GNU/Linux Rising: Relevant News Items From March
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-19 19:12:45 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-19 19:12:45 UTC
Desktop
I'm sure there will be objections from people who want to define "the year of the Linux desktop" differently. There will be those fans of GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu who will object that the Linux Desktop has not arrived until we're all running KDE and Gnome. I fear those folks have a while to wait. Others will object because there are still so many copies of Windows and new PCs are still shipping with Windows. That's a fair point, but I believe even those users are actually Linux Desktop users. As I argued last year, Linux has already won on the Windows desktop.
Eurocom sent out a news release that beginning today they will be offering choices of operating systems in their line of GPU-upgradeable, high-performance, professional laptops. Besides the high-end laptop line-up, they will also be offering Linux options for their lightweight notebooks.
If your office runs 24/7, you'll have to do the migration in stages. You may have to migrate servers one at a time, and migrate departments group by group. So, some work gets paused, but most of your business will run during the entire migration process.
Linux has a reputation for being designed for geeks only, but that’s old history. Many modern Linux distributions exceed the user-friendliness of XP, and they’re free to download. If you don’t like the feel of one, you can easily switch to another. What’s more, each Linux distribution comes loaded with useful software such as productivity suites, modern browsers like Chrome or Firefox, and photo and music management apps.
"This is a subject very near and dear to me," Linux Rants blogger Mike Stone told Linux Girl over a fresh Tequila Tux down at the blogosphere's Punchy Penguin Saloon.
Though Stone spent several years teaching "how to" computer courses for faculty and staff at a local university back in the 90s, "all those years barely prepared me for my greatest challenge: my own mother," he said.
To wit: After buying his parents a Windows 95 computer way back when, "I sat her down and showed her how to use the basic hardware," he explained. Yet "even after hours a day over the course of weeks, the computer was too much for her. Windows just had too many options, and she kept getting herself into places she couldn't get out of.
"I literally spent years looking for environments that would make her comfortable," Stone went on. "She went through the Windows OSes (95, 98, ME and finally XP) and some Linuxes -- Red Hat first and then a couple variations of Ubuntu. She always found ways to get herself into trouble."
I’ve been a computer user since around 1991, when we got our first PC, a Tandy from Radio Shack (almost $1,000), which came with Windows 3.1. Since then I’ve used each and every version of that operating system (OS), and still do. But at home and for personal use, it’s Linux for me. Why? Well that’s a question with many answers.
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The biggest driving factor for software developers to work together with open source is cost. It is much cheaper for them to cooperate through open source than it is to remain isolated with proprietary software, asserted Inktank VP of Product Management Neil Levine. "You can no longer rely on one particular vendor to provide everything you need with regard to technology."
After the Desktop
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QOOQ is a durable tablet designed for use in then kitchen. It's even got its very own Linux-based OS...
There was a time, back before smartphones and tablets, when most of us used, at most, only three operating systems.
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For months now David Herrmann has been working on a new project known as OpenWFD for open-source WiFi displays on Linux. OpenWFD is an open-source implementation of the WiFi Display Standard / Miracast. That work is now showing success and as part of that Herrmann has just announced Miraclecast as a component to providing open-source Miracast/WFD support on the Linux desktop.
Chromebook
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Chromebooks are making a big statement in the laptop world: NPD Group Inc. reported that Chromebook sales accounted for 21 percent of all notebook sales last year. For devices that are functionally little different from tablets — designed for basic tasks like checking email and web browsing — they're growing fast. Even as the tablet market continues to grow, capturing 22 percent of the entire personal computing market just last year, Chromebooks are giving people an alternative to rectangular touch screens.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- When (Almost) One-Man Operations Are Disguised as Medium-Sized Companies
- the CEO hides in the US (hiding from his ex-wives, 4 daughters from those wives, and Sirius staff that he defrauded)
- Microsoft Actually in Trouble, Microsofters Unable to Obey Judges' Orders
- For the second time in a week, Microsofters are unable to obey orders
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Microsoft's Debt Exploded by 15.4 Billion Dollars in the Past 9 Months Alone (Despite All the Layoffs)
- As of minutes ago, at 6PM on a Friday, the numbers are made public
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- Video: The Rise of GNU/Linux and Free Software as Seen by RMS in 2004
- DTP's founder argued that when Windows goes below 85% "market share", it'll lose its grip in the monopoly sense
- Russia: GNU/Linux Rises to Highest Adoption Level Since Invasion of Ukraine
- Moving up in the north
- Microsoft's Latest Financial Report: We "Gained" 300 Million Dollars in "Goodwill" and Liabilities Grew by 32 Billion Dollars
- Microsoft's debt has reached an all-time high
- The Register US = The Register MS
- Formerly The Register UK
- Weeks After Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan Windows Falls to All-Time Lows
- Only less than a month ago it was quietly revealed, based on laid-off staff, that Microsoft shut down in Pakistan
- Criminal Behaviour is the Standard Operating Procedure at Microsoft
- In the future I'll be able to tell how, when dealing with SLAPPs from Microsofters, their Microsoft services failed me and sometimes even blocked my contacts
- GNU/Linux Rises to All-Time Highs in Europe
- many people will get fired for buying Microsoft
- All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux on the Client Desktop/Laptop, Based on Steam Survey
- GNU/Linux rose to 2.89% in Steam
- Links 02/08/2025: Blaugust 2025 and "Russia Declares Navalny Memoir ‘Extremist’"
- Links for the day
- Free Software is Not a Business Model
- Go ahead, ask your friend, "how do you plan to monetise your children?"
- LLM Slop Harms Real Literature, Real Web Sites, Real Journalism
- LLM slop is a parasite and it'll run out of legitimate outputs
- Upcoming OSI Scandal Series
- The OSI is a rogue actor because it serves Microsoft in exchange for money
- Slopwatch: The Issue Persists, But the Consensus in the Media Changes as Google Enrages It With LLM Plagiarism
- We've meanwhile assessed the latest output from Linuxiac
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, August 01, 2025
- Links 02/08/2025: İstanbul Retail Inflation Reaches 42.48%, US FBI Opens Office in New Zealand
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 02/08/2025: ZFS, LLM Hype, and Fake Modules
- Links for the day
- Links 01/08/2025: Health, Conflict, and Attacks on Freedom of the Press
- Links for the day
- Meeting (Webchat) With Maria Arranz Gomez, Florian Grundies, Jürgen Janda and Konstantinos Kortsaris Confronts EPO Management About Breaking Promises and Crushing Workers
- The lack of consistent messages suggests plans other than what's advertised and the lack of consultation (secrecy) likewise
- Links 01/08/2025: "The Great British Firewall" and U.S. Army Sponsors Palantir
- Links for the day
- For Second Day in a Row, Top Story in The Register MS is "Microsoft Says"
- The editor in chief exercises control over everybody else
- LLMs as Attack Method Against Free Software and Programming
- DDoS in "hey hi" (slop) clothing
- Stability and Reliability, Backward Compatibility
- I don't fancy relying on social control media as "sources"
- What "the News" Looks Like in 2025
- The "says" (or "sez") phenomenon
- History Will Be Distorted, Sometimes Intentionally, Under the Guise of Intelligence (Manipulated/Curated Slop)
- Militarised misinformation or military-grade chaff is a national security threat, even domestically
- Financial Engineering Companies: A Company Worth 4 Trillion Dollars Would Not Borrow 100+ Billion Dollars at Interest Rates Like Today's
- Many headlines perpetuate the lie Microsoft had just 2 waves of layoffs
- Microsoft is Googlebombing "Linux" While Paying Former News Sites to Publish SPAM
- How much lower will IDG sink?
- Google as a 'Bullshit Generator' Disguised as Intelligence
- It'll probably cause Google to get sued a lot, both by individuals and companies
- As Expected, Google in the UK Now Experiments With Slop Instead of Web Search
- At this point more people ought to stop and think: Does Google's search engine deserve trust?
- The Data You Don't Give Away is Your Advantage
- stop sharing data that does not need to be shared
- Being Obedient or Doing the Right Thing
- The world always changes for the better because of people who think "Outside the Box", not the cogs
- Gemini Links 01/08/2025: Happy Hacking Keyboards and New Gemini Arrivals
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 31, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 31, 2025
- Sabotaging Linux on Behalf of Microsoft With UEFI 'Secure' Boot (De Facto Remote 'Kill Switch'), Then Defaming, Stalking and Harassing Critics of 'Secure' Boot for 12 Years, Then SLAPPing Their Spouses and Them
- The sorts of stubborn lunatics we've been dealing with
- Moving on in Techrights, Geeks Gonna Geek
- In the coming weeks we plan to focus (as we explained last week) on patents, GNU/Linux issues, and the occasional philosophical essays
- Slopwatch: Google News Has Lost the Plot
- Almost the majority of articles returned for "Linux" are fakes
- Links 31/07/2025: Australia Restricts YouTube Access, Personal Privacy at Risk
- Links for the day
- Links 31/07/2025: Spotify Collapses and Spotify Now Forcing Some Users to Undergo Face-Scanning
- Links for the day
- A Lot of Supposedly "Successful" Businesses Are Just Debt-Racking Vessels Without Any Prospects of Financial Sustainability
- The probability of bankruptcy of any business is more than 0%
- theregister.com: The Voice of Microsoft US?
- It basically sold out
- Yes, You Can Love and Adore Things Whilst Also Criticising Them
- Is society being divided and groomed/primed to be resistant to constructive criticism?
- Links 31/07/2025: War in Ukraine, Security News, and Cyberattacks Against Journalists on the Rise
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 31/07/2025: Fake Money and Gemini Diaries
- Links for the day
- An Illusion and Cult Worship of Magnitude (Ubiquity as "Victory")
- GNU has been around for over 40 years and it'll likely continue to exist for another 40 (in some form)
- Google: From Pointing to Relevant Sites to Pointing to Social Control Media to Actually Parroting Social Control Media as "Facts"
- Google has become a misinformation company
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 30, 2025