Bonum Certa Men Certa

ZDNet Has Failed

Video download link | md5sum 14f143a95d57025c304dd3023a95cf32



Summary: ZDNet is on the decline and its demise appears to have greatly accelerated in recent months; we take a quick look at this month's coverage and explain the conflict of interest (it's PR, not news, and it's far too shallow/blatant to simply overlook)

FOR those who are not familiar -- or barely familiar -- with the antics of ZDNet, see our wiki on this subject. It won't take long to understand, even based on the headings alone. The good news is, the site is perishing and little of what's left of it spilled over to a sister site called TechRepublic, a mixture of Microsoft operatives and paid-for puff pieces.



"The network behind ZDNet perished 2-3 years ago."As it turns out, lying to people may be a profitable business model, but only in the short term. Sooner or later people walk away (earlier today we mentioned conflict of interest in Bill Gates coverage).

ZDNet screenshotA few days ago, by mere serendipity (and by accident rather) I clicked on a ZDNet link because it had Torvalds/Linux in the headline. See on the right what I was presented with. Does that make any sense to anyone? The connection between those two things is at best imaginary, fictional. But when Microsoft operatives run the 'news' site they tend to view everything from a Microsoft lens. As I noted in the video above, Microsoft is the very first category to be listed in the site's menu and it's almost the only brand name in that menu. Earlier this week they published not one but two puff pieces about the latest 'research' stunt from the Linux Foundation. Why? Follow the money...

The network behind ZDNet perished 2-3 years ago. Defunct as of December 4th, 2019 (21 months ago) although CBS Corporation was already facing issues prior to that. But now ZDNet itself is dying. Just 7-8 stories in the "Linux" section (mostly sponsored junk) were posted in the first 24 days of September. It used to be about 2 stories per day and most of those were anti-Linux or an attack on facts, even malicious slander. When ZDNet collapses completely we won't miss it. We'll just sigh in relief and say, "good riddance..."

Princess Bride: What better than Microsoft propaganda? Microsoft propaganda masked in 'Linux' clothing

Recent Techrights' Posts

Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Government Sites That Use Centralised CAs Are Still Remotely Controlled by MElon and GAFAM at the Oval Office
Even governments outside the US
Eternal Vigilance
I too received more death threats than I can recall over the years
Asking Journalists to Pay for Merely Reporting Violent Abuse Against Women (and Telling Them to Kill Themselves)
As regular readers are likely aware by now, for material we published years ago some likely broke man without a proper job (except in a company made up or invented by him) wants money
Judgment translated to English in FINMA & Debian trademark fiasco
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Brigading (in Social Control Media) Did Not Silence the Creator of GNU/Linux
there are no impending talks at the moment
 
IBM Consulting: Layoffs Already in Progress
"What are the Deep Blue Thought Leaders World becoming? A rubbish heap?"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 25, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Links 25/02/2025: US Backs BRICS at UN, Ukraine's Defence Enters 4th Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/02/2025: Marginalia and LOWWIRE
Links for the day
New Richard Stallman Interview Published by Free University of Bozen-Bolzano a Day After His Talk There
We're not seeing any difficult or controversial questions
The Musk Slipped, Countries Need Digital Independence
What's happening in Germany this month might result in quicker adoption of Free software
Spanish Version of the Free Software Foundation's Book "Introduction to the Command Line"
The "GNU Press Shop [is] temporarily closed"
Dr. Andy Farnell Publishes Second Part of Series About Freedom Fighters (It Started With Richard Stallman)
A few minutes ago Dr. Farnell published the second part
Things That Were Presumed Public Enemy #1 (or Foremost Threat)
The world's most powerful military is now governed by clowns who don't know what the heck they're doing
Microsoft is Admitting That It Has No Viable Business Model, Starting to Experiment
Microsoft's proprietary spyware with ads cannot really compete with Calligra and LibreOffice
Bluewashing: IBM Replaces Red Hat With IBM (Bobby Leibrock) at the Top
Based on his education, Bobby is just some suit; he thinks of money, not tech
Links 25/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Starbucks, Kaspersky Banned on Australian Government Systems
Links for the day
Links 25/02/2025: Strawberry Lemonade, Introducing Fiss, and YouTube Acting Aggressive
Links for the day
UK: Twitter Falls to Lowest Traffic Levels in 5 Years (Start of Lockdowns), Down From More Than 37% to Only 6.5%
Months ago Twitter (aka "X") was blasted by the British government for inciting right-wing violence
Confirmed: IBM Layoffs Will Strike Consulting Quite Hard
the flagging of staff is a way to signal to them it's time to go or get the boot
Sami Tikkanen Explains What Happened to Computer Science Education in Finland and Elsewhere
The 'broligarchs', a collective which typically created anything of their own, do not want the general population to possess skills that let it be anything other than passive consumers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 24, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 24, 2025
Truth is Not About Appeasing the Feelings of Men Who Hurt Women
True information is just what it is
Links 24/02/2025: Compromised Laptops and EU Shift to the Right (Boosted by Social Control Media Interventions)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/02/2025: Politics, Monarchy, and AuraRepo Prism VCS Suppor
Links for the day
Links 24/02/2025: Germany Looks to Distance Itself From US, Environment at Risk, Mass Layoffs at Zendesk
Links for the day
[Meme] It's Over, Microsoft
an obligatory meme
Even Worse Than LLM Slop and Linkspam From UNIXMen
UNIXMen is basically a defunct spamfarm at this point (the author is "sarwarSEO")
Proprietary Software is Bad for Your Health, Not Just Your Finances, Privacy and So On
It would be interesting to see some charts, based on some long-term study, comparing the general health (blood pressure, BMI etc.) of people who use proprietary stuff and people who do not
Gemini Links 24/02/2025: Osiris 0.1.0 Release (File Sharing in Gemini Protocol), NetBSD 10.1 on the Pi
Links for the day
Microsoft Admits Business Perils as Windows Continues to Fall
‘Microsoft missed the biggest business model…’
Technical Specifications at Times of Tyrannies
Specifications (specs) must evolve with the times
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 23, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 23, 2025
In Case Rust Censors It (Rust Has Long Been All About Censorship), Here's a Critical Look at Rust's Goals
In the case of Rust, instead of "the liberation of the digital society" we have empowerment of Microsoft GitHub and of GAFAM in general. Guess who funds this...