Random Thoughts

Almost a year ago now I switched my now dead Acer laptop from Ubuntu to PCLinux because I couldn’t get some things to work properly in Ubuntu. And several months later I made the switch on my old Compaq, too. Well, lately, a lot of things were going flaky with this, now my only computer. Last night I finally put Ubuntu back on it — erasing my Windows partition in the process. I had kept that partition because there were a few things that I felt I needed it for, but now it has been more than a year since I have even looked at it. So I decided it was time to wipe the slate clean.

So far am happy to be back with Ubuntu. 8.10 sure installs easily. And everything works — my wireless card, my reluctant printer, everything. So I will stay with Ubuntu until something goes wrong and I decide to switch — or until I get a little netbook with some other variety of Linux on it!

I can’t resist giving this line by Richard Stallman in the Boston Review a slightly different audience:

Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco…

I couldn’t agree more.  We are making them dependent.  We are setting them up for a lifetime of choices made based on that dependency.  It is sad.  There are alternatives.

This is why I use Linux.  It’s why you should, too!

But if you don’t want to use Linux, consider donating your old computers that will no longer run the newest Microsoft resource hog to organizations like Helios Project that will put Linux on them and get them in the hands of kids who need them.

Or go check Linux out at the nearest Lindependence event.

My husband, who has been running Ubuntu on a computer we bought as a closeout in 2001, had been complaining that he needed a new computer. I finally decided that we needed to do more than talk about it, so I got him one for his birthday tomorrow. I got him an Acer Power1000 desktop. It is tiny, fast and runs Ubuntu 6.10 like a champ.

But then yesterday I saw Miguel’s post about the Linutop. I showed it to my husband, and he cried! It is smaller and certainly does everything he wants. We can’t wait to see how much it is going to sell for!

By the way, I got a new Acer 5102 laptop that is now running Linux as well. Acer is selling units with Linux on them overseas, I heard. They may be my new brand of choice. (My son has an Acer laptop, too. He isn’t careful with it, and it seems to be doing great. He runs Windows, of course.)

My husband has used Linux for a number of years and Ubuntu for the last couple. I have always said I wanted to do the same, but there was always some restriction on that — like, I’ll do it when the warranty on my computer runs out or when the semester is over or something. Well, I finally took the leap last weekend. Actually, I am dual booting Ubuntu and Windows until I get my wireless card working in Ubuntu. (I have one of those cards that doesn’t like to work with Linux, but many people have gotten it to work, so it is just a question of time before I get it going.)

So what? Why post about this at all? This morning I was reading Miguel Guhlin’s blog this morning and came across this post. Richard Stallman’s comment, which forms the basis of Miguel’s post, really made me think.

I have a long way to go before I reach that level of putting my money where my mouth is, I’m afraid. These little reminders are good for me!

On a discussion forum my husband participates in, a computer science student asked a question about computer science degree programs. My husband asked if I knew the answer, and I said that I didn’t, but that I would be happy to ask you, the experts:

Do you know of a college or university that teaches computer science and at least recognizes the open source movement? Is there a degree program out there that you know of that at least exposes students to Linux and mySQL and other open source software?

Thanks for whatever you are able to tell me.