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
- We Need Less Gadgets, More Humanity
- If people are being honest with themselves, many of the gadgets they claim they "cannot live without" are just excesses and distractions they could definitely leave behind
- Daniel Pocock in The Guardian This Morning
- There is an opportunity here to spread a message, even if Pocock won't win a seat
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- What a Difference Six Years Make...
- We are also beta-testing a new feature for the site; we plan to announce it some time soon
- When It Comes to Slop, Richard Stallman is Opposite of Linus Torvalds
- When it comes to computing, Dr. Stallman has long been a voice of reason
- Daniel Pocock is in Mainstream Media This Week
- Pocock's haters will absolutely hate this
- In His Departure Post, Poul-Henning Kamp (phk) Explains Why Linus Torvalds is Full of "Hot Air" and Slop Bubbles
- Having lived through previous bubbles as a UNIX geek, phk cannot be ignored
- Whistleblowers Keep Flowing
- Later today a police investigator should phone us regarding death threats we've received
- Technology and Gadgets Got Obese, Just Like Their Users
- They now sell us so-called 'phones' for slop
- "Samsung Recently Projected a 19-fold Surge in Second-Quarter Operating Profit", Now There Are Mass Layoffs
- In a 9-month period Samsung's debt rose by about 80%
- Gemini Links 20/07/2026: Dungeon Meshi/Undertale Crossover, "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Dark Web and Beyond"
- Links for the day
- IBM's Control of the Media "Just Showed What Taking Accountability Does Not Look Like"
- It is no secret that IBM pays the media
- Microsoft Loses XBox Lawsuit, But There Are More
- The collapse of studios continues
- GNU/Linux Approaching International Average in Djibouti
- One can envisage further gains for GNU/Linux, seeing Microsoft is in such a bad shape
- Daniel Pocock "[t]he Australian Taking on Nigel Farage — from Down Under"
- This can help raise awareness of some issues
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 19, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, July 19, 2026
- Misleading Coverage in Slashdot Promotes and Openwashes Slop
- Piggybacking RMS for the headline seems like a PR stunt of sorts
- As Envisioned, a Rebellion and Many Whistleblowers at Microsoft
- Whistleblowers ensure Microsoft has totally lost control of the "narrative" (face-saving PR)
- Microsoft is a Right-Wing Company
- Just remember that when people call Microsoft "woke"
- GNU/Linux "Market Share" Rises to About a Quarter in Sudan
- Can anyone explain to us why?
- Gemini Links 19/07/2026: Visiting Ethiopia, Two Dreams, and Price of Skinnerboxes
- Links for the day
- Tears in IBM, Company Falls Apart While Management Fakes "Performance" to Take Bonuses
- Wall Street is a naked emperor
- Telling Our Story
- In the coming years we'll have some high-impact stories to share and generally tell without fear of reprisal
- Microsoft XBox Studio Leaders Upset at What the New CEO Did
- From what we can gather, in 2024 XBox was already entering what's known as a "death spiral". Now it's literally moving down the drain/pipe.
- IRC Started in Finland, GNU/Linux Did Not
- History is like that
- GNU/Linux Rises to 8% in Bhutan, Same as the International Average
- Taking note of estimated GNU/Linux share in that country, we see it hovering around the international median/average this month
- Links 19/07/2026: "The Voice of Google" and "Chinese Surveillance Tech a Threat to Privacy"
- Links for the day
- Keep Both Eyes on the Ball
- At the moment we have six series running in parallel; two of them concern the EPO
- 'Journalists' Who Help IBM Cover Up Fraud
- Journalistic malpractice
- The "Modern Linux" Song
- Join us now, make the kernel
- XBox Layoffs Vastly Bigger Than Microsoft Told the Press, Microsoft Keeps Trying to Change the Subject
- Many so-called "XBox fans" are no more
- Microsoft Lost 1,200 Billion Dollars in "Market Value", Take a Look at What Happened to Windows
- while Windows continues to fall unstoppably GNU/Linux is surging
- Links 19/07/2026: People in China Are Buying Feelings and 404 Media Has Third Anniversary
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/07/2026: Camping, Health, and Hardware
- Links for the day
- The State of Slopfarms
- Slopfarms or LLM slopfarms are a menace and a problem on the Web
- GNU/Linux Rising to 6% in Brunei
- seventh in the world for GDP (PPP) per capita
- Free Software is Like an 'Activist Movement'
- People who argue strongly in favour of something (even very good things) will attract the wrath of those whom they oppose
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 18, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, July 18, 2026
- UKIP TV (GBNoise) Covers Challengers to UKIP Nigel, Daniel Pocock Mentioned
- Way to get noticed
- Links 18/07/2026: Chinese State Media Depicting Neighbours as Monkeys, US "Stocks Sink on Anxiety About Tech and Hey Hi (AI) Spending"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 18/07/2026: "Business Idiots Everywhere", "The Siren Song of DePIN", and Entering Geminispace
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux in Lithuanian Desktops/Laptops Climbs to 8%, the Global Average
- For its own national security it would be wise to abandon Windows
- This Bubble is Bursting, Piecewise
- It's nice to see Wall Street getting some reality checks
- It's Not About XBox, Microsoft is Already Firing Hundreds of People Who Do "Security [sic] Engineering" [sic]
- The official reason/excuse/lie told is something about slop, but no sane person would buy it (not even insiders who are impacted)
- Can We Finally All Agree That UEFI 'Secure Boot' is a Sham That Harms Security and Gives Microsoft Remote Control Over All PCs and Servers (Even Those That Don't Run Any Microsoft Software)?
- Cui bono?
- Bolivian People Adopt GNU/Linux (They Have a Domestic Distro Too, PluriOS)
- Notice Windows falling to an all-time low
- No Technical People Write About UK Parliamentary Elections
- Almost none of them work in the media, which seems to favour parrots, slop, or parrots that use slop
- "But Stallman is Scaring Away Women..."
- Such dishonest projections (projection tactics) needs to be called out and refuted
- First Female Debian Project Leader (DPL) Affirms Low Profile and Inferior Status of Women in GAFAM
- 3 months ago Sruthi Chandran was elected as Debian Project Leader (DPL) for a period of 12 months
- After 5 Years Vista 11 Still Adopted Less Than Its Predecessor (Orphaned, End of Life Since Last Year)
- Notice Windows going down to 40%
- We Don't Depend on Google (or Search Engines in General)
- there's a lesson here and it extends beyond sites
- Only "Torvaldos" (Linus Torvalds) Can Use the F-Word, CoC Does Not Apply to the Enforcer, and Richard Stallman Punished for Using the Other F-Word ("Freedom")
- "Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off"
- Explaining the Culture of Bulletin Board-Style Chat
- Only desperate detractors would try to present something (cherry-picked) from IRC as some sort of official statement for Techrights
- Independent, But Not Fringe
- "Daniel Pocock is an Independent Candidate."
- In Free Software, Nobody Gets Fired
- Way to own one's code and project
- PIP-Styled Mass Layoffs Allegedly Coming to Microsoft by 12 August 2026
- Microsoft has been doing "silent layoffs" (PIPs and more) for quite some time
- Daniel Pocock's Candidacy (Election of Member of Parliament) Mentioned in BBC and Over a Dozen News Sites Since Yesterday
- Funnily enough, albeit not surprisingly, the same people who attack Pocock also attack us
- Links 18/07/2026: Spotify Uses Slop Song Descriptions, "San Francisco Demands Removal of Nudify Apps"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 17, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, July 17, 2026
- Gemini Links 18/07/2026: A Manifesto by The Dissident, Shokz Headphones, and Gemini Tinylog Reader (GTL)
- Links for the day