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Links 27/5/2015: Fedora 22 is Out, Mandriva Liquidated





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Open Source Innovation: What's In and What's Out
    Open source innovation has not only revolutionized the software and biotech industries -- it's completely changed the way we think about creativity. To be derivative is now a form of being creative. That is, in order to do something new, we don't have to build something new -- we can use existing and emerging forms, made available through open access, and do something new with them. This promotes a democracy in the innovation game: with open source services, there is no discrimination against persons or groups or against fields or endeavors.


  • 4 steps to creating a thriving open source project
    Andrey Petrov spoke at a Sourcegraph open source meetup about lessons learned from his successes and failures creating open source projects.


  • Google turns its Android font Roboto into an open source project
    Designed by Christian Robinson, the Roboto font files were first released in 2011 under the Apache license. Now, the company is organizing the files and the font production toolchain into a fully realized open source project on Github.


  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



    • Downgrading to stable
      The system works fine otherwise and can be accessed via ssh, but restarting kdm doesn't help to fix it, it just changes the pattern. Anyway, as explaining a toddler he cannot watch his favourite youtube cartoons because suddenly the computer screen has become an abstract art work is not easy I quickly decided to downgrade.




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • Richard Stallman Says He Created GNU, Which Is Called Often Linux
      Richard Stallman is the President of the Free Software Foundation and also the founder of GNU or GNU's Not Unix! operating system that contains only free software. One of his constant claims is that GNU/Linux is a misnomer and that it shouldn't be used. In fact, he's now saying that the GNU operating system is often called Linux.




  • Openness/Sharing



    • Researchers to track down obstacles to digital DIY
      An EU-funded research project wants to find regulations and other obstacles that hinder digital Do-It-Yourself companies. A consortium of universities and research institutes in Manchester, Milan, London, Thessaloniki and other cities intends to help small enterprises benefit from digital DIY, help policy makers and prepare teachers and educators.


    • Open Data



      • Open Government and geo-data infrastructures at AGIT 2015
        One of the themes at the AGIT 2015 conference will be Open Government and geo-data infrastructures. According to the organisers, the availability of standardised open government services has increased the importance of government geo-data infrastructures, taking the opportunities for using geo-information to a new level. Discussions will focus on questions like what value can be created by building a European 'spatially-enabled society' as part of the European knowledge society, and what are the challenges and prospects with regard to cloud computing.


      • How open data is transforming the business landscape
        Despite pledges by the G7 and G20 to boost transparency by opening up government data, fewer than 8% of countries publish data sets in open formats and under open licences on public sector budgets, spending and contracts.




    • Open Hardware



      • Hubble delivers a more affordable 3D laser cutter
        Hubble is an open source, mid-level laser cutter designed to be affordable, versatile, and hackable. Hubble was created to fill the current gap between amazing, entry-level projects, like MicroSlice, and the expensive, proprietary laser cutters on the market.






  • Programming



  • Standards/Consortia





Leftovers



  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • Stop Feeding the Troll: The Case for an ISIS Propaganda Blackout
      Now, there’s no actual evidence that any of this is anything more than deranged ranting, yet here we are: Millions of casual news observers who scrolled through western media this weekend came away thinking ISIS is plotting to acquire a nuclear bomb, kill the president and prostitute his wife.




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • EU dropped plans for safer pesticides after pressure from US
      EU plans to regulate hormone-damaging chemicals found in pesticides have been dropped because of threats from the US that this would adversely affect negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), according to a report in The Guardian. Draft EU regulations would have banned 31 pesticides containing endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that have been linked to testicular cancer and male infertility.

      Just after the official launch of the TTIP negotiations on 13 June 2013, a US business delegation visited EU officials to demand that the proposed regulations governing EDCs should be thrown out in favour of a further "impact study." Minutes of the meeting on June 26 show Commission officials saying that "although they want the TTIP to be successful, they would not like to be seen as lowering the EU standards." Nonetheless, the European Commission capitulated shortly afterwards.




  • Privacy



    • Glenn Greenwald, I’m sorry: Why I changed my mind on Edward Snowden
      I was wrong. So was most of the media


    • New surveillance laws must have full public debate, say top UK academics
      A group of 35 top academics have published an open letter calling on the UK government to ensure "the Rule of Law and the democratic process is respected as UK surveillance law is revised." This comes in response to the UK government previously turning to draft "Codes of Practice" and "clarifying amendments" to extend its surveillance powers, rather than using primary legislation that is subject to full parliamentary and public debate. Interestingly, the letter includes signatories both for and against such extensions, working in the fields of law, media, policy, and technology.




  • Civil Rights



  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • Last chance for MEPs to save Net Neutrality?
      The negotiations on Net Neutrality comes to the end in June with next and probably final trialogue expected on 2nd of June. Until now, the different documents received from the negotiations1 have shown a very weak position of the Members of European Parliament (MEPs), abandoning the improvement on Net Neutrality that had been brought by the previous legislature. If the MEPs do not take this last chance to save Net Neutrality, it would have a critical impact on the way Internet is functioning, on the citizens' fundamental rights and on further regulations adopted within the so-called Digital Single Market.


    • How people power took on big business in the fight for net neutrality in India
      At the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Jan Koum, chief executive of WhatsApp, made an announcement that would cause much unease 4,000 miles away in New Delhi. “We want to make sure people always have the ability to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones really affordably,” he said. “We’re going to introduce voice on WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year.”




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • Court Order Forbids ‘Poor Pirate’ To Use BitTorrent
        A federal court in Oregon has signed off on a highly peculiar judgment against a Dallas Buyers Club pirate. Citing "financial hardship," the woman doesn't have to pay the $7,500 in costs and fees as long as she promises not to download any infringing material in the future, and removes any and all BitTorrent clients.


      • Rightscorp Offered Internet Provider a Cut of Piracy Settlements


        Rightscorp, the piracy monetization company that works with Warner Bros. and other prominent copyright holders, goes to great lengths to reach allegedly pirating subscribers. The company offered Cox Communications a cut of the piracy settlements if they agreed to forward their notices, the ISP revealed in court.








Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Protects Against Collective Amnesia (Forgetting History the Rich and Powerful Want Us to Forget or be Misled About)
Keeping full access to our material with a good search facility is a priority for us
Mainstream Media Compliments Techrights on Its Work
Google isn't "the Web" and this site isn't "the Web" either
LLMs Will Never Work, You Need to Type What You Know
Voice recognition is too imprecise to be practical or really save any time if you can type fast
IBM Will Carry on or Carry Out Mass Layoffs Until Tomorrow, Based on Unverified Claim (Silent Layoffs Under Secrecy Clauses/Deals)
Red Hat (as a "company" with a Web site) will probably never announce layoffs again
Slopwatch: Spam, Scams, and Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems (LLMs)
The way things are going, LinuxSecurity might become entirely inactive
IBM "Trying to Memory Hole the RA With Positive News."
it's clear they have no real plan, just vapourware
Patients' Data Should Not be Outsourced to Any Party at All, Let's Redo the Storage Scheme
Far better than giving all our data to Microsoft and Palantir (US)
The Second-Largest Institution in Europe (EPO) is Playing With Fire and Now It Puts the Largest One (EU) at Risk
The EPO will have some more shake-ups
 
A Lot of What's Left of the Online "Media" is Paid-for SPAM
How much of online media can people still trust?
Synopsys, Which Controls a Microsoft FUD Operation (Black Duck), to Lay Off Hundreds of Workers
Microsoft had plenty of layoffs this year, well over 30,000 in total, including at least two waves of layoffs last month
The EPO Has Spent Years Attacking European Media, Led by a Cocaine Addict (the EPO's Spokesperson)
The EPO silences critics
Prominent German Media Dares Not Mention Cocaine at the European Patent Office, Germany's "Cash Cow" (Seller of Monopolies for the Whole of Europe)
It seems like a case of the corrupt hiring the corrupt to bully those who speak about the corruption
Microsoft-Sponsored FSFE is Exploiting the Success of Jean-Baptiste Kempf to Market Itself and Its GAFAM-Funded Messaging (While Pretending to be "FSF" Europe)
No doubt Jean-Baptiste Kempf accomplished a lot (not limited to VLC) in not so many years
A Week of Techrights Search
Tomorrow it'll be one week since we turned 19
Your Computers Are Work and Entertainment Tools, Not a Fashion Statement
If you're into fashion, find another job or keep cruft out of the workplace
The Federation? Almost 90% of Its Users Have Quit Participating.
If one counts offline (historic) instances, it's even worse than this
Under IBM, Red Hat Isn't a Linux Company, It's Sold to Clients as "AI Company"
IBM is sacrificing Red Hat for Wall Street (share price)
It Looks Like Microsoft is Really Abandoning XBox (the Brand "XBox" Means Just an Online "Games Store" or Streaming)
Published last night
The Register MS Has Just Taken Money to Promote Microsoft Windows Under the Guise of "HEY HI" (AI)
Just 'consume' the ads disguised as "journalism" at The Register MS
Apple is Waning, Shows Data (Web Stats)
Is Apple doing as well as Apple-sponsored (paid to run Apple ads) claims?
IBM is a Buzzwords Vendor
Does anyone even pay attention to anything IBM promises these days?
It's Patently False That Apple Has Avoided Layoffs
be sceptical of people who say Apple hasn't got layoffs
IRC.com is Vendor-Locked (Freenode)
Web client
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 12, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Gemini Links 13/11/2025: Pictures From the Aurora and Cryptography of the Internet
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2025: Botulism Outbreak and Increased Russian Censorship
Links for the day
British Army Officer Said Ubuntu Needed to Abandon Sudo for Rust's Imitation of Sudo and You Can Guess What Happened Next...
The not-so-drop-in replacement
The Open Web Has Fallen, It's Just Chrome
We cannot envision any other rendering engine (or "base") making any measurable headway
The EPO's Central Staff Committee Complains About the EPO's Management Faking "Production" (Monopolies) to Make More Money
The Central Staff Committee has a new communication
Ethical Consumer Could Use a Mention of "Ethical Software"
Maybe the Free Software Foundation (FSF) can get in touch with them
Links 12/11/2025: A US President (Insurrectionist) Attacking British Media, Hyundai's Digital Restrictions (DRM)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/11/2025: Trains in Switzerland, Software Survival, and More
Links for the day
The EPO's Own 'Drug Bust': Berenguer is Gone, But Who Else?
EPO latest news
Trying to Cancel People and Projects That You Don't Like by Changing the Focus to Politics
Don't fall for it
What Kind of Bubble is AI? We'll Find Out Very Soon
In 2022 and 2023 Cory Doctorow was one among many who asserted "AI" was a bubble
Mandrake's Gaël Duval Debunks Clickbait Nonsense From ZDNet, a Non-Coder Pushing Bot-Made 'Code' (Plagiarism Done Poorly)
"Why AI won't "Kill Open Source”
Improving Clarity When Presenting LLM Slop and Slop Images
There will likely be more changes (improvements) to improve the visibility of our labels
Groklaw Won't be the Latest (Nor the Last) Major Site We Lose
Many other sites will go offline; the more popular among those will get hijacked by rogue actors
Slopwatch Turns 1 Next Month
2024-12-14 is when Slopwatch began
The Issue With Firefox is Not Its Brand
Mozilla seems to be the biggest enemy of Firefox at this point
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 11, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Gemini Links 11/11/2025: Kentucky, Bluesky, and Slop
Links for the day
The European Patent Office (EPO) is Still Hiding From Scandals
"No answers from VP1 to our letters to two Directors"
Like the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Donald Trump is Out of Time and Has Jurisdiction Issues in the UK
The court system or the courts of a nations are meant to serve the nation and its media, not media lawyers or litigation profiteers
Articles About "Linux" That Are Actually Promotions of Microsoft Windows
The solution is to leave Windows, not get something "like Linux" or "similar to Linux"
Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in The Hague: Staff Representation Surprised at "Recent Changes in the Staffing of OHS Occupational Health Services (OHS)"
Once upon a time the Office offered to-notch services to all staff
Slopwatch: Many Fake Articles About "Linux" on Monday and Today
A lot of the Web is pure garbage. A lot of 'articles' are 100% fake.
IBM Exits Continue This Week
Some people talk about it anonymously, naming their role/position/unit, number of years (or band) etc.
Richard Stallman to be First Speaker at Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress 5 Days From Now, FSF Looking to Raise $400,000 by Year's End
the 40+ years-old FSF, which Dr. Stallman created to help promote Software Freedom and support GNU, is starting a new fund-raising campaign
Links 11/11/2025: Misinformation/Disinformation in Twitter/X and BBC in Trouble
Links for the day
Links 11/11/2025: Slop Ruins Music, Facebook "to Discontinue Like and Comment Buttons on Third-Party Websites"
Links for the day
Adrian & Diana von Bidder-Senn, Debian: detailed history of a death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Voice of Microsoft
Marketing disguised as a science
"MIT Technology Review Insights" is the Selling of Ponzi Schemes for Sponsors (MIT Lacks Integrity)
Just like IBM, they're chaining buzzwords now
Rust Keeps Breaking Ubuntu in All Sorts of Extraordinary Ways (and All Distros Based on Ubuntu Will Break Also)
The FSF's stance on this is unclear
Boot-locking Laptops and Desktops After Falsely Marketing That As 'Security' and Not Obligatory
If anyone can confirm this to us
With Net Income of One Billion Dollars Tesla Claims It Can Pay a Fake Founder (Who Paid for This Lie) 1,000 Billions
What does this tell us about Wall Street?
GNU/Linux Cannot Buy Fake Journalism and It Won't Bribe Large Publishers
Free software developers don't purchase "sponsored" placements and that will never change
The 'Politics' of Operating Systems (or Exclusion for Inclusion's Sake)
This whole 'wrongthink' policing is getting out of hand
Static Site Generators (SSGs) Save You Lots of Money and Problems
We've basically reduced the environmental/carbon footprint of the site by a factor of ~100 (2 orders of magnitude)
IBM Does Not Care About Families, Communities, and Even Its Own Workers
Red Hat isn't a family and to believe that it is would be the makeup of cults
Too Much of Today's Web is Fake, Not Just Fake News
We'll continue to advocate for adoption of Gemini Protocol
Simulating a Downtime Tomorrow Night
It is expected that network redundancy will make this maintenance invisible to us, but IRC hangups or general slowness are still a possibility
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 10, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, November 10, 2025
Links 11/11/2025: Conflicts and Politics From National Broadcasters
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/11/2025: Poetry and Electronics Studies
Links for the day
Apple's Debt Grew by About 16 Billion Dollars This Past Year, "Disappointing iPhone Sales" Reported
People who buy Apple's goods based on some false notion that Apple is "cool" or ethical or "underdog" (late 90s) aren't just living in the past; they're fools
Turning Down Proprietary Software is About Making Society Better
We should not be tempted to shame people for merely trying to keep programmers honest and human rights-respecting
Debian GNU/Linux Became the Most Popular (Most Distros Are Based on It) Owing to Richard Stallman
New presentation
The Internet is Becoming Dead or a Zombie
The Internet is becoming like a giant botfarm
A Day for Poppies
This site will run as usual today. We continue our fight for Software Freedom.
"Modern" Doesn't Mean Better, It Typically Just Means Newer
RMS demonised as someone who rejects "modern society" ("rejecting modern society") by a site that uses slop extensively
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part IV: European Patent Office to Come Under Media and Political Scrutiny
We'll persist until we get some answers