### Issue 2117 - Wednesday 26th June, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Europe reckons Microsoft's bundling of Teams with Office subscriptions is unfair
- Treasury cooking up ways to force Facebook to allow news links if they decide to quit
- Meta adds another fediverse feature to Threads
- SerenityOS splits Ladybird browser out to own project & Andreas to lead development
- Cheap LG & TCL TVs, refurb Surface Book 3, 1000/400 NBN plan, Lenovo Tab M11, Anker wireless charging stand, Vodafone & Optus SIMs, Sony lens, Google Pixel 8, Belkin battery, Valve Steam Deck

## The News

### Europe reckons Microsoft's bundling of Teams with Office subscriptions is unfair

Fresh from enforcing the DMA on Apple, the European Commission said "Microsoft has breached EU antitrust rules by tying its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular productivity applications included in its suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365" and is now investigating them. If you've watched Microsoft's activity with Teams during the COVID pandemic to now, is very hard to disagree with. So many smaller players in the collaboration/meeting/team communication space that were gaining a foothold were kicked to the curb when most businesses realised Teams (despite its faults) is good enough and free with Microsoft/Office 365 they're already paying for. By the time Microsoft started charging for Teams, it was entrenched in most businesses so they just kept the status quo going and coughed up the cash. If you're Microsoft, of course you'd do this, it makes so much sense - but is it fair to the rest of the market? Absolutely not and of all companies, Microsoft should know better.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Treasury cooking up ways to force Facebook to allow news links if they decide to quit

We know that if the federal government continues to force Meta into paying publishers for the privilege of linking to news articles via the News Media Bargaining Code, Meta will just stop allowing links to those publishers rather than pay their ransom - something they did in Canada a year ago. Treasury knows this and told a parliamentary inquiry into social media yesterday that they are "exploring" what they can do to "encourage them to continue, to encourage or force them [to] continue to carry news in those circumstances". Meanwhile, News Corp told the inquiry last week that "new laws should be introduced to force the social media companies to comply, and if they refuse then they should be banned in Australia". Yes, ban Facebook in Australia. I'm all for it.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Meta adds another fediverse feature to Threads

Also in Meta related news, they're slowly integrating Threads into the fediverse/Mastodon. From Meta's blog post: "People 18 and over with public Threads profiles in 100+ countries can turn on sharing to the fediverse. If you turn on sharing to the fediverse, people on other fediverse servers will be able to search for and follow your Threads profile, see and interact with your content, and share your content with anyone on or off their server". According to Threads' documentation, "you currently can't share or reply back to replies you see on Threads from users on other servers". You can't follow Mastodon users on Threads yet either. There's also the issue where your Mastodon server is ideologically anti-Meta and blocks threads.net from interacting with the server's users.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### SerenityOS splits Ladybird browser out to own project & Andreas to lead development

LWN has a nice write up about the Ladybird web browser. If that name sounds familiar, it's a project by Andreas Kling, who was responsible for the cool SerenityOS hobby operating system. Serenity needed a web browser, so Andreas and other contributors started to build their own browser too. After working on both the OS and browser for a few years, Andreas decided to split Ladybird out as a separate project from SerenityOS and lead Ladybird's development, leaving the work on SerenityOS to the large community he assembled. Andreas doesn't mention it, but Ladybird could actually be a legitimate alternative to Firefox or Chrome or Webkit one day, whereas SerenityOS - as lovely and nostalgic as it is - will probably never be anyone's first choice daily driver operating system.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Bargains

- LG OLED65C4PSA 65" OLED TV - $2,770 from Appliance Central
- Refurb Microsoft Surface Book 3 (i5-1035G7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $539 from MetroCom
- Leaptel has dropped their 1000/400 FTTP NBN plan down from $230 to $180/m as of the 1st of July (if you plan on signing up, please use my referral link!)
- Lenovo Tab M11 LTE 128GB/8GB 11" with Tab Pen - $260.33 from Sydneymobiles eBay store
- TCL C855 85" QD Mini-LED TV - $2,735 + delivery from Appliance Central
- Anker Wireless 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Stand - $33.99 from Amazon
- Vodafone 240GB 1-Year Prepaid Starter Pack - $149 at Officeworks
- Sony SEL70200G2 70-200mm G II F4 Zoom Lens - $1,644.95 after cashback from Ryda
- Optus pre-paid 365-day SIM with 260GB data - $120 after Cashrewards cashback
- Google Pixel 8 128GB - $798 from Harvey Norman
- Belkin BoostCharge 15W 20000mAh Power Bank - $41.94 from Pop Phones AU
- Valve Steam Deck LCD 64GB - $543.20 from Mobileciti's eBay store

## Image Of The Day

Apple Media Image Disc August 1995 (Sketch the Cow / Internet Archive)

## The End

📻 Cathy's Clown - You Am I

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.