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
- Linux Foundation is Plagiarism Hub, Linux is at Risk From It
- Torvalds never looked weaker and more compromised
- It's Inevitable Anyway, So...
- of course blame Chinese Communists for the "anti-AI" messages
- Giving 'Free Publicity' to the People You Hate and Attack
- Be careful what you wish for in social control media
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- Links 03/09/2026: John Ternus Enters Apple Amid Mass Layoffs, Journalist İrem Delice Arrested
- Links for the day
- Stallman.org Down Due to Virtual Machines Issue, "Senior Engineers are Investigating the Issue" Since Saturday
- RMS site down due to virtual machines issues upstream
- Gemini Links 03/09/2026: Back in Japan, Another New Year, Reasons to Avoid Have a "Smart" "Phone", and Rant About Built-in Batteries
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 02, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, September 02, 2026
- Identi.ca is Practically Dead, Just Like All Social Control Media (Eventually)
- All Social Control Media is a waste of time
- Gemini Links 02/09/2026: Intentions, Publishing on Workstations, and Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA)
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Reaches 6% in Nepal
- Today I checked GNU/Linux in Nepal again
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 169 Out of 200: Calling People "Nazis"
- 'Cancel culture' in action
- GNU Turns 43 This Month, GNU/Linux Turns 35 Next Year
- It seems like no area of computing has not been impacted by the GNU/Linux revolution
- Uber Debt Grew 2.5 Billion Dollars in 3 Months, Company Lays Off at Least 10% of Workforce
- The media repeats the "official" numbers
- Links 02/09/2026: The Machine Stops, AuraSearch, and DOOM 1/2
- Links for the day
- 1-1 Meetings at IBM This Week, PIPs Expected, Maybe RAs Too
- As usual, we invite whistleblowers to tell us what's going on
- Links 02/09/2026: Germany Blames Russia for Leipzig Airport Drone Attack and China Gains Power as US Faces Humiliation in the Midst of Presidential Cover-up
- Links for the day
- Quit Talking About "AI Layoffs" and Talk About How Chatbots and Other Bots Broke Recruitment Processes by Cheating
- Bots talking to other bots isn't HR; it's a catastrophe
- Robotics Isn't "Hey Hi", Robotics Isn't New Either
- Is the official Arduino blog becoming shilling platform for Qualcomm's "hey hi" [so-called 'intelligent'] chips?
- Today We'll Focus on Growth of GNU/Linux
- We've meanwhile noticed that Clownflare statistics for north American nations show 19% of requests (CDN) originating from GNU/Linux
- IBM Secret (or Silent) Layoffs in September 2026
- We need whistleblowers
- Gemini Links 02/09/2026: GAFAM's E-mail Cartel, ROOPHLOCH 2026, and Homeworlds
- Links for the day
- Not Only Microsoft and IBM Hide Layoffs (Secret Layoffs) and Fail to Follow the Law (or Bypass It)
- Microsoft's tactics are not so unique
- People Who Participate in the Slop Plagiarism Pyramid Scheme and the Moral Dilemma (What's Acceptable for a Salary?)
- giant pyramid scheme
- State of the Slop, Linux Edition
- Whether slop about "linux" becomes rarer by the end of this year, well... time will tell
- Links 02/09/2026: 'Open' 'AI' (Proprietary Slop Plagiarism) Destroying Evidence, "Data Center Backlash Has Officially Rattled Scam Altman"
- Links for the day
- Andrew Lee Has Turned Freenode Into a Slopfarm (Because Who Needs IRC Anyway?)
- The site is churning out slop all day long
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 01, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, September 01, 2026
- FSF Staff Uses 'CoC' to Stop Conversation About Autistici/Inventati in Relation to Free Software
- The list is already heavily moderated
- IBM Allegedly Stopped Hiring (This Tends to Coincide With Mass Layoffs)
- Is a hiring freeze an echo of layoffs? Yes, definitely.
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 168 Out of 200: When Choosing Clients Recklessly and Poorly Self-Harm is Inevitable
- "If you're doing something hard and nobody hates it, you probably aren't doing it. If the right people hate it and those people happen to be some of the worst people alive, so much the better."
- Something Big is Happening at IBM This Week/Month
- Some people at IBM (and Red Hat) are panicking
- Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Biscuits, Epstein Files, Power Users, and Alhena 5.6.8
- Links for the day
- Links 01/09/2026: Almost 5,000 Missing/Dead in Nepal-China Flood and Marijuana Factory Explodes
- Links for the day
- September at IBM: Silent Layoffs on Day 1
- PIPocalypse at IBM
- Last Month IRC Entered Its 39th Year and It's Still Growing (New IRC Networks)
- There are 511+ known IRC networks
- Links 01/09/2026: Climate, Disinformation, Microsoft Overworking People
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman's Site Still Offline (Third Day), But Richard Stallman is Active Online
- he is busy online despite his site not being accessible so far this week
- PIP Layoffs at Microsoft, Even in India
- Microsoft is trying to hide the true scale of the layoffs
- Layoff Trackers Are a Sham, They're Like US 'Unemployment Data'
- Layoff trackers are similarly misleading as they only measure what companies openly admit and register with WARN notices
- The Peculiar Case of OSNews, Which Experiments With Slopfarming
- It wasn't published in error. It has been there for two months.
- Russian Federation is Removing Windows From Computers
- Windows is going "out of fashion"
- XBox CEO Has No Clue What She is Selling
- Some people believe Microsoft will parcel and offload the whole "gaming" unit to some other companies
- analognowhere.com and xkcd.com Selling Physical Copies of Webcomics
- That's one way to support their work
- PIP/GVSA at Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Disguised as Something Else
- Microsoft is trying to cheapen the workforce because the numbers don't add up
- Microsoft Lunduke Uses Twitter ("X") Because It's Algorithmically Designed to Boost His Worldview/s, He Ignores What "X" Is
- Maybe all those people really deserve one another
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 31, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, August 31, 2026
- Censorship by Threats
- It should be noted that the Web site of Richard Stallman will soon enter its third day of downtime
- In Romania, GNU/Linux Reaches 6%, According to Clownflare
- Tomorrow we'll see the latest data from statCounter (for September)
- Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Denali Park Train Trip, Crafts, and Community-Building in smol.pub
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Workers Doing 80 Hours a Week After Microsoft Culled Their Colleagues
- there are days when they work 17 hours a day (barely any time left to sleep and eat) and work starts at 5AM
- IBM Defrauds Shareholders With Fake News (Bribed Press) About "Quantum"
- That says a lot about the state of "Tech Giants" and also the utterly shameless state of the media
- Record Highs for GNU/Linux, Especially in the United States of America
- the "market share" of GNU/Linux is about 9%, still about a third of what Vista 11 stands at