Do You Ubuntu?
I thought I'd never post about an operating system in any of my blogs, but I have to do this. I've discovered an operating system that not only runs smoothly, but that completely reflects my personal philosophy. It is called Ubuntu, and it is a Debian Linux distribution (for all of my friends and family who do not know, nor care, what that is, to be honest it really isn't that important. But read on...). Unlike Windows, or my beloved Macintosh OS X, it is free. As in no charge. As in it costs you nothing. You can download it or contact them and they will send you a copy. Free. And it is complete. Everything you need to use your computer. You can run it from the CD directly or install it. They make different versions for different tasks. It is also a very easy operating system to learn and use.
So far, though, I've waxed rhapsodic over some of the technical issues. Let's talk about the philosophy behind it and why it matters to me. As I mentioned before, it is free. The developers do all of this knowing that the software will be free. It is a community, and is partially funded by Mark Shuttleworth, who, incidentally, was the second "space tourist". The word ubuntu is an old sub-Saharan Bantu African word that means "I am because we are". What a beautiful concept! Ubuntu is an ideology that is part of their culture, and compares wonderfully to early Christianity. Bishop Desmond Tutu defines it as this -
"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."
I'm not saying that the Ubuntu OS will change your life, but it might be the tip of something bigger. More and more, there is emphasis on what is good for the community, and an OS that aims to be not only easy to use but espousing those philosophies seems a grand idea.
So, I Ubuntu. Not just the operating system, but the philosophy. What a great world we could live in if we all did.
So far, though, I've waxed rhapsodic over some of the technical issues. Let's talk about the philosophy behind it and why it matters to me. As I mentioned before, it is free. The developers do all of this knowing that the software will be free. It is a community, and is partially funded by Mark Shuttleworth, who, incidentally, was the second "space tourist". The word ubuntu is an old sub-Saharan Bantu African word that means "I am because we are". What a beautiful concept! Ubuntu is an ideology that is part of their culture, and compares wonderfully to early Christianity. Bishop Desmond Tutu defines it as this -
"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."
I'm not saying that the Ubuntu OS will change your life, but it might be the tip of something bigger. More and more, there is emphasis on what is good for the community, and an OS that aims to be not only easy to use but espousing those philosophies seems a grand idea.
So, I Ubuntu. Not just the operating system, but the philosophy. What a great world we could live in if we all did.
posted by Robert at 5:56 AM
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