GNU/Linux, especially as a type of advocacy magnet, is sort of passé because it is now a mainstream, highly-recognised entity with billions of dollars spent on it by corporations which rebrand it (e.g. Android, SteamOS). But advocacy of GNU/Linux is not dead. It's just less necessary than before.
Sales information for the 2013 holidays shows another successful season for Amazon. That's no surprise. What may surprise some is how often Linux-powered electronics appeared at the top of Amazon buyers' list.
”Linux is Everywhere. From Space Stations to Microwave Ovens, Linux powers everything.” You might have heard that a lot and have always wondered ” Is that just a phrase or is it actually true ? “ Be assured, it is true. World’s biggest companies use Linux in one way or another but you are not going to believe unless I take names. Well, get ready for a roller coaster ride across the globe where I show you where and how Linux is used
...while market research findings have been very bleak for PCs and PC equipment makers, Chromebooks--portable computers based on Google's Chrome OS platform--have continued to sell, although we continue to see stories online like "Why there's no good reason to buy a Chromebook." Just recently, a bunch of big hardware makers have either delivered Chromebooks or announced plans to deliver them. HP, Lenovo, Acer and Samsung are among vendors with sub-$300 Chromebooks, and Dell is about to join the ranks. But debate has swirled over whether the devices are really selling well.
Sales of Chromebooks exploded from basically nothing in 2012 to more than 20 percent of the U.S. commercial PC market, analyst firm NPD reported on Monday, while Windows PCs and Macs remained flat at best.
NPD estimated that, throughout all of 2013, 14.4 million desktops, notebooks, and tablets were sold through U.S. commercial channels, typically resellers. That compares to 16.4 million PCs, overall, sold in the U.S. during the third quarter alone--excluding tablets, according to IDC. All told, about 46.2 million PCs have been sold in the U.S. during 2013, IDC found.
The new Dell Networking N-series includes new silicon, hardware chassis and a new Linux-based operating system. The new switches include the N2000 and N3000, both 1 GbE switches with 10 GbE uplinks. Dell's refreshed campus portfolio competes in a highly competitive space dominated by Cisco, with HP and Juniper also pushing hard for market share.
It’s based on open-source technology that emerged in the mid-2000s — Linux containers, which run isolated applications on a single physical server. But a company called Docker has made the technology easier to implement and far more useful. Through Docker, the Linux container has blossomed into a tool that helps developers build one application and easily move it into a testing environment and then a production environment, and then from one cloud to another, all without modifying the code.
In this arena, I see Steam as the clear winner here. And if we can get Steam ramped up in distributing paid applications that people actually want to use – not just the limited paid title library for Linux we have now – the options could be limitless.
Unlike some Indiegogo projects, Linux Voice has chosen to roll with a flex funding campaign. That means if they don’t reach their goal, they won’t be keeping the funds. That seems highly unlikely at this point: the community has already responded with more than €£62,000 ($101,624) in pledges. With three weeks left to collect just over €£27,000 ($44,255) more, Linux Voice certainly looks like a lock.
“Linux adoption is exploding. It's a great operating system, not just in the server world, but also on the desktop,” he said. “I really love using it, and after I graduate I would like to get a Linux-based job.”
There are few things more gratifying to those of us here in the Linux blogosphere than seeing another user give the proprietary world the boot and make the switch to our favorite operating system.
In 2006, Foré was fed up with Windows, and he switched to Linux, the open source operating system. But he didn’t just use the OS. Like so many others, he also helped improve the thing. He had no programming experience, but wanted to be involved in this famously communal project, so he designed a set of icons for the OS. And from there, he went to work on a desktop theme called Elementary.
When I read on Monday that my friend Ken Starks had come-up with the 12 Geeks of Christmas idea for his Reglue project, my first thought was “what a wonderful idea.”
In case you don’t know, Reglue is a nonprofit run by Starks down in Texas that refurbishes old computers, loads them up with GNU/Linux and the necessary software, then gives them to school age children who’s parents can’t afford a decent computer.
When you think about it, this not only gives kids who can’t afford it a much needed computer for their school work, it also gives them the added advantage of learning to use an operating system other than Windows or OS X while being opened-up to the possibilities of free and open source software. I can’t help but wonder how many of tomorrow’s FOSS developers are being nurtured by Starks and his Reglue project just by dint of learning their way around Linux.