GNU/Linux Rising: Relevant News Items From March
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-19 19:12:45 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-19 19:12:45 UTC
Desktop
I'm sure there will be objections from people who want to define "the year of the Linux desktop" differently. There will be those fans of GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu who will object that the Linux Desktop has not arrived until we're all running KDE and Gnome. I fear those folks have a while to wait. Others will object because there are still so many copies of Windows and new PCs are still shipping with Windows. That's a fair point, but I believe even those users are actually Linux Desktop users. As I argued last year, Linux has already won on the Windows desktop.
Eurocom sent out a news release that beginning today they will be offering choices of operating systems in their line of GPU-upgradeable, high-performance, professional laptops. Besides the high-end laptop line-up, they will also be offering Linux options for their lightweight notebooks.
If your office runs 24/7, you'll have to do the migration in stages. You may have to migrate servers one at a time, and migrate departments group by group. So, some work gets paused, but most of your business will run during the entire migration process.
Linux has a reputation for being designed for geeks only, but that’s old history. Many modern Linux distributions exceed the user-friendliness of XP, and they’re free to download. If you don’t like the feel of one, you can easily switch to another. What’s more, each Linux distribution comes loaded with useful software such as productivity suites, modern browsers like Chrome or Firefox, and photo and music management apps.
"This is a subject very near and dear to me," Linux Rants blogger Mike Stone told Linux Girl over a fresh Tequila Tux down at the blogosphere's Punchy Penguin Saloon.
Though Stone spent several years teaching "how to" computer courses for faculty and staff at a local university back in the 90s, "all those years barely prepared me for my greatest challenge: my own mother," he said.
To wit: After buying his parents a Windows 95 computer way back when, "I sat her down and showed her how to use the basic hardware," he explained. Yet "even after hours a day over the course of weeks, the computer was too much for her. Windows just had too many options, and she kept getting herself into places she couldn't get out of.
"I literally spent years looking for environments that would make her comfortable," Stone went on. "She went through the Windows OSes (95, 98, ME and finally XP) and some Linuxes -- Red Hat first and then a couple variations of Ubuntu. She always found ways to get herself into trouble."
I’ve been a computer user since around 1991, when we got our first PC, a Tandy from Radio Shack (almost $1,000), which came with Windows 3.1. Since then I’ve used each and every version of that operating system (OS), and still do. But at home and for personal use, it’s Linux for me. Why? Well that’s a question with many answers.
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The biggest driving factor for software developers to work together with open source is cost. It is much cheaper for them to cooperate through open source than it is to remain isolated with proprietary software, asserted Inktank VP of Product Management Neil Levine. "You can no longer rely on one particular vendor to provide everything you need with regard to technology."
After the Desktop
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QOOQ is a durable tablet designed for use in then kitchen. It's even got its very own Linux-based OS...
There was a time, back before smartphones and tablets, when most of us used, at most, only three operating systems.
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For months now David Herrmann has been working on a new project known as OpenWFD for open-source WiFi displays on Linux. OpenWFD is an open-source implementation of the WiFi Display Standard / Miracast. That work is now showing success and as part of that Herrmann has just announced Miraclecast as a component to providing open-source Miracast/WFD support on the Linux desktop.
Chromebook
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Chromebooks are making a big statement in the laptop world: NPD Group Inc. reported that Chromebook sales accounted for 21 percent of all notebook sales last year. For devices that are functionally little different from tablets — designed for basic tasks like checking email and web browsing — they're growing fast. Even as the tablet market continues to grow, capturing 22 percent of the entire personal computing market just last year, Chromebooks are giving people an alternative to rectangular touch screens.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Indonesia (Population Size Near 300 Million)
- You would need not envy "Microsoft Indonesia" right now
- GNU/Linux Back to 5% in 2025
- That's not counting ChromeOS
- GNU/Linux Gained About 0.5% Last Year, According to StatCounter
- 2024 ended with "proper" GNU/Linux at +0.4%, ChromeOS at +0.1% (based on statCounter/StatCounter)
- Microsoft FakeHub: Identity Theft in Microsoft GitHub (Microsoft Won't Bother Addressing It; It Gives a False Impression of Adoption by GNU/Linux Veterans)
- This is the same company that kept intact deleted accounts and counted them as if they're live and active (to hide the gradual abandonment and demise of the "hub")
- Microsoft Tries to Force People Into Vista 11 by Stopping Vista 10 Patching, Herding Them Into TPMdom
- It's backfiring
- CyberShow Blog Upgraded, RSS Feed Added
- CyberShow Blog has just had somewhat of a facelift
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- Microsoft Plummets to New Lows in Azerbaijan
- Perhaps the Azerbaijani population is looking for something other than the NSA's foremost facilitator
- We Need Something More Like DMOZ, Not Search Engines and Bill-Funded Wikipedia (Censoring Unfaltering Information About Powerful People and Institutions)
- era of LLMs trained on Wikipedia... Microsoft tried - and failed - to game the narrative to the same extent Google does
- Tens of Billions of Dollars Down the Drain (Microsoft Lost the Search "Arms Race" or Market)
- But caused injury to itself and others, just like with Nokia in mobile
- Seems Like GNU/Linux Usage Doubled in Japan Last Year
- So says statCounter data anyway
- GNU/Linux Measured at 4.4% in South America and 3.34% in Africa, Based on 2025's Preliminary Data
- All-time highs
- GNU/Linux Leaps to 6% in the United States of America (Not Even Counting ChromeOS)
- Additionally, the FSF in Boston is managing well
- GNU/Linux Usage in Europe Leaps Above 6% in 2025
- This is a big deal because a lot of Microsoft's revenue came from Europe
- Windows Falls to 22.5% Worldwide, Android Up to 48%
- The world's (by far) biggest populations don't use Windows much
- Links 02/01/2025: Production of Apple Vision Pro Halted, More on Public Domain Day 2025
- Links for the day
- Links 02/01/2025: OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji Alleged to Have Been Murdered, Islamic Terrorism in New Orleans
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 02/01/2025: Friends, Blunder Valley, and New Year
- Links for the day
- Links 02/01/2025: Violence Crisis in South Africa and Arrest Warrant for South Korean Leadership
- Links for the day
- Rumour: IBM Will Try to Induce Mass Resignations This Month Using R.T.O. (Just Like Amazon Does This Month)
- Amazon will start some of this in March, sources have told us
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 01, 2025
- Last Day of 2024 Was Spent by Brittany Day Publishing Only Fake 'Articles' (LLM Slop) About "Linux", Joined by Serial Slopper Brian Fagioli
- Not even a holiday was enough to stop Day from "spamming" the Web with fake 'articles' (LLM slop) about "Linux"
- Gemini Links 01/01/2025: Looking Back at 2024 and Happy 2025
- Links for the day
- Addendum: What the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) Really Is
- Not serum free light chains (SFLC)
- Sitting on a Mountain of Money (Almost 8 Million Dollars) is "Pro Bono"
- Does the general public realise what SFC is?
- Software Freedom Conservancy Inc (SFC) Lost Revenue and Also Got Rid of "Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion" (Sage A Sharp, Formerly Known as Sarah Sharp, Who Ran an Ill-Spirited Campaign Against Linus Torvalds, Theodore Tso, and Other Prominent Linux Developers)
- Not much needs to be said; a little needs to be shown (from an authoritative source, the IRS)
- In Operating Systems, Google Was the Biggest Winner in 2024
- Nevertheless, 10% of the managers are to be laid off shortly (after a leak led to confirmation by the CEO)
- FSF-EEE (Colonial Splinter Group Based in Germany) Promotes Microsoft
- New and misleading
- Did GAFAM or IBM 'Downgrade' Pensions to 'Insurance' (Which Can be Denied)?
- 'Insurance' does not mean what it may sound like
- Gemini Protocol Continued to Grow in 2024
- it's no longer hosted from home
- Geoffrey Knauth, FSF President and Treasurer, Comments on the FSF Raising Over $300,000
- Now almost $304,000
- Links 01/01/2025: Whistleblowers Shunned, EU/Germany Blasts Twitter (X, MElon) Interference
- Links for the day
- Mother of OpenAI Whistleblower Says Her Son Was Murdered (He Accused OpenAI of Copyright Violations at a Massive Scale, OpenAI is Running Out of Money That It Borrowed)
- "Mother of OpenAI Whistleblower Alleges He Was Murdered, Says There Were Signs of Struggle"
- Housekeeping and Productivity
- The less we tinker with those things (system administration tasks), the more we can write and curate links
- The Engineering Side in 2024: A Look Back, Taking Stock
- uptime was somewhere around 99.95%
- Dr. Andy Farnell Nominates Gromit the Dog "as an Unlikely Hacker Hero."
- The world needs more decent engineers
- The Free Software Foundation's (FSF) Holiday Fund-Raising Campaign Reaches About $303,000
- in some parts of the US it's still 2024
- [Meme] The Microsoft Syndrome
- Typical Microsoftism
- Gemini Links 01/01/2025: Reflecting on 2024 and FSMs
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 31, 2024
- IRC logs for Tuesday, December 31, 2024
- Links 31/12/2024: Another Jeju Air Plane Has Severe Landing Gear Issue (Cannot Blame Birds Anymore), Turku Quits Twitter/X
- Links for the day
- 2025 Coming. "Lawsuits are temporary. Glory is forever. Go public."
- another promising year for us
- Free Software Foundation (FSF) Raises about $50,000 After Saying We Should Put Pressure on Microsoft, Might Exceed $300,000 in Total Before 2025 (Boston Time)
- FSF fund-raiser now at 292k US dollars. Spectacular growth, rising at a pace of about $20k per day!
- Brittany Day Unleashes Microsoft Propaganda About Linux, Likely Generated by Microsoft LLM to Strategically Googlebomb a Topic
- Yes, it's definitely LLM slop
- Gemini Links 31/12/2024: Default Apps 2024 and Google News RSS Woes
- Links for the day
- Links 31/12/2024: 'Open'AI Has Run Out of Money Again, Venezuela Fines TikTok, Germany Warns X/Twitter Over Election Interference, Google Search Takedowns Out of Control
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 31/12/2024: Google's Evil and VF-1 1.0.0 is Out
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 30, 2024
- IRC logs for Monday, December 30, 2024