Ubuntu GNU/Linux has been global on the web but Canonical/Mark Shuttleworth has a larger project in mind. So far they have created business relationships with most of the large OEMs and provided cloud services and content-distribution portals.
Shuttleworth says projections are for OEMs to ship 20million PCs with Ubuntu GNU/Linux in the coming year. That’s about the same as Apple, a bit over 5% of PCs shipped annually.
Combined with what other distros ship, thin clients and conversions it should be a very good year for GNU/Linux desktops.
see ZDnet – 20-million new Ubuntu Linux PCs in 2012?
see Julie Bort- Business Insider –
This Wild Visionary Wants To Turn His Linux Company Into The Next Apple
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My God, Pogson! Now you’ve really sunken to the bottom of the barrel. You take the words of sect leader Shuttleworth at face value. The guy who is so desperate that he has to steal Banshee’s affiliate revenue.
Yes, Ubuntu will rule the world! And the revolution will begin in North Korea, no doubt.
Viktor sorry North Korea makes there only Linux OS. Ubuntu is not welcome because there government cannot directly control it.
It seams to me that in the countries where you cannot ask retailer to sell you a computer without preinstalled OS, people buy Linux boxes simply to install windows on it, and this Windows copy can be a pirate copy, a copy they had obtained with their old computer, or a copy they simply had bought. They don’t want to pay twice for Windows that’s all.
Hey, Ohio Ham, if Red Star OS is as successful as their latest rocket launch, we have indeed much to be afraid of. Don’t forget that our dear leader Kim Jong-un has been educated outside of North Korea. I bet he has the full Apple armada in his humble home. Linux? Sure, you can give it to the plebs, although food would be better.
Also bear in mind this: in the last review I read about Red Star OS, it was mentioned that the installed system by default prompted you to log in as “root” (so much for security), and Flash was pre-installed (so much for security and “control”).
http://www.osnews.com/story/22960/North_Korea_Develops_Its_Own_Linux_Distribution
He was able to install it at the Russian embassy, and there, he played with it, providing us with screenshots and other pieces of information. Apparently, Red Star has been commissioned by Kim Jong-il, the current North Korean leader, and according to people on the street, isn’t quite polished yet. It is also not popular yet, with people preferring Windows XP and Vista. Everybody can buy it freely – however, since the sale of computers is heavily restricted, few would have a use for it.
Will this change? No.
root can easily uninstall Flash, I suppose. root can also create normal users or configure the system policy. The installation process essentially runs as root so the initial boot could as well. I often install minimal systems with Debian GNU/Linux so I have total control on the first boot and finish the installation by installing what I want. see my video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBGQ5Wi9694
By running as root for the purpose of finishing an installation, I get better performance by skipping the GUI, a clear choice of video drivers to install instead of all of them, and more of my choices instead of defaults chosen by others. I can also make a nice gui-less system if I want. This is great for servers.
iLia wrote, “the countries where you cannot ask retailer to sell you a computer without preinstalled OS, people buy Linux boxes simply to install windows on it, and this Windows copy can be a pirate copy, a copy they had obtained with their old computer, or a copy they simply had bought. They don’t want to pay twice for Windows that’s all.”
Certainly there are many countries where it is legal and common to buy a computer with no OS but I have read of countries that did adopt prohibition. OEMs often respond with FreeDOS, a place-holder, or GNU/Linux. GNU/Linux is actually a serious OS and the majority of users who run whatever they find on a PC would not want to change nor have the inclination. Of the people I know, 99% of the people who would install their own OS were students of mine who learned in my classes how to do that. The vast majority of users of PCs in my world do not even open an ATX case. Where I last worked I offered to help citizens fix their PCs. Some of the dirtiest PCs on the planet came to my lab for repair. Sometimes fans would not turn because the felt of dust and fibres on the surfaces became too thick.
Certainly there are communities where sliding in that other OS is customary but governments appear to be pushing/persuading people to slide in GNU/Linux instead. Malaysia, for instance, is giving classes to employees about using GNU/Linux and that knowledge will spread as more homes acquire PCs. In Brazil a major company produces and sells millions of GNU/Linux PCs wholesale and retail. China seems to be an exception to fixing the problem. There, the government jailed the purveyors of illegal copies instead of persuading them to use GNU/Linux. Now there are millions of illegal copies of XP installation CDs in circulation and no one is replacing them with GNU/Linux installation CDs because the folks with the inclination/ability/interest are in jail. That’s why China has the highest rate of usage of XP and IE in the world and malware is rampant.
Of course, bad things happen when good people do nothing. I believe there are enough good people doing the right things globally to eventually fix this problem. Canonical seems to be wanting a big part of that role.
iLia
“It seams to me that in the countries where you cannot ask retailer to sell you a computer without preinstalled OS, people buy Linux boxes simply to install windows on it, and this Windows copy can be a pirate copy, a copy they had obtained with their old computer, or a copy they simply had bought.”
Some of the ones in china and USA who try this get very badly burnt. Why because the computer processor inside is Loogson, PPC or Arm. They don’t know how to run windows except as emulation inside Linux. Or the motherboard used has no windows drivers for sound or some other key part for any OS newer than windows ME. Linux has the driver your new XP does not.
Basically it burns. Same landmines wait you if you take a machine installed with Linux and try to put windows on as talking a windows machine home and trying to install Linux. It might not work.
Viktor Red Star OS is not the only thing. North Korea ISP are nicely goverment controlled so can install rootkit in your computer anytime you like.
Start guessing why particular software packages in Red Star OS are out of date versions by a few years.
Yes its a country run by a ditatorship they don’t want freedom. Ubuntu would upset there status quo.
Notice that you cannot just buy a PC there either you have to be approved to have a PC.
Apple does not sell anything to North Korea.
Apple does not sell anything to North Korea.
So what? You think the dear leader can’t get something he really, really wants? When he’s done looking at things for the day, he switches on his PS3 or Xbox360, then in bed it’s time for “Angry Birds Space” on his iPhone or iPad.