Links 19/05/2008: Important Windows Refund Precedence, Unbundling Near?
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-05-19 14:23:27 UTC
- Modified: 2008-05-19 14:23:27 UTC
GNU/Linux
- French court orders Windows refund [Not the first time]
In France, it is illegal to bundle software and to refuse to reimburse the customer for unwanted licences, under Article L.122-1 of the French Consumer Code. The Tribunal de Grande Instance ruled that offering an expensive refund option was tantamount to offering no refund option at all, hence finding for the consumer and requiring that Asus stump up.
- Uxi, a Cuban magazine dedicated to Free Software and Open Codes by the University of Information Sciences
- University of Havana Finally Switches to Free Software
- Avnet Electronics Marketing launches complete MicroBlaze Processor Linux Design Solution
- LM_Sensors 3.0.2 Released
- I swear, this is not another Unixfication post
Is Sun talking with Linus about moving ZFS to GPLv2, with the objective of fast tracking ZFS into a native Linux kernel implementation of the file system driver? Or is Linus considering moving the kernel to GPLv3, with Sun doing the same for OpenSolaris? Is Linux and Solaris DNA going to swap much quicker than previously thought?
- AMD FireGL V8600 On Linux
If we would have looked at the FireGL performance under Windows and Linux a year ago, the results would have been vastly different -- Linux would have lagged far behind the Windows driver. With the new OpenGL driver, however, these results are rather pleasing. In 3DS Max and UGS NX tests from SPECViewPerf, the Windows driver had a small performance lead over the Linux driver. However, in the CATIA, Maya, and Pro/Engineer tests, the Linux driver wound up on top.
- Mandriva 2008.1 KDE hits a sweet spot
Ubuntu
- Hate Ubuntu? It's normal!
The fact that many people dislike the top distribution is not really a problem. The problem is that many of these folks are extremely vocal on the Internet to express their opinions. While no intelligent reader will ever take them seriously, they do give the Linux community a bad name and discourage potential Linux users from joining us.
- [Ubuntu] Weekly Newsletter #91
F/OSS
User Security vs. Vendor 'Security'
- Microsoft confirms Windows adheres to broadcast flag
News that the world's largest software maker has voluntarily agreed to help broadcasters control the recording of their shows is bound to outrage enthusiasts of digital video recorders, as it represents the biggest threat to the practice known as time shifting since the FCC's attempt to require flag adherence.
- Microsoft Stockholder? Take Stock in This...
While we are passing along the subject of anti-virus and spyware, let me ask you this. While MS does offer a somewhat crippled product to protect Windows, they push me toward a subscription purchase to get the full monty. Why am I being cornered into purchasing a "fix" for a problem Microsoft created? Shouldn't the full application be offered as part of Windows? Let me ask you this as well. Why should I purchase and use a product that necessitates I purchase and use another product in order for the first product to work the way it is supposed to?
- Hackers compromise Red Cross earthquake relief site
- Spain arrests 'prolific' hackers
Law and Crime
Leftovers
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Slopwatch: Sites Gone Rogue, Google Promoting Lies, and DDoS Attacks by Plagiarism Giants
- Charlatans and frauds engage in a war against artistic industries, mislabeling plagiarism as "AI"
- Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech
- don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to
- Gemini Links 21/08/2025: The Attraction of Back Alleys, Initramfs, and BSD ISPs
- Links for the day
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- End of the Smartphone Era? No.
- Maybe the media should focus on producing accurate, factual news
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 21, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, August 21, 2025
- Enshittification of Airports, Airlines, and Airplanes
- If people are willing to tolerate standard declines and enshittification (nowadays sold as "pivot to AI" or "replaced by AI" or "AI layoffs") they will pay for it some other way
- Airlines and Their Tricks That Only Work in the 'Digital Age'
- People sceptical of the direction technology has taken are not "Luddites"
- Open Source Initiative (OSI), Which Became a Propaganda Front of Microsoft and "Hey Hi" (Hype, Misnomer), Wants You to Forget These Scandals
- A lot of these issues won't be set aside until there's a resolution
- The Culture of Overnight Coding
- An industry-wise push-back is needed
- Windows Down to New Lows in Guinea Bissau and Many Countries Around It
- If Android is accounted for, Windows is down to about 10%
- Gemini Links 21/08/2025: Modern Dating, Debian 13, and Apache
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Has Had About 10 Waves of Mass Layoffs So Far This Year (Not Two as Mainstream Media and Slopfarms Endlessly Claim)
- Notice how the MSM (Mainstream Media) never mentions the debt of Microsoft. It is a conscious, deliberate decision.
- Links 21/08/2025: Covid Cases on the Rise, "Social Media Trolls", Russia's Attacks Intensify
- Links for the day
- Links 21/08/2025: Stephanie Shirley Dies and "Groklaw Domain Hijacked?"
- Links for the day
- Search in 2025 (Age of DDoS Attacks Under the Guise of "AI" "Innovation")
- One common concern when things go "live" is that any random bot out there can execute queries, pumping up RAM and CPU usage, as happened when we used MediaWiki and WordPress
- Using Slop for Images Does Not Make Your Site Look Advanced or Witty, It Just Makes Your Whole Work Look Like Presumed Plagiarism
- Lazy slobs and Serial Sloppers use the guise/excuse of "AI" to plagiarise and spam the Web
- Financing of the "Hey Hi" (AI) Bubble by Those Who Profit From Planetary Destruction (Global Warming)
- It's about personal gain, too
- Richard Stallman Will Speak in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress
- it's good to see that the FSF pays considerable respect to it founder, who is moreover invited to speak at events
- (At Least) Second Wave of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft This Month
- This is not the first time this month that Microsoft has mass layoffs
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, August 20, 2025
- IBM Operatives Inside The Register MS and More Shady Money to Follow
- The Register MS bites every banknote it can sink its teeth into
- On the Internet, Nobody Knows Microsoft and Windows Are Becoming Niche Players Until Data is Shown Correctly, Not Microsoft-Sponsored Articles in Microsoft Publishers
- Microsoft controls a lot of publishers and thus it controls information
- Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms in Google News (e.g. Linux Journal and WebProNews)
- Google plays an active role (if not deliberately then through utter neglect and carelessness) in plagiarism
- Links 20/08/2025: Mass Surveillance Framed as "Artificial Intelligence" (All Old Things Reworded to Misframe Old Computer Issues), Europe Resists Capitulation to US(SR)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Trips and Permacomputing
- Links for the day
- Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
- Links for the day
- Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
- Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
- A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
- Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
- Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
- Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
- In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
- Why are people still investing in this company?
- All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
- When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
- The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
- every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
- Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
- Or steal it
- Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
- GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
- Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
- We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
- Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
- Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
- Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
- Links for the day
Comments
fruit of the loon
2008-05-19 23:02:34
Roy Schestowitz
2008-05-19 23:09:41
So Fia lore Inn
2008-05-19 23:19:25
It should be argued, at least for PC gaming, they have a monopoly on the desktop with gaming, as most people need to use DirectX properly in order for the games to work. Sure Wine, Cedega, and other projects are making some progress and some games may work, and believe me I try every few weeks to see how it is coming along, but again Microsoft still continues its dirty deeds. They lie about Linux and Windows interoperability, "They said it couldn't be done!" Novell agreement bullshit just like the Corel agreement in 2000 or 2001, where Corel Linux was promptly spun off and money/support from Corel to Wine apparantly dried up. Time and time again they come in and either buy out or pollute the environment with thier proprietary crap, and we read another dismal Microsoft article after article every few weeks or more.
If Microsoft is so devoted to bringing Linux and Windows together, I don't see anything on their vast labrynth of shit at Microsoft.com indicating this. Where is the repository of interoperability Linux and Windows software on Microsoft.com? Oh, but you can still get their bullshit "Facts" on Windows and Linux, and that's about it. At least Google has a repository you can add to your Linux install for software from them. In my opinion, don't think Moonlight ("Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I ask that of all my friends") will last much longer or work well for Linux users should Silverblight (Silverlight) suddenly become popular through payoffs and slight of hand corporate tricks.
If you ever want to have Microsoft come clean, no, I don't believe it would ever happen unless the DOJ finally came down hard and raided their offices, took their hardware and software and forced them to release the code and all of the various undiscovered backdoors waiting to be found, it just won't happen. IMO, Microsoft has demonstrated time and time again it will fight tooth and nail against any punishment against them.
We will all be cleansed if true justice were ever to prevail, but in the "United States of Advertising", most of the people in power are paid off, with big pharma and other corporate overlords always padding the handshakes and votes. It is a lost cause, you know it, I know it, but you'll still piss away your vote to one of the two parties who bend over for big pharma to slide in the money and the overpriced medications pop out the other end as we all struggle under the yoke of this dismal fucking world.
Come clean? Microsoft? The whole system is mired in filth.
Good luck.
We now return you to your normal life, ostrich head in the sand, millions of tokers/beer drinkers who raise their fist while watching Fight Club and return to their soap opera pitiful lives of slavery as the credits roll.
Vote for Wesley Snipes for President in 2008, neither one of the big parties will get anything done, they are a part of the problem.