GNU/Linux is Going Up the Middle at Robert Pogson

There has been a surge in production and sales of low-end PCs and notebooks in the last six months. Many of the small machines were sold with GNU/Linux installed. To exclude GNU/Linux from the new markets as much as possible, M$ extended the life of XP on low-end machines. Now M$ has included machines with larger screens…

“Under the new terms, outlined in the documents, PC makers must limit screen size to 14.1 in. and hard-drive capacity to 160GB. Ultralow-cost PCs with touch screens will also be eligible. Earlier terms set in April did not allow touch screens at all and limited screen sizes to 10.2 in. and hard-drive capacity to 80GB. The processors are still limited to a single-core chip running at no more than 1 GHz, with memory limited to 1GB of RAM.”

M$ is blinking. GNU/Linux can be seen to work very well on the low end and it can run on the more powerful/larger machines as well. That M$ is including larger screens and hard drives is acknowledgment that GNU/Linux is expanding into mid-range machines. At this rate XP will be extended for all notebooks by Christmas. It won’t do them much good except for businesses. At the prices of these machines, GNU/Linux is expanding into a vacuum. M$’s gesture is window-dressing. They cannot hold back the tide. I suppose they could pay OEMs to use it but that would clearly be dumping. It might work in the USA but the market is global.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.