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
- What Puts the Brakes on GNU/Linux Adoption on Laptops and Desktops is Monopoly Control (or Monoculture) Over the Distros
- Distros that adopt systemd are controlled by IBM and GAFAM
- Layoffs in Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft's LinkedIn
- There are silent layoffs at Microsoft this month
- We Don't Depend on Google and Don't Care for Google
- We have our own site search and we don't depend on Google to bring visits/visitors to us
- Facebook Layoffs Due to Enormous Debt, Nothing to Do With "Hey Hi" Slop
- The lies about "hey hi" in relation to layoffs will only contribute to further public resentment towards: 1) the media and 2) all the slop.
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- Thrown Under the Microsoft Bus
- Microsoft wants disposable contractors
- Quitting IBM and "Rumors of an Upcoming RA [Mass Layoffs] in April 2026"
- Blue layoffs or "RAs" were confirmed upfront by the CFO
- GNU/Linux Distro Builders Barely Paid Enough to Pay Basic Bills, Chief of "Linux" Foundation (Not Even Using Linux!) Increases His Own Salary by Over 50% in 5 Years
- Salaries or compensation correlate with the ability to exploit people, not to create things
- The "Zero-Sum" Fallacy
- Fallacies like "zero-sum" - especially in the context of foreign affairs including war - are utterly ruinous
- A Happy Birthday to Richard Stallman
- Richard Stallman will turn 73
- Jürgen Habermas is Dead, But the Politicised, Inherently Corrupt, Corporatised Court for Patents That He Inspired Is Not
- In the news throughout the weekend
- Mountains of Abuses of Process by Brett Wilson LLP on Behalf of Americans and Sometimes at the Expense of British Taxpayers
- a virtual "limited liability"
- linuxteck.com FUD by LLM Slop, ubuntupit.com Passes the Slop Baton
- Unless they get back to doing long-form authentic articles, as opposed to slop, no good will come out of it
- Links 15/03/2026: New Shortages, Lynx Populations Depletion
- Links for the day
- Sruthi Chandran & Debian Diversity, Favoritism, Hidden Conflicts of Interest
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- software in the public domain
- Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
- Links 15/03/2026: Slop "Bubble Driving Interest in Chip Alternatives" and Wildlife Erosion Reported
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 14, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 14, 2026
- Change of Address at the Hired Guns, Address Removed
- Companies tend to alter their 'shell structure' in anticipation of major action
- The Good IBM Managers Have Flown Away, All That's Left is the Book-Cooking Loyalists
- IBM is just cheating the SEC and shareholders. This seems to be the only thing IBM's management is nowadays good at.
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 12 Out of 200: Months Ahead of Serial Strangler From Microsoft Who Helped Double the Lawsuits (Funded by Third Parties) as 'Revenge' for Exposing Crimes
- In 2024 I sat down and wrote about what had been done to me and to my wife
- Crime Comes in Many Forms
- apparently the SRA is OK with stranglers of women in America bullying the media in the UK
- commandlinux.com, linuxteck.com, linuxiac.com, and linuxsecurity.com are Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Domain Name
- once readers realise they read slop they immediately lose interest
- Links 14/03/2026: Adoption of Slop Has Killed BuzzFeed, Russia Sees "Economic Gain From Iran War"
- Links for the day
- Patriotism is Conditional, If It's Unconditional, Then It's Like a Cult
- My love for Software Freedom is only as strong as my love for Freedom of the Press
- Links 14/03/2026: Mass Layoffs at Facebook ('Meta') and Sweeping Layoffs at Twitter (xAI), Social Control Media and Slop Are Only Debt
- Links for the day
- Wrong Time, Wrong Place (Digg)
- Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian can relaunch Digg.com, but we doubt it'll work "this time for real!"
- Universities Became Bad Places for Work
- What happened to academia?
- Reporting New and Suppressed Information is What Journalism is All About
- In the domain of Free software, there are very few sites out there that offer exclusive coverage on community affairs and there are many gagging/censorship attempts
- The Limits of Speech and the Rationale of Limitations
- it seems to be part of an international trend
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 13, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, March 13, 2026
- Gemini Links 14/03/2026: Goodness, AD534 Multiplier Module, and Extroverts Online
- Links for the day
- Atlassian Corp: We're Doing Layoffs Because of "Hey Hi"; Wall Street: Atlassian Corp is Just a Failing Business
- Don't ask "the media"
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 11 Out of 200: Cannot Censor His Spouse, Accusations Are Repeated Today
- He already has a history of threatening to sue gay people in America; he cannot take criticism too well
- Price of Storage, Price of Energy... What Next?
- EPO workers are going on strike because their salaries don't keep up with price increases and tech companies without connections in "the channel" face long delays, low availability, and high prices (no "bulk" purchases), which further solidifies monopolies.
- Don't Forget Red Hat's RTO (Return-to-office) Layoffs
- How many people still remember that Red Hat did the same thing?
- Reminder: Microsoft silent Layoffs by RTO (Commute Time and Lack of Comfort/Work Satisfaction) Already in Effect This Year
- It's difficult to measure how many employees have already "left on their own" due to the RTO policy
- Founder of IBM Ventures Has Just Quit IBM
- Some people leave IBM and many people 'leave' IBM
- Signs of Impeding Mass Layoffs - Not Just Quiet Layoffs - at Microsoft
- Beneath the surface there are waves of layoffs and even entire teams are let go
- Career Science and Academia as Corporate Propaganda 'on Tap'
- article about surveillance
- Veteran GNU/Linux Journalist Jack Wallen Tries Geminispace and Likes It
- It'll turn 7 some time soon
- Scheduled Maintenance Tonight
- There will be similar work early next week
- "Alternative to Microsoft Office" Must Use Free/Open Standards/Formats for Real Sovereignty
- It would make sense for the EU to invest in its own workers and its own software projects, more so now that there are hostile countries both to the east and to the west
- IBM Has No Clue How to Integrate Companies Like Red Hat
- IBM is failing to respect this company's culture
- Fake Articles From Sites With "Linux" in Their Name/Domain Name
- we can at least hope that linuxteck.com made a decision to quit slop
- Links 13/03/2026: New US Weapons for Taiwan, Pakistan Air Strikes Hit Kabul
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 13/03/2026: Exhaustion and Smartphone Addiction
- Links for the day
- Friday the 13th & Debian Developers afraid to nominate in DPL elections
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 13/03/2026: Chatbot "Pentagon Contract" (Bailout) and Secret Service Ditches Slop Pusher
- Links for the day
- When Everybody Has a Right/Access to An Attorney/Lawyer (But Some Get Funding From Malicious American Corporations to Spend a Million Dollars on Many Lawyers and Several Barristers)
- And send about 75 KG of legal papers to the residence of the "opponent"
- European Qualifying Examination (EQE) Being Reduced to Pieces of Papers One Can Buy, Patent System Rapidly Losing Its Legitimacy
- Welcome to the "new Europe"
- Priorities in 2026
- 2026 is an interesting year
- Willis Towers Watson (WTW) Producing More Propaganda for EPO "Cocaine Communication Managers"
- The Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) has this new paper about Willis Towers Watson (WTW) and its annual EPO-sponsored propaganda, pretending all is well when things are clearly dire
- Head of Microsoft Office and Microsoft 360 is Leaving Microsoft Amid Problems and Mass Layoffs
- Microsoft is like a "legacy" company
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, March 12, 2026
- Gemini Links 13/03/2026: "Someone to Take Over Antenna" and Random Seed/RNG
- Links for the day