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 Why not? Find out here. |
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To contact me, complain, suggest, praise or just let me know what you think go
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Whenever I think of writing a page about Linux I get a blockage (writer's block?) and just sit and contemplate the task ahead. I get all this ideas in my head so I get up and do something else, of course still thinking about it. The problem is that the more one thinks about it the bigger it gets until it engulfs just about everything that goes on around you.
See now I just have to get up and chopp some wood....
I think I will just write some ideas as they come along and hopefully I can get some order into it at some later stage.
To make it quite clear I am no expert with Linux. But I can share some of my experience, frustration, joy and whatever with you.
What is Linux? At first glance it is just another Operating System. But here we go! It is not just another Operating System, it is a free OS, a dynamic OS.
But it is much more than an Operating System for computers. It is also a model of how many things should work and evolve to better things. It is an idea in the working. And it is a product that is finished and working and yet always on the move to better itself. It is a Philosophy.
Of course I can't write about Linux that has not already been written and is available on the net about a trillion times. In fact I just 'googled' Linux and I got 781 Million hits. It would also get very lengthy and boring. So hey, you can get all the information you want, the only problem is, that you probably get too much of it. Whenever I have a problem I search the net and get a lot of answers, because someone out there came about the same problem already, and bingo! here come the answers. Now one problem is that not all the answers are the same. Some are very confusing, some are contradictory to others. So what do you do then. Maybe have a cup of tea and contemplate about the problem, maybe it is not so important after all. I am actually getting quite good at sorting it all out and so far I could eventually solve my problems. Nothing beats a knowledgeable friend that can show you though.
Here is a List of Linux distributions. The last time I looked at this site, I counted about 240 different distributions.
The following links are just a small example of a few that sound familiar to me.
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Besides from thousands of individuals there are a lot of companies and organizations that have made the switch to Linux. Some use readily available systems and others have experts that write a special version for their own needs.
Check out this site:
50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect
A few examples are:
U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Navy Submarine Fleet
The City of Munich, Germany
Federal Aviation Administration
French Parliament
State-Owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
U.S. Postal Service
Government of Mexico City
German Universities
Google
IBM
Panasonic
I have been playing around with Linux for more than ten years, but trough work I was tied to the system they had there (Microsoft Windows) so for me it was a bit of a hobby at home, on and off. I got a second-hand laptop with Microsoft Windows installed on it. There were also many files and programmes from the previous owner. I decided to install Linux (Ubuntu) as a second System on it. When it was time for a new version of Ubuntu I realised that I have not booted into Microsoft Windows for a long time so I decided to wipe the whole computer of the old systems and run the newest version of Ubuntu alone. On the spur of the moment I decided to to the same on my desktop and I have not looked back to using Microsoft Windows since.
With a fast internet connection you can download everything you require anytime you want and try various systems until you have what you want. You can download a system and burn it on a cd and just run it from there, so it does not alter anything on your machine. Lucid Puppy or Knoppix works like that. Alternatively you can allocate some space to a system to try out and still run Windows on the same computer. If you have a dial-up internet connection, as I have, it is a bit more complicated, because most build-in modems are designed to run under Windows only (called Winmodem). There are ways to go about it but you might need someone knowledgeable to show you a thing or two. The easiest is to buy a external modem to plug into one of your USB ports. Even then you still need some help from a friend. As for programs. Gone are the days of stealing programs. You get everything for free and just as good and some much better.
The other day I bought a new printer (Canon's PIXMA MP250). Here again these companies have no interest in promoting the Open-Source movement, so they make it somewhat difficult for us. They only include drivers for Windows or Mac users. The rest of us have to get them from the net and the installation is not quite as straight foreward as plugging the printer in. But I can print now and I have not bothered with the scanner part of it.
If you read about Linux and how it came about and where it is going you will soon learn or hear about Richard Stallman. Back in 1983, not happy with the way the commercialisation and legal squabbles were going he started the GNU (GNU's not Unix) project which seeks to promote free software ('free' as in freedom, not necessary price). Out of that came all sorts of movements and ideas that can be applied to other fields like art, literature, innovation, etc. New terms started to crop up like copyleft instead of copyright. Stallman seems to be the only one left from the pioneers of programmers of the eighties that has not succumb to the riches of the commercial world. He might not be rich, but he certainly is famous and is the one everyone is talking about. He makes his living giving talks all around the world. His topic seems to be freedom especially not being controlled by commercial interests and governments.
Richard Stallman, King of the World, Master of the Universe.
Transcripts of speeches and interviews
The GNU Project
One of the subjects that you start thinking about is the whole copyright and patent system we have enslaved us to. I am not a legal person so I admit I don't even want to know the ins and outs of the small print of licencing of software, books, music, trade-names, labels and just about anything a lawyer can get his or her fingers into.
But for me this whole gebashel is something in humankind gone wrong. It has to to with what everyone is talking about at the moment: Corporate greed, restricting of individual rights, power of the ruling elite, the widening gap between rich and poor etc.
The argument that we would not have artists and inventors if they would not have the protection of their creations just does not cut with me.
Inventors invented, writers wrote, musicians made music, composers composed etc long before we had copy rights and patents and they would still keep on doing it without it. Who benefits from it? A few famous and rich and of course big business.
These days who needs dictators to suppress the masses when we have banks and other big players.
We should make discoveries, invent things, make art to share information and improve humanity, not to make profit.
Here are two links for information about copyright and copyleft.
The one about copyright applies for New Zealand (Copyright Council of New Zealand) since every country has different rules.
This new law is one that is clearly bullied to us by big business from Uncle Sam.
Another influence from Big Brother are the Warren Bros. saga about filming in NZ and the Megaupload arrests.
More foreign clout manifests itself in the Food Bill and the Crown Minerals Act.
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Here a suggestion for our current debate about a new flag for New Zealand: It shows our will to budge to the mighty power of the US corporations and wanting to be under their banner. By the way it is not my design I have stolen the image from the net. I hope the copyright owner will not sue me. |
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