2012 January 23 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for January 23rd, 2012

Linux Takes Off on Wikimedia

Published by Robert Pogson January 23rd, 2012 in technology. 29 Comments

With some provisos about the inherent unreliability of User-Agent analysis and logging Wikimedia report the following usage changes from 2011-11 to 2011-12:

OS	Nov (%)	Dec (%)
Windows	78.01%	74.20%
Mac	8.41%	8.58%
iPhone	3.65%	5.47%
Linux	3.55%	4.44%
iPad	1.58%	2.00%
BlackBerry	0.54%	0.71%

That is consistent with news that tablets sold like hotcakes in December.

Worse yet for the Wintel monopoly, the trend of migration from that other OS increases.

The Linux component is both GNU/Linux and Android/Linux:

OS	Nov (%)	Dec (%)
GNU/Linux	1.55%	1.57%
Android/Linux	2.00%	2.87%

All of these operating systems grew in share except M$’s which declined precipitously. Combined with the information that tablet ownership doubled in December, it’s clear that Android/Linux filled Christmas stockings. By the time everyone owns a tablet, “8″ will still not be released… When you consider all the free advertising these Christmas presents will give to Android/Linux it’s clear that “8″ has nowhere to expand. A year ago, that other OS was at 82% share. By the time “8″ will be released, it could be around 66%, making 2013 the year the monopoly will be gone. A significant portion of PCs will be replaced by ARMed devices and desktop and notebook devices using ARM and Linux will be widespread. Considering the narrow margins of retailers and OEMs, I expect in 2012 many will find a place in their hearts for ARM and Linux one way or another.

- Robert Pogson

Wasting Time and Lives in Syria

Published by Robert Pogson January 23rd, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

The Arab League’s well-intentioned visits and discussions about the situation in Syria are doing nothing but wasting time and lives.

There is no way the old regime and the opposition are going to form a “unity” government after so many have been killed.
That Assad continued killing people in the streets even while high profile visitors and jouralists were around is evidence that Assad will not yield power politely.
That the opposition has more or less taken up arms indicates they feel they have to fight in order to take control of the government.

It is in everyone’s best interest to replace the current regime with a functional and democratic government. The outside world has to either intervene militarily or provide arms and training to the opposition so that they can do the job themselves. Either way, blood-letting will increase but only for the short term. The present impasse will kill more in the long run as wider violence will inevitably result.

The UN should go after the regime of Assad even more vigorously than they went after the old Libyan regime. It’s not hard to pick sides. Go with the one that did not foment terrorism around the globe and did not kill thousands of innocent civilians in the streets. This time, don’t limit matters to combat air patrol but deliberately supply weapons, training and close air support. Assad should not be able to move any heavy weapons, columns or supplies around the country within hours of taking action. Within weeks the fighting could be over. That’s a far better result than tolerating months and years of internal terrorism and killing.

There are already many deserters from Assad’s army. There will be many more if a clear winner in proclaimed. Arm them and train recruits. Combined with air support, Assad would be on the defensive and will have two options, destruction in months or a polite change of regime a bit sooner.

see Al Jazeera – Syria rejects Arab League transition plan

see BBC – Syria rejects Arab League plan for Assad to step down

- Robert Pogson

Extremadura Goes All the Way

Published by Robert Pogson January 23rd, 2012 in technology. 113 Comments

Extremadura was in the news years ago for rolling out a lot of GNU/Linux desktops overnight. Now that they have more experience and presumably a more complex system, they are going to a complete Debian GNU/Linux solution on all desktops over the next few months.

“The CIO says the most important reason for the migration to open source is the need to unify all the desktops of the civil servants. The desktop needs to be strong, easy to use and easy to manage and support remotely, without viruses and free from security problems which are common to proprietary solutions. “And of course, it needs to be free. Because our budget for this plan is of zero euros.”"

So, what some supporters of that other OS claim, that applications require people to run that other OS is just untrue. The last few thousand desktops in Extremadura’s government say so.

- Robert Pogson