09.24.13
With Government Support, GNU/Linux is Growing in the City of Munich, the Argentinian, Chinese, British Markets
Wittelsbacher Fountain in Munich, Germany
Summary: Reports on adoption and success stories for GNU/Linux, gathered in recent days or weeks
YEARS ago when this Web site was young there was legitimate concern that Microsoft’s patent assault — waged with Novell’s help — would suppress the free adoption of GNU/Linux. Ever since Microsoft lost its momentum in businesses, then released Windows Vista, announced losses to the public and laid off staff (while first-tier managers fled the company) things have looked somewhat different. Then came Android world domination, which made Linux the de facto platform almost everywhere except desktops and servers. In desktops and servers, however, progress has been made by GNU/Linux and earlier this month we saw some key news from Germany [1,2], China [3], Argentina [4], and the UK [5], to name just four countries. We are going to cover more such examples in days to come, including some government adoptions.
Taking into account Linux/Android and GNU/Linux, the presence of Linux on the Web is rapidly growing [6]. Microsoft has hardly even got majority market share over there. Its prominence is quickly declining. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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German city hands out Linux CDs for Windows XP users
The southern German city of Munich has come up with a novel solution for its Windows XP-using citizens, whose operating system will be officially unsupported by Microsoft in April next year.
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City of Munich throws Ubuntu lifeline to Windows XP holdouts
Windows XP users in Germany’s third largest city are being offered free upgrades to Ubuntu ahead of termination of Microsoft support for the OS next Spring.
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Hewlett Packard brings Ubuntu to China
China has been in the spotlight lately. Most recently, the country was rumored to be the major catalyst for the “low cost” iPhone 5c. However, this has largely been discredited since the phone was revealed to not be “low cost”, but instead a relatively expensive, premium device. However, China is still a major player in the computer market and manufacturers are chomping at the bit to take advantage of it. Today, Canonical announces that Hewlett Packard is focused on the nation and will be selling Ubuntu-based laptops in its 1,500 retail stores.
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Government of Argentina Launches Linux Distribution
The news has been full of headlines of happenings at this year’s LinuxCon, but one tiny little headline stands out today as different. Although it hasn’t made it into English speaking press yet, it seems the Argentine government has sponsored the development of a Linux distribution to be used on all state provided education computers.
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British school switches students’ computers to Linux, reducing costs and improving computing knowledge
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Latest Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report Shows A Jump In Usage Of GNU/Linux
The highlights:
Android/Linux 5.67%
GNU/Linux 2.06%
That Other OS 51.26%
If we only consider non-mobile PCs, TOS gets 70.7% of page-views
Needs Sunlight said,
September 24, 2013 at 1:49 pm
M$ is overrepresented in the server room in terms of physical number of machines. That is because each separate service that is attempted using M$ needs separate machines. Often each service gets more than one machine. As services move back to Linux, these extra machines will not be needed. Linux machines can run multiple services on a single machine. So the drop in numbers of M$ machines will go rather quickly. M$ got into the server room by eating Novell’s market share, but that run has come to an end.