Yeah, happened a couple weeks ago
I'm suprised you'd even post about it
Mark is doing solo work, which I prefer, since he was only on stage less than a third of the time. I'm hoping his leaving means a wider tour for his new album, because previously his tours have consisted of the west coast and Europe.
I've heard what Josh Homme does with free reign, and it's just not that great. He ran the show on the first album (before rejoining with Nick), and it was the weakest of the three releases. I also have the "Desert Sessions" CDs and they're just not very good.
So in the end, I'm not very sad about it. I liked them, but stopped listening to them a while ago. I'm far more interested in whatever Mark Lanegan does.