GNU/Linux News: The Opportunities Amid XP EOL
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-15 14:51:01 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-15 14:51:01 UTC
Few people know just how pervasive Linux has become, and that is causing a big problem for companies that increasingly rely on it. "There is a shortage of software developers in the U.S. The employment rate for these jobs is down to 2.3 percent in the last quarter. The opportunity for jobs is now there for people who come in to get this training," said Dice President Shravan Goli.
A new book on open source education teaches school leaders and parents why kids need to see coding as more than cool. Energizing Education through Open Source: Using Open Source Software to Enhance Learning by Christopher Whittum makes a strong case for deploying the Linux OS and its academic software in schools.
For business, the same kind of trouble started when Linux and the Internet showed up in the mid-1990s. No matter how useful Linux and the Internet prove to be, business still has trouble getting its head around a virtual world composed of end points that are all autonomous, self-empowered and at zero functional distance from each other. The best geometric figure for that world is a giant hollow sphere composed of boundless smarts on its outside—the nodes of its network—and no controlling entity in the middle.
Linux has become the dominant operating system for internet sites, powering Google, Facebook, YouTube and many others. It is also the dominant operating system powering Android phones and tablets, televisions, home routers and many other devices.
Running various Linux distributions on my own computers has been a mixed blessing over the years. While I've experienced many successes, something I don't talk about as often are the areas that frustrate me. In this article, I'll highlight my top list of Linux frustrations that bug me to this very day.
Ubuntu and the suite of GNU tools in any robust Unix system. A good text editor (currently Gedit)—I keep all of my working files at .txts. A robust, highly configurable browser (Firefox/Firefox for Android). A fast RSS reader (presently Google Reader, likely to be Newsblur next). A tetherable mobile connection—I use EasyTether for Android to circumvent tether-blocking as deployed by some of the carriers I use around the world, especially Rogers in Canada. AirDroid for moving files on/off Android devices in my life.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Lacking Business Model, Bluesky Has Become Slop and Gravitates Towards Plagiarism, Bots
- LLM slop/plagiarism under the guise of "Artificial Intelligence" (AI)
- SUEPO Central Made a Strike (or Striking) Success
- Europe has more than enough qualified patent officials
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- Chaff, Slop and Spam Help Distract From Parallel Crises at IBM
- IBM seems very eager to undermine discussion about what goes on inside
- IBM-Spawned Lexmark Sold, Then Came Mass Layoffs, Now the CEO Who Did This is Leaving
- IBM is really not a magnet for talent at this point
- Not April Fools But April First: Red Hat Staff Becoming "IBM"
- claims of mass layoffs set to kick off at IBM some time soon
- Gemini Links 31/03/2026: Antenna Packed Up, AuraGem and AuraSearch Maintenance
- Links for the day
- Links 31/03/2026: More Social Control Media Bans, BBC Now Run by GAFAM (US) Executive
- Links for the day
- 'Broligarchs' Don't Want Science, They Want Entertainers to Entertain Them (and Make Them Richer)
- Of course this will result in things getting worse in the sciences and everyone who relies on the sciences
- When Republics Turn From Democratic Governments Into Imperialistic Dictatorships
- What goes on in the US would require talking about politics
- Companies That Have Nothing Except Buzzwords and Promises Will Perish
- Dishonest media will perish along with the companies it is covering up for
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to be Grilled in Two Weeks' Time by the British Government for "Recent Regulatory Failures"
- we escalated to our politicians
- GNU/Linux Will Thrive as Long as It's Modular, Not Monolithic
- To IBM, it's all about money. Nothing else matters.
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part X - People Are Leaving
- "I was happy to be at the EPO in the beginning, but since I realized it's all a big mafia"
- IBM's 33 Years as a "Financial Engineering" (Accounting Tricks) Company
- In relation to Red Hat, this "financial engineering" involves culling many workers and trying to replace them with slop
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Monday, March 30, 2026
- Links 31/03/2026: Rising Costs, Cyberattacks, Novo Patent Expiry
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 31/03/2026: American Spring, Distributed Systems Simulator, and Calculus for Electronics
- Links for the day
- IBM Layoffs and Their Expected Scope in April 2026
- Such layoffs impact not only IBM "proper"
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 28 Out of 200: Facing Consequences for Impersonation and Worse
- It's not "funny". It is moreover libellous.
- Links 30/03/2026: South Korea Next to Curb Social Control Media Addiction and Manipulation, Notorious Patents in the US Challenged
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 30/03/2026: Going Back to Wrist Watches and Why LLMs in Programming Suck
- Links for the day
- Did IBM Pay thestreet.com for Puff Pieces? (Like It Did With Forbes)
- If so, there is no disclosure
- Wikipedia - Funded by Slop-pushing Companies and 'Broligarchs' - Gave Benefit of the Doubt to Slop, Then Regretted It
- Wikipedia sucks. Without slop it'll suck a little less.
- Payoffs of Lifelong Commitments
- "The Lifelong Activist"
- Links 30/03/2026: "We Can’t Income-Tax Ultra-Elites"; "The Pirate Bay’s Oldest Torrent Turned 22"
- Links for the day
- Today, Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) Goes on Strike That Can Last Until 2027. Nobody in the Media Covers This!
- "We stand with the protesters"
- When the Cost (or Time) of Maintenance Exceeds the Value
- In recent years it seems like more people learn to remove things from their lives, not add more things
- Passage of Wealth Upwards, Blaming the Victims
- Tim Sweeney's net worth is 5.1 billion USD according to Forbes
- More Media Needs to Tell the Public Slop is a Giant Bubble, It Should Stop Taking "Sponsorship" Money to Inflate This Bubble
- If enough of (what's left of) the media changes its tune and quits being a parrot of GAFAM, then we can debate slop like grown-ups
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 29, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 29, 2026
- Trying to Hide One's Abuses by Imposing Silence on Critics ("My Profile Was Private")
- With enough daylight, sooner or later everyone knows you are a vampire
- Fedora Badges System Shows the Demise of Fedora Under IBM
- IBM isn't good at keeping what it buys
- IBM is Sunsetting Red Hat, It Only Uses the Brand and the Shell
- IBM buys or spins off companies as containers for "toxic assets" and debt
- Cisco Systems is a Still Weak Spot With Bug Doors
- nothing to offer except storytelling
- EPO Strike Begins Today and It's the Longest One Yet (Can Last a Year)
- Where's the media?
- Gemini Links 30/03/2026: Approaching April and Arvelie Calendar
- Links for the day
- No Daylight Saved
- Is there still any practical reason for this ritual?
- Microsoft Azure Does Not Have "Hiring Freezes", It Has Had Mass Layoffs Every Year Since 2020
- Things are always a lot worse than Microsoft formally or publicly acknowledges
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 27 Out of 200: Using the Tor Network to Hide From Consequences
- Only 1-2 weeks after the countersuit the Canadian attempted to deplatform several Web sites
- The Limits of Inclusion
- Inclusion with caution isn't "opinionated"; it's a defence mechanism, sometimes a survival instinct
- Almost 20 Years After Microsoft/Novell
- The mission has not changed, but the priorities evolve all the time
- People Discuss Rumours of Mass Layoffs at IBM Becoming Public in 1-2 Weeks
- IBM is killing its brand or its "goodwill"
- LLM Slop Kills Sites, as Sites That Adopt Slop Are Doomed
- People won't subscribe to such sites and visit them if they recognise it's just slop
- Links 29/03/2026: Indonesia Cracks Down on Social Control Media Addiction, China Becomes World’s Scientific Superpower
- Links for the day
- Fedora at the Mercy of Microsoft Because of Back-Doored Kick-Switch Boot
- We'll soon revisit the defamation attacks on Torvalds
- Links 29/03/2026: Water Shortages and No Kings Rallies
- Links for the day
- The Old Days
- In the early days of this site (2006) it was mostly just a couple of people, plus comments
- Gemini Links 29/03/2026: Return to Gopherspace, "Zen of Marking Playing Cards"
- Links for the day
- The Real XBox is Dead, So Microsoft is Calling Everything "XBox" Now
- It even wanted to run a campaign to convince everybody that XBox is not actually a console
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 28, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 28, 2026