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
- The Legacy of Gerstner (Rapid Destruction) Continues at IBM
- They say IBM never recovered from Gerstner, who instead of saving the companies (IBM and others he claims credit for) set up a collision course of rapid shrinkage
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- Free Publicity
- They say there's no such thing as "bad press" or that every publicity is good publicity, sometimes free publicity
- Farage's fears, media hijacked by-election, what really happened in Clacton
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- It's Friday. A Ton of People Departing From IBM and Red Hat.
- A mere subset of people who announce this in public at Microsoft's LinkedIn
- GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Beyond 11%
- Combined with ChromeOS, it's already past and beyond 11%
- Chatbots/LLMs Are the Next "Clown Computing", Pure Hype, a Serious Mistake
- Programs that scan text and emit something similar (but full of errors)
- Links 14/08/2026: Slop 'Music' Causing Problems, Slop Data Centre Contractor Unpaid (Massive Debt), and The Cyber Show Says We're "Colonised By Wankers"
- Links for the day
- Fake Growth of Social Control Media is Misleading
- nowadays people look for alternatives - ones not controlled by MElon, CPC, and Kapo-Berg
- statCounter: Windows Down to All-Time Low of 25%, Android Leads the Pack, GNU/Linux About to Leapfrog Apple, Overtaking MacOS
- The situation was very different in past years
- Microsoft's Mass Layoffs (Including 'Voluntary' Secret Layoffs) Take Their Toll on Seattle
- How much longer can they hide their crises?
- Planet Fedora ("Fedora People") is Just IBM Staff, Former IBM Staff, and LLM Slop
- this is what Fedora boils down to now
- Explanation of What Will Happen to Red Hat (and Other Acquired Companies) After August
- In short, a lot will be scuttled; history shows it happens over and over again
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 149 Out of 200: It Took a Long Time to Show What Jason Arday (at Cambridge) and Harvey Weinstein (in Hollywood) Really Were
- Really bad when society endures abuse because the abusers silence their exposers
- Gemini Links 14/08/2026: 32-bit RISC-V and BlackBerry
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 13, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, August 13, 2026
- 'Voluntary' Layoffs (a Form of Silent Layoffs): Microsoft Global Voluntary Separation Agreement (GVSA) in August 2026 and September 2026
- Today and yesterday
- Microsoft Sees Windows on Fire, Pours Gasoline Over It
- The latest move from Microsoft defies logic
- Racing Towards "Woman Zero"
- They don't seem to value women
- Counters in Clacton Commence in 3 Hours at Clacton Leisure Centre
- Even a few hundreds of votes for Pocock would be considered a great success
- Swiss army to attack 2,900 domain name owners? Cult of ETH Zurich & Debian
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- IBM's Bluewashing of Confluent Carries on, More Layoffs Coming, Same Likely Applicable to Red Hat
- September 30 is a day before this next phase of bluewashing at Red Hat
- Headlines About Microsoft and Ransomware, But They're "SPONSORED FEATURES" at The Register MS
- The Register MS habitually publishes LLM slop too
- Links 13/08/2026: K-pop Suicide Due to Social Control Media, Legal Problems for Facebook Over Safety
- Links for the day
- 'Cancel Culture' Isn't About Empathy, It's About Making Good People Homeless
- Seeing what they did to RMS, remember that those "concern trolls" are about everything other than ethics and morals
- Daniel Pocock in The Nerve
- Lots of publicity owning to the enrollment
- Why Support Daniel Pocock
- Our readers who come from IBM and the EPO are certainly familiar with the tactics of censorship and what that sort of censorship leads to
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 148 Out of 200: The Manosphere
- Those people don't just threaten our national sovereignty, press, democracy etc. They also endanger women everywhere.
- Gemini Links 13/08/2026: Health, Partial Eclipse Sketches, and Guilelessness
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Reaches 10% "Market Share" in statCounter
- As of this morning
- 15% of IBM Marked for Potential Termination, PIPs are the "New Layoffs" (or RAs) at IBM
- IBM is a dying company, but it does not want the press to say this or for people to understand that
- Links 13/08/2026: "The Rise of the Measles-Industrial Complex" and Spotify Curbs Slop
- Links for the day
- Daniel Pocock on Australia's 9News (Nine Entertainment)
- This gives visibility to software and technology issues
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, August 12, 2026
- Gemini Links 12/08/2026: Losing a Child, "The OpenWeb Needs Diversity", and Gmail Woes
- Links for the day
- Voluntary' Layoffs and 'Proper' Layoffs at IBM This Year
- When will IBM management confess that 15% of staff is already marked for potential removal?
- Links 12/08/2026: Trouble in Proprietary Chaffbot Company 'Open' 'AI' and Slop "Investors Are Suddenly Quaking in Their Boots"
- Links for the day
- Daniel Pocock in National News in Australia the Day of the Election
- "Posted 20m ago" (Thursday in Australia), it's timed nicely to help illuminate Pocock and give him last-minute exposure
- The Register MS Has Just Published Slop Spam for NVIDIA and HP, It Says "AI" 43 Times
- As usual, The Register MS ought to be ashamed of itself for participating in it
- The Slop Debt (Trillions of Dollars, Money That Does Not Exist) is Causing the Collapse of GAFAM et al
- This slop hype will end up like "metaverse", except "metaverse" never ended up justifying trillions of dollars in "investment"
- Simpler Means More Reliable
- The simple old way of local storage and local backups is still the best
- Clownflare and statCounter See GNU/Linux at ~8% in Norway
- Norway has long championed GNU/Linux compared to the rest of Europe
- Social Control Media is the Opposite of Information
- That says a lot about social control media
- Clacton manifesto: Reform UK hacking, leaks, raw sewage & 8GB Swiss Archive
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- statCounter Today: ChromeOS + GNU/Linux Measured at 10.98% Globally (Desktops and Laptops)
- Clownflare does not quite refute this
- The Register MS Has Just Published Fake Article About Replacing Linux With Proprietary Google System, "Sponsored by ASUS."
- All of those things are proprietary GAFAMware
- Links 12/08/2026: "X’s Advertising Business Continues to Tank", "Stop Feeding the Billionaires"
- Links for the day
- Lack of Empathy Rampant in the Sector
- Sociopaths are sociopaths. They cannot help themselves
- Before the "Big Tech" (That Almost Everybody is Forced to Use) Was Controlled by Men Who Hate Women
- Such rejection and even hatred of women qualifies/enshrines oneself as an "incel"- a dangerous and violent online cult
- In Defence of Hoarding CDs, More So When Digital Restrictions (DRM) Come to More 'Content' and Even Offline/Physical Media Won't Work When Some Remote Server Says "No" (or Goes Offline)
- made to serve and entertain owners, not to allow companies like Sony and Microsoft subjugate owners
- Clownflare: In Finland, Birthplace of Linux Kernel, GNU/Linux Now Bigger Than Apple's MacOS
- It's not just in Finland where we see such trends
- More Mass Layoffs Due to Monumental Debt Excused as "Investment" (in Slop)
- They're maxing up the private debt and their country is already insolvent
- METRO Interviews Daniel Pocock a Day Before Election
- The article is behind a wall that blocks people who block ads
- Enshittification More Than a Century Ago
- Is enshittification more than a century old?
- GNU in 1991 (35 Years Ago): Compiler and Lots More Ready, Linux Now Becoming 'Vibe Heap' (Slop Replaces Real Code)
- Without curbs in place, many Linux developers will flee
- Company-Wide 'Reorg' ('Redundancies') at IBM, Mark October 1st 2026 in the Calendar
- Is Oct 1 the new Apr 1?
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 147 Out of 200: The SLAPP Series is 'Slow' Because Timing Matters
- It is important to stress that after this series is finished there will be many more series, with some of them showing raw evidence of what we've been illuminating and telling
- Even ZDNet Accepts That "Market Share" of GNU/Linux May Have Doubled on Desktops and Laptops
- GNU/Linux is definitely growing, and quite quickly in fact
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 11, 2026
- Microsoft Layoffs and Shutdowns Continue This August, Morale Low, Employees Set Up Giant Inflatable Rat to Protest Against CEO
- nothing demonstrates their anger better than what they did to the CEO
- Gemini Links 12/08/2026: Sophomore Slump, Mandatory Phone Addiction, and Vintage Web Game Gallery
- Links for the day