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Links 13/1/2010: Linux 2.6.33 RC4, Zenwalk 6.2 Reviewed



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Tegra 2 supports Ubuntu Linux
    According to this faq-like post on the official Nvidia Tegra developer site, Ubuntu Linux is supported as an operating system for Tegra 2 based devices.


  • Android tablet sports Pixel Qi dual-mode display
    At CES, Nvidia demonstrated tablet-PC prototypes incorporating its Tegra 250 processor, including a Linux-based model from Foxconn, and Android-based models from ICD and Notion Ink, the latter using Pixel Qi display technology. Meanwhile, an Android version of HP's Windows-based "Slate" computer is on the way, say several reports.


  • Opsera and The Linux Box Partner to Expand U.S. Market for Opsview Open Source System Management Suite
    The Linux Box is partnering with Opsera Limited to become an official Opsview reseller in the United States, with the goal of expanding the national presence of this award-winning network and infrastructure monitoring software suite.

    Opsview provides comprehensive system management capabilities used to monitor the health of today's most complex data centers. It enables IT managers to identify and fix issues with their systems before they impact system availability. Opsview enhances the widely used Nagios€® monitoring framework by adding many additional configuration, graphing and management capabilities, while remaining 100 percent compatible. Opsview earned the Product Excellence award for Best System Management Tool at LinuxWorld Expo in 2008.


  • Linux Will Save The World
    You know what stories perform the worst on Linux Today? Anything that pertains to freedom- software freedom, the GNU Foundation, the Software Freedom Law Center, civil rights, and law. Technology is front and center on the big issues of the day. If we didn't have FOSS we would be in an even worse mess as a society, because then technology would all be centralized and controlled by a very few people who have proven their hostility to civil liberties, privacy, and basic decency.

    I don't believe it is exaggerating to say that Linux/FOSS is all that stands between technology tyranny, corporate tyranny, and the hope of something better.


  • My favourite Linux podcast.
    I’ve sampled a variety of podcasts about Linux, including FLOSS Weekly and TuxRadar, but the Outlaws are by far and away my favourite. At first blush an excitable German University student and baritone Liverpudlian might seem like an odd choice to host such a thing, but you’ll quickly realize that both share an equal passion for all things open. They also put on a great show.

    Here’s a quick tour of the Outlaw universe to get you up to speed:

    One of my favourite recent episodes of the podcast featured an extended interview with Bradley Kuhn & Aaron Williamson from the Software Freedom Law Center. Did you know that a whole whack of television and set-top box manufacturers are using GPL code without giving back to the community? The lesson to be learned here is that open-source has deeper pockets than you might think.


  • Linux.conf.au kicks off next week aiming for open source roadmap goal
    Annual conference expected to attract 600-strong crowd with diverse mix of international, Australian and NZ delegates




  • Desktop

    • Digital Tipping Point – A Q&A with Christian Einfeldt
      Have you any other projects at the moment?
      There is an effort that some of us have started for the purpose of bringing GNU-Linux to low income benefits groups. We have made contact with one of the largest charities in San Francisco. This is an organization that feeds thousands of people every month. They also have a jobs program. In connection with that jobs program, they have a computer lab. We are in the process of rolling out GNU-Linux in that context because we feel that Linux computers could do so much for people who are trying to lift themselves up off of the street.


    • You don't need to 'know' Linux to use Linux
      Lately, I've been noticing stories about how to use Linux you need to know half-a-hundred Linux shell commands and the like. Ah, what century are you from? Today, if you can see a window and handle a mouse you're ready to use Linux.

      And, no, I'm not talking about how we're all already using Linux in devices like the TiVo or the Droid smartphone and through Linux-powered Web sites like Google. I'm talking about using Linux on the desktop.

      There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that requires any special knowledge to use Linux on the desktop today. If you've already mastered Windows XP, you'll have little more trouble moving to a Linux desktop like Red Hat's Fedora 12; Novell's openSUSE 11.2; or Canonical's Ubuntu 9.10 than you would in switching over to Windows 7.






  • Kernel Space

    • Subject Linux 2.6.33-rc4
      Hmm. Odd release. Something like 40% of the patches are in DRM (mostly nouveau and radeon, both staging, so it's a bit less scary than it sounds. But there's a noticeable i915 component too). That's all pretty unusual, afaik.




    • Graphics Stack

      • Pulled: DRI 2.2 Protocol Requests, Swap Events
        The other part of this work is the new protocol requests for DRI2 2.2 and they include DRI2SwapBuffers, DRI2GetMSC, DRI2WaitMSC, DRI2WaitSBC and DRI2SwapInterval. These requests are used for supporting the SGI_video_sync, SGI_swap_interval, and OML_sync_control GLX extensions. It was back in October that we originally talked about these DRI2 sync and swap extensions.




      • Gallium3D

        • Gallium3D Feature Levels Plotted, Discussed
          The last time we talked about Gallium3D work being done by Zack Rusin was just before the holidays when he was hacking on new geometry shader support. Zack's latest work on Gallium3D though is for defining "feature levels" that provides a table for what features can be supported by a given driver / graphics processor.


        • New EGL Gallium3D State Tracker Pushed
          The latest work by Chia-I Wu is a new EGL driver / state tracker (named "egl_g3d") that has just been pushed into Mesa. For those unfamiliar with EGL, as described by the Khronos Group, "EGL is an interface between Khronos rendering APIs such as OpenGL ES or OpenVG and the underlying native platform window system."














  • Applications







  • K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

    • More KDE 4
      Here's my current desktop, which mostly shows off the "Naked" plasma theme and my desktop widgets...








  • Distributions

    • Mandriva opts for the green solution with packaging for the Mandriva Linux 2010
      Mandriva, Europe's leading Linux publisher, offers clients recyclable, environmentally-friendly packaging for its latest distribution: Mandriva linux 2010.

      At a time when bringing in sustainable development policies is imperative for business, Mandriva has gone for entirely recyclable packaging for its latest distribution to meet customer wishes.


    • Review: Zenwalk 6.2
      Conclusions: This is hands-down one of the most user-friendly distributions I've tried. This long-term test drive had a few relatively minor bugs, and they were far outweighed by Zenwalk's overall friendliness and ease of use. The distro is bright and well-designed, and is backed by strong documentation and a newby-friendly community. In my installation it had a very high “just worked” factor, although obviously individual results may vary for other users and machines. If XFCE isn't your cup of tea, Zenwalk is also available in a GNOME version.




    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat repurchases $33.4M of shares
        The Raleigh-based Linux provider’s stock purchases were made as part of a previously announced repurchasing plan that was last amended in November 2008. The program authorizes the repurchase of up to $250 million worth of common stock. The program expires Oct. 31, 2010, unless the company’s board and executives discontinue the program sooner.






    • Debian Family

      • The Plight of Ubuntu Users in Developing Countries
        Shockingly, Ubuntu dropped wvdial and gnome-ppp -- the command-line and GUI ppp connectors, respectively -- from the distro years ago. In order to connect to the Internet, most African users must therefore connect to the Internet (see the problem?), download the appropriate packages, and configure their dial-up or 3G connection. Just about anyone who has used Ubuntu knows that it's not particularly capable out of the box without Internet access.


      • Give Boxee Beta an Ubuntu Ride
        Boxee Beta is now open to all. Even its alpha release was rock solid, so one could think of the kind of expectation everyone has for Boxee Beta. From the first look, I have to say, Boxee beta has pretty much lived up to the hype.


      • Boxee opens beta to all
        Below are several screenshots of the Boxee Beta’s movies, videos, queue, and apps selection screens...












  • Devices/Embedded

    • 5 Special Devices from CES 2010 that Run on Linux
      Lots of fascinating new devices were showcased during past week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. In addition to marketing new products events like the CES serve as an opportunity to demonstrate what technology can do. Naturally, some of those feats may not prove particularly useful, but they are fun to watch anyway.


    • ARM9 industrial SoC gains video chops
      Atmel announced a version of its ARM926EJ-based "SAM9" line of industrial-focused system-on-chips, this time integrating a video decoder and graphics acceleration. The SAM9M10 ships with a Linux evaluation board and BSP, and supports video at up to 720 x 576 pixels and 30 frames per second, says the company.


    • Android-ready PMP sports AMOLED display
      One of these Windows-oriented devices -- the Viliv P3 PMP (portable media player) -- also runs Android, and offers an 800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, WiFi, and a 3.7-inch AMOLED display.




    • Phones

      • Google releases Nexus One SDK
        The Android 2.1 SDK includes APIs for creating animated wallpapers, as well as some additional telephony functions and a couple of improvements to interaction with the WebKit browser, all of which are used by Google's own Nexus One applications and are now available to other developers too.


      • Android tablet and kitchen computer debut
        At CES, Innovative Converged Devices (ICD) demonstrated two Android-based touchscreen computers based on Nvidia's Tegra 250 processor -- a 15.6-inch Vega kitchen computer and a seven-inch Ultra tablet. Also at CES, ICD and T-Mobile UK announced that the latter will launch the Vega later this year in the U.K.








    • Sub-notebooks

      • OLPC Doesn't Need a Global Business Case Challenge
        One Laptop per Child Association will be gathering 300 MBA, graduate and undergraduate business students to develop innovative business cases for XO laptop deployment under the auspices of the Global Case Challenge. But I wonder why.










Free Software/Open Source

  • FOSS is rejected by CAN InfoTech Nepal
    Every year, for the last couple of years, FOSS community Nepal has been getting a small stall to showcase whatever they have to the unusually large mass that come to witness the event. Not that FOSS is going anywhere in Nepal, but still that opportunity to try and create awareness existed. From this year onwards FOSS community is not going to be able to do that too as they have been told that due to lack of space they will not be able to put up a stall.


  • Attractive Open Source Search Interfaces?


  • Flightcaster Open-sources Crane
    A big concern with the modern JVM languages like Scala and Clojure is the ability to scale out from the single JVM address space into distributed environments. Different approaches include a distributed JVM (terracotta), distributed actors (akka), message queues (AMQP/rabbitmq), or solutions for specific computational models, like hadoop.


  • Make your own lifestream with open source Storytlr
    The arrival of a new year is often viewed as an opportunity for self improvement. According the US government, some of the population's top new year's resolutions for 2010 include plans to lose weight, improve finances, and reduce stress. I imagine that our audience of super-geeks have a few goals that aren't on the list. This year, I decided to finally fix up my personal Web site. An open source lifestream framework called Storytlr made my goal easy to accomplish.




  • Mozilla

    • Review: Firefox 3.6 RC gives new life to an old browser
      The Web browsing world is exciting again. Google's Chrome browser is faster than fast and there's serious thought that Internet Explorer may actually lose its top spot in the browser market-share wars. But for all the excitement, it would be a real mistake to overlook Firefox; with the forthcoming release of Firefox 3.6, which is now available as a release candidate, Mozilla's flagship browser is looking better than ever.


    • The Future of Add-ons
      The Firefox Add-on platform is the most vibrant source of browser innovation in the world, with over 1.5 billion downloads and tens of thousands of add-ons. There’s been a lot of speculation over the past couple of days around the future of Firefox Add-ons, and how Jetpack fits into that future. There’s currently a lot of misinformation swirling about this topic and it’s making people very unhappy. We’re going to attempt to clear things up below…








  • Databases

    • Save MySQL would not spare open source M&A
      A recent pitch from the folks opposing Oracle’s ownership of MySQL via acquisition of Sun Microsystems got me thinking. The plea, ‘Oracle can have Sun, but not MySQL’ may make sense to some, but to me it speaks to the irony of closing out Oracle or any company or anyone from open source. Upon further reflection and given 2010 is off to a roaring pace of M&A, I also began to wonder what the impact of the ‘Save MySQL’ campaign could be on open source in M&A, particularly if it was to successfully derail the acquisition or somehow decouple MySQL from Sun under Oracle?


    • Do Databases Lie at the Heart of Open Source?
      Now, obviously I'm delighted to see Jordan aspire to become the open source “hub” for the Middle East, as the press release puts it: we sorely need a focal point for free software there.








  • Government

    • Will Open Government Directive drive Drupal usage?
      Acquia will also offer a seminar series for U.S. federal, state, and local governments to discuss adoptions and best practices for government use. This is definitely a smart move, as risk-averse government agency IT decision makers will take comfort in the successes of their peers with Drupal Social Publishing.

      Acquia appears poised to take advantage of the growing interest in open source and social media. Increased use of Drupal will open the door further to open source adoption within governments in the United States and worldwide. In doing so, Acquia is definitely playing its part as a founding member of Open Source for America.








  • Programming

    • PHP 5.3.1 Released, Security Beefed Up
      The PHP development team recently introduced the latest version of the new PHP 5.3 branch, PHP 5.3.1. This version essentially does not change the essential core 5.3 PHP engine, but by focusing on stability and security, the PHP team has introduced more than 100 bug fixes and tweaks to the overall framework.








  • Standards/Consortia







Leftovers

  • Have computers become a commodity item?
    Somebody made a comment the other day about computers being a commodity item. It was stated that computers are thought of as no different to a television or radio. This comment sort of alarmed me because I do not think of computers in this manner. I don't think that computers should be classed as a commodity item and below I say why.




  • Security

    • Solution for SSL/TLS design weakness in sight
      A solution to the TLS renegotiation vulnerability discovered in the design of the SSL/TLS protocol early last November is on the horizon. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has ammended the RFC 5246 specification (Transport Layer Security [TLS] Protocol Version 1.2) and introduced a new renegotiation_info TLS extension which will store a connection's cryptographic information. The problem was caused by a flaw in the TLS protocol design that affects the parameter renegotiation of an existing TLS connection. Previously, the TLS protocol offered no conclusively authenticated associations between the client requests before and client requests after a TLS renegotiation. The new extension stores additional information to describe the state of a TLS connection ("secure_renegotiation", "client_verify_data" and "server_verify_data").


    • Trouser-bomb clown attacks - how much should we laugh?
      As the smoke clears following the case of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the failed Christmas Day "underpants bomber" of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 fame, there are just three simple points for us Westerners to take away.

      First: It is completely impossible to prevent terrorists from attacking airliners.

      Second: This does not matter. There is no need for greater efforts on security.

      Third: A terrorist set fire to his own trousers, suffering eyewateringly painful burns to what Australian cricket commentators sometimes refer to as the "groinal area", and nobody seems to be laughing. What's wrong with us?


    • The Spies Who Got Left in the Cold


    • Undressing the Terror Threat
      Consider that on this very day about 6,700 Americans will die.... Consider then that around 1,900 of the Americans who die today will be less than 65, and that indeed about 140 will be children. Approximately 50 Americans will be murdered today, including several women killed by their husbands or boyfriends, and several children who will die from abuse and neglect. Around 85 of us will commit suicide, and another 120 will die in traffic accidents.

      [...]

      Indeed, if one does not utter the magic word "terrorism," the notion that it is actually in the best interests of the country for the government to do everything possible to keep its citizens safe becomes self-evident nonsense. Consider again some of the things that will kill 6,700 Americans today. The country's homicide rate is approximately six times higher than that of most other developed nations; we have 15,000 more murders per year than we would if the rate were comparable to that of otherwise similar countries. Americans own around 200 million firearms, which is to say there are nearly as many privately owned guns as there are adults in the country. In addition, there are about 200,000 convicted murderers walking free in America today (there have been more than 600,000 murders in America over the past 30 years, and the average time served for the crime is about 12 years).








  • Environment

    • 17,000 potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under obscure law
      Of some 84,000 chemicals being used commercially in the United States, some 20 percent -- or 17,000 -- are kept secret not only from the public, but from medical professionals, state regulators and even emergency responders, according to a report at the Washington Post.








  • Finance

    • 25 experts who denied the housing bubble
      It cautions, "The list includes only pundits and (supposed) experts. That means the list doesn't include policymakers such as Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, because however wrong they may have been, policymakers and especially Fed chairmen are undeniably constrained in what they can say publicly. I strongly suspect that both Greenspan and Bernanke honestly believed that there was no housing bubble, but alas, we'll never know for sure. The list also doesn't include pundits/experts who were wrong only about the fallout of the collapse of the housing bubble that is, the extent to which the collapse of the housing bubble would harm the economy."








  • PR/AstroTurf

    • Ads to Protest Smoking in ‘Avatar’
      Those who oppose smoking in movies aimed at young people planned to step up their assault on the science-fiction epic “Avatar” on Tuesday with advertisements in Hollywood trade papers that accuse the film of providing the equivalent of $50 million in free tobacco advertising.


    • Taxpayers Subsidize Smoking in "Avatar," Other Youth-Rated Movies
      The information about taxpayers subsidizing smoking in big-screen movies comes from a November, 2009 report by the University of California San Francisco titled "Taxpayer Subsidies for US Films with Tobacco Imagery" that examined taxpayer subsidies for youth-rated films (G, PG and PG-13).


    • Conservative backlash against "Avatar"
      A right-wing nightmare: The free market has spoken -- anti-American lefty green propaganda sells!


    • Breaking News: Insurance Industry Launders $10M to $20M in Attack Ads
      Just as we cannot let the health insurance companies pretend they are "for reform" while secretly buying millions of dollars worth of attack ads against reform, we also cannot stand silent when newspapers outsource the writing of the "news" to groups advised by health insurance companies.


    • Obama received $20 million from healthcare industry in 2008 campaign
      Currently, the Center's website shows that Obama received $19,462,986 from the health sector, which includes health professionals ($11.7m), health services/HMOs ($1.4m), hospitals/nursing homes ($3.3m) and pharmaceuticals/health products ($2.1m). Miscellaneous health donations (from which Obama received $860,411) are also factored into the current total health sector numbers but are not accessible on the site.








  • Censorship/Civil Rights

    • Google to Embargo China
      14-01-10: Still conflicting reports coming out. It could be that Google has already lifted its own censorship measures. Or it could be that the censorship measures are still up, but because of the intense interest generated (and click-thrus) on sensitive subjects, small holes in the wall are being publicised and magnified.

      It doesn't matter any more: People are getting through the wall.


    • Google.cn Has Already Lifted Censorship
      "In an update to Google's withdrawal from China, there are reports that censorship has already been lifted. It's probably taken a while to report because of Google's ranking system."








  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

    • Lessig on Copyright and Science at the University of Amsterdam
      Last Friday, January 8, the University of Amsterdam (I'm with the competition) handed out an honorary doctorate to Harvard prof. Lawrence Lessig, known to you all (I may hope!) as one of the founding members of the wildly successful Creative Commons project. During the acceptance ceremony, he held one of his keynote presentations - and one that is required listening material for everyone. And with everyone - I mean everyone.


    • Writers Can Prosper Without Intellectual Property
      It is commonly supposed that, whatever its moral and theoretical standing, intellectual property is necessary for creators of written works to make a living and — even more importantly — to continue to create. Here, I will set aside the theoretical status of copyright, which is amply discussed in Stephan Kinsella's Against Intellectual Property and Michele Boldrin and David Levine's Against Intellectual Monopoly. I will focus on existing and emerging possibilities for writers to earn a living in a world where no copyrights exist.










Week of Monsanto: Video



Monsanto: End of Life



Recent Techrights' Posts

The General Public License (GPL) Inspired the Web's Original Openness/Freedom, According to Tim Berners-Lee
"During the preceding year I had been trying to get CERN to release the intellectual property rights to the Web code under the General Public License (GPL) so that others could use it."
The Real Problem With Rust is Not "Wokeness" (It Never Was)
Don't feed the trolls who attack "Rust People" on political grounds
 
Dr. Richard Stallman, Invited by LibreTech Collective, is Giving a Public Talk in Georgia Tech Next Month (Scheller College of Business)
They can probably squeeze about 400 people into this room
25 Years of Activism for GNU/Linux
My passion for GNU/Linux brought a lot of contentment
Africa, Where Microsoft Used De Facto Slaves to Pretend to be "AI", Chatbots Usage is 0.2% of Measured Online Traffic
Judging by recent trends in Africa, many "Windows PCs" are being converted into GNU/Linux computers
New Drone Footage Shows IBM is Dead (Parts of It)
The people who participated in IBM when IBM actually mattered probably have boasting rights, unlike people who work for IBM today
Michael Larabel Adds Slop Category to Phoronix, Quickly Realises That It's Worthless
Phoronix nowadays gets carried away; it made a new category to talk about slop and it decided to call it "intelligence" with some caricature of a brain (that's misleading)Phoronix nowadays gets carried away; it made a new category to talk about slop and it decided to call it "intelligence" with some caricature of a brain (that's misleading)
IBM: We Can't Make 'AI' (Voice Recognition) Do the Work of a McDonald's Teenager, So Let's Try the Same on Saudi Planes
IBM is lost. It's truly lost.
After 35 Years the World Wide Web, HTML, and HTTP Are Proprietary
HTTP/2 added a lot of complexity (it's just a Google protocol, based on SPDY originally), many image formats are proprietary and patented, HTML got 'replaced' by Java-Scripts [sic], and many URLs (the URL system was created in the early 90s) are just long strings for proprietary 'webapps'
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, December 20, 2025
The Register MS Has Lowered Its Standards Considerably
Incidentally, we've only just noticed that "US editor for The Register since July 2025" has not been active for 4 weeks already
Scamfarms, Spamfarms, and Slopfarms in "Linux" Clothing
Today, Linux searches in Google News produced no slop at all. That's an improvement.
Did Bill Gates Lobby to Blur the Face of the Young Woman He Openly Braces (and Who Isn't His Wife)?
"This photo of of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with a woman whose face is blurred out is just one of 68 more photos and documents released today."
Links 20/12/2025: Microsoft Ruins Televisions, 'Epstein Files' Deeply Sanitised (to Protect Particular Culprits)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/12/2025: Merry Christmas 2025 and Running a Factorio Headless Server on FreeBSD with the Linuxulato
Links for the day
With 10 Days Left, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Already Raised Close to $300,000 This Winter
they're besieged by despicable corporations and very despicable people
2025 in Numbers
What was very good about this year is that we truly got "into the rhythm" of publishing
More Microsoft Layoffs Coming Soon
When I spoke about Microsoft layoffs (routinely) I got very viciously attacked by Microsoft boosters
My Humble Assessment of the Future of Red Hat, A Company That IBM is Flushing Down the Loo
GNU/Linux will be OK without Red Hat, but shaping the future of it matters because we don't want companies like Valve (DRM) to set the agenda
Probably the Least Useful Gadgets, Ever
as if a "smart" thing worn on the wrist is the "new Rolex"
Former Manager at IBM Research (Yorktown) Says Why IBM is Doomed and the Anonymous Tipline (Speak Up) is a Trap
IBM isn't willing to change or to address internal issues
Links 20/12/2025: Fentanylware Becomes CheeTok and "Why Roomba Died"
Links for the day
Linux Foundation: Richard Stallman Developed Only a Software Licence
We already criticised this report several times last night
Impulsive Writing, Quotas, and Keeping Things as Concise as Feasible
A 10-word sentence being read by a million people can have the same impact or magnitude (exposure-wise) as a million-word book being read by just 10 people
Gemini Links 20/12/2025: Christmas Songs, Storms, and Old Web
Links for the day
Coming to Grips With a Lack of Future at IBM
Red Hat's future doesn't look bright under the auspices as they seem right now
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, December 19, 2025
Links 20/12/2025: Media Layoffs, a Third of Online Traffic is Bots
Links for the day
Barbados: Significant Gains for GNU/Linux
over 5% if one counts ChromeOS as well
Very Shallow LLM Slop for IBM Disguised as Journalism About a "Plan to Train 5 Million Learners in India by 2030" (Unverified Figures With Very Distant Future Date/Year)
The Web has become somewhat of a laughing stock
'Linux' Foundation: The Foundation Has Almost Nothing to Do With Linux, It Just Misuses the Name "Linux"
Only a tiny portion of the Foundation's budget actually goes to Linux
Austria vs GAFAM
another win against GAFAM
Microsoft Has Purchased Another Linux Foundation Seat
From the latest (new) report
No Electronics, No Clocks, No Phones
We're meant to think that more gadgets will make life easier
Gemini Links 19/12/2025: Great Website Rebuild of 2025 and Running OpenBSD in a Hostile Environment
Links for the day
Google News Helps Slopfarms (What's Left of Them)
Lately we've noticed that nothing in the RSS feeds we follow is burping out slop
Links 19/12/2025: Privacy International's Reports and Russian Assets in EU
Links for the day
Today, The Register MS is Parroting Marketing Spam for Ponzi Scheme ("AI") in Exchange for Money
The Register MS should be held accountable when the bubble pops
Red Hat Senior Engineering Manager Leaves (or Gets Pushed Out by IBM) After Nearly 20 Years at the Company
The recent massive wave of IBM layoffs impacted Red Hat and so will the next (impending, Q1) wave
Why We Got Told by Insiders That Almost Everyone at EPO Reads Techrights and Many at IBM Track IBM RAs Via Techrights
In a nutshell, we cover topics almost no other site dares touch
IBM Research Shutting Down Labs, Lots of Workers Laid Off (Even Days Before Christmas in Devout Catholic Country)
Heartless, soulless company
Links 19/12/2025: Windows TCO in NHS, "Locked Out of Apple Account Due to Gift Card"
Links for the day
Nearly Three Months Have Passed Since EPO Cocainegate and the EPO's Management Still Refuses to Talk About It
But it's clearly aware of it
Richard Stallman Explains Why Software Patents Are Really Bad and Very Much Unnecessary
"The relationship between patents and products varies between the fields"
The Copycats of the FSF Have Serious Problems
If you care about Software Freedom, then support the real thing
Once Again, Just in Time for Christmas, UEFI and Its Boot System Turn Out to be a Giant Bug Door (Also a Microsoft Remote Kill Switch)
This industry - even academia - has been deeply compromised
In Activism and Journalism, If You're Ineffective They Ignore You, When You Become Effective They Stalk and Harass You, Failing That They Threaten You
"the Wikileaks effect"
Google Has Begun Linking to commandlinux.com in Google News, But It Seems to be a Slopfarm
This is not innovation, it's sloppiness, laziness, and a modern form of plagiarism
Microsoft Reportedly Tries to Cause Top-Level Managers to Resign If they Don't Participate in the Ponzi Scheme
Apparently even executives who don't play along are given marching orders
Microsoft, Over 120 Billion Dollars in Debt, Prepares Next Round of Mass Layoffs (After Christmas)
Microsoft is not managing to pay back its debt
Links 19/12/2025: Scam Altman Humiliates Self in Public, Climate Alarm Sounded, Egyptian Economist Convicted Over "Social Control Media Posts Critical of the Government"
Links for the day
You Can Get Work Done With Lean Software
obviously!
"The War on Privacy" is Real
"He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison."
The Cost of Being Influential
The "tech world" and its monopoly enforcer (patent system) are sleepwalking into autocracy
More Shutdowns and Layoffs at IBM
if someone covers correct but suppressed information, then people will make an effort to find it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, December 18, 2025
EPO Violates Laws to Profit More From Invalid Patents, Then Cuts the Budget Allocated to Staff
taking away what was already promised to staff
Only a Few Examples of LLM Slop Found, Mostly via Google News
Is it fair to say that sites learned LLM slop does not offer any real value?