New Articles About GNU/Linux Success on Desktops
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-11 13:33:10 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-11 15:20:15 UTC
Summary: This month's articles about success stories and debates regarding GNU/Linux on the desktop
GNU/Linux Distributions
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GNU/Linux largely uses open standards so whatever applications and computers you have can all talk to each other and speak the same languages. That allows you to turn a lab or a school into a super-computer as needed. That allows you to set up as many databases, search engines, web-servers, clients thick (resourceful) and thin (using resources of a server), as you need, want or can afford. Basically, you don’t need a brand new PC to get great performance if you can connect to another powerful computer running the software you need. GNU/Linux lets you do that transparently.
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Even if you’re a Windows (or Mac) user, knowing how to use Linux is a valuable skill and it can run a bunch of awesome things in your home — even if it isn’t your main desktop OS. Here are 10 ways you can use Linux even if you’re not ready to go full Ubuntu.
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Engaging in arguments about the superiority of one computing environment over another with individuals who are every bit as convinced of their view as your are of yours is a fruitless endeavor. I used to have lengthy discussions on the relative merits of Linux over Windows or Mac OS X, or BSD, or BeOS, or any combination thereof, none of which turned out to be a productive use of my time, or anyone else's time involved. I like to think that I've grown out of the need to defend my choice of computing platform, and instead focus on what I can do. It is always best to let your work speak for itself.
Chrom*/OS
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A few years ago, Google completely took the web by surprise by launching its own browser. The crowd, which was busy transitioning from the outmoded Internet Explorer to the trendy Firefox, initially took little notice of the search giant's endeavor. However, due to its availability across all platforms, and also its blazing fast speed, Google Chrome became a darling of the web user within a few months. This, in turn, pushed Google to bring more features to Chrome thereby sending the partially open-source browser into a spiral of success.
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First, ASUS announced the ASUS Chromebox, then HP followed with the HP Chromebox, and not to be left out, Google followed with the announcement of the Chromebox for meetings.
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A few days after Asus announced the first Chromebox mini-PC to be introduced the original Samsung Chromebox, HP unveiled its own Chromebox model, which similarly runs on Google’s Linux-based Chrome OS. Meanwhile, Google announced “Chromebox for Meetings,” an enterprise video-conferencing system that initially will be built on the Asus Chromebox, but later this year be available with the HP Chromebox and an upcoming Dell Chromebox (see farther below).
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That processor will also mean the HP Chromebox will cost more its Asus competitor, which will start at just $179 (though probably with a less-powerful Celeron CPU). We'll find out this spring, when HP's model becomes available. With that company onboard, the Chromebox platform looks a lot more viable than just a week ago, when the only Chromebox you could buy was a refurbished Samsung model.
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Have you noticed that a Chrome process always runs in the background when there are Chrome apps active, even if you do not have Chrome browser opened? Even though Chrome apps run like native apps they need the whole Chrome process to run in the background. Google is trying to change this and is working to make Chrome web apps API needs minimal.
Terminology Debate
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Jack Wallen believes that a language barrier is preventing Linux from being adopted, en mass, on the desktop. Do you think a simplified, standardized language for Linux is the solution?
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On the other hand, there's such a thing as dumbing something down too far. One of the big attractions of Linux is the power and control that comes with it. Many of the people who opt for Linux are eager to learn what is necessary for them to truly take control of their computers.
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I've been in technology for more than twenty years. Along the way I've worked for and with many different women that have served in different roles. Some wrote or managed editorial content, while others were focused on the business side as marketing managers or vice presidents, and still others managed the back end and programming parts of the company.
They all had one thing in common though: THEY. JUST. DID. IT.
Education
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No, not literally, but figuratively, the generosity of many IT-companies to “help” schools afford IT is more about enslaving students to use and be locked-in to those companies’ products rather than choosing what works best for the students and teachers. I am surprised that M$ is not on the list…
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In most countries these days, kids start learning computers at a very early age in school and even in still developing countries, computer education is a top priority. Computers are as important part of our daily lives as food and clothes are. Computer Education is considered a very vital part of our kids education today but are we doing it right?
Hardware
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My intentions were different: as I had a play with it in the showroom, I was salivating as I thought of how Linux would fly on such hardware. I planned to replace Windows with Debian GNU/Linux and use the laptop for my work; my existing laptop, an IBM Thinkpad, is entering its 10th year of service and its age is showing.
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The other side of that coin is that barebones PCs can be good for people who aren’t planning on paying for an OS. You can use your favorite Linux distribution on a barebones PC without paying the added cost for some Windows license you have no intention of using.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 115 Out of 200: Spending the Next Decade Writing About SLAPPs and Trying to Fix the System
- It's the same industry that got paid by corrupt EPO officials to try to cover up the corruption
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- Greece Ought to Curb the Threat of Social Control Media
- its national discourse seems to be run by an American company called Facebook
- State of the GNU/Linux Desktop (and Laptop)
- The time to advocate GNU/Linux is now
- The 'XBox Narrative' Distracts From Destructive Cuts Across the Whole of Microsoft
- Microsoft is preparing to lay off a likely record-breaking number of people [...] this isn't just an XBox problem
- Microsoft's Stock Fell Nearly $200, But the Real Problems Are Just About to Begin
- if they dump slop, what will they tell shareholders?
- The Cyber Show on Starmer and Software Freedom
- The Cyber Show's Andy has just explained why our departing national leader wasn't all bad
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 22, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, June 22, 2026
- Gemini Links 23/06/2026: Girlrotting, Homeworlds at BGA, Slop Ruins Sites
- Links for the day
- A Lifetime of Whistleblowing
- Ellsberg did not have an easy life, but it was a rewarding life with a rich legacy focusing on justice
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Man With Many Missions...
- Campinos – accompanied by Gilles Requena and Patrice Pellegrino
- Links 22/06/2026: Ubisoft Co-founder Dies, Americans Have Turned Against Slop
- Links for the day
- Links 22/06/2026: "The Sycophancy Machine" and "Port 22 Open for 54 Days"
- Links for the day
- When People Who Make the Most Money Are the Best "Boot Lickers" (Sucking Up to Jeffrey Epstein's Circle and the Dictator)
- Sucking up to rich people may pay off
- The Aim is Not Fame
- Reposted from schestowitz.com
- "Internally Important, Externally Irrelevant": IBM in a Nutshell
- Right now its debt spins out of control and its stock spirals down the drain
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 114 Out of 200: Thousands of Long Articles to Come, Properly Covering the SLAPP Industry in the UK and Its Modus Operandi
- "Stowell described SLAPPs as ‘a stain on our legal system’."
- Finding a Way to Get Paid to Improve LibreJS
- So now we have more people resurrecting LibreJS and improving it
- Microsoft Can't Even Wait Until July, Shutdowns and Layoffs Already Happening
- Mashable speak of "a grim picture for the state of Xbox."
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 21, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, June 21, 2026
- Gemini Links 22/06/2026: Appreciating Simple Things, Perfect Summer Evening, IRIX, Vim and so
- Links for the day
- Chad's Move to GNU/Linux or the Point of Exceeding 5% "Market Share"
- experienced centuries of being colonised
- Gemini Links 21/06/2026: Dating Oaks, Paying With Cash, and "More on Withered Technology"
- Links for the day
- GAFAM is Drowning in Debt, GAFAM is Clearly Not Sustainable Anymore (It Runs on Borrowed Money and Bailouts)
- The war and surrender in Iran will deepen the debt; we'll see the GAFAM reports in late July
- GAFAM Was Never an Ally to Europe
- Only 1 in 10 Europeans see US as an ally — study [...] military providers in "tech" clothing cannot be trusted
- GitHub, LinkedIn, and XBox Will Finish Like Skype (Sustainability Crisis)
- Skype should become a verb. When Microsoft 'Skypes' something it means it basically shuts it down with some temporal excuse/s.
- Drowning in Garbage: AUR Shows That Too Much Low-Quality Software (Including Slop) is Bad for Everybody
- What happened in AUR had happened elsewhere before and will happen again in the future
- Links 21/06/2026: EU on Patented (Monopolised) Crops, Microsoft Software "Narcs on You to Your Boss"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft at 50 Follows the General Trajectory of Skype
- How many years does Microsoft have left before payroll becomes impossible?
- A Year After a Microsofter Took Over The Register MS It is Effectively a Content Farm With News as a 'Side Dish'
- This is not journalism, this is spam
- IBM Pays the Media and Cons Some 'Journalists' Into Participating in "Quantum" Spam
- "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"
- You Don't Need an 'App' for Your Birdhouse (Slopfondlers Come for Birds)
- That they sell those things as "AI" really says a lot about how dishonest slopfondlers really are
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 113 Out of 200: The United Kingdom is Not Turkey
- Turkey is ranked almost worst in the Western World for press freedom
- Cybersecurity Does Not Mean Asking Microsoft for Permission to Boot
- There were very good and timely reasons to speak about the matter, including impending antitrust complaints against Microsoft
- Links 21/06/2026: Bots from Alibaba Do Harm and Many Xbox Games Are Being Cancelled
- Links for the day
- 5 Years After Release of Vista 11 Not Even One in 5 People Use It (in the US)
- It doesn't look like Vista 11 will ever be adopted like prior versions and announcing a Vista 12 will mostly upset companies/organisations that only recently "upgraded" to 11
- Gemini Links 21/06/2026: Boca Raton, Perfect Summer Day, and LLM Doing Things Poorly
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 20, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, June 20, 2026