Posts by 3arn0wl

France’s digital directorate dumping Windows desktops, adopting Linux instead

Re: which distro will be adopted?

I don't think anyone is predicting an easy, or a quick transition, but if the Gendarmerie and the municipality of Lyon can do it, and if there is the will, then it might just happen.

Re: Use cases

DINUM said as much in the announcement - they're giving departments until the Autumn to consider appropriate alternative soliutions.

which distro will be adopted?

… perhaps no one single distro, but my bet would be that Emmabuntüs will do very well. https://emmabuntus.org/

This is huge for GNU/Linux - as big a validation as it is a condemnation of proprietary software. (And a huge loss in revenue for M$)

It also puts Linux very much in the spotlight - millions of new Linux users.

I also hope that this will mean that government-financed education moves to open source software.

And businesses will no-doubt take a look too.

Digital sovereignty isn't just a buzzword – it's the future

2026…

… l'année du bureau Linux.

RSS dulls the pain of the modern web

newsboat…

I'd like to add to the list with the terminal app in Linux called Newsboat. It's lightweight and robust.

https://newsboat.org/index.html

Google embraces third party app stores and payments to put Epic Games case behind it

… but isn't GrapheneOS built on AOSP?

… which Google are also busily annexing…

It seems to me that one of the touchsreen Linux-based OSs - postmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch, etc - are better loger-term options.

As usual

I agree with both of you and say, bring on the FOSS alternatives.

Secondhand laptop market goes 'mainstream' amid memory crunch

:) Thank you!

(Genuinely)

The subtext is always that Linux is niche - sub 10% when you exclude Android users - but ofcourse that still amounts to millions of Linux users worldwide, and it's nice to be in the company of some of them here.

I do ask myself why others didn't/don't migrate when they get burned though - 32bit -> 64bit / Win11 lockout / whatever… Obviously I've heard all the excuses, and a lot of them sound flaky. I've come to the conclusion that with operating systems, as with banks, electricity providers, etc., people are simply reluctant to switch.

Linux zealot

Maybe I'm atypical… I became a Linux zealot because of "planned obsolescence". I was so angry about big tech's unpublshed move, that I vowed never to use their hardware or software again. I finally took open source seriously : I won't be locked into an ecosystem again.

I'd be just as annoyed today if I was affected by Micro$oft's decision to abandon hundreds of thousands of perfectly serviceable machines - especially at a time when hardware prices are going up.

Uptick on Linux use?

It will be interesting to see if there's a corresponding increase in the use of Linux OSs, since these machines may not be able to run Win11.

Microsoft throws spox under the bus after Parliament testimony on ICC email kerfuffle

*tox

I'm actually amazed that more use isn't made of the tox protocol p2p, e2ee, & keeping the data on your own siiilicon.

Linus Torvalds and friends tell The Reg how Linux solo act became a global jam session

It's a remarkable thing

Thank you Linus, ard everyone else who has made a contribution over the years.

Passive RFIDs can now stream telemetry data from sensors

magic

It's the "potential" of battery-less 'communication' which seems like magic to me! Onio.zero have had a battery-free remote control for a couple of years now.

It seems to me to be an excellent idea for replacing current Standby tehnology,

'The EU runs on Microsoft' – and Uncle Sam could turn it off, claims MEP

Re: EU politicians finally getting it

I don't know so much… it would appear that Trump has Europe rattled.

And being made publically aware of vulnerabilities should be a wake-up call to any political administration.

We all know that there are parts of Germany and France well on board with FOSS already - Denmark and Spain too. Only last week there was news about the French government rejecting US voip apps in favour of a home-grown alternative - https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/france_videoconferencing_visio/ Obviously, it would be good to see them go further…

But from what Liam was saying, there seems to have been strong arguments all round in favour of FOSS - economic, security, dependability/reliability, privacy,… It's gone beyond being a philosophical debate, and is perhaps being recognised as an imperative.

EU politicians finally getting it

An excellent piece. Thank you Liam.

It's encouraging to hear that Europe's politicians are finally understanding the benefits of FOSS.

That they see the advantage of "Public money : Public code."

And that some EU entities are moving in the right direction.

It's good to hear the UN endorsing open source too.

AOSP on a diet plan as Google halves Android code drops

The EU are currently in consultation

Call for evidence

Feedback: Open

Feedback period

06 January 2026 - 03 February 2026

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16213-European-Open-Digital-Ecosystems_en

Other options

Well, we know that Google likes to market Android as "the world's most popular mobile operating system" but there are actually no shortage of possible alternative touch-screen OSs :

- Samsung, the smartphone market leader with 19.7% market share has Tizen (not based on AOSP),

- As you say, second placed Huawei, with 18% of the market, has HarmonyOS, which is moving away from a dependence on AOSP, and

- 4th-placed Xiaomi, on 14.4%, has HyperOS.

In fact, looking at it, Chinese marufacturers have >50% market share, when you include Vivo (9%), OPPO (9%), ZTE and OnePlus, and we know of "China's" intention to be free of US IP…

Sovereignty

There's been a lot of talk of late about sovereignty - and US cloud storage and Microslop is usually mentioned alongside that. But actually, Google was the company that originally brought spyware to the masses. Surely the EU & China should be looking to - and financially supporting - one of the Linux-based initiatives such as postmarketOS or Ubuntu Touch.

Geopolitics push European CIOs to think local on cloud

Definition of Madness

- doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome

How many pieces does El Reg need to publish about hackers and ransomes before organisations realise that storing data on someone else's cloud - US or otherwise - is a dumb idea?

Samsung picks fights with Google and Qualcomm

Re: Divergence

Well…

Firstly they have their own operating system - Tizen - and app ecosystem. These days Tizen is mostly confined to their TVs (and I've heard it said that it's preferable to Android TV, but I wouldn't know). However, in the past, Samsung have marketed Tizen smartphones, and could fairly easily do so again. Tizen is obviously Google-free, making it acceptable in some regions.

Secondly, although they have chosen to use Qualcomm chips, they also design and build their own silicon, so they're not beholden to Western chip design companies. And

Thirdly, they've been involved with RISC-V since 2017, and are said to have some RISC-V ISA CPU designs, so they are not dependent on Arm Holdings either.

All these elements, whilst undoubtedly being contingency at the moment, nevertheless puts pressure on Google, Qualcomm and Arm. As you say, Samsung is a big player, and the loss of - or just a decline in - their custom would be keenly felt.

Re: Divergence

"How so?"

As per the headline, really! Distancing themselves with both hardware and software.

You're right to suggest that Samsung have a business model similar to other tech giants: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Huawei and Samsung are all cows that produce both milk and beef, to use your analogy.

Re: Divergence

Yes - Huawei is similar in many ways. They design their own silicon and they have their own OS.

They also have the motivation, having been an early target of political displeasure. Plus, their primary marketplace is free of Google Services.

Divergence

I applaud Samsung's recent moves to differentiate themselves from Western big tech.

Last year they demo'ed a RISC-V-Tizen TV.

Let's see a RISC-V-Tizen smartphone from them too.

After all, the world is bigger than The West, and the BRICS economy is huge and populous

Nextcloud withdraws European Commission OneDrive bundling complaint

I'd just like to see the market swing towards self-hosting, tbh. I think it's more of an education issue than a legislation issue: average Jo/e doesn't realise

- what the cloud is

- where they are

- the amount of energy they use or

- their potential vulnerabilities.

Perhaps people would make better choices if they were better informed.

Australian university used Wi-Fi location data to identify student protestors

WIFI

Is there any way to anonymize WIFI?

(Asking for a friend. ;) )

Opinionated Arch derivative CachyOS overtakes Mint and MX on DistroWatch

I don't think there's anything wrong with systemd. But there is a question of trust. IBM/RedHat is a company: they could decide to close-source systemd, and then Linux would have a lot of back-peddling3to do

Faced with £40B budget hole, UK public sector commits £9B to Microsoft

Re: A complete waste of money

Whatever happened to Public Money : Public code?

A cojplete wastewaste of moneey

Is this driven by idiocy, ignorance, political dogma cronyism or fear?

Millions of age checks performed as UK Online Safety Act gets rolling

Weather forecast

Snowflakes are falling heavily.

Poll of 1,000 senior techies: Euro execs mull use of US clouds

Nextcloud all the way.

Google backs down after locking out Nextcloud Files app

This is the right result.

Well done Richard.

Framework laptops get modular makeover with RISC-V main board

DC-ROMA RISC-V AI PC

:) This is more like it! Something that can actually cope with runnirg resource-hungry desktop apps.

https://store.deepcomputing.io/products/dc-roma-ai-pc-risc-v-mainboard-ii-for-framework-laptop-13?variant=50950608519332

PIRG's 'Electronic Waste Graveyard' lists 100+ gadgets dumped after support vanished

My blood pressure spiked at a paragrah I read in Forbes :

“Don’t wait until the last minute,” the Windows-maker has just warned the 750 million users sticking with Windows 10 for now at least… If your PC hardware is eligible for the free Windows 11 upgrade, then do that now. If it’s not eligible, do not try to upgrade your PC — instead look at recycling OR LANDFILL. :/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/04/12/microsofts-free-upgrade-offer-for-500-million-windows-users/

China’s chip champ Loongson teases trio of new processors for lappies, factories, maybe servers too

China’s RiVAI Technologies have just announced a domestically designed high-performance RISC-V server processor too, the Lingyu CPU -

https://www.techpowerup.com/335026/chinas-rivai-technologies-introduces-lingyu-risc-v-server-processor

Asahi Linux loses another prominent dev as GPU guru calls it quits

I find their phrase "I no longer feel safe…" both highly disturbing and deeply saddening.

What sort of toxic environment pushes a talented contributor to make this decision?

Lenovo teases solar-powered and folding screen concept laptops

I like the idea of the solar panel.

Meta blocked Distrowatch links on Facebook while running Linux servers

it was an error,

apparently :

https://m.slashdot.org/story/438309

"This enforcement was in error and has since been addressed. Discussions of Linux are allowed on our services," said a Meta rep to PCMag.

Re: Meta got the AI they deserve

That would me a beautiful thing.

Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

Apparenfly, according to Distrowatch -

https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20250127#sitenews

- Facebook now deems Linux to be malware, which is ironic, since Meta itself uses Linux.

Malware

n.

Malicious computer software that interferes with normal computer functions or SENDS PERSONAL DATA ABOUT THE USER TO UNAUTHORIZED PARTIES OVER THE INTERNET.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Malware

As this article suggests, it's doubly ironic since Microsoft harvests your data.

That subdued CES has us wondering what 2025 will look like, tech-wise

The biggest question for 2025 is: What will Windows users do once Windows 10 is unsupported? And I don't think anyone has the complete answer to that. Sure, we all know the options... but what will people / companies / government departments &c do?

Chinese RISC-V project teases 2025 debut of freely licensed advanced chip design

Xinchuang - "China 2025"

I applaud these efforts to produce a more performant RISC-V chip. I also admire the decision to publish the design.

It's the Chinese New Year at the end of January… and there's every chance we'll see new silicon and hardware announced, like the Roma 3 laptop.

RISC-V is making moves, but it has work to do if it wants to hit the mainstream

Apps progress

Debian has promised a generic RISC-V image for Trixie. That includes getting >30,000 packages to run - apparently that's 97.5% complete.

https://wiki.debian.org/RISC-V#Progress

Jury spares Qualcomm's AI PC ambitions, but Arm eyes a retrial

Re: Appeal

I thought Arm were seeking the destruction of the work (exerting their contol) rather than financial remuneration?

Qualcomm's Arm licenses are up for renegotiation in a couple of years... I wonder what Arm will try to extort, and whether Qualcomm will pay it.

Jury trial kicks off Arm's wrestling match with Qualcomm

Re: Messy divorce proceedings

With respect to the judge, I can't see mediation working : Arm seem to feel it their right to demand their pound of flesh - oddly, in the form of destroying years of revenue-generating work, rather than the more prosaic and lucrative financial remuneration.

And Arm's vow to seek a retrial makes little sense either... Qualcomm's licenses would probably be up for renegotiation before it got to court, judging by how long the process took this time. Plus, why demand a retrial when there's just as much chance of losing again?

Re: Messy divorce proceedings

Reuters - "Arm Holdings' lawsuit against Qualcomm ended on Friday with a jury delivering a mixed verdict that found for Qualcomm on a crucial issue, saying Qualcomm had properly licensed its central processor chips."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-jury-deadlocked-arm-trial-193123475.html?guccounter=1

Messy divorce proceedings

It looks to me like this marriage of convenience might be heading for divorce, whether it's now, or in a couple of years time when Qualcomm's licences are due for renewal.

SoftBank pledges to pour $100B into US, create 100,000 jobs in Trump's second term

Cynical thought

He / they wouldn't be trying to influence the outcome of the Arm / Qualcomm trial, would he / they?

Cost of Gelsinger's ambition proves too much for Intel

AheadComputing is hiring

https://www.aheadcomputing.com/careers

He could go and work with some of his former colleagues....

RISC-V's AI champion just scored $693M cash infusion

The disruptive nature of the permissively open RISC-V ISA encourages the prodding of the received orthodoxy, and produces unexpected solutions, like the Universal Processor here : https://www.ubitium.com/press-release-series-seed/

That has to be healthy for the industry, whether other tacks are eventually taken or not.