Bonum Certa Men Certa

Many Are Moving to GNU/Linux, So Microsoft is Trying to Make it Technically Hard

Summary: A report about migrations to GNU/Linux and how UEFI 'secure' boot is making it hard for ordinary people to make such migrations succeed

Microsoft is losing the battle and it knows this. The common carrier is becoming Android. Microsoft is rightly worried. It is reportedly dropping the price of Windows (dumping), as claimed by corporate press. As Sosumi put it, Microsoft "is slashing prices of windows licenses by 70%... according to them, to compete with Apple... so windows 9 to be a toy OS? that fails at even accomplishing that... or not to just shove the monstrosity that vista 8 is with its disjointed GUI" (Vista 8 was a disaster in terms of adoption and usage, to the extent that I never saw anyone using it).



Based on some of the latest news, "11 Percent of Windows XP Users Will Switch to Linux" [1], there are some real stories about large migrations to GNU/Linux [2], usage of GNU/Linux doubles on the Net [3,4], and non-techies also manage to cope with GNU/Linux [5]. One client of ours (with over 100 seats) is moving to GNU/Linux desktops, not just servers. It's because Windows XP support (security patches) will end soon. Microsoft is already reacting to it by trying to adapt to price differences, just as it did back in the days of major GNU/Linux gains in sub-notebooks. It is, as iophk put it, "price dumping of Vista8, probably out of fear of GNU/Linux."

At ZDNet, one pundit says that "Office is the only thing that can kill a Chromebook", but let's face it, document formats lock-in not a feature. It is more of a reason to escape Windows, not stay with Windows. It's why Microsoft tries so hard to derail ODF. Adding to all this mess, because businesses [1] and schools [2] are moving to GNU/Linux, Microsoft seems to be leaning towards artificial inconveniences for GNU/Linux at hardware level. Already, UEFI makes it harder even for GNU/Linux enthusiasts. Very recently we saw the NSA acknowledging that any claims of improved security were bogus because security was actually harmed by all this complexity. Microsoft is making it more difficult for people to install GNU/Linux and one ZDNet pundit whom the UEFI Forum tried to appease/silence continues to show that what Microsoft did was harmful to everyone. It's too complicated dealing with UEFI and it may very well confuse new users [5], which is exactly what Microsoft wants. What's needed now is another antitrust complaint. Microsoft is just playing dirty, as it always did. Reject any claims that Microsoft has changed.

Related/contextual items from the news:


  1. 11 Percent of Windows XP Users Will Switch to Linux, Survey Claims
    The research group asked organisations still using Windows XP about their plans post-April, when Microsoft ceases providing official support and security fixes for the 11-year old OS.


  2. Interview with Penn Manor – PA Champions of Open Source
    Recently, a High School in Millersville Pa struck a cord with me personally. Like many east coast advocates of Linux, I often have to watch California, Europe, and other countries from the sidelines, engaging fun and interesting Open Source events and projects. Imagine my excitement when I learned of one such champion of Open Source, but not from Europe, from a place not more than a few hours from me. Deploying over 1700 laptops, armed to the teeth with Ubuntu and Open Software to students, I knew there was more to the story than the small stories floating around. Even if for my own personal education, I wanted to know more.


  3. Chromebook usage: Still a tiny splash in the vast PC pond
    By comparison, Linux Web traffic grew from 1.1 percent to 1.9 percent over the last five months. Chitika didn't provide statistics for Windows or Mac, but they presumably account for nearly all of the remaining desktop traffic.


  4. Linux Web Usage Almost Doubled, Now At ~2%?
    Chitika, a former advertiser on Phoronix, has issued a new report about Chrome OS and Linux web usage growth from September 2013 through January 2014. Chitika found that the number of Chrome OS devices rose from 0.1 to 0.2% of all accounted web traffic by the network. Meanwhile, for Linux devices in general, they found Linux rose from 1.1% last September to now at 1.9% when ending their numbers at the end of January. The Linux growth really took off in October has continued since.


  5. Making the case for the non-techie to jump into Linux
    I suggest you take a look at Linux. Why? Because Linux can serve your basic computing needs well enough that the experience is comparable to your previous operating system of choice.


Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 29/10/2025: "US Military Is Destroying the Planet Beyond Imagination" and Boat Strikes Deemed Unlawful
Links for the day
Quality Comes First (Techrights Search)
It's generally working already, but we wish to polish it some more
Techrights Party Countdown
Late next week we'll be holding a party near our home
European Parliament and Council Directive on Privacy is Vanishing
"edited / censored some time more recently"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Slopwatch: The March of Slopfarms, From UbuntuPIT to Linux Journal and to Various Fake Sites Still Promoted by Google News
It's so worrying to see what the Web has become
Links 29/10/2025: CISA, Ukraine, and Amazon Problems
Links for the day
[Teaser] The EPO's Spokesperson, a Cocaine User, Fancies Young Women
How's that for "optics" in the EU and Europe's second-largest institution?
How Will António Campinos Respond to the EPO's 'Cocainegate'?
That's the same thing we saw and still see when the press deals with enablers and partners of Jeffrey Epstein
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part IV: There Cannot be Free Software Without Free Press and Free Information
One day, one can hope, more people will recognise that for Software Freedom we need free press and free thinkers
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part III: Principled Stance Is Never Cheap
Protecting the truth and insisting that the general public is made aware of things that really happened isn't cheap
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part II: Because Scarcity of Accurate Information Breeds Collective Ignorance
we too will strive to share information that's aggressively suppressed
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: More New Arrivals at Geminispace, xkcd on "Document Forgery"
Links for the day
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part I: Defence of the Truth
This year we make a very strong, firm statement for truth, even if that means explaining our work to the top media judge in the country
Links 28/10/2025: Meta and Fentanylware (CheeTok) Age-Restricted Down Under, "Britain Needs China’s Money"
Links for the day
Links 28/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Charter to Cut 1,200 Jobs
Links for the day
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part II: The Person Who Planted Paid-for Fake News for the European Patent Office (EPO) is a Cocaine User, Friend of António Campinos, Now on Record as Having Been Arrested
Background: High-level manager at the European Patent Office caught in public with cocaine, arrested
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 27, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 27, 2025
Google News Drowning in Slop (and Slopfarms That Hijack About Half the Results)
Google News seems to be drowning in this stuff
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: "How to Maximize Your Positive Impact" and ASCII Art and Artist Attribution
Links for the day
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete