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5 factors steadily fueling Linux's desktop rise
ZDNet ^ | May 13, 2025 | Steven Vaughan-Nichols

Posted on 05/14/2025 9:55:49 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica

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To: ProgressingAmerica
Actually, I shouldn't give Torvalds all the credit. Linux might still actually be nothing but a a niche product if not for Richard Stallman's GNU Project. Because all Torvalds created was a reverse-engineered UNIX kernel. The GNU Project -- which Stallman had up and running before Torvalds created his kernel -- provided the applications that made the kernel useful even to people who can't code.
41 posted on 05/14/2025 11:48:47 AM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Paal Gulli; ShadowAce
> Anything with "Smart" in the name ... plus pretty much everything you own or use with a digital interface is running an operating system or firmware that owes its existence to Linus Torvalds' creation.

Yes. But let's not forget that properly speaking, Linux is the kernel. Not the operating system. The operating system is a kernel plus a huge body of additional system software and applications.

The creation of a UNIX-like kernel was a huge achievement for Torvalds. No argument whatsoever.

The creation of a UNIX-like operating system -- minus the kernel -- was a huge achievement for Richard Stallman and the rest of the Free Software Foundation that developed GNU, many years before Torvalds started his work on the kernel. The shells, the commands, the C compiler, the libraries. All that is GNU, not the kernel, not "Linux". (It's kind of a shame they could never get their own kernel done.)

Remember that Torvalds credits GNU with the fact that Linux -- as an operating system -- was even possible. These days people call the operating system "Linux" despite the FSF's nagging reminders that strictly speaking it should be called "GNU/Linux". Nobody cares, nobody calls it "GNU/Linux" outside of the FSF. Oh well, that's life. :-)

42 posted on 05/14/2025 11:51:22 AM PDT by dayglored (This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24)
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To: Paal Gulli

LOL you took the words right out of my mouth!! :-)


43 posted on 05/14/2025 11:51:58 AM PDT by dayglored (This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

I’m getting ready to spin at least one laptop up with it.


44 posted on 05/14/2025 11:52:02 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: ProgressingAmerica

I’ll add - having Software as a service ...to the company.


45 posted on 05/14/2025 11:54:14 AM PDT by Justa (Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people....)
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To: Openurmind

“I have one machine with my original first ever Linux install that I still use now and then. Mint 18.3 I loaded about nine years ago now”

I have an old pc I haven’t used in years loaded with dual-boot Win98/Slackware Linux 4. It may be pre-Y2K. Kept it for parts at the time.


46 posted on 05/14/2025 12:02:26 PM PDT by Zack Attack (✔)
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To: Paal Gulli

“Actually, I shouldn’t give Torvalds all the credit. Linux might still actually be nothing but a a niche product if not for Richard Stallman’s GNU Project. Because all Torvalds created was a reverse-engineered UNIX kernel. The GNU Project — which Stallman had up and running before Torvalds created his kernel — provided the applications that made the kernel useful even to people who can’t code.”

There you go... Absolutely. :)


47 posted on 05/14/2025 12:09:30 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: 9YearLurker

“I’m getting ready to spin at least one laptop up with it.”

Holler if you get stuck with anything. Good luck! :)


48 posted on 05/14/2025 12:11:49 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: Openurmind

I will—thanks!


49 posted on 05/14/2025 12:15:00 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Zack Attack

“I have an old pc I haven’t used in years loaded with dual-boot Win98/Slackware Linux 4. It may be pre-Y2K. Kept it for parts at the time.”

Isn’t that cool? From what I understand they are actually running very light CLI versions of linux on old 286 machines... Almost nothing is too old for Linux... :)


50 posted on 05/14/2025 12:15:10 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: dayglored

Wish we could do something about the social engineering hackers...

I always thought about the possibilities of implementing a reverse access virus. Anyone who breaches the system without authorization gets an executable virus packet back to the origin source... Fight fire with fire... :)


51 posted on 05/14/2025 12:28:31 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: Openurmind

Hyper-V comes with prefab Ubuntu VMs you just choose. You have to install Mint from the downloaded ISO. There are config issues I haven’t figured out.


52 posted on 05/14/2025 1:48:13 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
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To: Openurmind

I am running Linux Mint on the laptop I have connected to our TV to stream video. That’s the only thing I use it for. I never log into anything. Since I never input any sensitive information, I don’t worry about the updates, though usually do it once a year or so.


53 posted on 05/14/2025 3:28:43 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Oh I see. I misunderstood. Hopefully you can get it. :)


54 posted on 05/14/2025 3:36:58 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: Openurmind

Simply that the 5.4% is probably an underestimate, just given the historical context of linux users, most of them are probably trying to prevent fingerprinting just being a smaller pool to begin with. Hell I don’t even use hardware mac addresses.


55 posted on 05/15/2025 6:54:33 PM PDT by bak3r
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To: bak3r

“Simply that the 5.4% is probably an underestimate, just given the historical context of linux users, most of them are probably trying to prevent fingerprinting just being a smaller pool to begin with. Hell I don’t even use hardware mac addresses.”

Oh absolutely! No way it is accurate.


56 posted on 05/15/2025 7:03:27 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: ShadowAce

57 posted on 05/15/2025 7:12:55 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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