ZaReason Linux PC Vendor Closes After More Than A Decade Of Selling Linux Hardware

[nwr-phoronix]

Please stop repeating propaganda.
Even according to recently published official CDC numbers, the infection fatality ratios are as follows (probability of death IF INFECTED):
0-19 years - 0.00003% (1 in 3333333 chance)
20-49 - 0.0002% (1 in 500000)
50-69 - 0.005% (1 in 20000)
70+ - 0.054% (1 in 1852)

Yes, please stop repeating propaganda. Stop acting like other people were dumb enough to fall for your shitty lies.
I bet you know as well as I do that the CDC IFRs are ratios, not percentages. A value of 1 means, every infected person dies. You took the values from the CDC and invented the "%" thereafter, thus understating the fatality rate by two orders of magnitude because it fits your agenda.
In the group 70+ it's not one in 1852 infected who dies, it's one in 18.52. Would you like to walk the lines and count them out?
I wish no one harm, but having to hear and read this stupid and blatant lie over and over again, hampering the efforts of so many people to minimize the damage done by the pandemic, I cannot refrain from stating that this world would be a better and safer place without people like you.

[andyprough]

Weren't there already quite a few Linux PC vendors by the early 2000's? By about 2002-2005 I recall quite a few of them. I don't think this was one of the early ones at all.

And also, I never heard of them before, which doesn't say much for the advertising or social presence on the various Linux websites and forums, as I was looking for vendors at the time they were apparently selling computers. I haven't heard of other Linux PC vendors who were serious about advertising and sales getting driven out of business - seems like more people than ever are buying computers right now.

If they were actually devastated by illness, then I do feel sorry for them.

[ed31337]

I've never heard of ZaReason, but I did find it surprising that Raspberry Pi wasn't listed as one of the competitors that struck them down. RPi's dirt cheap price point, hackability, and good Linux support is reason enough for a lot people to look no further, even though there are faster Linux compatible computers elsewhere.

[andyprough]

I've never heard of ZaReason, but I did find it surprising that Raspberry Pi wasn't listed as one of the competitors that struck them down. Its dirt cheap price point, hackability, and good Linux support is reason enough for a lot people to look no further, even though there are faster Linux compatible computers elsewhere.

It's interesting that so many people here have never heard of them. It would seem that people like us would be the target audience - most of us Phoronix readers spend money on hardware specifically for Linux. If we've never heard of them, then their promotion strategy must have been missing its mark, if they even had a strategy.

[mammlouk]

I've still got half a strip of Ubuntu stickers I bought from them a decade ago, though the preloaded thumb drive is long gone. I haven't put one on my current laptop yet. I think I'll do that this week and pour one out for our fallen homies.

[fuzz]

Take it from Johns Hopkins.

The CDC classifed all deaths that are related to COVID-19 simply as COVID-19 deaths. Even patients dying from other underlying diseases but are infected with COVID-19 count as COVID-19 deaths. This is likely the main explanation as to why COVID-19 deaths drastically increased while deaths by all other diseases experienced a signifcant decrease.

"All of this points to no evidence that COVID-19 created any excess deaths. Total death numbers are not above normal death numbers. We found no evidence to the contrary," Briand concluded.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Briand addressed the question of whether COVID-19 deaths can be called misleading since the infection might have exacerbated and even led to deaths by other underlying diseases.

"If [the COVID-19 death toll] was not misleading at all, what we should have observed is an increased number of heart attacks and increased COVID-19 numbers. But a decreased number of heart attacks and all the other death causes doesn't give us a choice but to point to some misclassifcation," Briand replied.

In other words, the effect of COVID-19 on deaths in the U.S. is considered problematic only when it increases the total number of deaths or the true death burden by a signifcant amount in addition to the expected deaths by other causes. Since the crude number of total deaths by all causes before and after COVID-19 has stayed the same, one can hardly say, in Briand's view, that COVID-19 deaths are concerning.

A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

[Danielsan]

In a period where computers and laptops are sold more than ever I would say the problem with those small companies that sell preinstalled Linux is actually the fact that big companies like Dell and Lenovo are selling preinstalled computer with Linux too, the others are offering tailored experience with their own OS like Purism and S76 narrowing a specific niche...

Anyway it is a shame...

[EarthMind]

A casualty due to covid? That sounds completely illogical. Covid is one of the best things that happened to laptop hardware vendors, because it allowed them to make big business because of the massive WFH that came with it. I wonder what the hell they did not to be able to profit from the current situation. My thought is that it's completely unrelated to covid.

Aside from that, also I've never heard of them. I just recently bought a powerful tuxedo device though

[oiaohm]

Take it from Johns Hopkins.
A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

Did you miss the water mark across that PDF. Retracted by The News-Letter.

https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/12/on-the-retraction-of-a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-and-our-coverage-of-covid-19

It was retracted due not using properly peer reviewed figures and using percentages in way that can give a miss representation on the fatality level. There is even a note on page 5 of the PDF that you should not use it in debates over COVID-19.

Just because its Johns Hopkins does not mean they cannot screw up and produce false interpenetration of data. Its important with lots of this stuff to use peer reviewed items to make sure something has not done 2+2=22 as the PDF you just quoted turns out to be non peer reviewed and has done 2+2=22.

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/latest-release

There is something interesting in the Australian numbers. Since we have been doing social distancing and disease control our over all death rate has dropped. The data suggests due to not tracing and controlling viruses we have been having a lot of excess death per year in respiratory diseases that could have been prevented.

Its really simple to miss that Covid-19 has changed people actions that have effect on general virus spread. This has shown we have been in quite a bad place for quite some time.

Please note the Australian numbers for 2020 have before and after control policies had been put in place. Before control polices we were on path to way worse than prior years. Of course it was not thought that control policies against Covid-19 that are really general control method against most airborne spread viruses would cause a decease as much as it has.

That Johns Hopkins wrong paper says nothing has changed. When you look at Australia, Singapore, China ..... numbers as in countries that got covid-19 under control these countries are seeing a lower death rate than prior years over all. There is a very much bigger story here on how many deaths per year are being caused by viruses being left to their own devices. The reality is there should have been a reduction in death rate with effective covid-19 control methods. Same death rate as past years or more your covid-19 response was not done well is what that says.

[CochainComplex]

I thought the Linux community is not full of Trumpist...but it seems Idiots everywhere