Bonum Certa Men Certa

Migration to New Environment Completed

Keep calm and carry on

Stay /home ... Save disk space



Summary: Back on the saddle with the new work environment, we'll probably become more productive again and we shall focus on patents, seeing that the attacks on GNU/Linux are largely the same as last year's (leaders being canceled, organisations infiltrated and GNU/Linux subjected to E.E.E. tactics with a "love" slant)

THE LAPTOP bought back in 2009 (and used to write all the EPO articles) died over a week ago, sending us into a temporary state of chaos (hence delays) although no data was lost. The death was foreseen, backups made, and preparation done although it died somewhat prematurely (we expected it to reach its eleventh anniversary in September).



I'm almost fully settled with the new environment, I'm back to KDE, and spring has officially arrived (it feels like it, too). This weekend is a public holiday, though not many people feel that way (it has felt like a bizarre holiday for nearly a month now). My wife and I still have our jobs as we've worked remotely for over a decade and with the new environment in place I'm starting to become more productive again. I'm almost fully up to date w.r.t. news about the European Patent Office (EPO) and the time spared by not leaving the house can instead be used to produce more articles.

"I'm almost fully settled with the new environment, I'm back to KDE, and spring has officially arrived (it feels like it, too)."Our foremost focus remains software patents and 35 U.S.C. €§ 101. We strive to eliminate software patents worldwide, no matter what buzzwords Benoît Battistelli came up with and António Campinos constantly promotes.

When time permits we also prepare articles about GNU/Linux. One thing we won't cover anymore, not even in Daily Links, is WSL. It's not GNU/Linux news, it's just Microsoft Windows news. It's about selling Vista 10, which is technically malware. So-called 'Linux' news sites that write about WSL as if it's positive news for GNU/Linux say a lot about themselves, not about WSL.

I am currently experimenting with not reading E-mail for several days at a time, i.e. the same way I treat notifications in social control media. It helps reduce mental clutter and potential distraction. So if readers send mail they might have to wait longer than a day for a reply. For quick response use the main IRC channel, where there are 60-70 of us 24/7. Logs from all our IRC channels are shared every morning to assure full transparency with enhanced anonymity where it is necessary. Some discussions are held there and decisions occasionally made. Next month we turn 13.5. As long as we manage to keep our job (remote nighttime job) it's safe to say that the site is here to stay and to grow. The writing, the associated research and so on occupy up to 100 hours a week. It's not motivated by profit but by justice alone. Once a week we leave the house to get some food (pandemic times rules are lax enough for that here) and as long as we're fed we're staying motivated and relatively focused.

"Logs from all our IRC channels are shared every morning to assure full transparency with enhanced anonymity where it is necessary."It is worth noting that the Linux Foundation, with its spokesperson from Microsoft, makes it rather obvious that it is not about Linux anymore. Last week it issued two press releases about non-Linux operating systems that it now supports and promotes. Perhaps more curiously, one of the highest ranked persons in the Foundation (Abby Kearns) left abruptly. She's pursuing other -- albeit unspecified and undisclosed -- endeavours. A bunch of former PR people from the Foundation now work as outside contractors for the Foundation, which clearly lost its way. It deserves to lose Linus Torvalds. It's time for him to leave and work on Linux from elsewhere -- as he did after he had left OSDL.

At this late stage of entryism, with four or more Microsoft executives in the management team and the board of the Foundation, we've decided that any further comment would be almost spurious; people out there generally understand already that the Foundation is not what it claims to be or even what its name/title implies. It's outsourcing almost all the code to Microsoft (proprietary software designed to imprison GNU/Linux, subsidised at a loss). This is the way to kill Free software with a smile.

"We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger….If you’re going to kill someone, there isn’t much reason to get all worked up about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Any discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger."

--Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Platform Group Vice President

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Estimates That IBM to Lay Off Close to 10,000 Workers in 2026 (Not Counting People Pushed Out)
There's still chatter about Confluent mass layoffs
Sophie Brun, Raphael Hertzog & Debian sexual conflicts of interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News'
Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 15 Out of 200: Background and Particulars of Truth Regarding Techrights and Tux Machines
the basic facts (this has aged well, except the times/ages/numbers)
A Slopfarms Survey for Today (linuxteck.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com)
Not only did Google news link to a slopfarm; it linked to three run by the same team!
Links 18/03/2026: "Venture Capitalist Warns That It’s All About to Come Crashing Down" Due to Slop Bubble, "Birdwatching for Fun and no Profit"
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat is Still Promoting Restricted Boot Which Restricts Users' Control Over Their Computers
Red Hat under IBM is a total catastrophe
Arvind Says... Something Something "Hey Hi" (the State of Today's Media)
Look for news about IBM and most likely it'll boil down to some sound bites from an executive and nothing else
New Post Has Just Explained How IBM Gets Robbed by the People Who Fail IBM
Their plan for IBM is a personal plan
Slop-Spewing GAFAM LLM That Knows Nothing and Understands Nothing, It's a Stochastic Parrot That Cannot Even Figure Out Tux Machines is a Community That Started in Tennessee 22 Years Ago
RMS rightly calls those things "bullshit generators"
Cusdeb Makes New Presentation About Where GNU Hurd (Still a Possible Linux Replacement) Stands in 2026
coming from a generally RMS-friendly account
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Librarians, Phone Anxiety, Growing 'Small' Net, and Slop Versus Software Engineering
Links for the day
Smug Threat by Garrett to Put My Family and I in Prison Doesn't Prove We Did Anything Wrong, It Only Proves He's Truly Desperate to Stop Further Publications That Embarrass Him
his reputation is poor in the United States
systemd Increasingly Microsoft Project, Controlled by Microsoft and Slopware
Cannot allow choice
What IBM Meant to Red Hat: "Proprietary Bundling, Restricted Source Access"
Anyone or anything that joins IBM likely shortens its lifespan
IBM Thrashing Confluent Upon Arrival, Based on Rumours
We deem it a bigger issue that investigative journalism perished, not that one must rely on hearsay online or mere "rumours"
Slop Is Plagiarism, Not (Vibe) Coding, and It's Not Automated, It Doesn't Save Money
Reject misnomers, explain what's actually happening
UPC is Still Illegal and Unconstitutional (Kangaroo Court for Patents, Manned by Corporate Staff), Federal Court of Justice of Germany Receives Belated Complaint About It
What is happening to Europe???
EPO Demonstration Happening Right Now, Later This Week Things Will Only Escalate Further
The SUEPO The Hague Committee wrote to staff this morning
Links 18/03/2026: Commodore's Hedley Davis Dies, Apple Not Good Enough, Cheeto "Floats Treason Charges for Iran War Coverage"
Links for the day
A Step Close to Shutting Down the European Patent Office (EPO)
Not going to work all month long
EPO Staff Demonstration Today
The demonstration will be live-streamed for those thousands of colleagues who don't live in Munich
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Brazilian SYN Attacks and BGP
Links for the day
LibreLocal Also Coming to Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain
It helps raise awareness of Software Freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 14 Out of 200: Men Who Strangle Women (and Worse) Trying to Force Us to Write Public Apologies to These Men
For those who never before saw a SLAPP, they basically make many demands
Instant Bluewashing at Confluent: Mass Layoffs Alleged at IBM
So the main question is, did IBM just fire 800 people?
"Vibe-forking" and Why It'll Ultimately Fail (Hype on Top of Hype)
Code made with LLMs sucks; converting solid, human-tested code into slop only complicates matters and increases risk
Updates About Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation
After all those years (a decade) and in spite of phony scandals many people out there still respect him
LLM Slop With "Linux" in the Domain Names
This is becoming a pain and a problem also in the arts and in software engineering
The EFF Has a Bug, Fixing This Bug is Likely Not Possible Anymore
"the EFF's continued existence impairs the arrival of a replacement organization, one which will actually champion digital rights."
Links 17/03/2026: Microsoft Windows Broken by Samsung, Afghanistan-Pakistan War Escalation
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/03/2026: Newcomers and False-Positive 'Slop'
Links for the day
Héctor Orón Martínez & Debian shadow candidate pressure on Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 17/03/2026: American Fentanylware (TikTok) Investors Implicated in Kickbacks, "Big Oil Knew It Was Wrecking Louisiana’s Coast"
Links for the day
For Third Time in a Week The Register MS Runs Google SPAM That Paints Google as an Ally of Women (Which is False, They're Womanisers)
What does that make The Register MS to women?
British Justice Minister Sarah Sackman Blasts Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The "legal industry" is due for "some reckoning"
GAFAM Deprecating Old Videos ("Content") by Removing the Support for Their Format for No Good Reason
"Security" is not a valid excuse
Credit/Debit Cards Have Long Been Called Plastics, Over Time They're Becoming More Like Pure Plastics
They cost less than a dollar to manufacture
The European Patent Office (EPO) Holds a Public Demonstration Tomorrow and It'll be Live-streamed
The EPO's workforce was meant to be capable of speaking many languages and have extensive experience in the sciences
People Who Attacked Techrights Also Attacked My Mother
Picking on old ladies because you don't like Free software advocates is never OK
Little Community Element Left in CentOS
CentOS, unlike Fedora, was meant to be long supported and solid
Social Control Media is Cancel Culture (Companies Like Facebook Also Punish/Ban Accounts for Mentioning "Linux" and Lobby for Anti-Linux Legislation)
The masters of Social Control Media decide what ideas can and cannot be expressed
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 16, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, March 16, 2026