In the Pacific (Mostly Islands Around Oceania) GNU/Linux Grew a Lot
Yesterday: In New Caledonia Windows is Now Below 30% (It Used to be Over 90%)
DEALING with Oceania as a whole, not just Caledonia (see map), we gleefully see Windows/Microsoft down from 91% to 36% if one counts mobile. On desktops/laptops it looks as shown below (ODF).
This is in spite of Microsoft boot-locking PCs with boot-licking thugs who push UEFI 'secure' boot, TPM, and Pluton. They try to make it very hard to get rid of Windows.
To quote this post from yesterday:
None of mine have, for ages and ages now. It's entirely avoidable. Furthermore, not avoiding OEM Windows has a much, much higher cost in the long run.Quote:
Originally Posted by rclarkAll my laptops came with Win OS too.
Not any more:Quote:
Originally Posted by rclarkI simply just wiped and installed Linux over the top. That was that.
- The new ones have UEFI / Restricted Boot and no BIOS, so any distro wishing to even boot must pay m$ for that privilege which was once taken for granted now that third party UEFI certificates have been disabled. The era of general purpose computing is drawing to a close if enough of us don't act.
- The newer ones have TPM 2, so that the distros which have paid Danegeld to m$ won't even boot until a factory reset because the hardware is thus tied to Windows in general.
- As this thread is on the topic of surveillance, it should be pointed out that there are also things like Management Engines to provide hardware-level back door access
- The newest ones have Pluton, so the hardware is immutably tied to a specific version of Windows and contains "chip-to-cloud" surveillance complete with its own TCP/IP stack and backdoor, hardware level access.
Buying hardware with Windows on it only feeds the problem and hurts the rest of us. However, at this point small groups making even smaller purchasing changes aren't going to change anything. The vendor lock-in situation has gotten bigger than that. Wintel is over, the only question is can we rid the market of it before the final stages of lock-in are complete.
There is potential with Linux on the new Arm chips, which out of necessity have to have full Linux support. If enough people and businesses move away from Wintel then we can finally relegate the duopoly to its rightful place on the dust heap of history, albeit about three decades late.
tldr; Pluton is being rolled out by OEMs and puts the surveillance in at the firmware level.
As a bonus point, regarding Oceania, see this page. Microsoft cannot compete fairly, so it is unleashing thugs and criminals at people who merely speak about the issues. █