Bonum Certa Men Certa

GNU/Linux Wins, Even on Desktops (and I'm Taking a Break)

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Summary: Pure GNU/Linux advocacy becomes less necessary as the operating system reaches mass adoption; efforts can instead be concentrated and focused on remaining authoritarian hurdles and expansion of GNU/Linux-inspired freedom to other walks of life

OCCASIONALLY we receive private messages that we cannot share with any readership. One such message touched a spot today because it raised the point that we emphasise issues (as in problems) and rarely revel in the wins. We would like to address this point very quickly (without quoting the private message).



There is rarely any noteworthy commentary on positive news (repetition would do for increased exposure), whereas when negative news arrives there is usually an explanation or point of rebuttal. That's the short and direct answer.

Just looking at the news these days, it has become quite clear that GNU/Linux stayed behind in no obvious way. It is a capable, mature platform with excellent hardware support and now that thousands more schools are moving to it (starting in non-English-speaking countries, as expected), it is obvious that GNU/Linux is not just a winner in servers, HPC, phones, embedded, etc.

I recently received some mails from a 28-year veteran of Microsoft (who worked closely with Bill Gates) and he too told me that his field was moving towards Linux and RTOSes.

“The platform called or commonly known as "Linux" (shorthand) now has advocates like Nokia, Intel, IBM, Google, and Red Hat.”So basically, from here onwards Linux is winning and nothing can stop it. Even Apple is worth more than Microsoft, which is busy laying off employees and spending billions of dollars to just sell a few thousands of phones and maintain ~3% market share in search.

I'm gonna reduce posting volume in the coming weeks (or take several weeks off). GNU/Linux wins with or without anyone's advocacy. The platform called or commonly known as "Linux" (shorthand) now has advocates like Nokia, Intel, IBM, Google, and Red Hat.

The "year of Linux" was several years ago, but the "year of Microsoft's demise" was 2009 or thereabouts (massive financial decline reported in April).

I seriously consider leaving USENET so that I can better focus my efforts to bring software freedom through fora that don't decline over time (USENET is still being assassinated by means we mentioned before).

Thanks to all those who supported me in USENET while I sacrificed vast amounts of time posting there. I will probably resume next month and in the mean time I'll post GNU/Linux news almost solely in Techrights.org. Next week I plan to spend a lot of time with my mother (pictured above), so expect almost no blog posts. We're going to Chester and then to London. I will give a public talk as soon as I return to Manchester.

I never lost interest in Techrights.org and we continue to ascend up the ranks (Netcraft now ranks us 1201st for traffic, which surpassed Groklaw at 1310th). Those who believe our daemonisers (there are even entire domains dedicated to discrediting our site) have clearly not paid attention or spoken to us directly. Our anti-FUD campaign is 100% sincere and honest and those who receive flak are obviously not happy.

"Long live the liberation of the workers off all countries from the infernal chasm of war, exploitation and slavery!"

--Karl Liebknecht



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