White and Wild by wilshire|oneMy first few months with Ubuntu
A couple of months ago I decided to switch from Gentoo Linux to Ubuntu after a geek friend told me to try it. Before that point I had thought of Ubuntu as a ‘beginners’ distro, and steered clear.
How wrong I was. Using Ubuntu is like finally seeing the promise of what GNU/Linux could be, actually made real. Sure, there are still minor annoyances, often connected to proprietary hardware problems, but in general, it just works, and it puts the awesome power of Unix into the hands of anybody willing to give it a try.
Ubuntu comes fully loaded with everything you need, from email to web browsing, graphics to sound, security to programming. All the tools are there, and so is all the documentation needed to use them.
The Name
As you have probably already heard, the word ‘Ubuntu’ has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa, and according to bishop Desmond Tutu:
“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
Which is pretty heady stuff to be associated with a computer operating system. But on reflection, very apt.
As Timothy Leary correctly predicted, the Internet has become the most important channel for human communication that exists. To access the Internet, everybody needs a computer.To use a computer, you need an Operating System. If you cannot trust the Operating System, the entire digital existence of an individual can be harmed/abused/curtailed in various ways. Microsoft are readying the latest version of Windows which is being designed from the bottom up to protect the rights of corporations, not people.
Many people see, or used to see Apple Computer as a force for good. And compared to Microsoft, they were. Not anymore. Digital Rights Management and built in obsolescence in i-pods have woken many to the reality that Apple are just another profit seeking machine.
Even erstwhile mac gurus like Mark Pilgrim and Cory Doctorow are switching over to Ubuntu.
It seems that what we are seeing is a slow maturation of the digital realm, with computers slowly being accepted by even the most technophobic user. As people get more comfortable with using the Internet, they start to see beyond the con trick that has been foisted on humanity: The idea that computers are too complicated for ‘normal’ users to understand, and that you need Bill Gates to hold your hand, just to accomplish the most simple of tasks. In actual fact, using computers is no more difficult than many other common skills, once people are passed the idea that they can’t do it. And of course, there has never been such an overwhelming selection of free resources dedicated to teaching anyone and everyone how to use Linux.
With Ubuntu, we are seeing a promise made good, and an exciting taste of what the future may hold for humanity. The human race finally has access to tools, now lets start using them to change the world for the better…
“And so, when the revolution comes – when the state declines and freedom triumphs – the Internet will have played a deciding role. And I am hopeful of that future, and the move our culture is making toward it. Thanks to the net, our wildest imaginations and dreams might come true” – Eric Garris
