Man, I am a slacker! Several months ago I received 10 copies of a Linux operation system called Ubuntu from Canonical Corp. but I still haven’t found the time to go deeper into it. Yes, I have installed shortly after I get the CD’s, but I didn’t do anything about it. Many would say “Hey, stop, stop, halt! What in the name of God is Ubuntu?” Well, almost everybody has heard of Linux, the alternative to Windows. While in the Windows or Mac OS world you only have….hm, Windows and Mac OS, in Linux you have hundreds of these operation systems (they called them distributions). I have used several of them (Red Hat 9, Fedora 1 and 2) but I must say that I am quite impressed with this strange-named Ubuntu, because it has so simple philosophy:
... software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.
Word “Ubuntu” is an ancient African word that means “humanity to others” and it can be interpreted as “you can freely use Ubuntu: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you have the right to modify your software until it works the way you want it to.”. Well, this is truly in the spirit of the open source philosophy. I also like Ubuntu for another reason: you don’t have to update it all the time in order to make your desktop operational. I found this comment from a Osnews.com reader which explains it all:
… Ubuntu isn’t made to be updated on a weekly, or even monthly basis unless you’re tracking the development branch, which is very easy to do by the way. Ubuntu is all about installing and being able to get your work done without a bunch of hacking (yet they don’t interfere if you want to hack). They don’t upgrade software so much in the release repository, they fix bugs and vulnerabilities, because most people don’t want to be bothered with constant updates. It’s really a non-issue to the types who use Ubuntu because every 6 months a new release will come out, and all you have to do is switch to the new repository and dist-upgrade. And again, if someone wants the latest of everything under Ubuntu, they can always track development.
Since I am kind of person who really is fed up with the upgrades and installations all time, I think Ubuntu might be the one distribution that finally can make me forget all about Windows – forever. Well, not maybe forever since I am a graphic designer and must use non-Linux programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Dreamweaver, Poser… but who knows…