abarbarian Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 TODAY we are delighted to say that Europe consistently shows GNU/Linux growth Quote Having just checked this month's statistics from statCounter, we see ongoing "market share" growth. statCounter estimates GNU/Linux is at 7% in Turkey this month. Whilst linux's share may not be that large overall the linux os continues to maintain a steady growth rate year on year. Microsoft on the other hand is in free-fall worldwide and my prediction is that its fall will accelerate at a fast pace over the next year or so. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 3 hours ago, abarbarian said: TODAY we are delighted to say that Europe consistently shows GNU/Linux growth Whilst linux's share may not be that large overall the linux os continues to maintain a steady growth rate year on year. Microsoft on the other hand is in free-fall worldwide and my prediction is that its fall will accelerate at a fast pace over the next year or so. The problem with MS is that SO MANY people HATE the OS. It just does what IT wants, WHEN it wants, with no regard to the user's preferences. I run Win in a VM, because of some proprietary programs that I'm forced to use for business, and I always dread opening my WinVMs because you never know when it's going to grind itself to a dysfunctional halt while it checks for updates/downloads updates/installs updates; or when it will attempt to force a restart in the middle of a task.....because, you know it's REQUIRED for the newly acquired updates to be activated. Sometimes, I just need to open my WinWM for 2-5 minutes to get something done, and it turns into a 30-60 minute fiasco. Imagine if that was my PRIMARY OS?! On a side note, but still related.....wasn't Windows 10 supposed to be the LAST version of Windows ever? But I see Win11 coming, and hearing noises about Win12 behind that? WTH? I hope it dies a LONG and PAINFUL death....as least as much pain and grief as it afflicted me with since the early 90s (going back to Win 3 or 3.1?). I read an article recently that Android, with a Linux kernel, is the MOST POPULAR OS in the world, of ALL TIME. Considering the prevalence of cell phones, and the paradigm shift of how people use them for computing tasks, it makes perfect sense to me that the OS most compatible with Android would become the most popular OS. Don't ask me about the time frame though.....IMO, it woulda/coulda/shoulda already happened....so WTH do I know? Since Android uses a Linux kernel, it could be argued that it's a Linux distro, and if that argument has traction, then Linux is already the most popular OS on the planet, of all time. I can see MacOS sticking around because of its close ties, similarities, and structure as BSD, plus fanbois.... But Windows.....that's gotta DIE. Probably never should have been, but that Gates was a helluva marketer. Much like PT Barnum....recognized there was "one born every minute" and found a way to make it work for him. Nuff said... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Also, chromebooks are linux based (gentoo). 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 An yer Apples are linux based. 2 hours ago, Hedon James said: Considering the prevalence of cell phones, and the paradigm shift of how people use them for computing tasks, it makes perfect sense to me that the OS most compatible with Android would become the most popular OS. It has already happened in some parts of the world. https://techrights.org/n/2024/02/10/Countries_Where_the_Market_Share_of_Windows_Fell_Below_10.shtml Quote Countries Where the 'Market Share' of Windows Fell Below 10% posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 10, 2024 Bermuda, Tokelau, American Samoa, Niue, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Haiti, Egypt, Sudan, Saint Barthelemy, Vanuatu, Yemen, Niger, Guinea, Vietnam, Nigeria, Western Sahara, Gambia, Bahamas, Cameroon, Mali, Syrian Arab Republic, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Liberia Also see: Countries Where Android is Measured at Over 80% of the Market for Operating Systems THE above article and an earlier article showed that Microsoft Windows fell to new lows this month. In some countries, including large ones like Egypt and Nigeria (population size similar to the US total), Windows fell to exceptionally low levels: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 21 hours ago, securitybreach said: Also, chromebooks are linux based (gentoo). True dat! And Chromebooks seem to be the preferred flavor for schools and education, for several reasons. So I expect that, as that generation ages, the paradigm will shift to ChromeOS. I like ChromeOS....not as much as Linux...but better than Win or Mac. My biggest issue with ChromeOS is that it attempts to herd you into a server/client relationship....where your "stuff" is kept on the server, and your Chromebook is a client accessing that server. This reminds me a LOT of the old days, with mainframes and dumb terminals....it's the same concept, but now it's super-charged! If you passively follow the path that ChromeOS encourages....you're walking right into the "google trap". at least you're not "locked in" due to proprietary data retention.....laziness to migrate, maybe....but not for proprietary reasons. But it's easy enough to circumvent the ChromeOS "traps" while enjoying the positive attributes of ChromeOS. I can live with ChromeOS, even though I PREFER Linux. One could argue the differences are subtle, but I would argue those subtle differences are the difference between a good OS and a great OS. JMO... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 1 minute ago, Hedon James said: My biggest issue with ChromeOS is that it attempts to herd you into a server/client relationship....where your "stuff" is kept on the server, and your Chromebook is a client accessing that server. This reminds me a LOT of the old days, with mainframes and dumb terminals....it's the same concept, but now it's super-charged! With everything going cloud and SAS (software as a service), we are going to full circle back to the dumb terminals of the old days. If the internet speed is fast and reliable, you won't need to have anything but a dumb terminal that gives you video and usb ports. Some of us will still local computing but for the majority, they are fine with a dumb terminal. I mean you can stream high end games over the net or locally using a different machine in your home. I could run a high end game from my desktop and stream it to a laptop to play on if I wanted to. And that is on linux as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 4 minutes ago, Hedon James said: If you passively follow the path that ChromeOS encourages....you're walking right into the "google trap". at least you're not "locked in" due to proprietary data retention.....laziness to migrate, maybe....but not for proprietary reasons. But it's easy enough to circumvent the ChromeOS "traps" while enjoying the positive attributes of ChromeOS. I can live with ChromeOS, even though I PREFER Linux. One could argue the differences are subtle, but I would argue those subtle differences are the difference between a good OS and a great OS. JMO... You can officially enable Linux on a chromebook https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Quote On your Chromebook, at the bottom right, select the time. Select Settings Advanced Developers. Next to "Linux development environment," select Turn On. Follow the on-screen instructions. Setup can take 10 minutes or more. A terminal window opens. You have a Debian 11 (Bullseye) environment. You can run Linux commands, install more tools using the APT package manager, and customize your shell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 4 hours ago, securitybreach said: You can officially enable Linux on a chromebook https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en Yep....that's how I use MY chromebook! FWIW...there isn't much to ChromeOS....basically Google Chrome "wrapped" around websites as "webapps". But that LinuxVM (crostini?) is the MOTHERLODE feature that makes a Chromebook useful to folks like us. And the current version of the LinuxVM draws upon Debian 11 repos, so that's not much of a learning curve for a fella like me currently running Debian 12 on bare metal, LOL! That LinuxVM is what finally swayed my opinion on ChromeOS from "meh...whatever" to "oh yeah....now we're talking....what else ya got?!" I could use ChromeOS as an everyday machine if I had to. FWIW... And that comment about Software as a service (SAaS)....i think you meant "software as a subscription", LOL! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Neat, I never played with a chromebook before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 The cloud is just other peoples' computers. I prefer, in fact insist, my data to be on my computer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 9 hours ago, sunrat said: The cloud is just other peoples' computers. I prefer, in fact insist, my data to be on my computer. Well technically everything on the internet is the cloud unless you are hosting it your self Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 12 hours ago, sunrat said: The cloud is just other peoples' computers. I prefer, in fact insist, my data to be on my computer. You and me BOTH! Once upon a time, storage media was expensive and I could've understood the appeal. But SSDs, HDDs, NVMEs, USB/Flash drives are all CHEAP as can be now. Why wouldn't you store your own data? I have a few things stored on my Google Drive, but those are things meant to be shared with others. The overwhelming majority of my data is stored on MY drives...and that includes my Chromebook! I INSIST on that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 (edited) 19 hours ago, securitybreach said: Neat, I never played with a chromebook before. Chromebooks are very simple devices in their default configuration, and there's very little to go wrong with them. They're perfect for elderly folks (my mother) and other non-technical users (most folks, IMO!) who don't "produce content", but just need a tool to interact with the internet, send/receive e-mail, etc... I hooked my mother up with a Chromebook about 5 years ago, and the requests for tech support STOPPED on a dime. Haven't heard anything about computer issues since then. And I'm not about to show her how to bungle up her machine by activating the LinuxVM. But when it comes to ME....that LinuxVM is a REQUIREMENT to use ChromeOS. You should check 'em out SB. I picked up a refurbed 17" Chromebook on Amazon for around $150....I don't care about portability, or I would've bought a smaller and cheaper refurb. But $150....figured I couldn't go wrong at that price. If you find yourself tempted to check them out, 3 things to pay attention to, IMO: because I KNOW you'll be activiting the LinuxVM, find a machine with 8GB RAM or more the LinuxVM will default to 10GB of storage, unless you specify more, and I like to keep MY data on MY machine, so get the largest storage drive you can find, OR a card slot, and get the biggest storage card you need watch the AUE (automatic update expiration?)....this is the "support period" for that machine that it will be updated for security & performance...usually expressed as a calendar year (i.e. 2028 AUE). I'd look for around 5 years left. more is better less is a decision to make, IMO... I absolutely recommend Chromebooks to non-technical users. And with LinuxVM ability, I can absolutely recommend a Chromebook to power users like us too! Check 'em out....I think you'll be impressed with what you can do with such an inexpensive machine. I installed PCManFM, LibreOffice, GIMP, LXappearance (to help unify the Linux themes with Chome themes) and some themes and icon packs and I've got a fully functioning Linux laptop, running in a VM on my Chromeook, with native performance. VERY impressive! All applications must be installed from the Linux Terminal, but that won't be a problem for anyone on this site, LOL! As long as it's in the Debian repo, just "sudo apt install software" and it's added to your VM. Just like real Linux. Enjoy! Edited February 13 by Hedon James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Well I always have a few laptops so that is why I never got a chromebook. I am familiar with the way they work as far as basically being a browser with some browser apps available to "install". I know most schools issue them as well. You are right, they work for 99% of the world as everything is web basd. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 2 minutes ago, securitybreach said: Well I always have a few laptops so that is why I never got a chromebook. I am familiar with the way they work as far as basically being a browser with some browser apps available to "install". I know most schools issue them as well. You are right, they work for 99% of the world as everything is web basd. Perhaps a better alternative for YOU would be to install ChromeOS Flex and repurpose one of those old lappies. You can make a ChromeOS flash drive and try it in a LIVE session to verify ChromeOS plays nice with your old machine, but you won't be able to test the LinuxVM in a LIVE session because activating the LinuxVM requires rebooting the machine (which takes about 10 seconds, shut down to reboot to login!), and you're right back to your LIVE session. As long as your machine plays nice with ChromeOS, just install and check it out. I installed ChromeOS Flex on an old Toshiba Satellite laptop from sometime around 2005-2009ish and I guarantee that machine was NOT on the list of "supported" machines for OS Flex. Even so, ChromeOS ran better than Win7 EVER did on that machine....I was blown away! The downside to ChromeOS Flex is no access whatsoever to PlayStore apps. But I've looked at PlayStore apps from my official Chromeook, and there's hardly anything there....certainly nothing I cared about. And a LinuxVM provides access to WAY more applications than you might have lost from PlayStore. FWIW....I think old laptops are the "sweet spot" for Chrome users. They tend to be better specced, with more RAM and bigger hard drives, and are upgradeable (Chromebooks are not)....everything I was looking for in a Chromebook...and they can be had very cheaply also. A better machine for similar money. FWIW...if I was SB, I'd repurpose my oldest, weakest functioning laptop with ChromeOS Flex and see if that doesn't reinvigorate that machine better than it ever was! JMO... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 That would be a good idea if I kept old laptops. I usually sell them after getting a new one. My current 3 laptops are only a couple of years old. All have i7s with 32gb ram and nvme drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 I gave away the last two older laptops that I had. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 I agree with HJ that having a native Chromebook is a good idea. I have a 13 inch Lenovo Flex 5 model here with 8 GB of RAM and an 11th gen Intel i3. I added a micro SD card (256GB) to the 64GB of storage. I have decided to take this laptop on future holidays as it is much lighter than the Thinkpad T430 and I can charge it up with the same cords I use for cellphones. I have an old USB card reader I can take along to transfer photos from my camera as a backup. Everything can stay on the micro SD card which could probably hold 3X the storage capacity of all the digital photos I have taken in the last 20 years. No need for cloud upload at this point. I have not done any sort of Linux jailbreak or VM so far on this machine. The grandkids and my wife use the plain vanilla Chromebook so I don't feel the need to add Linux at this point. I have plenty of old junk laptops to experiment with Linux on the rails. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 On 2/13/2024 at 3:08 PM, Hedon James said: Chromebooks are very simple devices in their default configuration, and there's very little to go wrong with them. They're perfect for elderly folks (my mother) and other non-technical users One of the reasons they are so popular for schools. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 18 hours ago, raymac46 said: I agree with HJ that having a native Chromebook is a good idea. I have a 13 inch Lenovo Flex 5 model here with 8 GB of RAM and an 11th gen Intel i3. I added a micro SD card (256GB) to the 64GB of storage. I have decided to take this laptop on future holidays as it is much lighter than the Thinkpad T430 and I can charge it up with the same cords I use for cellphones. I have an old USB card reader I can take along to transfer photos from my camera as a backup. Everything can stay on the micro SD card which could probably hold 3X the storage capacity of all the digital photos I have taken in the last 20 years. No need for cloud upload at this point. I have not done any sort of Linux jailbreak or VM so far on this machine. The grandkids and my wife use the plain vanilla Chromebook so I don't feel the need to add Linux at this point. I have plenty of old junk laptops to experiment with Linux on the rails. That's another great example of a "perfect" use-case scenario! But for the record....there's no need to "jailbreak" for a LinuxVM. ChromeOS provides that function natively....hidden in plain sight for those who want it....by simply flipping a switch in the settings to "enable" the LinuxVM. The system appears to have "frozen" for a bit, while the VM software installs, but once completed, informs you that a restart is required. It takes about 10 seconds to do that....shut down, reboot, and login....and you now have a Linux Terminal to install your favorite Linux software. All Linux software installations are via CLI, so no danger of "accidentally" installing a Linux app. Once installed, the Linux app shows up in a "Linux" group in the app drawer. From that point, it behaves like a native ChromeOS application....you can drag it to the launcher/bar....you can create your own "group" and put it there. Far as anyone else using that machine knows, it's just another Chrome app. So even though the LinuxVM is in it's own partition, including Linux data & files, it will appear to be "horizontally integrated" with ChromeOS. The only clue that it's a Linux app is that the appearance will follow the Linux Adwaita default theme, rather than the Chrome theme you selected for the ChromeOS. I found this to be a feature, rather than a fault, while I was learning how to work the system. I could tell at a glance whether I was using the native ChromeOS File Manager, or my preferred LinuxVM File Manager (in my case...PCManFM.....but it could've just as easily been Thunar, Caja, or anything else in the repo!). But once I got comfortable with the LinuxVM, and figured out that ALL Linux apps were installed in their own group in the app drawer, I didn't need to keep track of them anymore, so I decided to theme my Linux apps to resemble the ChromeOS theme I had chosen. I installed LXappearance, my preferred Obsidian icons, a dark theme (adwaita-dark?), and now my Linux apps are "close enough" to my ChromeOS apps that I'm satisfied. Easy Peasy....Chromebooks are a real option now, and provide a very nice bridge to the Linux ecosystem for folks like us. ChromeOS is as simple as simple can be for the majority of users; but flexible enough to accommodate the Linux power-user! A sweet spot of useability, IMO! And while OTHER OSes are constantly exhorting users to upgrade their hardware or purchase new hardware to accommodate their increasingly resource-hungry OSes, ChromeOS Flex is there to encourage folks to re-cycle their hardware with an OS that will make their machine run like new again. "You don't need a new computer....you need a new OS....here's a free one for you....just copy to a USB flash drive, restart your computer, and we'll take care of everything for you!" Installation of 3rd party OSes is probably the biggest obstacle to Linux uptake....too complicated for MOST users. But even the simplest of simpletons can follow the instructions and install ChromeOS Flex (or buy a ChromeOS Chromebook/ChromeBox off the shelf). I can absolutely forsee a world, in my lifetime, where ChromeOS is the preferred OS (maybe pulling Linux along with it, maybe not?) and Windows will be relegated to the nostalgic backseat, much like Windows did to Unix in the late 80s and early 90s. It will still be somewhat relevant, for legacy applications, but it will no longer be preferred, nor even popular. JMO... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 I am now in a hotel posting this from the Chromebook and unlike some Linux distros that balk with the hotel wifi, ChromeOS worked perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 3 hours ago, raymac46 said: I am now in a hotel posting this from the Chromebook and unlike some Linux distros that balk with the hotel wifi, ChromeOS worked perfectly. What is the issue? If it is the sign in page, just check the gateway with the command: ip route In my example below, 192.168.2.254 is the gateway. If you put that IP in the browser, it will redirect to the wifi sign in page 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 (edited) Usually the problem is with the SSL protocol in the browser. If I surf to neverssl.com I can get the browser sign in screen and then it's OK. Edited February 16 by raymac46 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 13 hours ago, raymac46 said: I am now in a hotel posting this Show off 11 hours ago, securitybreach said: What is the issue? He does not have one he is in a hotel on holiday. Unless the view from the window is lousy or the mini bar is understocked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 3 hours ago, abarbarian said: Show off He does not have one he is in a hotel on holiday. Unless the view from the window is lousy or the mini bar is understocked. What I'm hearing is that the problem is.....eventually, he has to return home?! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 From my hotel room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 34 minutes ago, raymac46 said: From my hotel room. Hmmmm a room with a view of a bank............ interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 1 hour ago, abarbarian said: Hmmmm a room with a view of a bank............ interesting Would be a perfect spot if you were casing out the bank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 1 hour ago, securitybreach said: Would be a perfect spot if you were casing out the bank Sssssh could be where he gets all the loot for those cruises 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.