10.07.10

Microsoft Entryism Continues at Yahoo! as More Microsoft Managers Occupy the Shaken Ship

Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Search at 1:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: More staff migrations are reported to have resulted in managers from Microsoft taking charge inside Yahoo! and Nokia is revisited as entryism candidate in its earlier phases

ENTRYISM becomes a strong tool for Microsoft to change the landscape of IT, especially now that so many Microsoft executives are leaving. One reader of ours, gnufreex, has asked for an article explaining what entryism is about and how it works. The Wikipedia article is broad and it focuses on entryism in the context of politics (Slated brought this analogy to wider public attention). Today we’ll give a quick update on Microsoft entryism and there is a lot more in our IRC channels (for those who are patient enough to open the logs and read them all).

“After talking [to] few ex and present Microsofties,” explained gnufreex, “I got to conclusion that those people are religious followers and they don’t know other company than Microsoft. That is their good. Wherever they go, they will still be working for Microsoft. There are two types of ex-Microsofties: One will stay faithful to the company and work for Microsoft cause when they move to another company. Other group will be professional and work for new company (not for Microsoft) but they will shape new company after proprietary principles they have been thought at Microsoft. So *any* company that contain ex-Microsofties in management, will be hostile to free software. They are like a plague. [...] There have been some rare exceptions. Some ex-Microsofties are completely sick of the ideas of MS. There have been guys that worked for Microsoft for 6 months and quit due to having to much common sense to accept their crap. One example, creator of CoyotOS and BitC. Shapiro. He have been hired away from CoyotOS when Hurd guys wanted to port Hurd servers to CoyotOS.”

“Wherever they go, they will still be working for Microsoft.”
–gnufreexAs a timely example, we have documented quite thoroughly how Yahoo! got hijacked by Microsoft from the inside. That’s an excellent example of entryism, involving no less than several dozens of Microsoft managers entering a company that once rejected Microsoft and aggressively defended itself from Microsoft. Nowadays, after many Microsoft seniors managed to occupy key positions at Yahoo!, hostility towards Google at Yahoo! is greater and it is working out pretty well for Microsoft. “Microsoft Joins Yahoo In Criticizing Google Instant,” says this new headline and it’s not the first time we see such things. Yahoo dives into anti-Google agenda like Microsoft's marionette and Yahoo! may have patents too — ones that it can use to attack Google shall the former Microsoft managers who occupy Yahoo’s corpus callosum choose to do so (this possibility was covered before on several occasions).

As a reminder, Yahoo! and Google were almost allies before AstroTurfing (LawMedia) from Microsoft. Watch what Google’s CEO has to say about the antitrust claims which came through Microsoft allies recently:

Google boss Eric Schmidt has said that antitrust investigations targeting the company in the EU and Texas are “stimulated” by interested competitors and that — contrary to one of the complaints filed in the EU — the company’s “Universal Search” setup does not unfairly drive traffic to Google services at the expense of rivals.

The article addresses those accusations from Texas — accusations which Schmidt now attributes to competitors rather than just Microsoft as Google previously alleged [1, 2, 3] (those competitors are Microsoft partners for the most part).

Going back to Yahoo!, the company suffered a major exodus recently (Microsoft did too) and Yahoo! kept the press out of it. People who are not so muchly needed in Microsoft as much as they are needed for capturing a rival without acquiring it are entering Yahoo! again. More entryism in Yahoo? The Register says “Bing! man! drops! Microsoft! for! Yahoo! job!”

Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet reported Bradford’s departure, but Yahoo! hasn’t confirmed his job title yet. It’s not clear when he’ll be leaving Microsoft either.

[...]

Windows Live exec Blake Irving, Microsoft global ad sales man Bill Shaughnessy and John Metheny of Kin fame have all rocked up at Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale offices of late.

Here is what we wrote about Microsoft managers inside Yahoo! allegedly planning to bring more former colleagues from Microsoft as the company continues to sink [1, 2].

Yahoo! boss Carol Bartz confirmed that the company’s US head and two other execs were leaving the web outfit yesterday.

Hilary Schneider’s departure along with the resignations of media veep Jimmy Pitaro and audience wonk David Ko were announced by Bartz to all Yahoo!

This whole culture of entryism worries us greatly because the quicker Microsoft falls, the more Microsoft residue (of managers, not mere engineers) will spread to other companies.

“Examples of companies MS has bought a small share of (less than the 5% to report) but use to influence the board of said companies, is Netflix, Best Buy. Blockbuster had Carl Icahn the corporate raider to the same thing with that he did to Yahoo, most likely on M$ behalf,” Chips B. Malroy alleged. “Once that influence has worked and they get their people in, then MS can sell the stock,” he added.

The other day we wrote about what was happening in Nokia following the appointment of a Microsoft president (now Nokia's CEO). Not only did its key “Linux guy” (VP of Nokia’s MeeGo unit) resign but he also allegedly said “Me go now!” Yes, Ari Jaaksi resigned his position and he has not exactly given explanations to the press (it is a low-key departure). He only got “quoted as saying by Ilta-Sanomat that his departure was not linked to the naming of Stephen Elop as Nokia’s new managing director last month,” said one site. MeeGo is better than Android is many ways and Nokia’s lack of commitment will also harm Intel’s Linux plans. █

“A stacked panel, on the other hand, is like a stacked deck: it is packed with people who, on the face of things, should be neutral, but who are in fact strong supporters of our technology.”

–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

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Links 7/10/2010: Software Freedom Law Show Ends, Canonical Won’t Complain to EU About Microsoft Bundling

Posted in News Roundup at 11:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers
Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

Linux New Media AG Launches English Language LPI Training Portal
Audiocasts/Shows
- Episode 0×00: Goodbye and Ahoy Hoy
  
  Bradley and Karen announced that the Software Freedom Law Show is over. Karen and Bradley announced a new show, called Free as in Freedom, that will not be unaffiliated with any specific organization (although Bradley and Karen keep all their various affiliations themselves. :).
Kernel Space
- Graphics Stack
  - A Linux Program To Overclock Your AMD CPUs
    
    Announced by one of the members in our forums is a new open-source program called TurionPowerControl. The TurionPowerControl program supports both under-volting and over-clocking of AMD CPUs. Currently supported by this program are AMD K8L (11h) and K10 (10h) CPUs, which includes the Turion RM, Turion ZM, Phenom, Phenom II, and Athlon II brands. Originally the developer just designed this tool to support the mobile Turion processors for under-volting, but support was added for these desktop CPUs too. The K8L support is considered the best at this point while the K10 support is still a work in progress.
Applications
- Being a console geek in Linux
  
  This is the first in a series about using the “command line” in Linux. It is also about knowing when to use a gui instead. But before going into any of that we need to understand what is meant by a “command line” application. You’ll find that as we explore that idea, a lot of things that are not really true ‘cli’ (command line interface) apps arguably count as cli, including menu driven console based apps and even gui apps. This will be controversial.
  
  [...]
  
  When I look at the GUI version of Google Calendar, I become disoriented and confused by the way it is displayed, and the way it scrolls or fails to scroll. There is an “agenda” view, but that requires messing around with views. If I want to know what is going on over the next couple of days, I use a cli that spits out an agenda. I can spit that out and send it to my wife in an email very easily. Yet, when I want to make, and otherwise muck around with, appointments, the web based GUI is better.
- Mind mapping with Linux
  
  A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.
  
  The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information. Mind maps may also aid recall of existing memories.
- 4 Open and Free Disk and NAS Encryption Projects
  
  As usual, the Free/Open Source software world provides the best security utilities for Windows, and for Linux and Mac as well. Eric Geier rounds up four encryption utilities for both local and network storage.
  
  Though disk encryption has been around for many years, many of us don’t take advantage of it. The basic concept is that your documents, files, and data are scrambled until you provide a password to unlock them. Therefore if your PC or laptop is stolen, the thief won’t be able to read your data, protecting any sensitive information you might be storing.
  
  Let’s take a look at four different open source disk encryption projects that might be able to help you secure your data. Don’t let Microsoft trick you into buying the expensive Enterprise or Ultimate editions of Windows to get their disk encryption feature, called BitLocker. These open source utilities can give you protection in Windows (and sometimes Linux and Mac OS X) for free.
- DragonDisk: A Free Amazon S3 Desktop Client For Linux And Windows
- Request Tracker, the best TTS on Linux
  
  I’m using RT from 2004, we have handled with it more than 100K tickets and i must say me and my company are very satisfied of this software, so i feel i can write this hub in favor of this great piece of software.
- Intro to jEdit: A Programmer’s Text Editor
- Freetuxtv – A WebTV player working on the Linux platform
- Proprietary
  - ITworld Review: Dropbox on Linux
    
    Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud services that lets you store, sync, and share files over the Internet. And, with some work, you can use it on your favorite Linux desktop as well.
- Instructionals/Technical
Desktop Environments
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
  - KDE Software Compilation 4.5.2 Released
    
    The KDE team has just announced the maintenance release to the KDE 4.5 Software Compilation. KDE SC 4.5.2 is a minor update, focusing on bug fixing and updated translations.
    
    KDE SC 4.5.2 is the second in a series of monthly bug fixing releases to the KDE Software Compilation 4.5 series and it brings various translation updates and improvements. Everyone should update their existing KDE SC machines running version 4.5.1 or earlier (see a short tutorial below).
- GNOME Desktop
  - GNOME Commit-Digest – Issue 104
Distributions
- Reviews
  - Trisquel 4.0 LTS
    
    Pros: Comes with free software only; based on Ubuntu. Easy to install and manage.
    
    Cons: Lacks potentially useful proprietary software.
    
    Suitable For: Beginner, intermediate and advanced Linux users.
    
    Summary: Trisquel is best suited to those who truly want a free software only system. Others with a less political point of view might be better suited using alternative distros instead.
    
    Rating: 4/5
- New Releases
  - Salix KDE Edition 13.1.1beta5
    
    Salix team has announced the release of a KDE flavor of Salix, featuring KDE 4.4.3. The OpenOffice.org suite is included and the corresponding locale packages depending on the installation mode can be download after installation from the”Office” submenu cliking on the “Get openoffice” option.
- Debian Family
  - New branch on Debian?
    
    Today I have read a post from Raphael Hertzog, taking about the possibility of a new Debian branch to be created.
    
    Debian already has three branches for those not familiar with it, O.K. maybe four branches.
    
    * Old-Stable
    * Stable
    * Testing
    * Unstable
  - Canonical/Ubuntu
    - Bruce Byfield on ‘Ubuntu’s real contribution to free software’
      
      He points out that Ubuntu isn’t Red Hat, and that while the latter contributes to desktop development despite not having much of a dog in that fight (commercially speaking), Ubuntu is really pushing for more desktop users and a better desktop experience.
    - Public Ubuntu Font Family PPA For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx And 9.10 Karmic Koala
      
      Like I said, the PPA currently holds packages of the Ubuntu Font Family for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala but on request, I can also upload packages for Ubuntu Jaunty (do we have readers still using Jaunty?).
    - Ubuntu: we won’t moan to EU about Microsoft
      
      The company behind the Ubuntu Linux distro says it has no plans to follow Opera’s lead and file a complaint against Microsoft to the EU.
      
      As Canonical prepares to make Ubuntu 10.10 available for download this Sunday, the company claims the latest version of the OS is the most consumer-friendly release to date.
      
      Yet, Ubuntu continues to struggle against the immense marketing muscle of Microsoft in the consumer market. Even high-profile supporter Dell has dropped Ubuntu machines from its website in recent months, while continuing to remind visitors that “Dell recommends Windows 7″ at the top of every PC page.
    - Latest Ubuntu Version Puts Focus on Consumers and Mobile
      
      Canonical today announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop and Netbook Editions for download on Sunday, October 10.
      
      Focused on home and mobile computing users, Ubuntu 10.10 introduces an array of online and offline applications to Ubuntu Desktop Edition with a particular focus on the personal cloud. Ubuntu Netbook Edition users will experience an all-new desktop interface called ‘Unity’ — specifically tuned for smaller screens and computing on the move.
    - On First Experiences
      
      Everybody agrees how important the Out-Of-Box experience is for a product. If the users’ first experience with any kind of product is frustrating it is very likely that they’ll return it and never look back.
      
      On Operating Systems, usually, this first experience is turning on the computer and reply to some basic questions. For all the major OS like Windows or Mac OS, the software comes preinstalled in the computer. For many users, therefore, that’s the computer itself: something that you turn on and it starts working.
      
      For Linux is quite different. Despite the efforts that some companies (including Canonical) are doing in order to be easier and easier to buy a computer with a Linux distribution preinstalled, nowadays, the first experience a user has with Linux is, most of the times, a CD and an installation process. Well, if you then want to have one of the best first Linux experiences ever, wait until Sunday and install the brand new Ubuntu 10.10.
    - Latest Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition makes cloud deployment easier than ever
      
      Canonical today announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition for download on Sunday, October 10 — making it easier to configure, update and run both in development and deployment environments of public clouds.
      
      “With Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition we continue to make Ubuntu the default open-source choice for cloud computing,” said Neil Levine, VP of Corporate Services at Canonical. “We are adding features and functions that extend our lead in the public cloud and bridge the gap to hybrid and local computing environments. The infrastructure layer is the enabler of cloud computing and Ubuntu 10.10 is leading the way to put open source at the heart of those efforts.”
    - Is Ubuntu 10.10 yet another chance to ditch Windows?
      
      But then there’s Ubuntu. There are plenty of other Linux distributions with the whole FREE thing going for them, but Ubuntu is fast, powerful, easy, flexible, and particularly well-suited to education. And the release candidate for the latest versions of Ubuntu and Edubuntu (their education-centered version of Ubuntu) is just plain awesome. Unless you’re 100% wedded (for either religious or technical reasons) to Windows or OS X, it’s hard not to like Ubuntu//Edubuntu with their huge array of free software, snappy performance, elegant interface, fast installations, and ultra-fast boot times.
      
      As if that weren’t enough, there’s a robust server version, a newly-redesigned netbook/tablet-optimized interface, 32- and 64-bit support, and the chance to support a great community-driven, quintessential 21st-century project. Whether you need a web server, an LDAP server, a snappy interface for those netbooks running Windows XP Home, or a desktop upgrade from Windows XP without the price of Windows 7, Ubuntu can provide not only a viable alternative, but a really competitive OS.
    - Ubuntu Linux upgraded for netbooks, desktops, and servers
      
      Expanding its efforts to bring Linux to the desktop, Canonical on Thursday is announcing upcoming availability of upgrades to Ubuntu Linux for desktop computers and netbooks, featuring interface and application installation improvements.
      
      The server version of the Ubuntu will be upgraded as well, with features tuned for cloud computing.
Devices/Embedded
- Phones
  - Android
    - What Google Did Right with Android
      
      In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he still saw a big role for Google in traditional search, but he recognized that applications were changing the game on the Web. He explained that when it came to mobile, Google was placing its bet on open systems and open platforms.
      
      That’s why Google decided to open-source Android. By making it free, Google got instant entree into the burgeoning mobile market by enabling a developer community to create these apps very rapidly. At the same time, it got multiple carriers and handset makers involved.
    - Android Paid Apps Now Live In India
    - Google TV partners, features unveiled
      
      Google announced some major content partners for its Google TV platform and revealed some more information on the Android-and Intel Atom-based IPTV platform. New Google TV content partners include Turner Broadcasting, NBC Universal, HBO, Twitter, and Amazon.com, says the company.
    - Android Powered Motorola Bravo
      
      BRAVO offers the power of Android, an 800 MHz processor and a large screen all in a compact design. The device features a 3.7-inch full WVGA touch screen experience, enhanced Web-browsing and entertainment while on the go.
- Tablets
  - iPad Killers?
    
    The Android devices can also target some of the iPad’s weaknesses. While the iPad is an impressive piece of kit, it isn’t without its flaws. And the biggest omission, without doubt, is the lack of Flash video support for web browsing – something that isn’t likely to be addressed by Apple, according to Steve Jobs: “Sometimes you have to pick the things that look like the right horses to ride going forward. And Flash looks like a technology that had its day and is waning. And HTML5 looks like the technology that is really on the ascendancy right now.”

Free Software/Open Source

Build Your Own Liquid Galaxy With Google Earth

Google has open sourced yet another project – Liquid Galaxy, the Google Earth environment composed of eight 55-inch LCD screens showing Google Earth in a unified, surround view.
OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications

Open source software is booming: here we round up over 480 open source applications for you to use or build upon.

Feel free to add more apps in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources. Also see the other entries in this series: ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY GOD, WORDPRESS GOD, ONLINE MEDIA GOD and FIREFOX GOD.
Three Forks in the Road for FOSS

“LibreOffice is the result of Oracle’s (or Larry’s) failure to be open about FLOSS strategy,” said blogger Robert Pogson. “FLOSS being distributed is about sharing.” The OpenOffice.org community “saw how OpenSolaris was left to wither and took pre-emptive measures. The steps needed to be taken anyway. … There was not a large enough group of developers contributing to be healthy.”
Twitter reveals new search architecture to handle billions of queries per day

Twitter has finally left the old Summize architecture out to dry (it started working on the new architecture 6 months ago), and instead has built the new search on the open source Lucene platform…
Democracy requires Free Software

Throughout history technology has influenced society. Reading, writing, arithmetic, agriculture, printing and radio are all examples of developments that changed the way we interact through trade, art and science. The most important cultural technology of the 21st century is software. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is committed to ensuring that people in our society have the right to shape this technology as they see fit.

Today it is impossible to imagine daily life without software. The majority of us can’t spend a single day without using it. People use software in the workplace, on laptops, and on mobile phones. Software is also found in less obvious places however: in trains, cars, televisions, washing-machines, fridges, and many other devices. None of these devices could function without software. Without software we couldn’t write e-mails, make phone calls, go shopping, or travel as we are accustomed to. Software is our society’s central tool.
Events
- #possesa day 3 – let me fix your Ubuntu, Michael
  
  Day 3 of POSSE is where the actual nwork in Open Source communities takes the front of the stage. So we discussed which projects to pick on, what to do. This lead to a more general discussion on South Africa and Open Source. What can we do, what is needed? We captured everything in a nice looking whiteboard – a true collaborative work!
- Blender Conference 2010 speaker line-up
  
  The Blender Foundation has announced the speakers for the Blender Conference 2010. They include several well-known Blenderheads such as members from the Durian team, Andrew Price, Jonathan Williamson, Nathan Letwory and Mike Pan.
- Back to the Future Again: 2020 FLOSS 3.0
  
  Yesterday I wrote about my experiences last week at the Open World Forum. As I noted, the two-day event closed with the presentation of the latest edition of the 2020 FLOSS Roadmap. Even though I’d not been to the Open World Forum before, I have written about the two previous versions of the Roadmap (still available.)
Web Browsers
- Ars examines Chrome and Firefox bookmark sync protocols
  
  When I started working on this article, my goal was to unravel the bookmark sync APIs so that I could start making my own client applications and possibly roll my own custom cross-browser solution to fill the need left by Xmarks. What I discovered is that such an undertaking isn’t really within the realm of weekend projects at this point. The APIs just aren’t there yet. It’s important to remember that both the Chrome and Firefox synchronization services are still under development and will likely be more supportive of interoperability in the future as they mature.
Databases
- Amazon Announces Read Replicas To Scale MySQL Deployments
  
  Amazon Web Services has announced Read Replicas, a new feature for Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) that the company claims makes it even easier to scale MySQL database deployments to meet the performance demands of high-traffic web applications.
Oracle
- Fork You, Oracle!
  
  LibreOffice is off to a great start already, and I think it will be a harbinger of even greater things to come. If you want to check out LibreOffice, you can download a beta version of it right now. There are versions out for Linux (32 bit and 64 bit), as well as Windows and Mac versions. You can even download the source code if you want.
  
  Hopefully we’ll start to see LibreOffice appear in various Linux distros soon, so it’ll be even easier to get it. I look forward to seeing it available for every distro I review on Desktop Linux Reviews. The sooner that Oracle and OpenOffice.org are history, the better off we’ll all be.
BSD
- The question is, ‘Should I try OpenBSD/FreeBSD?’
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- The LilyPond Report #21
  
  This short, informal opinion column is about the GNU LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. It is not meant to be an exhaustive documentation resource. Reader comments are, of course, welcome (see at the bottom of this page).
Project Releases
- Firebird 2.5 (final) released
- PLplot Release 5.9.7
- CUBRID 3.0 Stable has arrived!
  
  We are proud to announce the final stable release for CUBRID 3.0! We have been working very hard to bring this most advanced and bug-free version of CUBRID Database System. We highly encourage everyone upgrading from previous versions to CUBRID 3.0.
- GNU uCommon 4.0 and beyond social key verification
  
  I finally got around to doing a 4.0 release of the GNU uCommon library over this past weekend while away for family reasons. This was however mostly to clean up the API. What I am thinking of and I am working on is moving beyond Phil Zimmermann’s ZRTP to create a more general purpose foundation for secure communication sessions that is applicable to automated communication tasks as well as to realtime communication.
Government
- What are we supposed to do with citizen inquiries such as this?
  
  to
  Tony.Rees@state.mn.us
  date
  Wed, May 20, 2009 at 9:55 AM
  subject OET questions.
  
  I am just inquiring as to whether as part of the budget cutting process, the State of Minnesota has considered a transition to OpenOffice.
  
  I am wondering how many Microsoft Licenses are currently being paid for?
  
  What are the total costs of these licenses?
  
  How many of these licenses are for Microsoft Office?
  
  What the total costs of these licenses are?
  
  How many new licenses OET plans to be purchasing during the new budget cycle?
  
  Whether the state of Minnesota has considered making a transition to OoO?
  
  It appears to have saved the French police some money, has such an option been considered in Minnesota?
Openness/Sharing
- NSF Data Sharing Policy Released
  
  The National Science Foundation has released its revised NSF Data Sharing Policy. As of January 18, 2011, NSF proposals must include a two-page (or less) “Data Management Plan” in accordance with the Grant Proposal Guide, chapter II.C.2.j (see below excerpt).
- Content management and the open source way with CEO of NIXTY, Part 2
  
  We have consulted with many open education experts. Many of them see the value in NIXTY and have helped us spread the word to others. We are very fortunate to have several experts on our Open Education Advisory Board (forthcoming announcement soon).
- Open Data
  - Transport data roaming
    
    When I’m writing code I’m quite regularly distracted by what-ifs… For instance: what if I’m on a train towards Spain and I boarded in Belgium. As I have a smartphone with an application installed (let’s call it BeTrains for iRail) which gives me real-time information on my trajectory, I don’t want BeTrains to be useless once I cross the border. BeTrains should automatically switch to the trainsystem of that country.
    
    This seems like a pretty good and easy-done concept. However we want to do it the right way: we don’t want other application developers to deal with the same hassle of implementing each country for which it wants to work for. We don’t even want to think about that. Every country should have the same standard for bringing its data to the public. To do this for the EU is a nice start since in Europe transport data is open by law.
  - Open transport data
    
    As we want ta achieve open data roaming, and as we’re keen on open standards, we were wondering if the UK has something like a standard for open transport data. If not this should become a European discussion and maybe a consortium should be started. We want to implement a standard that works for different types of vehicles (trains, boats, metros, buses, …), is real-time (we want to report delays, changes of platform, …) and that works internationaly (a client in Spain should not change its code to work with Belgian transport schemes).

Leftovers

.Ly Domains At Risk As Libyan Government Shuts Down Site Without Warning

The domain Vb.ly was revoked and the site taken offline by NIC.ly, the “domain registry and controlling body for the Libyan domain space ‘.ly’”, writes Vb.ly co-founder Ben Metcalfe on his blog, explaining that his site was found to fall “outside of Libyan Islamic/Sharia Law.”
Serious.ly Dangerous Situation for Bit.ly and Other .ly Domains

According to Ben Metcalfe, the Libyan government is cracking down on their .ly domain space. On September 23rd, NIC.ly (the domain registry and controlling body for the Libyan domain space .ly) deleted the ‘vb.ly’ domain with no notice or warning. This domain was co-owned by Ben and his partner @violetblue. You’ve probably seen the .ly domain used most prominently by Bit.ly, but it’s also used by a plethora of other services like Hootsuite (ht.ly and ow.ly) and Ad.ly.
Citizen journalists? Spreading like a cold

Ido not believe in “citizen journalism.”

Yes, I know that’s heresy. Yes, I know the old model has changed: the monologue is now a dialogue. Yes, I know ordinary people with cellphone cameras now “report” newsworthy events and bloggers are indispensable to the national dialogue.

Yet I remain convinced that, with exceptions, citizen journalism is to journalism as pornography is to a Martin Scorsese film; while they may employ similar tools — i.e., camera, lighting — they aspire to different results.

So I’ve had it up to here with people calling James O’Keefe III a journalist.

Last year, you may recall, O’Keefe was lauded by political conservatives for “investigative journalism” that helped bring down ACORN, the financially-troubled group whose sinister works included advocating for poor and middle-income people. O’Keefe, in a hidden camera sting, posed as a pimp and filmed some of the organization’s employees advising him on how to facilitate his supposed illicit business. It made him the toast of the blogosphere and earned him the admiration of Fox News. A resolution honoring him was even introduced in the House of Representatives.
E-Car Scheme to Tackle City’s Permanent Congestion

The French capital is notorious for its traffic jams. Now the mayor of Paris has come up with a bold new plan to rid his city of tens of thousands of cars. If he pulls it off, the e-car sharing scheme may become a trailblazer for other congested cities around the world.
Games: Why Zynga’s Success Makes Game Designers Gloomy

A specter is haunting gaming… the specter of FarmVille. Every day, tens of millions of Facebook users surf over to the lo-res virtual world to milk cows, send magic eggs to their friends, and shell out real money for limited-edition Swiss chard seeds. The game, which has 75 million regular players, is made by developer Zynga, which also makes Cafè World and Mafia Wars. Zynga just scored a $100 million to $200 million investment from Google. But some traditional game developers think the rise of Zynga is a sign of the end of days—at least in terms of game-making. We asked some skeptics to explain their concerns; you decide for yourself whether this is the game-pocolypse.
After firefighters watched home burn, Obion County expands subscription-only fire service to more towns

As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, South Fulton Fire Department firefighters from Obion, Tennessee, last week stood by and watched as a family’s home burned down because their services were available by subscription only, and the family had not paid the $75 fee. Immediately, right-wing writers at the conservative movement’s bulkhead magazine, The National Review, leapt to the defense of the county and argued in support of the notion that firefighting should not be a public service available to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Roman helmet sold for £2m

In just three minutes at a Christie’s auction, the most hauntingly beautiful face to emerge from the British soil in more than a century slid out of the grasp of the museum desperate to acquire it when the Roman helmet was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £2m – dramatically higher than the highest pre-sale estimate of £300,000.
Security
- Whistleblower site Cryptome hacked, defaced, all files deleted
  
  The whistleblowing, government-document sharing site Cryptome was hacked and defaced this weekend. All 54,000 Cryptome hosted files were deleted.
Defence/Police/Aggression
- The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
- VIDEO: Oakland Kickoff Event for the International Days of Action in Solidarity with Bradley Manning
- Department of Homeland Security Keeps on Creepin’ On…
  
  This is how a surveillance state creeps forward — through short-term thinking and missing the forest for the trees. The implications of the iris-scanning technology go well beyond this six-week test on the border, but there are no indications that DHS is considering the privacy impact of anything besides this six-week test run.
- Journalists are victims of violence by security forces and targeted attacks
  
  Reporters Without Borders deplores a targeted attack on Alaa Mohsen, the host of the programme “Liqa Sakhen” on state-run Al-Iraqiya television, who was badly injured by a bomb placed underneath his car as he was about to leave his home in the Baghdad suburb of Saydiya on the morning of 27 September to go to work. Rushed to the Yarmouk district hospital, he was reported to be in a critical condition yesterday.
- Punishment does not fit crimes with the most victims
  
  Empathy explains why Two Little Boys makes me cry yet two million Aids deaths a year never have the same effect
- Laos and the legacy of Vietnam
  
  As US combat troops return from Iraq, remnants of another American war – fought more than three decades ago – are still claiming casualties today. The tiny south-east Asian landlocked nation of Laos has the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country, per capita, in the world. During the Vietnam war, US-led secret bombing raids over Laos left behind millions of unexploded cluster bombs that continue to maim and kill civilians today.
- Martin Luther King friend and photographer was FBI informant
  
  Ernest Withers, who was trusted by civil rights leader to sit in on strategy meetings spied on black activists and white radicals
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Human impact on world’s rivers ‘threatens water security of 5 billion’
  
  The world’s rivers are so badly affected by human activity that the water security of almost 5 billion people, and the survival of thousands of aquatic species, are threatened, scientists warned .
  
  The study, conducted by institutions across the globe, is the first to simultaneously look at all types of human intervention on freshwater – from dams and reservoirs to irrigation and pollution. It paints a devastating picture of a world whose rivers are in serious decline.
- Putting a price on biodiversity – what are species worth?
- North America’s risky race to exploit oil sands and shales
  
  The 2,500-mile route has quickly become an essential supply line for the energy industry. With astonishing speed, U.S. oil companies, Canadian pipeline builders, and investors from all over the globe are spending huge sums in an economically promising and ecologically risky race to open the next era of hydrocarbon development. As domestic U.S. pools of conventional oil and gas dwindle, energy companies are increasingly turning to “unconventional” fossil fuel reserves contained in the carbon rich-sands and deep shales of Canada, the Great Plains, and the Rocky Mountain West.
Finance
- We’ve got to stamp out modern slavery
  
  The re-emergence of slavery on ships off West Africa is profoundly shocking but it is not a surprise. Last week slavery its modern form came to light in cases of forced labour uncovered on trawlers fishing for the European market. In a haunting echo of the 18th century triangular trade, west African workers were found off the coast of Sierra Leone on board boats where they lived and worked in ships’ holds with less than a metre of head height, sometimes for 18 hours a day for no pay, packed like sardines to sleep in spaces too small to stand up, with their documents taken from them and no means of escape.
- Middle-Aged Columnists Think America Is In Decline. Big Surprise.
  
  Government debt is not the same thing as individual debt. The collective pursuit of new pleasures and luxuries can create economic benefits that have no real individual equivalent. Attempts to impose stringent discipline on behavior on a national scale can backfire spectacularly. But the psychological impulse to see the country in decline leads writers again and again to neglect these differences, and to cast the story of a huge, complex nation as a simple individual morality play.
- Iceland’s politicians forced to flee from angry protesters
  
  Protesters took to the streets of Reykjavik today, forcing MPs to run away from the people they represent as renewed anger about the impact of the financial crisis erupted in Iceland.
- Trapped in the eurozone
  
  Only a brave person, or an appropriately paid official, would be optimistic about the future of the eurozone at present. Austerity has spread and there is a risk of long-term stagnation with high unemployment across Europe. Social tensions are on the rise, and frictions among member states will probably intensify. A taste of things to come was given by the marches and strikes organised by trade unions across the continent this week.
- On Eve of President’s Export Council Meeting, Report Shows U.S. Export Growth Lags With Free Trade Agreement Partners
  
  A new report from Public Citizen reveals that the growth of U.S. exports to nations with which the United States does not have Free Trade Agreements (FTA) has outpaced the growth of exports to the 17 U.S. FTA partners, with both services and goods FTA exports lagging. This comes as the corporate interests that dominate private sector representation on the President’s Export Council, which meets Thursday, have reframed their support for more NAFTA-style trade pacts as critical to promoting the president’s goal of doubling exports over the next five years to create two million new American jobs.
- China warns EU off yuan pressure
  
  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has warned the European Union against pressurising China on its currency policy.
  
  In a speech to top EU officials, Mr Wen said a big change in the value of the yuan could cause “social and economic turbulence” in China.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Taxpayers Funding Pro-Pesticide PR Campaign
  
  The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), a California trade association, wants you to have less information about pesticide residues on the fruits and vegetables you buy. That’s not too surprising; since the Alliance represents more than 50 large produce growers and marketers and the suppliers who sell them pesticides and fertilizer.
  
  What is surprising is that taxpayers are now on the hook to fund the group’s pro-agrichemical PR campaign.
- Taxpayers Fund Pro-Pesticide PR Campaign
  
  A California group that represents large produce growers, marketers and the suppliers who sell them pesticides and fertilizer, is getting $180,000 in federal funds for a PR campaign to combat critics of the pesticide industry.
- News Corp Gives $1 Million to U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  
  News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has donated $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the powerful business lobbying group that was recently accused of tax fraud and money laundering by two national watchdog groups.
- News Corp. gave $1 million to pro-GOP group
  
  News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, contributed $1 million this summer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the business lobby that has been running an aggressive campaign in support of the Republican effort to retake Congress, a source close to the company told POLITICO.
  
  It was the second $1 million contribution the company has made this election cycle to a GOP-aligned group. In late June it gave that amount to the Republican Governors Association.
- Tell the DOJ: Investigate the Chamber of Commerce’s campaign spending
  
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the poster child for corporate corruption of our electoral system.
  
  This year alone the Chamber has pledged to spend $75 million on ads attacking candidates who don’t meekly bow down to the biggest and wealthiest corporate interests.
- Strange Brew From the Republican Governors Association
  
  The television ads, set in what appears to be a normal Wisconsin bar, posit that the bar’s patrons are split about whether Barrett’s tenure as mayor of Milwaukee is worse because of “more taxes!” or “less jobs!” The ad accuses Barrett, a Democrat, of losing jobs as Mayor of the City of Milwaukee, implicitly endorsing his opponent, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, a Republican for Wisconsin governor.
- Fake News Invasion
  
  Fake news is invading our airwaves, and the Federal Communications Commission is standing idly by as it happens. In an age when consumers can mute and fast-forward commercial breaks, advertisers are looking for ways to sell you products where you’re least expecting it: Embedded into your local news.
  
  A recent Los Angeles Times exposé revealed that paid spokespeople are hawking their wares on local news stations during what appears to viewers as genuine news segments. The stations never identify the spokespeople as paid shills for companies, but rather present them as experts. They’re misleading viewers, and they’re getting away with it.
  
  This week, Free Press filed a letter asking the FCC to take action to put an end to fake news. The letter urges the FCC to investigate new instances of fake news, conclude its review of pending complaints and put new rules on the books that would require stricter and more prominent disclosure of paid spots.
- Pick your poison: Beer distributors oppose Prop. 19
  
  The folks who deliver beer and other beverages to liquor stores have joined the fight against legalizing marijuana in California.
  
  On Sept. 7, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors gave $10,000 to a committee opposing Proposition 19, the measure that would change state law to legalize pot and allow it to be taxed and regulated.
  
  The California Police Chiefs Association has given the most to the Proposition 19 opposition with a contribution of $30,000, according to Cal-Access, a website operated by the secretary of state’s office.
Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM
- No takers on digital Olympic radio station
  
  Despite being given six months to respond, it seems no one is interested in running a digital-only radio station during the London Olympics – so Ofcom has shelved the idea.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - ACS:Law part three – the private data police
    
    It’s a recipe for disaster. The law regulating internet surveillance is a shambles and there’s a growing army of unregulated private firms watching our actions and gathering evidence against those who share music and video online.
  - Porn BitTorrent Lawsuits Run into Serious Problem – Lawsuits Must be Filed Individually
    
    You know, there’s this funny issue called joinder – which in essence means that additional defendants can be added to a single complaint. This has been a hot button issue in the Far Cry and Steam Experiment lawsuits, where Judge Rosemary Collyer is currently pondering whether to order the US Copyright Group to file each lawsuit independently. Considering that the Far Cry lawsuit currently has over 4,000 defendants clinging to one complaint, a ruling in favor of the John Does could have a detrimental effect on the USCG’s effort to create an alternative revenue stream.
    
    Beside the USCG lawsuits, which mainly focuses on small, independent producers creating mediocre movies (yet wondering why they don’t sell), there is another genre of file-sharing lawsuits against those supposedly sharing adult movies. Following the same playbook as ACS:Law, Gallant Macmillan, and the USCG, a law firm called Steele Law has filed nearly 1,400 lawsuits against suspected porn file-sharers. One of their clients is First Time Videos, LLC, and as luck would have it, they might be the first time losers.
  - French ISP Refuses to Send Out Hadopi File-Sharing Warnings
    
    During the last week, French Internet users have been starting to receive letters as part of the graduated warning system built in to the controversial Hadopi anti-piracy legislation. The email warnings are being sent by Hadopi via France’s ISPs. But even at this early stage at least one ISP is refusing to forward them to their customers prompting complaints from rivals that they are seeking to achieve a competitive advantage.
  - ACTA
    - Final ACTA puts Europe under more pressure for graduated response
      
      The US may have failed to export the DMCA, but ACTA will put Europe under more pressure to implement graduated response measures. In the wake of the Telecoms Package, it seeks to re-inforce the copyright provisions in the Package, and to squeeze the EU position a little further. The test is for the European Parliament to once again stand up for citizens rights.
    - Repression or Enlightenment?
      
      Just how powerful do you want corporations to get? To be at least equal to, and ideally superior to, human beings? To have control over mankind’s culture? To have control over mankind’s technology? To be so enriched and empowered that they have control over ‘democratically elected’ governments and tax funded infrastructure and services?
    - Mexico votes to dump ACTA as it stands
      
      ACTA is a desperate step taken by the heavily-industrialised, planet-killing nations to clamp down on copyright, trademark and patent issues, in recognition of the fact they don’t really make much any more, yet still expect to live in the lap of luxury by shuffling bits of e-paper about.
      
      The Mexican Senate hasn’t rejected ACTA per se but passed a non-binding resolution that seeks to reject international agreements cooked up in secret.
      
      The resolution, promoted by Senator Carlos Sotelo from the PRD party, was passed unanimously, according to openacta.org.
    - ACTA Ultra-Lite: The U.S. Cave on the Internet Chapter Complete
      
      The approach on ISP liability is largely unchanged from the last leaked draft and involve two provisions.
    - ACTA Anti-Piracy Treaty Not As Horrible as Feared
    - ACTA Analysis: You Can’t Craft A Reasonable Agreement When You Leave Out Stakeholders
      
      So… what’s in the actual document? We’ll go through a few different reviews that highlight some of the differences in the document, and where many of the problem areas are. Michael Geist points out that the anti-circumvention stuff that sought to effectively export the US’s draconian DMCA anti-circumvention clause has been greatly watered down and provides much more flexibility in how countries set their anti-circumvention plans. It’s still ridiculous that anti-circumvention is in this thing, but at least it’s not as bad as it was, and it leaves open the possibility of setting up anti-circumvention rules that recognize fair use (unlike the DMCA currently). This seems like a clear case where the US caved to other parties.
      
      On injunctions and damages, there still appear to be serious problems with the text, and seem to go beyond current TRIPS requirements, and at certain points appear contrary to US law (despite claims from US officials that no changes to US law will be required). Once again, it’s a case where ACTA tries to export the enforcement side but ignores the safe harbors and consumer protections. On injunctions, for example, TRIPS has some key protections for those who infringe unknowingly or for totally non-commercial use.

Clip of the Day

Linux Native Game: Hive Rise

Credit: TinyOgg

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Microsoft Downgraded Yet Again, CEO Bonus Cut, Goldman Sachs Says Microsoft Should be Split, and Company’s CEO Acknowledges It May Vanish

Posted in Finance, Microsoft at 6:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Cracks in Microsoft Corp. are becoming impossible to hide as the company’s future starts to be doubted even by its biggest allies

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has called it “Microsoft’s coming heart-attack moment” and Microsoft boosters too are struggling to spin it. For example, Marius Oiaga chose the headline “Ballmer: The Demise of Microsoft Should Be a Very Difficult Thing to Have Happen” and he quoted:

“We’ve seen technology companies come from nothing to something overnight. We’ve seen very few companies stay at a high level for a long time. I’d put Microsoft, I’d put IBM on the list,” Ballmer revealed.

At the same time, he pointed out that there is life after death. There have been companies which managed to come back after they fell apart. “I’d put Apple in that category because they almost disappeared,” Ballmer said.

“Just the fact that Ballmer would even discuss it as a probability shows that the company is slipping,” argued Chips B. Malroy, who also left us with other news links, especially about those downgrades that worry Mini-Microsoft right now. “Diversify or die,” says Pogson and Malroy links to yet another downgrade, empahasising that “This is after the Goldman one.”

“Just the fact that Ballmer would even discuss it as a probability shows that the company is slipping”
–Chips B. Malroy“GNU/Linux provided a quality alternative to Windows,” he writes. “[Microsoft] has made bad insecure software with many problems for its users. The bad or dark side of MS, maybe driving more user to GNU/Linux than even all the good light side of Linux is doing to attract it.”

But Microsoft’s main problem at the moment is that it’s too focused on desktops. “Windows Phone 7 Will Flounder,” say even the Microsoft-sympathetic publications, citing Microsoft-paid ‘analysts’.

Microsoft’s introduction of Windows Phone 7, set to be formally introduced next week, will barely move the needle on the company’s dismal share of the smartphone OS market, according to new data released Wednesday by industry analysts at Gartner.

Does this surprise anyone? The only noteworthy thing about it is that even people whom Microsoft has been grooming (Gartner Group) are unable to say something positive about this product from Microsoft, even days before its official launch. Ouch.

The Gates-funded (through investment) Goldman Sachs, which has also been Microsoft sympathetic over the years, “says Microsoft should split” and gives the company additional smackdown and a downgrade:

Wall Street super power Goldman Sachs has downgraded Microsoft stock from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral’, in a highly critical note it sent to its clients. Goldman blasts Microsoft for its poor outcomes in its mobile computing efforts. The real bomb, though, was the recommendation that Microsoft split its consumer business and enterprise business into two separate wings.

Vista Phone 7 [sic] may sell well compared to “KIN”, but that’s not a hard target to beat.

Microsoft has just been downgraded for at least the fourth time in recent weeks (for background see [1, 2, 3]) and Chips B. Malroy quotes:

Microsoft stock has been downgraded by yet another analyst, Sasa Zorovic of Janney Capital, over fears surrounding the company’s mobile endeavors. While Windows Phone 7 is still an uncertainty, Zorovic points out that it is “difficult” for the company to catch up in the mobile arena, which is becoming increasingly important.

Ballmer’s bonus has just been slashed [1, 2, 3] and “KIN” is named as part of the drivers:

The information about Ballmer’s compensation came to light in filings with the US federal securities regulator yesterday, which stated that the reduced bonus was due to the “unsuccessful launch of the Kin phone, loss of market share in the company’s mobile phone business, and the need for the company to pursue innovations to take advantage of new form factors”.

Microsoft’s heads of divisions are still somewhat of a mess looking for order [1, 2, 3] and Microsoft Nick provides some numbers on Ballmer’s approval rate amongst employees:

That’s the new conclusion drawn by Glassdoor.com, which surveys employees about the minutiae of their workplaces. Microsoft earned a 3.5 rating out of a possible 5, based on 1,613 responses (Compensation and Work/Life Balance notched particularly high scores). Ballmer himself had a 50 percent approval rating, based on 1,117 responses.

That’s incredibly positive based on what we find among people who do not receive a paycheck from Ballmer. In a recent survey conducted in a Windows-oriented Web site, only 9% said that they wanted Ballmer to stay. Some regulars of Techright think that Ballmer’s time at Microsoft is limited and may soon be ending. Either way, Microsoft’s days too may be ending (except as SCO-like extortionist). █

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More Indications That ‘Sales’ of Vista 7 Are Worse Than Sales of Vista

Posted in Deception, Marketing, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 5:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“[W]e’re not going to have products that are much more successful than Vista has been.”

–Steve Ballmer

Summary: Windows Vista not only brought more money after its launch but it also did not have Microsoft resort to so many big discounts (like with Vista 7)

POGSON has finally banned a Microsoft AstroTurfer from his blog and he also has some revealing new posts about Vista 7. His blog — like Techrights — deals a lot with the opposition’s actions against software freedom and he too has realised that Microsoft is lying/embellishing (mischaracterising) so-called ‘sales’ of Vista 7 (Windows is never sold, it’s being licensed).

Earlier this year we explained why family discounts (or family packs or whatever) of Vista 7 are signs of a failure to sell. Had Vista 7 sold well, those discounts would not be necessary. If one looks at the actual numbers (few journalists do), it becomes evident that Vista 7 has been a lot less profitable than Windows Vista (GNU/Linux too contributes to this) and to use Pogson’s headline, if Vista 7 is so successful, why does Microsoft have to give it away?

Yep. They have brought back the buy one/get two free deal for the anniversary of “7″.

The ‘sales’ are not as good as Microsoft would have people believe and Pogson explains why Windows just isn’t important anymore, noting in part in response to some Vista 7 rave that Vista 7 — like predecessors — is bound to slow down and get worse over time:

Suppose “7″ installs a trojan and invites a dozen of its friends to run on your machine. Do you have a core and a gigabyte for each and a NIC for each and an ISP for each so that no bottlenecks get plugged? Suppose your hard drive fragments so that every file is in a dozen parts and you malware scanner has to sift through all of them as well as the applications and OS…. If you install “7″ on an old PC with slow 40gB hard drive and 256 MB or RAM it will thrash like crazy. That will get worse as the disc fragments and more updates are done and more bloat added.

As a side note, be aware that critics of Vista 7 have always been attacked by trolls. We support Pogson’s decision to ban the AstroTurfer, Bill Weisgerber aka “billwg” or “amicus_curious”, who has been plaguing several pro-GNU/Linux forums for many years (some claim to have blown the whistle on him), insulting people in them.

For those who are proponents of software freedom, consider Pogson’s blog a blog worth subscribing to because the troll problem is now resolved too. OpenBytes had similar issues with a vulgar troll who attacked the editor’s family. The weaker Microsoft becomes, the more aggressive the trolls will be. Both trolls are just 2 among ~4 in total that we’ve ever banned in Techrights. Yes, they systematically target just Microsoft critics and GNU/Linux proponents, trashing their Web sites on purpose. █

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Joint Microsoft/Novell Release of Mono, Partly With Microsoft Licences, Patents, and Even Copyrights

Posted in FSF, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, Ubuntu at 4:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft and Novell want access to people’s GNU/Linux boxes, which are using APIs and protocols that Microsoft does not control; Mono-based software gradually removed from Ubuntu

SO… a new release of Mono is out, says a Microsoft MVP. This is excellent news (for Microsoft at least) because this release contains code written and licensed by Microsoft employees, not just former Microsoft employees and Microsoft employee wannabes. We have already covered these points before. The mobbyists [sic] are already dismissing those who oppose Mono in this long discussion in identi.ca, conveniently ignoring the FSF's recommendations against C# and Mono.

Phoronix deserves credit for finally acknowledging in its announcements about Mono that “many in the open-source community do not like Mono on their system”. In fact, the entire article opens with the following statement:

While many in the open-source community do not like Mono on their system as a Microsoft .NET implementation for Linux (and other operating systems), for those interested in this C# compiler and run-time library, Mono 2.8 is now available for download.

One important point which we kindly ask readers to verify is the following about Beagle, which Novell has been promoting as a Mono-based application. Over at identi.ca, mohanpram wrote last night: “Huh looks like [Mono-based] Beagle isn’t in !ubuntu 10.10 repos anymore…I wonder why it was taken out!?!”

Can anyone who is running near-final Ubuntu 10.10 confirm this? Another independent test may be required to ensure that this is true. Ubuntu has already removed the Mono-based F-Spot (just recently) and its replacement got some coverage that we linked to over an hour ago, namely:

Screenshot Tour: Our Favorite New Features in Ubuntu 10.10

Shotwell is better at importing and organizing photos than its predecessor, F-Spot, but only by a little. It’s much easier on the eyes, and better at recognizing cameras and storage devices, but if you’re particular about how you organize your photos, you’ll likely bump heads with Shotwell’s designers. Our recommendation, and that of many commenters? Install gThumb instead.
Episode 148: A Shot at Shotwell

With Ubuntu 10.10 coming up there will be a change in the standard photo managing program. It will change from F-Spot to Shotwell. I installed the release candidate of Ubuntu in a virtual machine and gave Shotwell a try.

Mono hype may be increasing in days to come because of this new release. The mobbyists already proceed to smearing Mono opposition (no need to name any names or feed the mobbyists with links). █

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