Why we wont stop using Ubuntu and chat about Internet privacy

With the issues with SNAP recently, some people have asked?  Is it time for distros based on Ubuntu to die?  The answer to that is a firm NO.  Its time for SNAP to die but from Ubuntu's snap developers it doesnt look like it is going anywhere.  We have disabled SNAP by default in our ISO refreshes.  You cant even install it and we decided to just stick with DEB's and Flatpak.  With Ubuntu moving entirely over to SNAP's will that make it difficult?  Not really.   Someone will build the debs or we will do it ourselves.  But should we change or do the Linux Mint route and look at Debian?  First, Linux Mint has always had a Debian edition, so I dont think SNAP had anything to do with it.  B, Im the person who doesnt like to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Ubuntu does a lot of things right, they do a couple of things wrong. The things they do right far outweigh what I dont like about it.  So while we did look at switching to Debian, Arch and Red Hat and while all great distributions we like Ubuntu.  If we were to look at making a change it would either be Chromium OS or Gentoo.  But to change the base because of ONE thing, SNAP, is ridiculous, asinine, and fucking stupid. 

Some other reasons people have put out there is because they work with Microsoft or business practices or Canonical's use of proprietary software.  I dont care that they use proprietary software, I dont care if they have agreements with Microsoft.  Those things are not important to me.  Besides, if you seriously want to look at it Microsoft is right now the biggest distributor of Linux.  WSL combined with Windows Azure.  Besides, most commercial Linux and Open Source companies have an agreement with Microsoft or some other group.  Red Hat, Oracle, IBM, SUSE, pick one.  Microsoft is a member of the Linux foundation and you have Microsoft employee's on the kernel team.  I dont think many users really care about Microsoft anymore.  Why?  If you look at the top Windows app Linux users have wanted for DECADE's the ONE top app.  Guess which one... Microsoft Office.  Its never been done fully but now with Edge on Linux the online suite is great for basic needs which is what most people use it for.  VS Code and Edge have been extremely popular on the Linux platform and there have been some people who use Edge and VS Code full time that I never thought I would see them ever use it to be frank.  Seriously, this argument has gotten old.  Everyone's screaming privacy, all web browsers do data collection; ALL OF THEM.  Unless you make your own browser those bits and bobs are going somewhere you cant control.  Its seriously a question of whether you want to shoot yourself in the right foot or the left foot.  If the US Government wants to get your browsing data and everything you do online, you will not stop them no matter how many computers you have with Tor, VPN's etc. etc. etc.  You want privacy on the internet?  Dont use the internet.  Its that simple.

Linspires new direction explained

 For the past year we have internally at PC/OpenSystems LLC launched a project called CLOUD9.  The aim of this project was to create an OS that utilized cloud apps in replacement of traditional desktop applications.  Some of those manifested themselves into Xandros Cloud but we wanted to bring that to all of our desktop users.  Some of the efforts were successful (Xandros Cloud Office 365 was our best seller for our education customers and some of our enterprise customers)  But we wanted to make the best Cloud centric OS that we could.

First, we created a Chromium OS build of Freespire (Which I personally liked) The problem with ChromiumOS was that it relied solely on web apps during our focus groups and user testing we found that some users still want to run some traditional desktop apps (Gimp, Krita, Video editing software, music and video players) and while ChromiumOS has Crostini but it is not enabled by default.  The other issue was it was not easy to install.  This was before Google integrated the Neverware installer.

Second, we created an Android build.  Which again I liked.  But it was still too much of a desktop OS and relied on packages being installed from the Google Play Store.

Third, what culminated in Xandros Cloud which was use our traditional base and to pre-install Google or Microsoft's services.  This was the direction we ultimately decided to go and there are a few reasons.

1. Ease of use.  Freespire, Linspire and Xandros are by far the easiest Linux distributions for the average computer user.
2. Software availability.  Not only do users have the ability to use apps from the Ubuntu repositories, native Debain/Ubuntu packages, FlatPak, Appimage and SNAPS but users do not have to rely on some obscure framework which may or may not work and that is in perpetual beta for years on end.  Apps are available to be fully installed on the system and new apps available through the software center.
3. Users wanted native speed and full availability without having to rely on container technology
4. User focus groups and beta testing.  During our testing we found that users had much more success with our traditional distributions.  We discovered that users very rarely use LibreOffice and Thunderbird the apps we found they most used were Google Chrome, Gmail and Google Office or Microsoft Office 365 (This includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneNote etc.)  

So, we have made several changes to Freespire, Linspire and Xandros.  Linspire and Xandros will now offer cloud apps for the tasks of office suites, calendar, e-mail, and online storage.  What will the new direction offer us?

• Refined distribution.  Uses less resources and smaller ISO images.
• It allows us to run on more Intel based Chromebooks that have reached EOL and allows users to take even more advantage of their current hardware investments.  Users and customers will be able to download an ISO and upgrade their current systems.  No new hardware purchases necessary unless that system is older than 5 years.
• More secure to attacks because of smaller attack surface.
• There will be less of a need to create custom distributions for customers because of the common base resulting in lower prices for our customers.
• No preconceived notions of apps and services customers and users want to use.  Customers and users decide for themselves
• Most state governments, federal facilities, enterprise users and educational facilities already certify Google Chrome in their environments and test their internal and public web properties on Chrome and Chromium.
• Makes us more competitive with ChromeOS and CloudReady.
• We will continue to work with Google to make sure that we stay compatible with the Admin console.

What can you expect from the new distributions: 

Freespire 7.7 will continue to be our free to download and redistribute distribution and will not be distributed with proprietary codecs.  Freespire will include, Chrome and IceSSB.  It will also include Geary mail client, games, Parole media player and Rhythmbox.  It will be delivered sans any Google or Microsoft services and users can decide what services they wish to use by default.

Linspire 10 SP 1.5 will include all of Googles services.  Docs, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Keep, YouTube, Google Maps and Weather.com.  Local apps will include Chrome, IceSSB, Video Player, Rhythmbox, Games, Shotwell and Krita.  It will include all proprietary multimedia codecs and  DVD/Blu-Ray support.  

Xandros OpenDesktop 2021 will come in two flavors.  Standard Edition with all the Google services preinstalled and Office 365 edition which will utilize Microsofts web services.  With the Office 365 edition Bing will also be the default homepage and the default search engine in Google Chrome.  Both will ship with .NET Core, Powershell and Visual Studios Code.  Local apps will include, Chrome, Video Player, Rhythmbox, games, Shotwell and Krita for image editing.  Both editions of Xandros OpenDesktop will also include all the proprietary media codecs and DVD/Blu-Ray support 

Xandros OpenServer and Xandros Terminal Services will not be affected by these changes.

We look forward to bringing you these new products and look forward to servicing our customers and users for years to come.

Microsoft Edge on Linux

 When Microsoft announced they were porting Microsoft Edge to Linux there were three reactions.  The first reaction was meeeh who cares.  The second reaction was "NOOOOOO NEVER!!!!!!  I WONT TAINT MY LINUX SYSTEM WITH MICRO$OFT SHIT!!!!!"  The third reaction was optimism with a pinch of skepticism.  This is not the first time Microsoft has ported its web browsers to an alternative Operating System platform.  Microsoft had IE on Macintosh and they had also ported IE to Unix.  I used IE for Unix and while it worked great it looked out of place and that is because when it came to the UI elements not a lot of work was done on that front and it didn't last long before Microsoft quit.

Now enter Microsoft Edge.  Microsoft decided that they were going to change the underlying engine to a Chromium base.  Chromium is the open source engine and browser that lives in Chrome and Chrome OS.  Microsoft released their final version on Mac OS, iOS, Android and on Windows and promised a port to Linux.  The beta version of that dropped last Oct.  While I dabbled in it I recently started using Microsoft Edge on Linux full time and I have to say.  It is pretty great.  It is extremely fast, uses the same extensions that you find on Chrome and uses native hardware acceleration.  If you are using Facebook messenger or Google Meet it automatically chooses your input devices which is a vast improvement over its earlier betas.  Microsoft Edge for Linux also allows users to take full advantage of Microsoft's services.  If you are an IT shop that uses both platforms, Windows and Linux, Microsoft Edge for Linux also is a great tool for interoperability.  The one improvement you can take note of is the speed.  Microsoft Edge is perhaps the fastest Chromium based browser I have used.  Now, there are some downsides.  Netflix performance needs some improvements in Edge for Linux.  Another downfall is that its still only a Beta product.  For some people that will be a turnoff and there has been no statement from Microsoft when it will reach gold status.

Do I think the mass of Linux distributors will move to bundle Edge in lieu of Firefox and Chrome?  No.  In the Linux community there is still a lot of hesitancy when it comes to Microsoft and per past behavior Microsoft can get a little wishy washy on its nix support.  IE for Unix was a great product.  The only problem is that product was short lived.  But, I'm optimistic because this is a new Microsoft.  Satya Nadella GETS open source and he GETS user preference and he understands that not everyone will want to use Microsoft products.  Working with a lot of clients who use mixed environments Powershell, Visual Studio CODE, Teams and SQL Server have alleviated a lot of pain and I can imagine Microsoft Edge for Linux will also be a huge product for those clients.  In the high order bit, would we as a Linux distributor make Microsoft Edge our default browser?  Probably.  I look at software like this.  Who makes the best tools and the most polished software?  I do not get in religious fights.  I would need some assurances that Microsoft Edge will not disappear in 9 months. We currently bundle CODE and Powershell in Xandros and Powershell in Linspire.  People who want to use Firefox or Chrome can always just uninstall Edge and use whatever browser they like.

Until next time....