within less than 0.1 seconds since a request is received
- Google's Debt Trebled in Only 9 Months and It's Not Even the Full Picture (There's Secret Debt, Too)
- No wonder there are so many layoffs and workers try to unionise
- Microsoft Layoffs in India
- it's about cost-cutting
- Deregulation is Blowing Up the Economy, Which Has Become a Multi-Level Scheme or Pyramid Scheme
- Why did only Japanese media call out the BS; is that so hard to figure out and properly report on?
- Daniel Pocock Proves Wikipedia is for Rich People or People Who Work for Very Rich People (the True Owners of Wikipedia)
- It's for billionaires and their faithful boot lickers
- GNOME: Your Personal Opinions Must Overlap GAFAM's (Otherwise Those Opinions Are Impermissible)
- Get well soon, GNOME
- Making Excuses for Stressful, Unrewarding, and Immoral Jobs
- excuses for difficult and/or barely-rewarding jobs. [...] People in tech must not be evaluated (or have their "worth" assessed) based on remuneration
- Almost 5 Years Without Social Control Media ('Mind Prison')
- Life is too short to be stuck inside a skinnerbox
- Linux Must be About People (Humans), Not Bribery From Slop Companies Trillions of Dollars in Debt and in Pursuit of Positive Press
- We've lost Williams
- John Dvorak Understood That "MSM" Was a Vehicle of Censorship
- Independent publishing, which obviates the need to censor (influenced by existing advertisers or lookout for prospective advertisers), is the only credibly thing out there
- To Understand Why Linus Torvalds Became a Boot-Licking Booster of Slop Look at Another Operative of 'Linux' Foundation, the "Mentor" of Clickfraud SPAMnil (According to SPAMnil Himself)
- it seems like SJVN does not give a full disclosure
- Blaming "Computers" Instead of Blaming Microsoft
- Blaming Microsoft is "hate"
- "Online We Are All Refugees" and Slop Pushers Are the Oppressors
- They basically resort to nationalism and racism to distract from their commercial failure and fraud (pyramid scheme)
- PIP Apocalypse (PIPocalypse) at IBM, CEO Promotes Vapouware (Lying to Shareholders)
- Companies get to shrink while lying about it to the public, even to shareholders
- GNU/Linux Soaring in Antigua And Barbuda
- GNU/Linux is internationally approaching 8%
- Calling Out the Worst Culprits in "Linux" Slop (Slopfarms That Manipulate Information and Engage in Plagiarism)
- Once they're gone (offline), the slopfarms cannot carry on for much longer
- Defying Discrimination
- Rianne's birthday is exactly a month away
- Dan Williams Represented Real Diversity in Linux
- Williams probably understood based on personal experience what it was like to be marginalised and discriminated against
- The First Point About Software Freedom is, You Must Understand What It Really Means (Not "Open Source")
- Forty Three Years of Commitment to Software Freedom [...] Educating people about what Software Freedom actually means
- Gemini Links 24/07/2026: Recovering From Broken Shoulders, Loss of Passion, and "True Hacker Versus Growth Hacker"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 23, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 23, 2026
- Gemini Links 23/07/2026: Databases, TLGS, and RSS Feeds
- Links for the day
- Links 23/07/2026: Science, Censorship, and Territorial Overreach by China
- Links for the day
- The State of Google Security: Blocking competition
- GMail is the best!
- What Happens When Windows Becomes as 'Niche' as GNU/Linux on Desktops and Laptops
- Android enjoys a near-monopoly and GNU/Linux isn't far behind Windows.
- IBM Cash "Down $6.3 Billion From Year-end 2025." Total Debt/Equity 188.97%. (Debt Can Exceed the Company's Real Value)
- the CEO alone can make well over $0.7 billion in 5 years of salaries and bonuses
- Wave of PIPs Allegedly Coming to Microsoft, Managers Trained to Terminate Employees Without Paying Severance (and Without Calling it Layoffs)
- They count and cut the losses
- This Looks Like the End of XBox, the Console
- Sharma has become the "fall man" of Microsoft
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Consummate Master of the "Rigged Game"
- "single-candidate shortlist"
- Attempts to Change Focus and Change the Subject as IBM Shares Dwindle. Buying Revenue to Mask the Rapid Decline One More Time.
- IBM used to be good at engineering, not financial engineering
- Down 848% Year-on-year, Negative Cash Flow, Growing Debt (Richest Man on the Planet or Shrewd Scammer?)
- The latest for Tesla is more of the same
- IBM Falls Below $200, Expect $199 or Less Today (Panic Threshold)
- Will this be enough to topple the managers?
- Gemini Links 23/07/2026: SharePoint Rants and “Junk DNA” in Commented-Out Code
- Links for the day
- Links 23/07/2026: RIP John C. Dvorak, Organisation Weaponised Against J.K. Rowling
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 22, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 22, 2026
- Freexian & Debian: antitrust, unfair competition against joint authors and volunteers
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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.