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.
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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
- Snooping EPO Management, Sniffing Up Every Staff Action
- It this a problem for whistleblowers? Of course.
- Don't Do That
- Options do exist. People should exercise freedom.
- Iran Has Debunked GAFAM and Cloud Computing as Safety of Data
- Cloud of smoke?
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 188 Out of 200: Used, Then Discarded, by Microsoft (as We Predicted All Along, It's Always Like That)
- The longer they carry on with it, the more scandalous this will get
-
- Slop Ruins Development and Reverse Engineering, It Rewards Retarded "Slop Kiddies" (to Quote Andy ‘TheFlow0’ Nguyen)
- Slop is just a fatal cancer that kills the body, then dies with the body it killed
- Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Mailing Lists Are Still Better Than Discord, Slack, and Discourse
- Discourse is "open" "bossware"
- Links 18/09/2026: Disgust Over LLMs and Why "Agents" (Bots) Are Nothing More Than "Spam"
- Links for the day
- Software Freedom Day is Tomorrow
- events coming
- Illegal and Unconstitutional Tribunal That SLAPPs Critics Does the Illegal and Unconstitutional: It "Rubberstamps Software Patents"
- This is not a legal system. This is mafia.
- Privilege in 'Linux' Foundation (Double Standards) and What the FSF Should Avoid Doing
- If RMS can talk about politics, others too should be able to talk about politics
- Seems Like Many Microsoft Layoffs Are Going On Right Now (Forever Layoffs)
- Like IBM, Microsoft hopes shareholders will not know of morale and financial problems
- More Threats From the Person of Restricted Boot Infamy
- Remember this is the man who is the principal purveyor of restricted boot and who landed restricted boot in Linux
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 17, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, September 17, 2026
- Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 3 - Besieged by LLM Bots, Now Hiding Behind a Wall of JavaScript
- The series began 3 days ago
- Gemini Links 18/09/2026: Modern Linguistic, Boxing, Turning 40, and Solar MiniServer
- Links for the day
- Links 17/09/2026: Studio Closures and Negative Rumours About Microsoft XBox Again
- Links for the day
- What's Wrong with Microsoft's GitHub, New Article by Jacob Bachmeyer and Richard Stallman
- licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
- EBay is Going to Die Soon
- Users will flee
- Red Hat PIPs. The Only Question is, How Many?
- Insiders know what's coming soon
- This Week The Register MS Published a Page With "AI" 34 Times in It and It Was, as Usual, Paid SPAM!
- Does The Register MS understand that it is doing harm to its audience (for temporary gains)?
- 43rd Anniversary of the GNU Project Announcement
- Coming soon
- General Assembly (Meeting of All Staff) Starts in Hour Ago to Discuss Strikes at Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO), Strikes to Last Until End of 2026 (If Not Further)
- The media absolutely does not cover this and that's intentional
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 187 Out of 200: Reminding Ourselves of the Great Damage Garrett Did to Linux (for Microsoft)
- he rejects freedom
- Cancel Culture is a Cancer That Harms Democracy, Justice, and Science. It's Designed to Help Corporations Vanish Their Critics.
- "Codes of Conduct" sounds benign; in practice, however, it is not
- Links 17/09/2026: Class Action Lawsuit Over GAFAM's "NameTag" and Automattic Hides What It Did to CEO Mullenweg (or Why)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/09/2026: Google Signals the End, ROOPHLOCH Coverage, EBay Uses Offensive Bots to Falsely Accuse Users of Stuff
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 16, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, September 16, 2026
- IBM's Anderon Another Opportunity for Debt-Loading, Publicity Stunts, Maybe Hidden Layoffs
- Anderon is like Theranos
- In Praise of 7 Years of Alex Oliva in the FSF, Not IBM
- Thank you, Mr. Oliva, for 7 years of uncompressing advocacy and perseverance
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 186 Out of 200: Love (Always Commands)
- This coming Friday we celebrate our wedding anniversary
- With Half of September Finished Clownflare Radar Sees GNU/Linux at 7% "Market Share"
- On desktops/laptops
- Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 2 - Bribes From Slop Pushers Divide Us
- Money can and does divide people
- Gemini Links 16/09/2026: Cards, Nature, and Conspiracy Theorists
- Links for the day
- Links 16/09/2026: Proprietary Chatbots Company Lets Humans Moderate Chatbots, "Putin Looking to See How Far he Can Push NATO"
- Links for the day
- The Only Still-Supported Version of Windows Breaks Itself (Again), the Microsoft Layoffs Will Carry on in Secret
- In the US they marked about 7% for removal just this past summer
- Wikileaks Turns 20 Just 18 Days From Now
- it's fair to say they've endured online, but aren't lively/active
- The Cyber Show Debunks the Alleged Intelligence in Slop
- It's shorter than usual
- Expecting Failure
- Some things would not happen to technology (tech) experts because they know how things work and what to expect (or watch out for)
- Links 16/09/2026: US Running Low/Out of Some Ammo Due to Wars, Slop Bots "Are Using an Outrageous Amount of Electricity"
- Links for the day
- "AI Slowdown" is Code Word for Bubble Imploding (Trying to Make This Slowdown Seem Wilful, an Act of Safety and Responsibility)
- They help one another by inflating the bubble and making false excuses when expansion stalls
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 185 Out of 200: What Reputation?
- Helping monopolies and working for monopolies never made anybody popular
- Gemini Links 16/09/2026: Slovenia, Catastrophe Ethics, and ROOPHLOCH 2026
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, September 15, 2026