What were the ten best stories we published on FOSS Force this year? Well, that would depend on a lot of things, wouldn’t it, such as who’s asking? We could tell you what we think our ten best stories were this year, but we’ll hold that until next week. Today we’re going to look at the ten stories that got the most reads on our site this year.
10. Linux & Windows 8: So Far the Penguin Is Ahead: Posted back in January, this article looks at the dismal sales figures for Windows 8. Of course, since then Microsoft has backed down, and backed down again, on the Start button issue. Last we heard, the Redmond folks have evidently admitted defeat and will return not only the Start button, but will return it to it’s original function of opening the menu, with the release of 8.2. It looks to us as if they’re anticipating their new leaders wishes. Steve Ballmer’s big deal with the Start button seems to indicate some possible control issues.
9. Linux Won the Desktop Wars a Long Time Ago: This article from last February points out that Linux is winning the consumer computing wars. That’s even more true today than it was then. Then, Linux operating system dominated phones and were beginning to make great gains in tablets. Now, Linux tablets are everywhere. We’re seeing lots of seven inch tablets priced below $100 at Aldi and Big Lots. The other day, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet was selling a $70 seven inch tablet running Jelly Bean made by Bell & Howell, of all people.
8. What If Ubuntu Edge Misses Fundraising Goal?: By the time this article was written at the end of July, it was pretty obvious that Ubuntu had been quick out of the gate but couldn’t maintain to the finish line in their all-or-nothing crowdsourcing of their Edge smartphone. Although Ubuntu has lost its luster with the Linux traditionalists, we’re not counting Canonical out just yet. What’s not obvious is how Shuttleworth plans to monetize Ubuntu phone when FirefoxOS and Android are being given away free?
7. Microsoft Cranks Up FUD Machine: Last February Microsoft decided to try to stir up a little FUD. They planted a story, another of their phony reports, indicating that most consumers were more excited at the prospect of owning a Windows tablet than an iPad. That must explain why the Surface tablets flew off the shelves, eh? At the same time, Microsoft representatives were trying to convince the City of Munich that a migration to Linux and OpenOffice would cost them over €60 million while a migration to XP and Office could be had for €17 million.
6. Linux Achieves Bodhi Enlightenment: A rather positive review of the Bodhi Linux distro.
5. Newbies Guide to Debian 7 – Part One: This is the first of a three part series we published by Gustav Fridell. Part One is a step-by-step screenshot tour of the Debian installation process. Parts two and three are designed to help new users begin using Debian.
4. Oracle Losing Its MySQL Grip to MariaDB: This article, spurred by Google’s announcement in September that they were going to migrate away from MySQL to MariaDB, examines the many ways Oracle is losing the firm grip once held by MySQL on the open source database market, with drop-in solution MariaDB picking up the pieces.
3. Best Linux Distro For a New User?: This article from May takes a look at a FOSS Force Poll that asked the same question. 45% of you chose Mint. 26% opted for Ubuntu.
2. Why Mark Shuttleworth Is Important to Desktop Linux: For some reason, a lot of penguinistas have a strong dislike of Mark Shuttleworth. Perhaps that’s because they feel he misled them in the early days when he promised that Ubuntu would be a community focused distro.
Maybe he’s doing what needs to be done. Maybe the moves he’s making will eventually be beneficial to Linux and to free software in general. Maybe he wants to see if he can invoke sthe Steve Jobs vision thing and bring that over to the FOSS world. It appears to us that he’s dedicated to developing a quality product. We’re just not happy because he’s not offering us what we want. Maybe we’re not his intended customers.
1. Top Five Best Linux Distros: This was the most read article on FOSS Force in 2013. All we can offer by way of a comment is a quote from Pink Floyd. At the very end of Dark Side of the Moon, there’s a long fade-out that practically gets swallowed at the end. But with the volume turned very high, the sound of a man’s voice can be heard saying, “There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it’s all dark”
On that cryptic note, we’ll wish you a happy New Year.
It’s been a very interesting year, thank you all @ FOSS Force for your hard work, and keep rolling!
Happy New Year!