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Comment Profile of the dissenting commissioner (Score 2) 131

This seems like such an obvious improvement that I was curious about the one commissioner who voted against it. It turns out he, Andrew Ferguson, is expected to be nominated and confirmed to be the head of the FTC under the upcoming administration. Some info about the anticipated new head of the FTC:

* UVA undergrad and law degrees
* worked for private firms defending against anti-trust enforcement
* clerked for Clarence Thomas
* worked for Republican senators on judicial confirmations
* solicitor general for Virginia
* appointed to FTC in 2023

We will see how things change under his leadership.

Comment Re:good for them! (Score 1) 114

Agreed. I think he should at least have shown them a credible business plan (maybe he did behind closed doors?) and taken part of the risk.
Such as Open AI paying for half of the investment, repayable in manufactured goods. Then if the grand vision collapses into fairy dust, TSMC would have gained a manufacturing plant at half the price.

Comment Re:Definitions (Score 1) 40

Not entirely unmaintainable, I think there would still be small companies. The sort one can build in their professional lives. Some may even become big like Microsoft did (Bill Gates is still around). But I think most people would just retire once they are wealthy enough, when their children cannot inherit their stuff either way, instead of growing the business further.

Which leaves the question what to do with the non-inheritable businesses. Bundle them into a planned economy? Capitalism has its problems, but communism tends to be inefficient enough that it works even less.

Comment Re:Both people affected by this are furious (Score 1) 47

I don't know of anyone who was ripping personal CDs and applying DRM to them using Windows Media Player (I didn't know you could even do that)

Neither did I know that was possible. When I started ripping CDs, I did not even consider a DRMed format as target. Instead it was CD => FLAC or CD => MP3 if I wanted to keep file sizes small. And in my circle of acquaintances it was the same.

I guess that leaves a small minority of Windows users shafted. Bad for them, but for the rest of us it is a reminder why to avoid DRM.

Comment Re:LibreOffice supports Python integration since d (Score 1) 67

Yes, this is unlikely to be challenged in court unless someone else's business model is threatened by it (and the someone has enough money for the lawsuit).

There have been expensive lawsuits about software copyrights such as Google vs. Oracle (https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGoogle_vs_Oracle), but here I don't yet see who would be sufficiently motivated to sue.

Comment Re:Well I presume they aren't lying to themselves (Score 1) 120

According to Wikipedia, Intel introduced SSE 4.2 in the Nehalem architecture, released 2008. AMD took a bit longer, but followed in 2011 with Bulldozer. Allowing some time to clear out old stocks, I guess very few computers without SSE 4.2 support was sold less than ten years ago.

If computers need to be retired because of Windows 11, it is likely not because of SSE 4.2, but because of higher memory and performance requirements.

Comment Re: Remind me, what does the F in FOSS stand for? (Score 1) 102

I remember that was an important point in Linus' reasoning, maybe even the main point.

Also (my opinion) forcing a move to GPLv3 might have triggered a further fragmentation of the Open Source landscape, because existing GPLv2 licenses cannot be recalled by the original developer of the software. We would have seen a bunch of forks that remain under GPLv2.

Comment Re:First post (Score 1) 171

I doubt desktop gaming will go away anytime soon. Its death has often been predicted but obviously not happened.
Other than that, I like the idea of the stability "workstation" suggests, rather than a dumbed down vehicle for random marketing whims of the OS maker. Windows is going exactly in the wrong direction there.

Personally, I don't want Windows 11 even if I get it for free.

Comment Re:The grand master plan of crypto (Score 1) 86

The risk in the traditional sense is that the exchange rate of the cryptocurrency will tank. That risk is (hopefully) well understood by investors.
In this case, the crypto exchange asks their customers to take part of the exchange company's loss. I expect lawsuits over this.

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