Their laptops were running Windows / Linux, and this article is saying that while they initially planned to shift to HarmonyOS Next, they are now likely to stay with Linux.

Also, while HarmonyOS Next is proprietary, the kernel (Hongmeng, a microkernel optimised for arm64 and with a Linux compatibility layer) and large parts of the underlying code (OpenHarmony) are open-source. Sort of like Android and AOSP. The ‘optimised for arm64’ thing might be why they are sticking with Linux - the laptops mostly use Intel x86 chips.

Debian already has an ARM version. Do you mean some Qualcomm drivers are missing? There are already Ubuntu ROMs for Android phones, so this shouldn’t be an issue, right?

It messes up object arrangement. This is technically Microsoft’s fault, but that doesn’t help when you want to communicate clearly with a MS Office user.

LibreOffice has more features and is overall better. OnlyOffice is more compatible with MS Office. So if you need to use docx etc. for work, you use OnlyOffice as a workaround.

At the application level? Yes. At the OS / package level? It’s still a work in progress. And you need the latter to use the former.

Fair, but it means devs will write software that can one day run on open hardware.

I’m guessing most IoT devices are made in China (or increasingly Southeast Asia), so yes.

Mint has three prebuilt options, Cinnamon is just the default. Beyond that you can also install other desktops.

The year is 2040. The nuclear powers of the world have just signed a treaty to halt all new nuke production. Across the world, people celebrate in the streets.

cuts to gloomy office

Except Dr Newtron, CEO of Newtron Industries, the world’s best manufacturer of nuclear weapons. But as he paces his office and shouts at his secretarie, the phone rings.

‘Yes?’

The voice on the other side is icy calm. ‘You appear to be in a bit of a problem’, it observes.

‘Did you call me to state the obvious?’ the doctor barks into the mouthpiece. ‘I did not become Doctor Newtron by suffering fools, you know’.

‘No, I called to offer you a way out’. The voice is unperturbed.

‘Speak.’ The doctor’s voice changes in an instant. He did not become Doctor Newtron by being a fool either.

‘Have you heard of TrickTock?’ (The voice is that of a woman.)

The doctor is silent. He is not one to admit ignorance. But the voice seems encouraging, understanding, even. ‘Tis a silly place. It is like PlaceBook, but for children’.

‘Ah’, the doctor agrees, ‘but what does it have to do with saving my business?’

‘Everything’, the voice replies.

Meet nuclear physicist Dr Newtron and influencer Zea Mayes as they try to sell the public on the idea of nuclear war. Only on Nuke, releasing this sixth of August!

Any distro that can run Chromium / Chrome. And everything other than Teams will work even on Firefox.

Mint works. Most alternatives don’t. I can install Mint on a total newbie’s system, and not have to worry about something breaking two weeks later. Hell, most newbies can install Mint if you give them the USB.

On a deeper level, I think Mint devs are one of the few teams that understand the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ philosophy.

Yes, because tomorrow you may face the same bug.

The government distros (BOSS and IT@School) are for government offices and schools, respectively. Also, both are open-source. Mostly they add better support for Indian languages, and some educational software.

Not sure about this particular textbook, but ours did explain what open-source is. So I’m guessing it might have been covered in a previous chapter.

The problem is that India has many local languages. So you need one language, equally foreign to everyone (so no one has an unfair advantage) for things like federal laws, national-level competitive exams and inter-state communication (each state is, in theory, composed of the people speaking one language). English conveniently fits that bill.

We almost had civil war in the 1960s over this. The compromise was that (1) India has no national language, (2) all federal documents would be in both English and Hindi (the biggest Indian language) and (3) all schools must teach any three languages, including English.

I don’t see anyone here switching to linux on their personal pc other than the IT students who are forced to install kali linux.

I think someone is pulling your leg. All the IT / engineering students I know use either a normal Linux distribution like Ubuntu, or Windows. Kali is for cybersecurity people and wannabe h4X0rs.

Do these private computers run a properly licensed version of Windows? What’s the cost for a license? Same as in other countries?

Only the big ones. Pirated Windows is extremely cheap, and Microsoft doesn’t care too much as they want people using Windows. A new proper licence would be Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. This is a considerable sum for the average Indian.

Is there more Linux expertise available than in other countries?

I don’t know that much about other countries. I do know that we are probably the most Linux-friendly country in the world. But most of the senior people in the FOSS community are from Europe / US / East Asia.

Most schools in India already use some distribution of Linux.

The government is probably the biggest customer you can get as a vendor / manufacturer. You’d be insane to not give them whatever support they ask for.

I expect a modern computer to be able to do whatever updates it wants in the background, and apply any kernel changes when I restart it. Ubuntu has been able to do both for years.