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10.05.15

Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna Explains Why the UPC (“Unitary Patent“ System) is an Undemocratic Sham Whilst UPC Silently Advanced by Patent Lawyers and Politicians

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The international community, including the British and European communities but excepting international corporations, their patent lawyers and politicians whom they shrewdly lobby, is intentionally being kept in the dark

Manchester Community College
Manchester Community College at night

Summary: European patent laws are being covertly overridden so as to allow broader scope of litigation, higher financial damages, speedy injunctions, and even software patents; the European public is intentionally kept in the dark about it, hence kept unable to express scepticism or issue truly effective objections

WE recognise the fact that many of our readers these days work for the EPO. It is a European institution where secrecy prevails as it helps impede outside scrutiny (which is sorely needed). Other European institutions favour secrecy for the same reason (e.g. so-called ‘trade’ agreements). We started writing about the EPO because of lobbying for and emergence of software patents in Europe, well before the UPC (with prior names in the McCreevy and Barnier days) that ushers them in. As a software specialist myself, this affects me personally; as an activist, I know this affects many others, and not just in Europe. It is a huge injustice and it can potentially become a lot worse. Action right now is imperative because lobbyists are pushing very hard for the UPC and they try to shape it; this includes monopolists like Microsoft (based on last week’s Bloomberg report) — those that aren’t even European, let alone people (corporations are not people).

Dr. Ingve Björn StjernaSeveral weeks ago we wrote that "EPO Managers, Patent Lawyers, Commissioners and Other Non-Technical Personnel Tackle Democracy, Alter Laws in Bulk and in Secret". Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna (shown to the left) has since then sent us two links, noting that he wrote about this subject in his reasonably recent papers. “I just read your above-mentioned blog post,” he wrote to me. “Specifically with regard to transparency and democracy in the UPC context, do you know my papers “Law-making in camera” (accessible here) and “The sub-sub-suboptimal compromise of the EU Parliament” (accessible here) from 2013? Having a look might be worthwhile.”

I spent this weekend going through his papers and I warmly recommend that every single EPO employee does the same. They’re informative and not too lengthy. The topic is relevant and timely. It’s not an externality; the overall outcome is the direct impact of those who are involved in the patent ‘industry’; it’s all about protectionism for corporations and it is against democratic values. It is antithetical to the core values of Western nations.

“It is antithetical to the core values of Western nations.”The author, whom we mentioned here earlier this year, describes himself as “Certified Specialist for Intellectual Property Law [from] Düsseldorf” and the abstract of his first paper about it [PDF] states: “As it is well known, the “unitary patent“ package has been adopted and now the ratification of the inter-governmental Agreement on the court system by a certain quorum of the Member States is necessary for the “unitary patent“ system to enter into force. Less well known is the fact that, during the legislative process, circumstances were withheld from the public which the political front apparently regarded as dangerous for the entry into force of the “legislative package”. An exemplary case is Council document 15856/11, an opinion of the Council’s Legal Service on the compatibility of the “unitary patent” court system’s amended structure with opinion 1/09 of the European Court of Justice (CJEU). Until very recently, this document was available to the public only in extensively blackened form. Requests for complete access to the document filed on the basis of EC Regulation No 1049/2001 were repeatedly refused on the ground that this could delay the ratification process in the Member States or even call into question the entry into force of the Agreement. The document, additional parts of which were made accessible to the public shortly before the publication of this article, shows why: In it, the Legal Service notes that the structure of the adopted court system may still violate European law. A report on the strange understanding of transparency and democracy exercised in the legislative proceedings for the “unitary patent” package.”

The second paper [PDF] has the following abstract: “As is well known, in its meeting on 11 December 2012, the European Parliament adopted the so-called “patent package”, consisting of the Regulations on the “unitary patent” and the translation regime while agreeing to the conclusion of an intergovernmental Agreement for the creation of a “Unified Patent Court System”. The “unitary patent” Regulation is based on a compromise proposal of the (former) Cyprus Council Presidency which was discussed by Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in a special meeting on 19 November 2012 from which the public was excluded. An audio recording of the meeting, which recently became available, shows the motives for the acceptance of this “compromise” which one of the rapporteurs called “sub-sub-suboptimal” and “a bad solution” there. The course of this meeting shall afterwards be described and assessed in more detail.”

“The so-called “patent package” is just another name for much of the same Trojan horse, which had various different names over the years (making it harder to find and grasp older criticisms thereof).”The so-called “patent package” is just another name for much of the same Trojan horse, which had various different names over the years (making it harder to find and grasp older criticisms thereof). Like with many secret ‘trade’ (corporate sovereignty) and censorship/surveillance bills, there is a notorious tendency to change the name of what’s being attempted (for passing), primarily in order to dodge negative associations and injurious publicity. These can be overnight stunts. Now it is known as UPC, but tomorrow politicians might decided to rename it again. Any politician knows this trick; another common trick is to wrap some piece of legislation or law with “pedophiles”, “terrorists”, “pirates”, and “drugs”.

Nobody (among the public) voted for the UPC but patent lawyers (as in “law”) ignore the law and rush ahead. To quote a British law blog: “The UK Government has now selected a location just on the edge of the City of London for the EU’s Unified Patents Court. This will house the London section of the Central Division, with specific jurisdiction in the life sciences areas, a major contributor to the UK economy. With this decision the Unified Patents Court looks one significant step closer to being a part of IP strategy for all innovative businesses wishing to do business in Europe.”

To quote another British law blog: “With the new court term looming, last week IPSoc, the society for junior IP practitioners, hosted its final educational event of 2015, “The UPC: A Panel Debate”. For those readers unfamiliar with the society, IPSoc is an intellectual property society run by juniors, for juniors (and for a nominal annual fee). The organization arranges four educational events, four social events and one fancy annual dinner each year for its members (which the AmeriKat was lucky to attend a couple of years ago).”

“Patent lawyers are understandably salivating over UPC (many more lawsuits with higher damages, from which they derive a loot’s share) and with very few exceptions they are constantly fast-tracking it, hoping for acceleration in a “self-fulfilling prophecy” fashion (increasing the complexity or cost of rollback).”Put in simple terms, AmeriKat (Annsley Merelle Ward, who likes to dissociate herself from her views), known to us for several years as IPKat‘s biggest software patents booster, pretends that the UPC is already in effect and is inevitably here. Patent lawyers are understandably salivating over UPC (many more lawsuits with higher damages, from which they derive a loot’s share) and with very few exceptions they are constantly fast-tracking it, hoping for acceleration in a “self-fulfilling prophecy” fashion (increasing the complexity or cost of rollback). They play a major role in giving momentum/inertia to politicians whose interests conflict with those of the public, which is mostly kept uninvolved (because it is uninformed, by design).

“The proposed Unified Patent Court fee for revocation proceedings is €20,000,” explains one patents-centric blog (of patent lawyers). “The EPO fee for opposition proceedings is €775. David Lewin expands on how and why you should be taking full strategic advantage of the EPO’s opposition procedure…”

To them it’s all about money. UPC means more power for large corporations and more money for lawyers who serve these corporations’ agenda (large clients pay the lion’s share of profit). At whose expense? European SMBs and European citizens at large. “And with it,” concludes the post, “completing the enhanced European patent system – will come the Unified Patent Court (UPC).”

Step by step they extinguish national sovereignty and abandon long-established laws, which were put there for a reason and evolved over time with public input and facts-based analyses (prioritising public interests, not private interests).

“This is the hallmark of an autocracy.”Why is UPC hardly mentioned in general news sites and newspapers? When did citizens ever vote on it, let alone been given the chance to vote on it (e.g. to oppose)? This is the hallmark of an autocracy.

“UPC will see major patent litigation,” explain patent lawyers, “which is resulting in a lot of ‘scaremongering’ going on” (well, obviously).

“EPLAW’s hon president Pierre Veron,” according to this, said that (probably paraphrased): “The first 4 or 5 preliminary injunctions under UPC will be issued quickly for legal certainty” (more injunctions, to whose advantage?).

Merck Sharp & Dohme’s James Horgan is quoted (or paraphrased) as saying that various “telecoms are most nervous about getting injunctions on preliminary actions under UPC [...] Opting out patents under UPC could be a ‘major headache’ [...] it won’t be patentees but law firms who shape the UPC system” (without even consulting the European public, which has nothing to gain from the UPC).

The patent lawyers are aided by their lawyer friends, who wear “politician” hats. “Ironically,” Managing IP (London-based) noted, “Commissioner EB [Elżbieta Bieńkowska] is from Poland – which has decided not to join the #UnitaryPatent (at least for now)!”

“It achieves the very opposite of competitiveness. It helps drive competition out of the market using patents.”Bieńkowska wrote: “Welcome Italy to #UnitaryPatent: a step further towards unitary protection of #innovation in Europe.#Competitiveness”

What is she talking about? It has nothing whatsoever to do with innovation and definitely not with competitiveness (the propaganda word used in europe.eu). It achieves the very opposite of competitiveness. It helps drive competition out of the market using patents. It harms European business. What was Bieńkowska thinking when she wrote this? Corporate tool or just gullible (or “useful idiot” as Stalinist Russia famously put it)? Other politicians, including some British ones like Lady Neville-Rolfe (Tory who fast-tracks/rams down the throats of Brits the UPC before consent is expressed or referendum takes place), are selling away democracy in Europe. It’s a horrible thing to witness, especially because many people don’t even know that this is silently going on. Passivity among the public, caused by lack of communication, drives the UPC. Managing IP joins the misleading “Competitiveness” chorus by writing: “EU Competitiveness Council to sign Protocol on provisional application of #UPC Agreement tomorrow http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/10/1-compet-indicative-programme/ … (w/ Family photo!)”

The family of lawyers (politicians, patent lawyers etc.) is working hard to serve itself at the expense of European citizens, who are kept almost totally in the dark. Amid uncertainty and darkness, Germany, where much of the EPO is based, is now authorising software patents. To quote Patently German: “It is thus quite clear that the FCJ would not have accepted the patent application in its original wording, related to a mathematical method for the determination of the state of a (not further defined) object. Only the restriction of the method to the attitude determination of an airplane provides the required concrete technical application. Would the application also be allowed if the claims were directed not to the attitude determination of a real airplane but one simulated on a computer ? My guess is yes, it would, as in accordance with the rationale expressed by headnote c) of the decision a more reliable knowledge about the attitude of an airplane and thereby influence on the functioning of the attitude detection system (thus the relation to the purposeful use of forces of nature) is obtained also by performing the method of the invention on a flight simulator.”

German pundits say “on ruling by top German court” that “math method patent-eligible if related to using forces of nature” (that is essentially applicable to many if not most software patents, including those in my fields).

Welcome to ‘new’ Europe, where people have no say and corporations get anything they ask for. They even bypass European laws, or rewrite them in private to better suit their interests/convenience, driving competition out of the market and artificially driving up prices. █

“They [EPO examiners] claim that the organisation is decentralising and focusing on granting as many patents as possible to gain financially from fees generated.” —Expatica, European Patent Office staff on strike

10.04.15

IRC Proceedings: September 13th, 2015 – October 3rd, 2015

Posted in IRC Logs at 1:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

IRC Proceedings: September 13th – September 19th, 2015

GNOME Gedit

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#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

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#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

IRC Proceedings: September 20th – September 26th, 2015

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

IRC Proceedings: September 27th – October 3rd, 2015

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

Article Explains Why SUEPO Went Silent Well Over a Week Ago: Nobody is Allowed to Talk to Journalists Without Permission From Battistelli

Posted in Europe, Patents at 12:49 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Intimidation and retribution tactics a new low for EPO

German paper on EPO

Summary: More threats from Benoît Battistelli (threats of termination and legal actions on top of it) help hide the abuses of Battistelli and his fellow thugs at the EPO

TOMORROW we have a very long post coming, regarding the EPO and the UPC. We have meanwhile been trying to figure out why the SUEPO’s Web site has been so quiet as of late and the answer can be found in recent articles. We belately caught up with them this weekend (my wife and I were on vacation at the time of publication).

This one recent article in German, similar to this one [PDF] which covers a recent controversy, makes the reason crystal clear.

Please bear in mind that my German is very weak, so not only my reading comprehension is limited; the translation too is incomplete and it goes like this:

Escalating dispute in the European Patent Office

A unionist fears for her job. Is she being made an example? The Patent Office is silent regarding the allegations.

By Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann

Munich – If staff were threatened with expulsion in a big German corporation/organisation, especially a senior trade unionist and council boss, the outcry would unquestionably be enormous. Although the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich operates based on different standards, even there the story makes big waves. “I am to be terminated and in great danger,” says an employee at the centre of this situation. “I” is the council boss Elizabeth Hardon, also union chairman at the Munich-based union SUEPO and thus part of two organisations. There is a Dutch legal fight raging on for two years now — a dispute between management and staff, in which the gloves are drawn out.

At its centre is the French Office President, Benoit Battistelli, who reformed his extra-state authority with an iron fist. Once he even stopped a demonstration of the workforce. Then it was revealed that employees were spied on in the office using bugs and hidden cameras. SUEPO mails are censored. Now [Battistelli] goes after a unionist.

Recently, Hardon was summoned by an internal investigation department. Hardon should have a colleague present while being bullied. The “confidential and personal” invitation was made accessible by SUEPO, internally, before being publicised. Later, she also appeared on an external blog, bringing up SUEPO but wanting to have nothing to do with it. Thereafter, the unionist received a second letter from personnel manager Elodie Bergot, where her “reasonable steps” and “legal measures” were announced — those which one may translate as expulsion.

Hardon had violated confidentiality obligations, even if they related to their own personal matters. Hardon herself and SUEPO are now condemned to silence. Nobody is allowed to talk to journalists without permission from Battistelli. Disciplinary consequences would otherwise result.

Not all the ‘cows’ are at the office. “The search is only for a pretext justifying kicking them out,” says a patent examiner. He wants to remain anonymous. If Hardon must go, new elections for the council are due. “But who then will still be a candidate who is not fully compliant?” Asks the EPA staff. Anyone contrary [to Battistelli] is dumped — this is the lesson that should be taught here.

The Patent Office does not wish to comment on the case. It concerns an ongoing process and about this one EPO can basically say nothing, regrets a spokeswoman. The same applies to a personnel manager at the council. Battistelli himself insisted on a previous occasion against criticism of his style of reform. He only set up what was commissioned by the 38 European member states of the Patent Office. Workers speak against persistent harassment of critical minds and even censorship. The Office insists on home visits to sick employees, which would be impossible under German labour law. But the office is not subject to national law. Therefore, it also ignored the ruling of a Dutch court, which had criticised various violations of the law in the course of reforms.

What remains is a requirement of the Bavarian Data Protection Officer Thomas Petri [and referral] to an external data protection for the office. A heavy burden is on the unionist when it comes to talks between SUEPO, which seeks official recognition of the union. For such a dialogue to become possible, the Patent Office (38 nations) and Battistelli recently committed, so as to restore the industrial peace in the house. Battistelli now shows, as in the example of Hardon, of how little seriousness this was for him to have trade unionists shake hands, says an EPA employee. The EPO staff will be back to monthly protests against the reforms and the methods by which they are to be enforced, says [one person] defiantly. Whether [Hardon] is fired Battistelli can decide, so any resistance breaks [the deal], estimates another insider. One way or another, a deplorable finale promises to take place at the big authority on German soil.

For anything that can be cited as fact, please refer to the original article in German, not the above, as the translation is of low quality and almost definitely contains serious inaccuracies (especially in particular sentences). █

A Linux World: After Billions of Dollars in Losses Microsoft Changes How It Reports Financial Results

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 10:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Glass building

Summary: The abusive monopolist is trying very hard to hide its growing difficulties, especially in an effort to bamboozle non-technical shareholders who cannot understand how Linux has essentially taken over

Microsoft is cooking the books (see our reports about Microsoft’s financial manipulations and abuses) and is changing the way it reports financial results to its investors yet again, making year-to-year (or quarter-to-quarter) analyses virtually impossible. Well, after reporting billions in losses in the last quarter one can understand the effort to dodge bad publicity for the second time in a row. The company has just been downgraded by Citigroup.

“As Microsoft continues to fall into the abyss expect it to try to drag the competition down too.”Android and Linux are selling a lot more than Windows, or put another way, newly-sold devices running Linux easily outnumber devices running Windows. Microsoft, which is nowhere outside of the aging x86/Wintel empire, was hoping to disrupt ARM but failed miserably (its products got cancelled). ARM is where Free software tends to thrive (it’s a Linux turf), but Microsoft pretends people need it to certify ARM with Microsoft. What a bizarre infiltration and an effort to enter the “IoT” hype (billions of devices) from the back door…

Speaking of infiltrations, Mesos and Microsoft get even closer right now [1, 2, 3]. Readers may recall that Microsoft is likely to take over Mesos/Mesosphere, based on recent reports. It’s about proprietary software, but it’s being falsely advertised as “open” (openwashing).

As Microsoft continues to fall into the abyss expect it to try to drag the competition down too. It means that Linux in particular ought to watch out. Microsoft is not an ally, not even an ally of convenience. █

“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an interpreter.”

–InfoWorld Editor Nicholas Petreley

Microsoft Continues to Extort Linux and Android OEMs Using Software Patents, This Time ASUS (Forced to Pre-Install Microsoft Spyware With OOXML)

Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Open XML, Patents at 10:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Embrace and Extend
Credit: unknown (Twitter)

Summary: A roundup of news illustrating that Microsoft is still very much in a total war against Android, (mis)using federal regulators and even software patents to get its way

MICROSOFT’S attacks on Linux never stopped. Anyone thinking otherwise must not have paid attention. To make matters worse, Microsoft is manipulating the media into pretending that “Microsoft loves Linux” and that there is “peace”. In this post we are going to share some stories of interest to assure readers that nothing has changed except Microsoft’s rhetoric and some of the attacks have become more discreet.

“The FTC is wrong about antitrust fears over Android,” writes Microsoft's booster Bill Snyder in IDG, summarising it as follows: “Microsoft can’t develop a successful mobile operating system, so it’s making a crybaby case against Google”

If Android (Free software) is an antitrust violation, what does that make proprietary software? Microsoft and its proxies, as we have shown over the years, were behind these complaints. Remember that back in the SCO days, i.e. around 2003-2005, the Microsoft minions (and few others) tried to frame the GPL itself as anti-competitive. They failed, but it took time and cost money. One of the first questions that the FTC must tackle here is, who is behind the complaints? They may find that it’s little more than a Turf War. (Mis)Using Feds as pawns in the battle (a Turf War), as in using the government to derail one’s competition (even Free software), should be a crime. It is a waste of resources. When the media claims that Microsoft and Google now have “peace” (on patents) be sure to reminder the reporters of what Microsoft has done to cause Google (and Android) antitrust trouble. It is very well documented and we wrote over a dozen articles touching on this subject alone.

“Tell Mary Jo Foley that this is not a “deal” but an extortion.”As we noted the other day (and many people read this article, some news sites even linked to our analysis), Microsoft under Nadella is no different from Microsoft under Ballmer, at least when it comes to patents. The monopolist, under Nadella specifically, has already attacked Samsung, Kyocera, and Dell (over Linux/Android). Where is the love? Does Microsoft have patent peace with Android now? No, of course not. There is no peace even with Google, there is just a settlement in the Motorola case. Microsoft is leaving Motorola aside and is just attacking the OEMs instead, continuing with this latest assault on ASUS. Microsoft is still blackmailing companies, using patents, into bundling Microsoft spyware with non-standards (lock-in). This is extortion. Tell Mary Jo Foley that this is not a “deal” but an extortion. Tell this to others who believed that we have a ‘peace’ for our time after Google and Microsoft reached one settlement (regarding Motorola).

Android is being infiltrated by Microsoft now. It wouldn’t have worked without patent extortion. As Microsoft’s Mouth (Mary Jo Foley) put it: “As nearly two-dozen Android, Chrome OS and Linux vendors are doing, ASUS seemingly is licensing Microsoft’s patents to cover anything that is in those operating systems which potentially infringes on Microsoft’s intellectual property.

“But ASUS also is agreeing, as part of the deal announced today, to pre-install unspecified Microsoft “productivity services” on Android smartphones and tablets. When I asked, a Microsoft spokesperson said the services included the Microsoft Office suite.”

“Patents are being used for leverage.”So Microsoft is embracing and taking over Android inside ASUS. Remember the ASUS EEE? It used to run GNU/Linux before Microsoft intervened. Microsoft calls it EEE, which also stands for “embrace, extend, extinguish” — Microsoft's currently principal strategy against Android. Mark Hachman chose the headline “Microsoft strikes a deal with Asus: We won’t sue if you put Office on your Android devices” (we fought for years against it, starting with the Microsoft/Novell deal). Untimately what we are seeing it is a strategy that first became publicly known after Microsoft had done this to Samsung (earlier this year). Threatening to sue companies if they don’t serve Microsoft’s agenda is not a new strategy even when it comes to GNU/Linux as a whole, Android set aside. See the Microsoft/Novell deal (2006). Patents are being used for leverage.

The media has hardly covered this scandal. Reuters is busy writing about the Microsoft/Google settlement and Microsoft propagandists are everywhere to be seen. Why does ECT, for example, keep quoting its occasional writer Rob Enderle as an ‘expert’ regarding Microsoft, which paid him for Linux FUD? It’s gross. ETC talks about “Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.” It’s a one-man group and he gets paid by ECT and Microsoft. Why is he approached for his views on Android and Google? Do they think the readers are this dumb? Here is some promotional Microsoft messaging found therein: “There’s strong, scientifically verifiable evidence indicating Microsoft’s move to join the rest of the tech world in open source and collaboration was propelled by a compelling force: the Nadella effect. While tech analysts and reporters had fun with CEO Satya Nadella’s odd “cloud first, mobile first” mantra last summer, his much less concise — yet more encouraging — message has been one of collaboration, and meeting consumers on their terms. For example, Microsoft pushed Office 365 to all major platforms.”

ECT quoted Enderle not just once but at least twice last week, in both cases regarding Linux matters, e.g. in this article titled “Microsoft Pushes Deeper Into Linux, Containers, IoT”. In it, ECT asks Hilwa, who used to work for Microsoft, about Microsoft and Linux (no disclosure in the article about his Microsoft background). Rob Enderle, who also worked for ECT and is notoriously close to Microsoft, is simply described by ECT as “Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.”

“Rob Enderle, who also worked for ECT and is notoriously close to Microsoft, is simply described by ECT as “Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.””What a sham. Richard Adhikari basically interviews Microsoft moles regarding Linux when he’s not busy writing his lots of anti-Android articles (usually regarding security). Al Hilwa and Rob Enderle being his “sources” tells us a lot more about him, perhaps his agenda too. Well, to be fair and to give him the benefit of the doubt here, quite often when it comes to so-called ‘analysts’, everywhere you look it’s proprietary software (e.g. Microsoft) and its minions. Even Dana Blankenhorn, who used to cover Open Source for ZDNet (sometimes being an apologist for Microsoft), has just said in the financial press that “Microsoft has stopped fighting with open source” .

Well, that is complete and utter nonsense. It didn’t stop, Microsoft still does all sorts of things to both Linux and Android. Other financial press says that Microsoft “has finally succumbed to the free OS Linux” because Microsoft copies Linux code, raising all sorts of GPL-related questions and potential issues [1, 2].

the bottom line is, don’t believe for even a second that Microsoft is some gentle aging giant. It’s a vicious abusive monopolist, as its actions against Android (in particular Android because of the platform’s market share) continue to demonstrate. █

Links 4/10/2015: Linux 4.2.3 , 4.1.10; MPlayer 1.2 released

Posted in News Roundup at 8:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • Curious about Linux? Try Linux Desktop on the Cloud

      Linux maintains a very small market share as a desktop operating system. Current surveys estimate its share to be a mere 2%; contrast that with the various strains (no pun intended) of Windows which total nearly 90% of the desktop market. For Linux to challenge Microsoft’s monopoly on the desktop, there needs to be a simple way of learning about this different operating system. And it would be naive to believe a typical Windows user is going to buy a second machine, tinker with partitioning a hard disk to set up a multi-boot system, or just jump ship to Linux without an easy way back.

  • Server

    • A gentle introduction to microservices

      What are microservices? Have you heard the phrase “microservices” used in a discussion of modern application development and wondered what it’s all about?

  • Kernel Space

    • The Art of Communicating with LKML

      For most users of distros, the distro bug system is the first line of interaction when something kernel related breaks on their system. This makes sense: the kernel most users are using is packaged by a distro so the maintainers should be the first ones to take a look at the problem. Inevitably though, something will arise such that the solution cannot come from the distro maintainers and must come from the greater kernel community. Sometimes the distro maintainers can do the follow up but there may be a request for the bug reporter or reproducer to contact the kernel mailing list directly. Now everything depends on how successful the person is in communicating with LKML.

    • Linux 4.2.3
    • Linux 4.1.10
    • There’s A Lot Of Exciting AMDGPU DRM Code Brewing For Eventual Catalyst Support

      One of the big items still in the works as part of AMD’s unified Linux driver strategy is that the Catalyst proprietary driver will be isolated to user-space and make use of the AMDGPU kernel DRM driver. Being publicly now in development in a few code branches are changes to the AMD DRM code for beginning to suit more of it to Catalyst’s driver design.

    • Linux Kernel 4.2.3 Is Out with Open vSwitch and IPv6 Fixes, Updated Networking Drivers

      After only 4 days from the release of the second maintenance version of the Linux 4.2 kernel series, Greg Kroah-Hartman comes today, October 3, with news about the release of Linux kernel 4.2.3.

    • Linux Foundation Says Open Source Code Worth $5 Billion

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • KDE Ships Plasma 5.4.2, bugfix Release for October

        Tuesday, 06 October 2015. Today KDE releases a bugfix update to Plasma 5, versioned 5.4.2. Plasma 5.4 was released in August with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

      • KDE Plasma 5.4.2, bugfix Release for October, is already landing in Kubuntu Wily
      • Kubuntu 15.10 Will Have KDE Plasma 5.4.2

        Kubuntu 15.10 “Wily Werewolf” is being released later this month and it will feature the very latest KDE Plasma 5.4 point release.

        Plasma 5.4.2 isn’t being released until next week but the Kubuntu crew is pushing it early into 15.10 Wily now to ensure it arrives with the 15.10 debut.

      • Randa Meetings update

        I am really not a person who blogs much and its bit late, please bare with me in case if anyone does not like the way article is written or how it is formatted. I really feel good being KDE user since 2005. Officially I started coding / contributing to minor stuff in KDE in 2010. Switzerland is an awesome place and I really liked Randa. Speaking of Switzerland, for me those trains are art of engineering. I would like to thank KDE e.v. and other sponsors for making this event happen.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • GNOME’s 2014 Annual Report Published

        For those wondering about the state of GNOME, their annual report is now available.

        The GNOME Foundation 2014 annual report covers their financial situation, their trademark battle with GroupOn, their temporary financial shortfall due to the OPW project, the hack/developer events engaged in, and much more.

  • Distributions

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Nest Labs advances its Weave home automation ecosystem

      Google’s Nest Labs subsidiary announced more details about the Weave peer-to-peer networking protocol for home automation devices. Nest, which sells the popular Nest Learning Thermostat and other Linux-based home automation products, says it has added Weave to its Works with Nest connected ecosystem program. It also announced the vendors that will support Weave when it is released in 2016, starting with Yale and its “Linus” smart lock (see farther below).

    • Headless box-PC has six GbE ports, runs Linux on G-Series

      Acrosser’s “AND-G420N1” compact headless networking appliance runs Linux on a quad-core 2GHz AMD G-Series SoC, and offers SATA-II storage and six GbE ports.

      Acrosser refers to the AND-G420N1 as a desktop networking microbox, as well as a “cost-effective niche solution.” The networking appliance runs Ubuntu or Fedora Linux on an AMD G-Series GX-420MC SoC

    • OpenDerby Update

      Last year I built a new derby track for my son’s royal rangers group. I used a RaspberryPi with Pidora on it to run the timing system.

    • Phones

      • Five things that doomed the big and brilliant BlackBerry 10

        And being late matters. In a globalised technology industry, hundreds of smaller industries, and their own supply chains, all line themselves up alongside the winners. Being late and going it alone is suicidal. Ask Nokia: it envisaged a ‘computer first, phone second world’ as far back as 2002, when it started Linux development, and devoted billions to being sure it would be competitive when this world came about. But consumers and industry had already anointed a second platform.

      • Tizen

        • [Wallpapers] Tizen Themed Samsung Gear S2 Backgrounds – Vol 1

          Following the release of the Samsung Gear S2 in the US, Korea, Singapore and Germany makets, Tizen Experts present you with custom Gear S2 wallpapers / backgrounds. To celebrate the Smartwatches history, these first batch of wallpapers will have a Tizen theme to them, after all the Gear S2 runs the Tizen Operating System. You can download them directly from our site either using your computer or your mobile device, and then easily transfer them to your Gear S2 Smartwatch.

      • Android

        • Blackphone: privacy-obsessed smartphone aims to broaden its appeal

          Can you hear me now? Not if you’re eavesdropping on a Blackphone. Privacy company Silent Circle has released a second version of its signature handheld, a smartphone designed to quell the data scraping and web tracking that’s become such an integral part of the digital economy in the last few years (and whose results might well end up with the NSA, if the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act passes).

        • Blackphone 2: NSA-thwarting Android smartphone goes on sale

          The handset runs a new version of the firm’s Android-based SilentOS, and comes with features including Silent Circle’s Silent Phone app, which offers encrypted voice calls, messaging and file transfers.

        • Android fans have yet another reason to cheer Motorola

          Android fans have a lot of good reasons to root for Motorola these days and the company gave them a brand-new one on Friday. Motorola not only announced which of its phones would be getting upgraded to Android but it also announced that it would actually be deleting two pieces of its own software from those devices to make the upgrade process go even faster.

        • Data indicates that Android picked up global market share from iOS last month

          Tracking mobile web traffic, NetMarketShare computes the market share for mobile operating systems. Based on the data from last month, Android was able to widen its gap over iOS globally. Considering that the Apple iPhone 6s and Apple iPhone 6s Plus weren’t launched until September 25th, the recently released phones accounted for a miniscule part of the data. The new models won’t have a major effect on the results until the figures for this month are released.

        • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 review: One of the best Android tablets available out there

          Reasonably priced in comparison to its rivals, the Tab S2 with its powerful display and fast processor could be the best Android tablet available in the market today.

        • Nvidia Shield Android TV review

          Overall, Nvidia, Apple and Amazon have a clear strategy here. They want to revolutionise the way we interact with television, and they want to provide ‘capable enough’ games machines that appeal to the mainstream too. Nvidia is going one step further – it’s looking to attract core gamers on top of that with its Shield platform and GeForce functionality. But without all of the required media options properly in place and completely integrated into the highly promising interface, what we’re left with is an enthusiasts’ machine where only the core can really put the excellent hardware through its paces.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Three students jump into open source with OpenMRS and Sahana Eden

    We are three students in the Bachelor of Computer Science second degree program at the University of British Columbia (UBC). As we each have cooperative education experience, our technical ability and contributions have increasingly become a point of focus as we approach graduation. Our past couple of years at UBC have allowed us to produce some great technical content, but we all found ourselves with one component noticeably absent from our resumes: an open source contribution. While the reasons for this are varied, they all stem from the fact that making a contribution involves a set of skills that goes far beyond anything taught in the classroom or even learned during an internship. It requires a person to be outgoing with complete strangers, to be proactive in seeking out problems to solve, and to have effective written communication.

  • Your field’s talent is expecting openness

    Open source social and cultural history is the antithesis of traditional organizational management structures, and, unfortunately, it’s younger. Emotion is influenced by surroundings and norms, and what we learned about hierarchy when we were growing up influences how we participate in business today.

  • Events

  • SaaS/Big Data

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • BSD

    • Call for Testing: tame userland diff

      The full diff follows in the original mail, but it’s probably simpler to just use a snapshot. For those of you who’ve been looking forward to seeing how it handles, now’s the time to find out.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Pipe dream – Debian GNU/Hurd 8 Review

      GNU Hurd – microkernel and part of GNU Project. Hurd means “Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons”, Hird – “Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth. Total recursion! Development started in 1990 (before Linux kernel) as part of plans to create fully free and open source operation system. Unlike the Linux kernel Hurd have a lot of system daemons (you can see it on video) run by GNU Mach microkernel and some specific system protocols. Popularity of Linux lowered Hurd’s priority, but project progress all this 25+ years.

    • Software that liberates people: feels about FSF@30 and OSFeels@1

      tl;dr: I want to liberate people; software is a (critical) tool to that end. There is a conference this weekend that understands that, but I worry it isn’t FSF’s.

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Programming

    • Teach, Don’t Tell

      This post is about writing technical documentation. More specifically: it’s about writing documentation for programming languages and libraries.

      [...]

      Let’s get started. The first thing to nail down is why we’re documenting a programming language or library in the first place.

    • Remote-First vs. Remote-Friendly

      A lot of companies are using tools like Slack, Hangouts, and GitLab…

Leftovers

10.02.15

Links 2/10/2015: Qubes 3.0, Linux.Wifatch

Posted in News Roundup at 5:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • Why your Linux PC isn’t vulnerable to the devastating XOR DDoS malware

      Linux isn’t perfectly secure, but there’s no big Linux exploit story here. The real problem is how many poorly configured Linux systems exist in the real world. Linux isn’t a magic bullet that will make a system secure—it has to be locked down properly, too.

    • Google Chromebooks: The most popular classroom computing device

      In Apple’s place, Google with its Chromebooks have stepped in. Chromebooks are cheaper, easier to manage, and easy to share between students. The low upfront price is a big factor, but there’s far more.

      For example, Google offers programs just for schools, Google Apps for Education Suite; class-specific ChromeOS and Android apps, and Google Play for Education. Chromebooks that come with Google Play for Education range at prices from $199 to $227.

    • Kali Linux: Why Aren’t We Arguing More about Mr Robot?

      In episode 0 of Mr Robot, we’re introduced to our hiro protagonist [Elliot], played by [Rami Malek], a tech at the security firm AllSafe. We are also introduced to the show’s Macbeth, [Tyrell Wellick], played by Martin Wallström]. When these characters are introduced to each other, [Tyrell] notices [Elliot] is using the Gnome desktop on his work computer while [Tyrell] says he’s, “actually on KDE myself. I know [Gnome] is supposed to be better, but you know what they say, old habits, they die hard.”

  • Server

    • Google and NASA are getting a new quantum computer

      The famous Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab is getting some powerful new hardware. A joint project between Google, NASA, and the Universities Space Research Association, the Quantum AI Lab today announced a multiyear agreement to install a D-Wave 2X, a state-of-the-art quantum processor released earlier this year. With over 1,000 qubits, the machine is the most powerful computer of its kind, and will be put to work tackling difficult optimization problems for both Google and NASA.

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Kubuntu: Plasma 5.4.2 Ready testing! Come join the fun.

        Today we have the latest Plasma 5.4.2 ready for Wily (backports will not be made until this one has been tested and released)

      • The Future of Kontact

        Supplemental to what we reported previously about the work in Randa [1, 2] there was a session on the future of Kontact, KDE’s personal information manager (PIM). Over the years this tool has evolved into a monster making both development as well as usage sometimes tricky. It’s time to cut hydra’s arms.

  • Distributions

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Compact, low power IoT gateway runs Linux on i.MX6

      VIA’s 30mm tall “Artigo A820” IoT gateway runs Linux on an i.MX6 DualLite, and offers optional WiFi and 3G in addition to Fast and GbE Ethernet ports.

      Like last year’s Artigo A900 mini-PC, the Artigo A820 runs Linux on a dual-core, 1GHz Cortex-A9 SoC. This time, however, VIA Technologies has turned to Freescale’s i.MX6 DualLite SoC instead of its own Via Elite E1000.

    • Phones

      • Fairphone launches v2 of it conflict-free, upgradeable smartphone

        There’s a company offering a repairable and upgradable smartphone out there and Jack Wallen believe it is just what the world needs. Read on to see if you agree.

      • Android

        • Facebook gives Android a kick in the byte code

          To improve the mobile performance of its social network, Facebook is enhancing Java bytecode on the Android platform with its Redex project, providing a pipeline for optimizing Android DEX (Dalvik Executable) files.

        • 13 of the best Android apps from September

          Coming off the back of the summer holidays always make September a busy month and this year it was no different.

          From useful spam fighting options arriving for Gmail to movie tracking and the launch of a huge repository of online tutorials across a range of subjects.

          We’ve sorted the wheat from the chaff and what follows is the best new and updated apps from September.

          All you need to do is clear a few minutes in your schedule and click your way through the list.

        • Google reveals new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices

          Google’s Chromecast streaming media player has proven to be a popular item on Amazon, getting four star ratings and lots of positive comments from Amazon customers. Now Google has announced a brand new Chromecast, and also the new Chromecast Audio device.

        • Hands on: Google Pixel C convertible tablet

          It’s difficult to tell if the new Google Pixel C is a great idea, or an awful one. It feels like a greatest hits list of Windows 8 convertible failures. It’s a clamshell, and the tablet is connected to the keyboard via magnets. But to open it or close it, you have to pull it apart and reconnect it. You can also flip the tablet upright and stick the keyboard to the back of it, though it makes the tablet thicker and heavier than you may like. The entire converting process is messy. Google tries to cover it all up with a beautiful aluminum design and smooth hinges that adjust angle easily. But will it be fun to use every day? I’m not so sure.

        • Google announces the LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P; pre-orders start today

          Google has officially taken the wraps off its new flagship smartphone lineup. In keeping with the current smartphone release trends, Google is announcing two devices today: the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. The 5X is made by LG, and the 6P is made by Huawei. The Nexus 5X starts at $379, and the 6P starts at $499, and both phones will ship later this month. Pricing for other territories is starting to dribble in—the Nexus 5X and 6P will begin at £339 and £449 respectively in the UK—but we’ll update the article with more complete information as it’s made available.

        • Google announces the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio

          The new Chromecast has a disk-like design, a departure from the original’s dongle construction. Its improved internals should also make streaming easier and faster. Now featuring three antennas, it supports 5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi for faster connectivity and heavier formats like 1080p. While the new Chromecast handles video and game streaming, the Chromecast Audio device will handle streaming music or podcasts. The new Chromecast plugs into a device with HDMI; Audio uses both optical and headphone jacks to plug into speakers.

        • Huawei’s first Android Wear watch is a beautiful yet basic timepiece

          Huawei isn’t exactly the first company that comes to mind when you think of stylish connected devices. The Chinese manufacturer has delved into wearables with its TalkBand series, but those were slow to come to the US and their fitness tracker-meets-Bluetooth-headset capabilities were peculiar. Now Huawei wants to test the waters of Google’s wearable OS with its new smartwatch, simply dubbed the Huawei Watch, and it’s a solid first attempt at Android Wear.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Apache Foundation retains informal vibe to manage $1m of open-source projects

    The Apache open-source community gathered at its annual conference in Europe this week to collaborate on new projects to drive the future of the web and cloud ecosystems, with a handful of new projects under incubation.

  • Seize the opportunity to explain open source

    Kids have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. I would estimate that all of us with children have had them go through a phase of asking “Why?” constantly. In truth, it often comes at the most inconvenient moment for a parent; like when the world is literally going to explode unless your child puts down the green marker pen, and instead of doing it, they just look up at you and ask “Why?” I was no different. I went through the “Why?” phase. My daughter has been through it and my nephew is going through it right now.

  • AWS launches a managed Elasticsearch service
  • Amazon launches managed Elasticsearch service
  • AWS debuts Elasticsearch Search, its distributed search and analytics engine
  • Amazon flings open source Elasticsearch at Big Data’s cloud
  • New Amazon Elasticsearch service eases setup, with exceptions
  • Amazon Adds Open Source Elasticsearch Platform to AWS Cloud

    Elasticsearch is a Java-based open source framework for searching textual documents on a massive scale. It is designed to be highly scalable and compatible with cluster-based distributed-computing infrastructure.

  • IBM and EMC team up: There’s no “I” in open source

    Sometimes when you are distracting the signal from the noise, you get an exclusive. Today theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, got the full story on the EMC and IBM partnership to work in an open-source environment to make Hadoop more accessible to the enterprise.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox Is Much Better than Any Other Browser and Here’s Why

        We often read about comparative tests between browsers and we see that Google Chrome or Opera are extremely fast, or that some other browser gets really good scores in rendering, and so on. The truth is that none of that really matters when you are using browsers in the real world, and in the real world Firefox shines and it’s head and shoulders above everything else.

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • The return of TryStack, life as a PTL, and more OpenStack news

      Interested in keeping track of what’s happening in the open source cloud?

    • A Brief Comparison of Mesos and Kubernetes

      The recent announcement of Mesos on Windows means developers and organizations that work between Linux and Windows platforms may use their own tools without requiring heavy resource management. Those working with the Google Cloud Engine may prefer working with Kubernetes, while people accustomed to Microsoft Azure may enjoy the Mesosphere workflow pipeline. Each has their own strengths and shortcomings, though the gap between stack management services lessens as more technology is brought to other platforms.

    • MapR Technologies Unveils In-Hadoop Document Database

      MapR integrates Web-scale enterprise storage and real-time database management and adds native JSON support to MapR-DB, its NoSQL database.

  • Databases

    • Pivotal Aims at Oracle Database Business with Open Source Tech

      Software company Pivotal is taking on Oracle’s traditional database business with its latest effort to advance open source. The company is contributing both HAWQ advanced SQL on Hortonworks’ Hadoop analytics and MADlib machine learning technologies to The Apache Software Foundation (ASF).

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • CMS

    • If Drupal were a band it would be Rush

      Getting my clients’ developers and sysadmins to stick to all of the documented processes I’ve set up for them.

      I have years of experience implementing Drupal-based solutions, so I have a rather solid understanding of what works and what doesn’t. But some folks without any experience with Drupal try to shoehorn it into incompatible environments. I do my best to explain all of this and why to ensure that, when I’m gone, folks can take all of my wiki documentation and run with it (use it and update it as necessary).

  • Business

    • Semi-Open Source

  • BSD

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • What do you have to say? Share it at LibrePlanet 2016

      LibrePlanet 2016 is coming! Next year’s conference will be held **March 19-20, 2016 in the Boston area**. The call for proposals is open now, until November 16th. General registration and exhibitor registration will open later in October.

    • Chicago GNU/Linux talk on Guix retrospective

      Friends… friends! I gave a talk on Guix last night in Chicago, and it went amazingly well. That feels like an undersell actually; it went remarkably well. There were 25 people, and apparently there was quite the waitlist, but I was really happy with the set of people who were in the room. I haven’t talked about Guix in front of an audience before and I was afraid it would be a dud, but it’s hard to explain the reaction I got. It felt like there was a general consensus in the room: Guix is taking the right approach to things.

  • Public Services/Government

    • EC to increase open source for software development

      The European Commission aims to primarily use open source tools for developing software that is distributed publicly, shows an overview on open source adoption that was presented last week by the EC’s Directorate General of Informatics (DIGIT) at a conference in Tampere (Finland). Already much of the EC’s own software is developed using open source. However, over the next 3 years, DIGIT will push to make ‘open source first’ the target for all the new EC software development projects.

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Programming

    • Most Popular Programming Languages In The IT industry

      Programmers are always in high demand these days for jobs, especially if they have fluency in coding language. Learning programming in various languages for engineers is a no-brainer, but some basic understanding of the languages can be invaluable to anyone, even if you’re not looking forward to becoming a master coder.

    • PHPUnit 5.0
    • PHP version 5.5.30 and 5.6.14

      RPM of PHP version 5.6.14 are available in remi repository for Fedora ≥ 21 and remi-php56 repository for Fedora ≤ 20 and Enterprise Linux (RHEL, CentOS).

Leftovers

Microsoft-Connected Firm Net Applications Used to Mislead About Vista 10 Share and Mock GNU/Linux

Posted in Microsoft, Vista 10, Windows at 5:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Net Applications

Summary: People who are connected to Microsoft (some being former staff) link to a firm that is connected to Microsoft in order to create the illusion that Vista 10 market share grew to 6.63%

Developers from Microsoft privately told me that Microsoft wants to keep Vista 10 figures secret. Why? Because it’s embarrassing. If people knew the truth, it would be damaging to Microsoft’s business and stock. Our Vista 10 Wiki page has been accessed more than 10,000 times since the release of the operating system, so there is clearly a thirst for real facts, not marketing, regarding Vista 10.

Boosters of Microsoft are now working quite hard (maybe overtime) to change perceptions about Vista 10 adoption rates. Microsoft Emil (Emil Protalinski) uses data from Microsoft’s partner in order to make Vista 10 look bigger than it is whilst also making fun of GNU/Linux, with the snide remark “Linux finally passes Windows Vista” (right there in the headline!).

“I’ve read the article,” told me this one person, “and the guy belittles Linux, saying now it surpassed Vista… What a moron.” Well, he is a longtime Microsoft booster, a predecessor of Microsoft Peter at the increasingly Microsoft-leaning Condé Nast (Microsoft literally pays them for this). Microsoft Emil isn’t being honest; he may be trying reinforce the myth of Linux as a failure, despite Android, Red Hat, etc. Recall what Microsoft said in internal evangelism documents [PDF]: “Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”

There is generally a lot of Vista 10 propaganda right now, always citing Microsoft-linked data and usually coming from Microsoft-linked people, e.g. from Lance Whitney, who used to work for a Microsoft publisher before joining CNET, i.e. CBS. Well, he does the same as Emil, using the same disgraced firm with its biased data.

Gregg Keizer too cites Net Applications, despite his history being somewhat sceptical of Microsoft. Does he know that Net Applications is not a reliable source of web statistics? It’s biased by selection (e.g. of sites to sample from) and linked closely to Microsoft (with Microsoft's money on the table), even in the staff sense. Watch their list of clients and list of staff. A familiar ploy?

A sort of ‘broken telephone’ effect passed this message to a lot of sites yesterday [1, 2, 3, 4], leaving people with the false impression that Vista 10 experienced decent growth/adoption.

Microsoft boosters like Bogdan Popa, Microsoft affiliates like Wayne Williams, and Microsoft advocacy sites like WinBeta are doing what is effectively marketing, not journalism, always citing data from the same Microsoft-connected firm. That’s like asking a Red Hat partner and citing it regarding server share of RHEL (worldwide). It’s a mockery of the very notion of journalism.

Vista 10 market share is vastly smaller than reported right now by many sites, all of which link to a Microsoft-connected firm, except perhaps Gregg Keizer’s colleague from IDG. He wrote that “Windows 10 uptake is falling back to earth after an explosive first month.”

Well, it wasn’t explosive at all, it was virtually force-fed with a zero-cost claim and despite that, it still has shown little progress. Judging by our logs at Techrights, Vista 10 now has a market share of 1.01%. Judging by our logs at Tux Machines, Vista 10 now has a market share of 0.201%. These logs of course aren’t being shared with villaneous companies like Net Applications, which probably sample lots of sites that attract Windows users. GNU/Linux is a privacy-respecting niche and sites that welcome many GNU/Linux users probably hardly spy on their visitors (log sharing practices), or have the GNU/Linux clients masked at the visitors’ request (think of DoNotTrack for instance). █

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