Roy Schestowitz

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project — which aimed to give underprivileged children around the world a better chance at modern education — may have been stifled though a combination of disinformation and other coordinated efforts by hardware and software monopolies that wanted to stop it. The project’s original goals were soon neglected, ultimately […]

Recently, Red Hat announced that it would not pursue the consumer desktop market for the time being. Immediate reactions were almost as misinformed as those which followed the announcement made by Wal-Mart last month — an announcement that only meant to say that GNU/Linux PCs would be sold online but not off the shelf. The […]

From a purely technical perspective, there is little or no reason why GNU/Linux-powered devices should cease to thrive. They could even become a de facto choice in consumer appliances for years to come. In turn, more broadly we might find desktop deployments that consistently use GNU/Linux as the platform of choice. However, the greater barriers […]

The Linux Kernel is one of the most fascinating bits of software out there, partially owing to the vast number of contributors who are responsible for creating it. The Kernel has spread into many areas of our lives; it is used extensively in embedded devices (where its presence goes largely unnoticed) and it is ubiquitous […]

Articles about Microsoft’s bid have probably tired you to death by now, but this article discusses one particular aspect of the potential takeover, namely its effect on GNU/Linux and BSD users. Here’s a point-by-point analysis of the impact, covering several of the key issues: Funding to the Source In order to improve its public image, […]

Striking a balance between mindsets might be a factor on which the success of Free software is hinged. Put simply, a struggle against so-called ‘pragmatism’ may have been one of the greatest barriers to wider adoption of Free software. However, at the same time, such a struggle ensures that Free software never devolves to become […]

In Part One of this article we looked at the growth of GNU/Linux in several areas, including high-performance computing (supercomputers), mobile phones, desktops, miniature laptops, consoles, and set-top boxes. There is a great deal of overlap between some of these areas, but they are certainly separable. In this concluding article we look at the growth […]

It is sometimes forgotten that GNU/Linux is more than just a desktop operating system. Linux, being a well-engineered kernel, is used extensively and also funded for its important role in several different areas of computing. One needs to look for evidence of growth not only in desktops. Judgment must be based on multiple areas where […]

When Richard Stallman announced the GNU Project back in 1983, he launched a movement that would, in time, transform the software industry. The Free Software Foundation, also created by Stallman and now sponsor of the GNU Project, has become a driving force behind the adoption of the widely used GNU GPL software license. We discussed […]

“Interoperability” has become a weasel word. The word is regularly used to insinuate that two (or more) computer systems should work very well, but they usually work well for the wrong reasons. The method adopted to make these systems work is flawed. This approach monetizes something that should be free and something that typically requires […]