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
- Gemini Links 22/05/2026: Esperanto Music History, Suspicious Adoption of Signal, and Unauthorised LLM Slop in Code
- Links for the day
- Techrights and Tux Machines Subjected to Cyberattacks for Several Weeks
- In the past I spoke to the cybercrime unit of British Police. Maybe it's time to do so again.
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- SLAPP Censorship - Part 84 Out of 200: New Legislation Against SLAPPs on the Way (After We Reached Out to Ministers)
- They dealt with the matter individually too, but we won't share this in public, at least not at this time
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXX - Where Was "The Ethics and Compliance Team" When the Family of EPO President Campinos Was Caught Doing Cocaine?
- It remains to be seen if national delegates will tolerate this in future meetings
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 21, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, May 21, 2026
- Links 21/05/2026: "Declining America" and Why Slop 'Code' is Made to Fail
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Has Become a 'Content' Farm Promoting Slop for Hostile Corporations
- Now they call it "PARTNER CONTENT" - not "SPONSORED" - as if semantics make the difference
- Latest Example of Widespread Fake Assertions (False News) About "Hey Hi"
- The false narrative of "Hey Hi layoffs"
- Links 21/05/2026: Facebook Rewarded With Tax Breaks to Destroy the Environment and Cause Global Warming, Shortages, Pollution; SpaceX (SPCX) Continues Losing Billions of Dollars
- Links for the day
- Codecs and Software Patents - Part VIII - GNU Audio/Video Team Has Chosen the AV1 Video Codec and It Explains Why (They've Researched Their Options)
- AV1 video codec will be used to encode and share GNU videos online
- Dr. Stallman Helps Establish Free Software Advocacy Outside the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Well
- The ideals or principles of Free Software needn't be centralised or monopolised; they can be federated
- 22 Years of Tux Machines and a Community Stronger Than Ever Before
- We've already received some feedback from the community and improved it accordingly
- Microsoft Under Investigation for Breaches of Law in the UK
- Just like the Microsofters
- More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way (June and July 2026)
- with or without PIPs
- LWN Sponsored by the Linux Foundation (Monopolies)
- We must be able to casually point this out
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXIX - European Patent Office (EPO) Tells Staff "Speaking up" is Good, But Not When the "Brother-in-law" of EPO's President Does Cocaine
- Do we still have a functioning democracy and potent press?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 20, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, May 20, 2026
- Gemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories
- Links for the dayGemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories
- GAFAM is Connected to Misogyny, Almost All Founders Divorced
- They're not good people, even if they pay the media to pretend otherwise
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 83 Out of 200: Religion is Still Alive, But for Many This Religion is Monetary (Greed, Monopolies, Corporate Power)
- If all you keep boasting about is being able to afford a hotel room and some domestic flight, then maybe you have no real accomplishments and are more like a "Facebook serf" with a credit card
- Oracle Seems to Have Popularised Overnight Layoffs, Now GAFAM Does the Same
- layoff emails at 4 a.m. local time
- A Lot of Fake News About Microsoft's LinkedIn Today, Some Comes From Slopfarms, Some Relies on Those Slopfarms
- As usual, slopfarms make the Web a huge pile of garbage
- IBM's Kyndryl is Circling Down the Drain, Say Kyndryl Insiders
- "IBM Dinosaurs who were recycled and catapulted into the orange trash heap by IBM"
- A Lot of Coverage Adding Hype Factor to Slop Bug Reports... is Made by LLM Slop
- Local Privilege Escalation [...] the slop motivates some actual people to keep writing about it
- Links 20/05/2026: Mass Layoffs at NPR (Bought by the Ballmers and Bill Epsteingate), Starbucks Korea CEO Fired Over ‘Tank Day’ Ad
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 20/05/2026: Advantage of CD Collections, Geminaut's View of Nostr, and SSL / TLS Certificates
- Links for the day
- IBM is Becoming a Pile of Expired Patents and Abandoned Buildings, Assets of Little Actual Value
- Having laid off a ton of people, borrowed lots of money to fake growth (by acquisition), and sent some jobs to low-paid regions where innovation isn't done
- Links 20/05/2026: Looting of Americans for "White Grievance Reparations Fund"; "Mark Zuckerberg Used Shell Companies to Bully Native Hawaiians"
- Links for the day
- Web Browsers Are for Rendering Web Page, They Shouldn't Become PDF Editors
- Linus Torvalds is quickly learning and speaking about this
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 82 Out of 200: British Government Intervenes in the SLAPPs by Brett Wilson LLP
- At this stage our matters are dealt with by a layer below that of the Prime Minister (adjacent to it)
- LinkedIn Communications Reveal That LinkedIn - Like GitHub - Will Vanish Inside the Belly of Microsoft
- This is definitely going to happen.
- In Wall Street, Financial Difficulties Drive Shares Up
- Wall Street doesn't work that way
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXVIII - European Patent Office (EPO) Guidebook Says Report Crimes Committed on EPO Premises. Some Did, But President Campinos Covers up for the Culprits.
- The staff has long been on strike and the union (SUEPO) organised an enhanced day of action just two days ago
- Gemini Links 20/05/2026: Fall of an Empire, "High Tech is a Social Exercise", and Big Cameras
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 19, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, May 19, 2026
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.