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
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 64 Out of 200: Not Amused by Repeated Threats (to "Shut Down" My "Existence" While Mentioning My Wife Too)
- it's about censorship
- The NHS is Under Attack by Anthropic and Microsoft (or Their Lemmings That Infect the NHS)
- They are kidding themselves if they seriously believe Web-facing source code repositories are the real threat to patients
- cPanel is Not Linux, cPanel is Proprietary Software
- It's fair to say I've used cPanel for 23 years
- Storage and Memory Prices Are Rising Not Because of High Demand (Production Can Match Demand), It's Partly Because of Price-Fixing (Same as Food Price Increases)
- Sophisticated robberies are still robberies
- Thousands of Layoffs at IBM, So IBM Pays Mainstream Media to Claim That IBM is Hiring (Paid Lies)
- This is a story about the media failing us, not just IBM failing as a company
- A Look at DataStax Bluewashing (IBM and Layoffs)
- IBM is a place that many people leave or get pushed out of
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- Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Strange Psychosis and TUIs
- Links for the day
- Links 02/05/2026: Microsoft Has Begun Rebranding Vista 11 as 'XBox' (Because the Console is Dying), Slop Rejected by Oscars
- Links for the day
- IBM's CEO 10 Years Ago in IBM-Sponsored Forbes: "For those willing to embrace [blockchains], the future will indeed be bright."
- How well did this prediction materialise?
- RightsCon Cancellation as a Data Point in a World Gone Astray
- RightsCon should not even be controversial
- Links 02/05/2026: Gen Z is Turning Against Slop and OpenAI/Microsoft Rift Explained
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Leaving Session, Alhena 5.5.7, and Slop Failing Customers
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 01, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, May 01, 2026
- Links 01/05/2026: Microsoft 'Headcount' Decreasing, Apple Quietly Killing Vision Pro
- Links for the day
- Oracle's Debt Grew by Over 50 Billion Dollars in 6 Months
- Larry Ellison spent a lot of money buying a lot of the corporate media
- In Praise of Debian
- 30 hours ago we began an upgrade
- What Linus (Torvalds, the Linux Dude) Meant by "Show Me the Code"
- "Show Me the Code" is a common cultural reference
- Yes, GNU/Linux Can Run on Playstation 5, But Don't Buy It, Learn From Sony's Past of Rootkit and PS3 Betrayal
- Millions of Playstation 3 owners will never forget what Sony did to them
- XBox Will Not Last Much Longer, XBox Chief Admits Problems
- Microsoft's latest "results"
- Dealing With Demagogue in Free Software
- Don't spread their ideology and never participate in any of their projects
- What May 1 Means to Us (and to Many Others)
- To me, May 1 means something
- Microsoft Lunduke is 'Pulling a Garrett' by Turning Technical and Legal Debate Over Rust Into a 'Trans Debate'
- Don't fall for the demagogue
- Links 01/05/2026: Regulatory Trouble for Apple, Now Even Mozilla Pushes Back Against Google
- Links for the day
- Microsoft "Buyout" Offer is Less Than One Year's Salary
- So our assumption about this was correct
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - European Patent Office Managers Have Crossed Red Lines, According to Themselves
- The girlfriend of the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) is trying to muzzle EPO critics
- Techrights is Still Growing, Attacking Techrights Does Not Weaken the Community
- Bullying us for 2+ years does not result in fear, it results in us feeling more emboldened and motivated
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 63 Out of 200: Graveley as a Stripped-Down Version of Garrett in the Particulars of Claim (5RB Barrister Could Do This in One Minute)
- Lazily and sloppily, it looks like the barrister took Garrett's claims and tweaked them a little (shortened) for Graveley
- Lots of People Leave IBM, Today IBM Has About 1,000 Workers Fewer Than Yesterday
- Confluent "last day" for 800+ people
- Been a Very Busy Week
- Next week, as we have no upgrades to prepare for, we should be able to publish at the usual pace of 20+ pages per day
- In New Letter Sent to Chair and Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation the Staff Union Explains How to End European Patent Office Strikes
- If Campinos continues to behave as he does right now, the Council can show him the door
- Links 01/05/2026: Poems and Continuous Privacy Policy
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 30, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, April 30, 2026
- Microsoft Debt Rose Almost $50 Billion Since We Moved to Debian
- GAFAM has a new name for debt
- Google News Sloppy Again
- Today was disappointing
- European Patent Office Management Mocked for Trying to 'Bribe' Staff With a Little Food
- The Office is having a crisis; a little breakfast treat won't solve it
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 62 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Issue Astounding Copy-Paste Masterpiece Asserting Publicly-Accessible Embarrassing Facts Must Remain Hidden
- Are Garrett and Graveley twins separated at birth but joined by GNOME and Microsoft?
- Links 30/04/2026: Barrage of Lawsuits Against Slop, Microsoft's Stock Crashes
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Says Mass Layoffs Are Coming and Puts a Price on Them
- Microsoft will shrink
- The Corporate Media Intentionally Overlooks How Google's Debt Trebles in Just Over a Year
- We'll soon see how much more money Microsoft has borrowed
- (Trigger Warning) Jeremy Bicha & Debian-Edu, TecKids, Ubuntu incest scandal at DebConf25
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Upgrade Successful
- we had a downtime of only 1-2 minutes overall (for two reboots)
- Links 30/04/2026: Slop Industry Cannot Keep Up With Bills, "The World Is Getting Too Hot to Feed Itself"
- Links for the day
- Then Come the DDoS Attacks
- Is someone trying to 'kill' Techrights?
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - Deliberately Violate European Patent Convention (EPC), Tolerate Cocaine Use in Management, Hide That From Staff and Stakeholders
- The "Alicante Mafia" (as staff calls it) is a disgrace to Europe
- The Register MS Running Spam Pieces for Huawei, a Banned Company
- Money does not excuse bad behaviour
- Apparently Last Day for Nearly 1,000 Confluent Workers IBM Laid Off Last Month
- IBM is a dying company pretending to be strong because of its age
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, April 29, 2026
- Gemini Links 30/04/2026: Outdoor Time, Old Computers, and Joining Geminispace
- Links for the day