Links: GNU/Linux Desktop Merits Noted, Canonical Spreads Proprietary IBM Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-21 15:47:00 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-21 15:47:00 UTC
Summary: Further catch-up with GNU/Linux news (mostly from last week)
GNU/Linux
Currently, Linux systems take the very high end machines (any machine more powerful than a fully tricked out MacPro {read supercomputers and mainframes}) and the very low end machines (phones, routers, palm-tops, PVRs).
There's almost nothing that desktop Linux can't do. A modern Linux desktop is probably a better choice for 95% of the heavy Internet service using population than the big commercial behemoth that dominates the desktop. I'm not saying Windows doesn't have its place or that it doesn't do the job for a lot of people, but Linux is better, faster, stronger, safer, and sexier than anything else out there. It's cool. It rocks. It dramatically increases your sex appeal. And if you've got a 64 bit processor instead of 32, that goes double. What more do you want?
-
Fun
You’ve seen the wobbly windows, you’ve seen the cube, you’ve seen the raindrops. Compiz is just a bunch of useless eye candy right? Wrong. While the flashy effects get most of the attention, Compiz is a top-notch window manager in its own right. In fact, it’s got so many workspace and window management tools that many people use Compiz for years without ever knowing about some of the most useful features. This guide will cover each of the best window management plugins for Compiz and explain how each can be used to create a more productive desktop, with or without wobbly windows.
Linux, which I'm using at the moment, comes with a pretty standard blue-themed Gnome desktop common to several distros- Debian, Mandriva and Fedora- distinguished only by a branded wallpaper.
It's a simple and elegant theme, but over the last few days I've been customising my desktop, changing the theme and icons. The new theme is a dark one which I think suits my laptop with its grey-bordered screen.
-
Desktop
Even I have done it. I don't think you can be a Linux blogger without having done at least one post about how this year is the year the Linux desktop will take over the world. However, no matter how many people seem to write about it. The year the Linux desktop takes over the world always seems to fall through the cracks. Sometimes I think that there must be some Pinky foiling the Linux Brains plans :)
But! The pundits cry, Linux is gaining market share every year. Surely it will win the Linux desktop prize soon. Nay! Say the naysayers, at the rate Linux is gaining desktop market share even those not born yet will have one foot in the grave before Linux has any significant rating. Which one is right?
GNU/Linux has the answer to these annoyances, and it is this: they are simply not there. Why? Because the software is written by developers that are not trying to sell you something.
It's an old joke by now that this year will be the year of the GNU/Linux desktop – just like last year, and the year before that. But now there's a new twist: that this year will be the year of the GNU/Linux smartphone – with the difference that it's really happening.
That's mainly being driven by the huge success of the Linux-based Android system, but it's not the only open source system here. There's also webOS and MeeGo, both of which have their loyal fans. What that means is that whichever of these takes off, the open source world will benefit.
[...]
If Baidu does come out with its own Android rival, that could help to achieve two things. It would finally take open source into the Chinese mainstream, and help to ensure that Linux unequivocally becomes the world's leading operating system for smartphones - if not on the desktop.
Almost all school children in Portugal are becoming familiar with using open source, including the Linux operating system, says Paulo Trezentos, founder of Caixa Mágica Software.
By the end of this year, the company's eponymous Linux-based operating system will have been installed on 890,000 school PCs and school laptops, he says. "In a country with a population of 10 million, this means that Linux is reaching the majority of the young people."
In the almost 20 years since Linux was first released into the world, free for anyone to use and modify however they like, the operating system has been put to a lot of uses. Today, a vast number of servers run Linux to serve up Web pages and applications, while user-friendly versions of Linux run PCs, netbooks, and even Android and WebOS phones.
One incredibly useful way that Linux has been adapted to the needs of modern computer users is as a "live CD," a version of the operating system that can be booted from a CD (or a DVD or, in some cases, a USB drive) without actually being installed on the computer's hard drive. Given the massive RAM and fast CPUs available on even the lowest-end computers today, along with Linux's generally lower system requirements compared to Windows and Mac OS X, you can run Linux quite comfortably from a CD drive.
-
Server
Canonical is offering enterprises a chance to try cloud computing via a virtual appliance that bundles Ubuntu Linux with the IBM DB2 Express-C database running on the Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) public cloud platform.
The free appliance, which features Ubuntu Server Edition 10.04, also can be deployed in private cloud configurations.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
- Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
-
- Why We Publish Information About the SLAPPs (But Not About the Legal Process), an Abuse of Process by Americans Trying to Silence Critics of Their Employer, Microsoft
- It doesn't take thousands of pages to explain something simple
- Internet Relay Chat Didn't Fall Off a Cliff
- IRC will turn 40 in less than 3 years from now
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part V - This is Not a Drill (Disable "SecureBoot" Now)
- A "9/11" Coming
- There's No Obligation to Speak to Anybody
- The very fact that "bkuhn" is till spending time in social control media says a lot about his poor judgment
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, September 01, 2025
- The Register MS Says "AI Web Crawlers Are Destroying Websites", So Why Does The Register MS Help 'AI' Companies? (Spoiler: Money)
- People need to call out The Register MS on its hypocrisy
- Microsoft Trying to Force People to Resign (Amid Mass Layoffs) a Strategy That Takes Its Toll
- Microsoft seems to be circling down the drain and the "final flush" will be the moment the "hey hi" (AI) bubble implodes completely
- Google Simply Cannot Be Trusted
- Only fools would trust GAFAM
- Admission That a Third Party (or Parties) Funds the SLAPPs Against Techrights
- This can end up costing them over a million dollars
- Modifying and Writing One's Own Computer Programs is Not a Crime (or: Google Proves That Stallman Was Right)
- We're generally gratified to see so many positive mentions of him
- Why We Stopped Publishing Videos (for Now)
- We'll probably get back to videos one day, but it's hard to say when or to what extent
- What Animal Rights Activism Teaches Us About Sympathy and Focus
- It's possible to believe that the planet is warming, that we must do something about it, and still eat eggs and butter
- When You Turn Web Sites About Tech Into Political Sites
- A lot of people fall into the trap of catering only for particular groups
- Gemini Links 02/09/2025: ROOPHLOCH 2025 and Lagrange 1.19 Released
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 01/09/2025: News Corp. WSJ and A Month With NixOS
- Links for the day
- Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
- slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
- “Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
- There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
- Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
- Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
- Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
- Links for the day
- Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
- Links for the day
- Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
- Autumn Has Come
- Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
- They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users
- Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
- Links for the day
- IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
- Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
- Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
- This is What Google News Has Become
- Moments ago