TechBytes Episode 12: Novell Sold for Microsoft Gains

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2010-11-23 23:11:39 UTC
Modified: 2010-11-23 23:21:59 UTC

Direct download as Ogg (1:17:07, 28.7 MB) | Direct download as MP3 (35.3 MB)

Summary: Special episode discussing Novell's sale and Microsoft's patent play, including a discussion about hardware products

THIS is the show where, without preparation, the three of us discuss Novell's sale. Tim's site, OpenBytes, has already published some show notes. We've had some audio issues throughout the show, so pardon occasional background noises/echo.

Today's show ends with "Heart of Medieval". We hope you will join us for future shows and spread the word if you enjoy this show. Also consider subscribing to the show via the RSS feed. If you have an Identi.ca account, consider subscribing to TechBytes in order to keep up to date. ⬆

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Our past shows:

Show overview	Show title	Date recorded
Episode 1: Brandon from Fedora	TechBytes Episode 1: Apple, Microsoft, Bundling, and Fedora 14 (With Special Guest Brandon Lozza)	1/11/2010
Episode 2: No guests	TechBytes Episode 2: Ubuntu's One Way, Silverlight Goes Dark, and GNU Octave Discovered	7/11/2010
Episode 3: No guests	TechBytes Episode 3: Games, Wayland, Xfce, Restrictive Application Stores, and Office Suites	8/11/2010
Episode 4: No guests	TechBytes Episode 4: Fedora 14 Impressions, MPAA et al. Payday, and Emma Lee's Magic	9/11/2010
Episode 5: No guests	TechBytes Episode 5: Windows Loses to Linux in Phones, GNU/Linux Desktop Market Share Estimations, and Much More	12/11/2010
Episode 6: No guests	TechBytes Episode 6: KINect a Cheapo Gadget, Sharing Perceptually Criminalised, Fedora and Fusion 14 in Review	13/11/2010
Episode 7: No guests	TechBytes Episode 7: FUD From The Economist, New Releases, and Linux Eureka Moment at Netflix	14/11/2010
Episode 8: Gordon Sinclair on Linux Mint	TechBytes Episode 8: Linux Mint Special With Gordon Sinclair (ThistleWeb)	15/11/2010
Episode 9: Gordon Sinclair returns	TechBytes Episode 9: The Potentially Permanent Return of ThistleWeb	17/11/2010
Episode 10: Special show format	TechBytes Episode 10: Microsoft FUD and Dirty Tactics Against GNU/Linux	19/11/2010
Episode 11: Part 2 of special show	TechBytes Episode 11: Microsoft FUD and Dirty Tactics Against GNU/Linux - Part II	21/11/2010

Pushing to the Top: Publishing is about exposing corruption
How Long Can a Company Delay Its Financial Report That Likely Confirms Exodus of Staff, Growing Debt, and Other Problems?: Brett Wilson LLP was meant to release its annual report some time early this month
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Networking With the National Delegates: António Campinos with a prime opportunity to network with the Administrative Council delegates and lobby for his reappointment
IBM's Alderon as "Silent Layoffs", Not Just Bailout From Taxpayers: Seeing through the noise
Laptop Bricked After Microsoft Certificates Expiry: Is "Jim" dead?
Gemini Links 29/06/2026: Using More of GPLv3+ and Merits of Security by TOFU: Links for the day
Links 29/06/2026: Lemote Yeeloong Laptop With OpenBSD, Slop Ruins Code/Development: Links for the day
Antisocial People With No Computer Science Background Are Ruining the Technology Space (Like Officials With No Experience in Patents Destroyed the EPO): This is a real issue; it needs to be widely recognised and tackled
DDoS Attacks Are a Crime and They Only Increase Interest (Intrigue) in Their Target: Information cannot be DDoSed out of reach/existence, except temporarily
Whistleblowing and Retaliation by Microsoft Workers Against Microsoft Seems Increasingly Likely: some will go to the press, looking to expose some shenanigans
SLAPP Censorship - Part 122 Out of 200: Garrett's Solicitors Confirm That Garrett is Ban-Evading and Spying on Our IRC Network: his solicitors basically acknowledge this
PIPs and "Retirements": IBM Layoffs in Anything But Name: That former Red Hat (now IBM) staff threatens to put my wife and I in prison is worse than cruel
Contact Members of the EPO Administrative Council, Tell Them the EPO (Office) Became a Disgrace and an Enemy of Europe's Citizens: If you live in Europe (not just the EU, even Turkey is included), please contact your delegates
The World Needs GNU/Linux for Security, Turn Off "Secure Boot" (It's the Opposite of Security): They call it "Secure Boot", but what does it mean to say "Secure" when you actively opt for back doors controlled by Microsoft, the FBI, and many more parties?
In Signal of Weakness or Phasing Out XBox (Not Sustainable, According to the CEO) Microsoft "Pauses New Third-Party Game Pass Deals": Moments ago
Two Pieces About "AI" This Morning Were Paid-For SPAM at The Register MS: The Register MS is the "Tech News" publisher you can pay to promote your company and even key-word-stuff pages for SEO purposes
Week of Microsoft Layoffs, Maybe Record-Breaking Scale: They will mislead about the scale
Links 28/06/2026: More Om Malik Eulogies, Cloudflare Promotes Web Browser Monocultures: Links for the day
'Modern' Web: "Stop! You Are Browsing Too Fast!": Can the Web ever recover from this?
Pensions Tied to Ponzi Schemes Are Themselves Ponzi Schemes: Pensions are becoming more like that as well
Monoculture in Europe as National (or Continental) Security Threat: We need more browser diversity
Canada 5-0: GNU/Linux Rises to 5.0%, Windows Rapidly Falls to New Lows: Will we be seeing 6-0 (6%) by year's end and will Microsoft be shown two red cards?
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 28, 2026: IRC logs for Sunday, June 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/06/2026: Sansieviera, HiFi, and Self-Signed Certificates: Links for the day
Outsourcing is Not Security: Outsourcing to Microsoft is the opposite of security
Links 28/06/2026: Turkey's State Broadcaster Suspends Commentator, Journalists Under Attack: Links for the day
Debugpoint.com Turns to LLM Slop for 'Help': This is how sites die
Follow the Real Security Experts: Werner Koch
Assessing the Upcoming (July) Proprietary/GAFAM Cuts: The total (or %) matters to us because it can help shed light on what scale of layoffs to expect next week
Microsoft Lunduke Does Not Correct or Clarify Misinformation That He Posted (or Repeats It Instead): Not the first time [...] detracts and/or distracts from legitimate criticisms
How Not to Do Security: Asking Microsoft for permission
Gemini Links 28/06/2026: Simulation Theory and Pursuit of Novelty: Links for the day
Five Years After Its Formation Libera.Chat Has the Most Simultaneous Users in Internet Relay Chat (IRC): netsplit.de also measures the cross-network total at over 300k, probably for the first time in years
The Slop 'Religion' is Dying: From Widespread (Paid-for) Hype to Widespread Hate: Wait till "sentiment" in Wall Street - not just general (public) "sentiment" - shifts strongly against slop
For Whistleblowers' Sake, Choose Hosting Platforms Wisely: Techrights is hard to 'sedate'
How to Discreetly Leak Important Information to Techrights: Some years ago we published multi-part series about how to contact us securely
Expect Many More Whistleblowers From Microsoft: We envision many pissed off workers from Microsoft will become whistleblowers after next week's giant wave
Efforts to Resume Progress on FreeJS, LibreJS, and Reduce Dependence on Microsoft: It's still in a relatively early development stage
Whistleblowers Improve the World: we should appreciate and respect whistleblowers
Microsoft Windows Plunges to All-Time Lows in Japan: Microsoft is disintegrating; many people no longer use (nor need) Windows
GNU/Linux Turns 43 in 3 Months From Now: The Manifesto of the Free software movement (GNU Manifesto, 1985) turned 40 last year
SLAPP Censorship - Part 121 Out of 200: One Day We'll Discover What Company or Rich Person/s Funded the Lawfare Against Us: Even if the law firm shoulders some of the losses, then it is in effect an investor in the lawfare, according to established caselaw
Working on "Linux", But on Microsoft's Payroll: Under the totally false guise of "security" those same people are now promoting TPMs and other horrible things
Links 28/06/2026: Energy Crunch, EEE by Microsoft, and John Bolton Pleads Guilty in Dictatorship of SLAPPs: Links for the day
Jim Not Dead Yet: Let's wait a few more days
Microsoft Layoffs So Big They Cannot Even Wait for 'D-Day' (July 1): "Layoffs at Xbox Appear to Have Already Begun, with Multiple Compulsion Games Employees Announcing Their Departures"
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 27, 2026: IRC logs for Saturday, June 27, 2026
Links 28/06/2026: Heatwave in Europe and Media Failing to Actually Criticise Power: Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2026: Poems, Photographs, and Neoliberalism as Religion: Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 120 Out of 200: Garrett Undermines His Own Application Because His Friend Graveley Failed to Accomplish What They Had Both Aimed For: Hold off the "popcorn"
Don't Settle for Slop: Slop is a bit of a symptom of where society is told to go
Gemini Links 27/06/2026: Photography From Interlaken to Shynige Platte, Slop 'Code', and Distro Hopping: Links for the day
TIGER COMPUTING LTD Sent Us Threats Half a Decade Ago (Because of Criticism of Their In-House Debian Developer), Now the Company's Debt is Deepening: So what is they're connected to the military?
GNU/Linux in Mexico Near All-Time High: With all the tourists packing the place (or hotels) we can imagine big changes to be seen next month (many portable devices)
Summer Plans in Tux Machines: July is nearly upon us
Gopher (Protocol) Turns 35, Gemini is 28 Years Younger: Bad technology comes and goes very fast
Be Like Stallman and Assange, Not Like MElon or Bill Epsteingate: these people treat women like worse than dirt
Exposure Leads to More Whistleblowing: In areas like IBM or European patent affairs we've always earned a lot of trust
European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Run Well Into July: We still have a very significant chunk of EPO "trench" stories
Links 27/06/2026: Journalists Kicked Out of China, Torture in Iran and Turkey: Links for the day
How Microsoft is Preventing or Slowing Down Adoption of GNU/Linux (Fake 'GNU' Controlled by GitHub in Windows, WSL, Sabotage at Boot Level, Not Limited to Dual-Booting): Microsoft is still at it
Rising Computer Prices Good News for GNU/Linux and Free Software: This can greatly assist the adoption of BSDs and GNU/Linux
Links 27/06/2026: More Restrictions on Social Control Media and Russia is Leveraging Cellebrite/Back Doors: Links for the day
Saying "No" is Not a Bad Thing: Society benefits from people who say "No!" even when it seems impolite (and possibly inconvenient) to say so
Next Week's "Bloodbath" at Microsoft Includes "Silent Layoffs" (Which Microsoft Won't Count): The notion of "silent layoffs" is fast becoming the "new normal"
Akira Urushibata on the Likely False (Unverifiable) Claims Anthropic Makes About Defects for Marketing/Hype: Some pro-LLM person has managed to derail the discussion on this topic
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: "Team Campinos" in Split: The EPO team was of course headed by Campinos himself who delivered a "forward-looking" keynote speech to the assembled audience consisting mainly of Administrative Council delegates from the national IP offices
Supporting Women in the Free Software Community: The common theme here is abuse of women
Left IBM After Many Years, Came to Microsoft/XBox, Now Silent Layoffs at XBox: many inside XBox will have their last day next week
Gemini Links 27/06/2026: Homeworlds and Tarot Cards: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 26, 2026: IRC logs for Friday, June 26, 2026

TechBytes Episode 12: Novell Sold for Microsoft Gains

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