Early carrier of novel Coronavirus

THE WORLD'S economy is in a state of turmoil. Worshippers of the market (an abstract concept, like man-made money) panic and those whose supposed "capital" is huge stand to lose at least some of their power. The illusion of endless growth is coming to an end. It's simply not sustainable anymore. COVID-19 was merely a trigger, not the cause.

"For companies like Apple it has become harder to convince people to spend over a thousand dollars on a laptop or a so-called 'phone' (mostly a surveillance apparatus, more so in recent years or months)."More people are now 'stuck' at home (willfully, if not by imposed de facto curfews). They realise all they really need is shelter, food, and their basic health, which is related to the first two. Happiness is related to anxiety or lack therefore; for many people reduction in spendings means peace of mind and thus it can be beneficial to mental health.

For companies like Apple it has become harder to convince people to spend over a thousand dollars on a laptop or a so-called 'phone' (mostly a surveillance apparatus, more so in recent years or months). Even if more people waste their time 'online' -- in social control media such as Facebook -- turning that 'screen time' into money has become harder. People lack access to physical shops and many people lack a source of income (those who still have a salary aren't sure for how much longer).

The 'perfect storm' breeds or leads to a reassessment of one's spendings, one's habits, one's source of pride and identity. People aren't being judged so much by what car they drive; many who bought a car no longer use it much. Where do they take it? To work? To dine somewhere? To visit a friend or loved one in quarantine?

"Dell contacted me a couple of days ago. They're about to announce a bunch of new products with GNU/Linux preinstalled."Techrights has long dealt with issues like abundance, digital rights, planned obsolescence, standards and artificial scarcity (copyrightd, patents et cetera are monopoly and induced scarcity, sometimes price-fixing). It hardly surprises us to learn that more people are nowadays installing GNU/Linux. One can see this in Valve statistics, Web statistics and even distro developers (who measure the number of downloads). People sit at home, mostly bored, hoping to learn new things, striving to lower the cost of living.

Our projection, which is likely more realistic than optimistic, would be huge upsurge for GNU/Linux in 2020. Dell contacted me a couple of days ago. They're about to announce a bunch of new products with GNU/Linux preinstalled. Expect the embargo on that announcement to lapse/expire just over a week from now. It would be insincere and unfair to 'leak' out what they sent me. But after what Lenovo and others said last month it's clear that OEMs too are seeing the growth in demand for such products. Their market intelligence exposes the evolving dynamics.

Oh...

And those who want a 'leak' of the Dell stuff, watch our IRC logs closely.

RMS (Richard Stallman) said he had been hit, but not knocked out; his vision is coming closer to fruition and deep inside he knows it. Prosperous times may be ahead for Software Freedom activists. ⬆

"Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free."

--Richard Stallman