New Articles About GNU/Linux Success on Desktops
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-11 13:33:10 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-11 15:20:15 UTC
Summary: This month's articles about success stories and debates regarding GNU/Linux on the desktop
GNU/Linux Distributions
-
GNU/Linux largely uses open standards so whatever applications and computers you have can all talk to each other and speak the same languages. That allows you to turn a lab or a school into a super-computer as needed. That allows you to set up as many databases, search engines, web-servers, clients thick (resourceful) and thin (using resources of a server), as you need, want or can afford. Basically, you don’t need a brand new PC to get great performance if you can connect to another powerful computer running the software you need. GNU/Linux lets you do that transparently.
-
Even if you’re a Windows (or Mac) user, knowing how to use Linux is a valuable skill and it can run a bunch of awesome things in your home — even if it isn’t your main desktop OS. Here are 10 ways you can use Linux even if you’re not ready to go full Ubuntu.
-
Engaging in arguments about the superiority of one computing environment over another with individuals who are every bit as convinced of their view as your are of yours is a fruitless endeavor. I used to have lengthy discussions on the relative merits of Linux over Windows or Mac OS X, or BSD, or BeOS, or any combination thereof, none of which turned out to be a productive use of my time, or anyone else's time involved. I like to think that I've grown out of the need to defend my choice of computing platform, and instead focus on what I can do. It is always best to let your work speak for itself.
Chrom*/OS
-
A few years ago, Google completely took the web by surprise by launching its own browser. The crowd, which was busy transitioning from the outmoded Internet Explorer to the trendy Firefox, initially took little notice of the search giant's endeavor. However, due to its availability across all platforms, and also its blazing fast speed, Google Chrome became a darling of the web user within a few months. This, in turn, pushed Google to bring more features to Chrome thereby sending the partially open-source browser into a spiral of success.
-
First, ASUS announced the ASUS Chromebox, then HP followed with the HP Chromebox, and not to be left out, Google followed with the announcement of the Chromebox for meetings.
-
A few days after Asus announced the first Chromebox mini-PC to be introduced the original Samsung Chromebox, HP unveiled its own Chromebox model, which similarly runs on Google’s Linux-based Chrome OS. Meanwhile, Google announced “Chromebox for Meetings,” an enterprise video-conferencing system that initially will be built on the Asus Chromebox, but later this year be available with the HP Chromebox and an upcoming Dell Chromebox (see farther below).
-
That processor will also mean the HP Chromebox will cost more its Asus competitor, which will start at just $179 (though probably with a less-powerful Celeron CPU). We'll find out this spring, when HP's model becomes available. With that company onboard, the Chromebox platform looks a lot more viable than just a week ago, when the only Chromebox you could buy was a refurbished Samsung model.
-
Have you noticed that a Chrome process always runs in the background when there are Chrome apps active, even if you do not have Chrome browser opened? Even though Chrome apps run like native apps they need the whole Chrome process to run in the background. Google is trying to change this and is working to make Chrome web apps API needs minimal.
Terminology Debate
-
Jack Wallen believes that a language barrier is preventing Linux from being adopted, en mass, on the desktop. Do you think a simplified, standardized language for Linux is the solution?
-
On the other hand, there's such a thing as dumbing something down too far. One of the big attractions of Linux is the power and control that comes with it. Many of the people who opt for Linux are eager to learn what is necessary for them to truly take control of their computers.
-
I've been in technology for more than twenty years. Along the way I've worked for and with many different women that have served in different roles. Some wrote or managed editorial content, while others were focused on the business side as marketing managers or vice presidents, and still others managed the back end and programming parts of the company.
They all had one thing in common though: THEY. JUST. DID. IT.
Education
-
No, not literally, but figuratively, the generosity of many IT-companies to “help” schools afford IT is more about enslaving students to use and be locked-in to those companies’ products rather than choosing what works best for the students and teachers. I am surprised that M$ is not on the list…
-
In most countries these days, kids start learning computers at a very early age in school and even in still developing countries, computer education is a top priority. Computers are as important part of our daily lives as food and clothes are. Computer Education is considered a very vital part of our kids education today but are we doing it right?
Hardware
-
My intentions were different: as I had a play with it in the showroom, I was salivating as I thought of how Linux would fly on such hardware. I planned to replace Windows with Debian GNU/Linux and use the laptop for my work; my existing laptop, an IBM Thinkpad, is entering its 10th year of service and its age is showing.
-
The other side of that coin is that barebones PCs can be good for people who aren’t planning on paying for an OS. You can use your favorite Linux distribution on a barebones PC without paying the added cost for some Windows license you have no intention of using.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Links 10/05/2025: Germany Considers Smartphone Ban in Schools, Right to Repair Bills
- Links for the day
- Blizzard/Microsoft Unions Grow Ahead of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Apparently Starting Next Week (as Many as 30,000 Workers Laid Off by Year's End)
- Microsoft already fired about 5,000-6,000 workers this year by our estimates; that's not counting resignations compelled through pressure (i.e. pushed, did not jump) and contractors
- "Victory Day" - Part II: Abject Defeat to Hypocrites and Objectionable People Who Strangle Women Whilst on Microsoft's Payroll
- Someone is going to have to pay for this; it won't be us
- Rust Propaganda Now Amplified by Slopfarms Powered by Microsoft LLMs, Encouraging the Outsourcing of GNU/Linux Distros to Microsoft/GitHub/NSA (and a Shift Away From GPL/Copyleft)
- Moving to Microsoft GitHub and adopting unfinished, untested code for highly critical bits
-
- Control Your Systems, Control All Your Data
- what does it take for us to control our own systems and data?
- Misplacing Blame for Security Problems, Sometimes With LLM Slop That Blames "Linux" for Microsoft's Failures
- Broken telephones and stochastic parrots beget plenty of Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
- Links 10/05/2025: WW2 Revisionism, Further Tit-for-tat in India-Pakistan Conflict
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 10/05/2025: Git Server and Great LLM DDoS of 2025
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 09, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, May 09, 2025
- Links 09/05/2025: Inflation Rising and Rights to Protest Curtailed Some More
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 09/05/2025: Good and Evil, LLMs Made the Web Worse Yet Again
- Links for the day
- IBM is Rotting With "Zero Internal Jobs" and Many PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) on the Way, Typically a Fast Track Towards Layoffs Without Severance
- At risk of giving air(time) to tribal sentiments, the internal joke at IBM is that to IBM "AI" stands for "All Indian"
- European Patent Office (EPO) Faked "Revenue Expansion" by Granting Loads of Invalid, Illegal Patents; Staff Still Wants to Know Where That Money Went
- Only about 30% of the EPO's patents are for EU entities/people
- The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft: Seventh Wave of Microsoft Layoffs (Over 20,000 to be Cut) Allegedly Going to Start Shortly, Probably Start of Next Week, Microsoft Spreads Chaff and Noise Before the Big Axes Fall
- we might be looking at about 50,000 people that Microsoft gets rid of this year
- Links 09/05/2025: TeleMessage Blunder, More Distractions From Impending Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
- Links for the day
- GNU (and the FSF) Still Changing the World
- Today, in 2025, GNU powers almost everything
- Military-Grade Anti-Linux Microsoft Propaganda Using Microsoft LLMs in Fake 'News' Sites (Slopfarms)
- This is part of a pattern
- Links 09/05/2025: Analog Computer and First time at FOSDEM
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 08, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, May 08, 2025
- Links 08/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Google Again, India/Pakistan Tensions Continue to Grow, New Pope (US) Selected
- Links for the day
- "Victory Day" - Part I: That is the Day Microsofters Who Assault Women Pay for Their Actions in Foreign Land (Using "Guns for Hire" Who Attack Their Own Country for American Dollars)
- Adding a friend from Microsoft to the docket didn't help
- Rust is Starting to Seem More Like Microsoft-hosted "Digital Maoism", Not a Legitimate Effort to Improve Security
- Maybe this is very innocent, but they seem to have taken a solid, stable program from a high-profile Frenchman and looked for ways to marry it with GitHub, i.e. Microsoft/NSA
- Gemini Links 08/05/2025: Practical Gemini Use Case, Shutdown of the Blanket Fort Webring
- Links for the day
- Links 08/05/2025: "Slop Presidency", US Government Defunds Public Broadcasting
- Links for the day
- Lasse Fister, Organiser of Libre Graphics Meeting, Points Out the Code of Conduct is Likely Violated by the Same People Who Promote Codes of Conduct (and Then Bully Him Into Cancelling a Keynote)
- I am starting to see Lasse Fister as another victim
- LLM Slop Attacks Not Only Sites of Free Software Projects But Also Bug Reporting Systems (Time-wasting, in Effect "DDoS")
- Microsoft, the leading purveyor and promoter of slop, is a cancer
- The Richard Stallman (RMS) "European Tour" Carries on In Spite of the Nuremberg Incident
- Some people spoke about how they saw yesterday's talk
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 07, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, May 07, 2025