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.
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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
- The Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Speaks of Deterioration of Working Conditions at the European Patent Office (EPO)
- "At least 3 days per week in the Office for an allocated office"
- IBM's Anderon is Like Theranos, But Will Anybody at IBM or Anderon Be Imprisoned for This Billion-Dollar Scam?
- Will anyone ever be held accountable for it?
- Microsoft Demands That Staff Keeps Silent About the Mass Layoffs
- Way to cause anger and ensure whistleblowers will go to the media
- ITwire Became Slop and Spam
- The site still exists, but it's not what it used to be
- W3C Died 20 Years Ago, Now We Live in a Post-W3C Era. Linux Foundation is 'Slop Bros', Now Linux is Becoming Unfree.
- Torvalds is on the same side as Epsteingate
-
- DRM Giant Announces Giant Layoffs (Netflix’s Debt is Huge)
- It's not like operational costs are decreasing, they're climbing fast.
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part III - Reporting Harassment From America to British Police
- Why are they so hostile towards (and afraid of) cops?
- Gemini Links 14/10/2026: GemPub, Randogoth Forge F-Droid Repo, Oddμ, and Kolibri
- Links for the day
- Bluewashing as Silent RAs: A "journey that began at Neudesic [...] and continued as part of IBM" inevitably came "to a close"
- IBM can be antagonistic and reckless with whatever it buys
- Links 14/10/2026: Houthi Attacks on KSA and Airstrikes Near Sudan-Egypt Border
- Links for the day
- No Coronation for 'Cocaine King' Campinos (Not Yet Anyway)
- A flash update suggests perils exist and we must all wait until December as the position for EPO President may open
- In Reddit, Moderators of IBM Subs Are Allegedly on IBM's Payroll (IBM Can Censor Discussions About IBM)
- There also seem to be PIP layoffs in India
- If Worthless Companies Are Valued at a Billion Dollars in the Slop Industry, Then What Is the True Worth of 'Trillion-Dollar' Companies?
- Definitely not a bubble!
- It Sounds Like Microsoft Plans to Lay Off Over 2,000 Azure (Microsoft) Workers as the Datacentre Business Brings Nothing But Epic Debt
- Trillions in losses is not a solid business plan
- Microsoft XBox Won't Survive, Microsoft's CEO for This Perishing Business Turns to Slop
- What the founder or father of XBox said about Asha Sharma earlier this year turns out to be accurate
- Links 14/10/2026: So-called 'AI' Giants Go Bankrupt, "Military Will Hack the Election"
- Links for the day
- Indoor Season
- we have more planned in order to improve navigation, accessibility, and workflows
- Microsoft Has Had Mass Layoffs in Azure Every Year Since 2020 and the Bleeding Continues Because It Misreports Earnings There
- This is a bad week for Microsoft
- Microsoft's International Mass Layoffs (Asia, Europe, Africa), Now Vietnam
- A crisis that Microsoft is unable to hide
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 13, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, October 13, 2026
- Gemini Links 14/10/2026: Ceiling Fan, Fascism, Democracy, and Slop Being a Huge Bubble
- Links for the day
- Reports of Stress and Layoffs at Microsoft, Some People Laid Off Under the Guise of "Ban" (Gift From the Administration) and Many Sacked in India
- "pip and gvsa" layoffs in India
- We're Way Past the Point Where Companies Announce or Declare Mass Layoffs
- Layoffs are becoming hidden
- Linux Kernel to Hide the Slop to Avoid Backlash, Suggestion Made by Former Microsoft Employee While Another Former Microsoft Employee is Worst Slopper/Culprit in Linux
- Did Torvalds listen to slop antagonists?
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Besieged by Blind Justice UK, Politicians Increasingly Involved
- "Today we have written to Members of both Houses of Parliament"
- Vance Has Helped Microsoft Implement Secret, Silent Layoffs
- Nothing excites Microsoft more than means by which to discard many employees without an obligation to tell shareholders about it
- To The Register MS, Microsoft is the Only Brand That's at the Main Menu!
- Consider that the Editor of The Register MS is a longtime faithful Microsofter
- Microsoft's Collapse Will Continue, It's Drowning in Debt Now
- Expect many more mass layoffs
- Legal Self-Sufficiency
- The more impact our work has, the more legal bullying will come our way
- Plans for Winter in Manchester and London
- From many perspectives, we're satisfied with the certainty and robustness of UK hosting, it's just that we're not yet robust/resistant enough to DDoS attacks
- Customer Support Experience in 2026
- Because the customer is never right
- Microsoft Shutdowns in Africa, Mass Layoffs Also Reported This Week
- further shutdowns
- Links 13/10/2026: More Plagiarism Lawsuit Over Slop and AirAsia Needs State Help
- Links for the day
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part II - An Outline of This Series
- What's to come
- Gemini Links 13/10/2026: Dopamine Nation, Planner and Fatigue, and Moderators
- Links for the day
- Links 13/10/2026: Norway Fines Microsoft and Cops Can Creep on Airbnb
- Links for the day
- When Computers "Expire" Because Certificates Expire
- People who promote Restricted Boot are liars. They lie for a living.
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, October 12, 2026
- Gemini Links 13/10/2026: Modern Science, Joplin, Luddites, and Lots More
- Links for the day
- Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Again (October 2026), So-Called 'AI' Units Impacted Because Slop ('AI') Has No Real Future
- So much for the future of Microsoft being "hey hi" (AI)
- European Readers, Please Contact Representatives (in One's Nation) Attending the Administrative Council Meeting
- Normalising cocaine in in Europe's largest institutions (the people running these) is a slippery slope
- Network Plumbing
- We hope it'll help speed things up
- For Half a Year the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Has Had Water Problems in the Toilets
- And it's not being fixed
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part I - The Failed Attempt to 'Swat' Our Series About the Attacks and Crimes Committed Against Us
- This coincided with threats to our lives
- Links 12/10/2026: Strike on Riyadh and GOP Pays Voters ("Surprise $90 Social Security Payments")
- Links for the day
- Microsoft's XBox CEO Spoke of a "Return to Growth" Last Week, But XBox Sales Lowest in XBox History (Quarter of a Century)
- Microsoft's XBox is dying. It's a countdown to nothingness.
- Links 12/10/2026: Shopify (Slop Booster) Has Security Issues, "Russia’s Yandex Says Data Center in Vladimir Shut Down After Drone Attack"
- Links for the day
- "My Hands Are Shaking While Writing" About IBM's Mass Layoffs at Red Hat (Bluewashing)
- Shame, shame, shame on the corporate media for not covering Red Hat's layoffs this year
- Taking a Look at the Last Articles of Bob Cringely at Forbes, They Were All About IBM and Its Collapse
- It's all about IBM
- Microsoft Windows Causes Problems (and Delays) to LibreOffice and The Document Foundation
- Nothing would please Microsoft more than Windows curtailing the development of LibreOffice and adoption of ODF
- So Far This Year Microsoft Windows Lost a Lot of Ground in China, GNU/Linux Gaining at Its Expense
- GNU/Linux will soon exceed 10%
- Lessons of Margaret Hamilton (Software Engineer)
- Stop abetting men who attack women in the sciences
- RIP, Bob Cringely
- He was too young to leave us, his articles were still brilliant and his mind as lucid as ever
- What is "Computer Science"? It is What Broligarchs Reject.
- Nowadays some people call themselves informal terms or made-up titles (with terms like "AI" or "big data" or "data" tossed into the mix)
- Linus Torvalds Has a Conflict of Interest Regarding Slop
- Linus Torvalds is paid by the slop pushers
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, October 11, 2026
- Africa Sees GNU/Linux Exceeding 5% "Market Share"
- It wasn't always like this. It used to be measured at 1 or 2 percent.
- Brigading Against Women - Part XXVII - Americans and Public Executions
- "People who work for Facebook / Xitter / Bytedance's Tiktok / Microsoft / Oracle / IBM / Apple / Uber / Lyft / Wolt / DoorDash / AirBnB / Bolt / and so on are doing some world-class projection when they have the audacity to call others Bad People(tm)"