Bonum Certa Men Certa

Reviewing Gifts and Coverage of News About Companies That Supply These Gifts

Video download link | md5sum 1d6128929eacf526a5644833c2795a8f Michael and the x86 Box Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: There's a severe Web crisis that more people ought to talk about; sites are being increasingly compromised or 'bought' (looking to 'cash in' on their audiences) and as a result we have a deeply misinformed public; today we revisit Phoronix

A MONTH ago we caught Phoronix violating ethical standards and called the site out on it (only after we had given it about a day to respond) [1, 2]. We since then haven't linked to Phoronix anymore and things have hardly improved, as noted in the video above. The companies which send very expensive gifts receive a disproportionate amount of coverage in Phoronix and gifts are still being sent to the Phoronix estate (from Microsoft also), as shown above based on this morning's very latest post.



"Companies work overtime to shape perceptions around them and their products; heck, they have whole business units devoted to this task."Michael finally/belatedly responded more than a fortnight later and weakly (not disputing what we had actually said but dancing around the questions). This rant isn't limited to Phoronix but to the state of the Web at large, including social control media. We recently mentioned GulagTube/YouTube "influencers" selling fake endorsements/reviews ("The Linux Experiment", which worked hard to cancel Richard Stallman, got banned for it last year) and Phoronix is doing the same, albeit not in the form of video (but benchmarks and photos as a medium).

It is quite frankly frustrating that the Web has become a source of propaganda not just from governments but also corporations and their 'foot soldiers', with sites that masquerade as independent but are in fact receiving loads of very expensive gifts.

With all sorts of sockpuppets and fake reviews overwhelming the Web (or fake awards/endorsements) it has become hard to know who to trust online; it's a lot worse on the Web because the platform is heavily targeted, including Wikipedia. Companies work overtime to shape perceptions around them and their products; heck, they have whole business units devoted to this task.

Over in our IRC channels there has been some discussion about this other post from Phoronix, once again going soft on Microsoft. As one person immediately responded, "we don't need directx, we have opengl and vulkan [...] it's another one of their tricks... the headline has little information... it's a linux kernel module for WSL that implements directx... in that case, it's another microsoft way to locking in GNU/Linux programs to windows by implementing a directx shim in the virtualized linux kernel... so WSL is EEE and we're now at the extend part... they extend it with proprietary API and hope that the programs rely on it."

"Maybe it's just Software-defined Silicon," Ryan said.

About another crate of CPUs, there was even more commotion. "Every time you pay Intel more, it does things that it could already do and locked you out of intentionally," Ryan said. "Like Windows."

"The electric company moved everything over to Microsoft Azure. Now I get a spinney beachball of death instead of being able to pay my electric bill with Firefox."

Psydroid said: "Intel couldn't stay behind so that's another crate of CPUs for Michael Intelarabel and the Moronix"

Ryan responded: "When all else fails, bribe. Here's an entire shipping container of CPUs. We don't want them back, so if you put them on ebay that's fine. Be sure to run Clear Linux and use the Intel Compiler when comparing us to AMD. It's not so much that the Intel Compiler optimizes that well for Intel processors. It's that it makes AMD processors take the slowest code it generates to make Intel's CPUs look better in comparison between the two. Intel provides all sorts of kickbacks for third party developers to use ICC so that it ruins the performance of the largest amount of software possible for AMD. Then they can just go "Aww shucks, well, we have no way of knowing whether AMD's CPUs meet these feature sets, so we just sniff to see what it is and fail safe.". No investigations afaik."

Going back to that other article, it shows that Phoronix isn't changing its ways. It works for interests orthogonal to ours when it suits it. "WSL as everyone knows," our associate noted moments ago, "is toxic waste to prevent the use of GNU/Linux and keep people fiddling pointlessly with Windows."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Why Techrights Cannot be Vilified (and Instead It Gets SLAPPed Repeatedly by Microsoft People)
Attack dogs are all "bark"; because they have no actual "bite"
Links 25/06/2025: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Caught Lying, WhatsApp Faces More Bans
Links for the day
Wayland Pushers Lose the Argument, Use LLM Slop and Chatbots to Make Up Arguments for IBM
Another new low and low blow
What is "MATA"?
Think of it as GAFAM or "Meta"
WebProNews is a Slopfarm
Please avoid linking to WebProNews
 
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Campaigns Against Vista 11, Adds 4 New Associate Members Per Day
If more people understood the underlying principles, more of them would flock to Free software overnight
Canonical Seems to Have Culled Some Sources of LLM Slop From Planet Ubuntu
It's like "junk food", it's not information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 25, 2025
On "Weak Claims"
For the record, they sent me unjustified threats, repeatedly tried injunctions (censorship)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part I - Burnout and Family Health
more exceptional circumstances
This Month's Mail (MX) Server Survey Shows Microsoft at 0.20% "Market Share"
We need to remind people that desktops and laptops decline (in proportion to other client devices) and at the "back end" GNU/Linux is already dominant and has long been dominant
Links 26/06/2025: Filespooler Guide and Learning to Code
Links for the day
The 'Case' of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft is a Lot of Copypasta (Maybe Also LLM Slop) From the Matthew Garrett 'Case'
5RB deserves to know and the matter shall be properly reported in due course (when the time is right)
Austrian GNU/Linux Usage Up to About 5% as More of Europe Abandons Microsoft
Since inauguration day the Austrian people have adopted more and more of GNU/Linux
Why the "Wayland People" and "Rust People" Will Lose Hearts and Minds (Same Reasons)
Wayland pushers are fast becoming like "Rust People"
5,600 Pages/Articles Per Year
So far this year we've kept all the promises
BetaNews Beginning to Show What Its True Goals Are
The 'new' BetaNews won't be about journalism. It's trying to sell things.
Microsoft Has Lost "The War"
We'll soon see the 9th or 10th wave of Microsoft layoffs in 2025 alone
Slopwatch: A Wreck and a Dreck, "Flooding the Zone With Dreck" or Flooding the Web With Junk
"Slopwatch" continues today because we have many new examples
Links 25/06/2025: Thwarting More Software Patents, Overlap Grows Between EPO Corruption and Illegal Kangaroo Patent Courts in EU
Links for the day
Brian Fagioli Created Another Slopfarm Targeting "Linux" After BetaNews Became a Slopfarm of Phantom Accounts and Pseudonyms
Mr. Fagioli even had slop about a dead Torvalds (hypothetical) as clickbait
Wayland is Perfect, Nobody Can Escape Its Perfection! (Or Not)
Do not form on opinion on Wayland based on politics
Moral Duty for "Linux Sites" to Speak Out Against LLM Slop
My wife has long complained about "Linux bloggers" keeping quiet and thus passive about a growing problem: slop
In Recent Hours Google News Promoted at Least 3 Slopfarms That Relayed Linux Foundation Propaganda Made by Bots or LLM "Bullshit Generators" (as Dr. Stallman Dubbed Them)
Google is circling down the drain and Google News too is hopeless
Linux Journal is a Slopfarm, It's Experimenting With LLM 'Authors'
Is Slashdot next?
Microsoft LinkedIn is Dying and Many More Layoffs Are on the Way
LinkedIn is just a failed acquisition of Microsoft. It causes losses and debt.
Gemini Links 25/06/2025: Combinatorial Music and Self Hosting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Coming Back to Europe This Autumn to Give More Talks
His last talk in Europe attracted about 400-450 people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Social Control Media, Technology & Catholicism: Synod on Synodality review and feedback
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Many More Women Will Managers at Microsoft Strangle and Tell to Kill Themselves (or Try to Kill)?
The world needs to know what happened
The New BetaNews: 7 New 'Articles', All of Them LLM Slop
BetaNews is basically defunct. Nobody writes there anymore.
Another "Told You So!": XBox Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Many Recent Reports Were Chaff and Spin), Many Other Divisions Affected
With mass layoffs at Microsoft the world would be much better
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day