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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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
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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…
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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
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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.
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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
- 400-Page US Federal Court Against Abuses by Google, Microsoft and Front Groups That Abuse Volunteers for American Corporations
- There are 386 pages in total (in the US claim)
- Projection Tactics - Part IV: SLAPP by Americans Against Techrights (UK) to Hide Serious Abuses Against American Women
- "PRs need to stop being complicit in suppression of information via SLAPPs"
- Five Years Ago, After We Broke the Story About Richard Stallman Rejoining the FSF's Board, All Hell Broke Loose (for Me and My Family)
- They generally seem to target anyone who thinks Richard Stallman (RMS) should be in charge or thinks alike about computing
- Projection Tactics - Part II: Causing "Serious Harm" to Many People (Even Animals)
- Narcissists and sociopaths are like that
- Sirius Open Source's Latest Report: Fake (False) Number of Staff, Almost No Money in the Bank, Overdraft, and Growing Debt (About £100,000 More Borrowed)
- massive (and still growing) debt
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Photo-Ops Galore and Suspicions of Influence-Peddling
- coverage of the EPO's Croatian junket
- Pushing to the Top
- Publishing is about exposing corruption
- How Long Can a Company Delay Its Financial Report That Likely Confirms Exodus of Staff, Growing Debt, and Other Problems?
- Brett Wilson LLP was meant to release its annual report some time early this month
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Networking With the National Delegates
- António Campinos with a prime opportunity to network with the Administrative Council delegates and lobby for his reappointment
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- Call for European Patent Office (EPO) Whistleblowers
- The European Patent Organisation (EPO) might not reform the Office
- Too Many "Marketers on the Payroll" at IBM, Selling Impossible Products That Cannot be Delivered or Will Never Deliver
- IBM is rotting away
- Media Says Microsoft's (XBox) Layoffs May be Record-Breaking
- think somewhere in the range of ~5000 for gaming/XBox alone
- Links 30/06/2026: What's Wrong With EU Age Verification, RSA Keys with Many Zeros
- Links for the day
- This is Not a Security, This is a Circus
- Security does not mean "asked Microsoft for permission"
- Communities Need Strong Leadership, Not Dictators Like IBM
- Leadership in Free software is not ownership [...] Fedora will only last as long as IBM can somehow make some money out of it or leverage it to attract sharecropping
- Patents Are Not "Cash Cows"
- People who deliberately don't understand patents (or believe lies about them) will fail to understand how the world works (or does not work)
- Sad Lives of People Who Think Women Are Just Sexual Toys (All They Have is Money)
- money is still a man-made concept and life is finite
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 123 Out of 200: Why Violence Against Animals Matters
- Starting tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll begin telling stories about what happened last week
- EPO Staff Union's (SUEPO) The Hague Committee, With Help of Lawyer, Challenges Lack of Rewards for Hard Work
- The EPO is not about granting valid patents anymore. The horse-trading corrupt officials just see the EPO as some thing that "prints money"
- Massive EPO Demonstration Today
- It'll start in about 6 hours
- More Layoffs in Microsoft's PR Department, Even Ahead of 'D-Day'
- Notice they are not even waiting for the official date (nor week)
- Gemini Links 30/06/2026: Music and Broken Hearts
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 29, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, June 29, 2026
- Gemini Links 29/06/2026: Using More of GPLv3+ and Merits of Security by TOFU
- Links for the day
- Links 29/06/2026: Lemote Yeeloong Laptop With OpenBSD, Slop Ruins Code/Development
- Links for the day
- Antisocial People With No Computer Science Background Are Ruining the Technology Space (Like Officials With No Experience in Patents Destroyed the EPO)
- This is a real issue; it needs to be widely recognised and tackled
- DDoS Attacks Are a Crime and They Only Increase Interest (Intrigue) in Their Target
- Information cannot be DDoSed out of reach/existence, except temporarily
- Whistleblowing and Retaliation by Microsoft Workers Against Microsoft Seems Increasingly Likely
- some will go to the press, looking to expose some shenanigans
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 122 Out of 200: Garrett's Solicitors Confirm That Garrett is Ban-Evading and Spying on Our IRC Network
- his solicitors basically acknowledge this
- PIPs and "Retirements": IBM Layoffs in Anything But Name
- That former Red Hat (now IBM) staff threatens to put my wife and I in prison is worse than cruel
- Contact Members of the EPO Administrative Council, Tell Them the EPO (Office) Became a Disgrace and an Enemy of Europe's Citizens
- If you live in Europe (not just the EU, even Turkey is included), please contact your delegates
- The World Needs GNU/Linux for Security, Turn Off "Secure Boot" (It's the Opposite of Security)
- They call it "Secure Boot", but what does it mean to say "Secure" when you actively opt for back doors controlled by Microsoft, the FBI, and many more parties?
- In Signal of Weakness or Phasing Out XBox (Not Sustainable, According to the CEO) Microsoft "Pauses New Third-Party Game Pass Deals"
- Moments ago
- Two Pieces About "AI" This Morning Were Paid-For SPAM at The Register MS
- The Register MS is the "Tech News" publisher you can pay to promote your company and even key-word-stuff pages for SEO purposes
- Week of Microsoft Layoffs, Maybe Record-Breaking Scale
- They will mislead about the scale
- Links 28/06/2026: More Om Malik Eulogies, Cloudflare Promotes Web Browser Monocultures
- Links for the day
- IBM's Alderon as "Silent Layoffs", Not Just Bailout From Taxpayers
- Seeing through the noise
- 'Modern' Web: "Stop! You Are Browsing Too Fast!"
- Can the Web ever recover from this?
- Pensions Tied to Ponzi Schemes Are Themselves Ponzi Schemes
- Pensions are becoming more like that as well
- Laptop Bricked After Microsoft Certificates Expiry
- Is "Jim" dead?
- Monoculture in Europe as National (or Continental) Security Threat
- We need more browser diversity
- Canada 5-0: GNU/Linux Rises to 5.0%, Windows Rapidly Falls to New Lows
- Will we be seeing 6-0 (6%) by year's end and will Microsoft be shown two red cards?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 28, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, June 28, 2026
- Gemini Links 29/06/2026: Sansieviera, HiFi, and Self-Signed Certificates
- Links for the day
- Outsourcing is Not Security
- Outsourcing to Microsoft is the opposite of security
- Links 28/06/2026: Turkey's State Broadcaster Suspends Commentator, Journalists Under Attack
- Links for the day
- Debugpoint.com Turns to LLM Slop for 'Help'
- This is how sites die
- Follow the Real Security Experts
- Werner Koch
- Assessing the Upcoming (July) Proprietary/GAFAM Cuts
- The total (or %) matters to us because it can help shed light on what scale of layoffs to expect next week
- Microsoft Lunduke Does Not Correct or Clarify Misinformation That He Posted (or Repeats It Instead)
- Not the first time [...] detracts and/or distracts from legitimate criticisms
- How Not to Do Security
- Asking Microsoft for permission
- Gemini Links 28/06/2026: Simulation Theory and Pursuit of Novelty
- Links for the day
- Five Years After Its Formation Libera.Chat Has the Most Simultaneous Users in Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
- netsplit.de also measures the cross-network total at over 300k, probably for the first time in years
- The Slop 'Religion' is Dying: From Widespread (Paid-for) Hype to Widespread Hate
- Wait till "sentiment" in Wall Street - not just general (public) "sentiment" - shifts strongly against slop
- For Whistleblowers' Sake, Choose Hosting Platforms Wisely
- Techrights is hard to 'sedate'
- How to Discreetly Leak Important Information to Techrights
- Some years ago we published multi-part series about how to contact us securely
- Expect Many More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
- We envision many pissed off workers from Microsoft will become whistleblowers after next week's giant wave
- Efforts to Resume Progress on FreeJS, LibreJS, and Reduce Dependence on Microsoft
- It's still in a relatively early development stage
- Whistleblowers Improve the World
- we should appreciate and respect whistleblowers
- Microsoft Windows Plunges to All-Time Lows in Japan
- Microsoft is disintegrating; many people no longer use (nor need) Windows
- GNU/Linux Turns 43 in 3 Months From Now
- The Manifesto of the Free software movement (GNU Manifesto, 1985) turned 40 last year
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 121 Out of 200: One Day We'll Discover What Company or Rich Person/s Funded the Lawfare Against Us
- Even if the law firm shoulders some of the losses, then it is in effect an investor in the lawfare, according to established caselaw
- Working on "Linux", But on Microsoft's Payroll
- Under the totally false guise of "security" those same people are now promoting TPMs and other horrible things
- Links 28/06/2026: Energy Crunch, EEE by Microsoft, and John Bolton Pleads Guilty in Dictatorship of SLAPPs
- Links for the day
- Jim Not Dead Yet
- Let's wait a few more days
- Microsoft Layoffs So Big They Cannot Even Wait for 'D-Day' (July 1)
- "Layoffs at Xbox Appear to Have Already Begun, with Multiple Compulsion Games Employees Announcing Their Departures"
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 27, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, June 27, 2026
- Links 28/06/2026: Heatwave in Europe and Media Failing to Actually Criticise Power
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 28/06/2026: Poems, Photographs, and Neoliberalism as Religion
- Links for the day