ZDNet today has an interesting article entitled “Five crucial things the Linux community doesn’t understand about the average computer user” in which technology author Adrian Kingsley-Hughes explains why the majority of consumers continue to prefer Windows or Mac over the many different available Linux alternatives. 

MSNBC reports that “

[n]ew rules by a Chinese government-backed Internet group maintain strict controls over the country’s bloggers, requiring them to register with their real names and identification cards.  The guidelines from the Internet Society of China, a group made up of China’s major Internet companies, contradict state media reports this week claiming that China was considering loosening registration requirements for bloggers to allow anonymous online journals.”

According to the Financial Times, senior officials at Europe’s top court ruled on Wednesday morning that “[w]orkers’ rights – such as the right to strike and bargain collectively – do not automatically trump the principle of freedom of establishment for employers.  But in two closely-watched but finely-nuanced opinions released by the European Court of Justice, the advisers went on to say that unions could also take collective action – such as a blockade – to persuade a company based elsewhere in the EU to pay foreign workers in line with domestic rates.  […]  And unions could also take collective action to dissuade a company from relocating within the EU, although there were limits on how far such action could go.”

eWeek.com writes that “House lawmakers [on Tuesday] approved a bill providing for up to five years in jail for those who use spyware to commit fraud.”

The BBC reports that “[a] group of African countries have agreed to adopt common external tariffs in an effort to boost trade and move towards a fully-fledged customs union.  Members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa trade bloc, including Egypt, Libya and Zimbabwe, agreed the move at a summit in Kenya.  A single tariff will be set for imports of finished goods and raw materials.”