I’m An Ubuntu Convert


A while back I wrote a series of posts on Shooting the Kids about how we moved my mom over to Ubuntu and how she really took to it. She’s still using it regularly, though her main desktop is now my old Mac Mini - which she really loves because of iTunes.

But here at the Frazier household, we’ve finally converted all of our computers to Ubuntu and we couldn’t be happier. My wife just purchased a new Nikon dSLR and it was wonderful knowing that we’d have great RAW support without having to pay an extra $150 for more software. I use the desktop search system, Beagle, pretty much daily to make sense of my obsessive-compulsive folder hierarchy that makes finding files impossible and I’ve even come around when it comes to using the GIMP.

All that said, I’ve finally run into my first problem… I gave up on Microsoft Office and it bit me in the butt. The Glued Ideas internal document format was HTML and sometimes OpenDoc, so we obviously used OpenOffice.org and had consistent results. Any external documents we just rendered to PDF and passed on, so we had no problems at all. This last week, however, I had a form from a local pastor that I needed to fill out that was in Word XP format, and it took four rounds of, “Nope - the formatting is all messed up. Maybe we should just do this in RTF?” to finally get a working copy that still didn’t format very well. It was maddening.

Now, I realize that most of you Linux users out there would say, “Just use Wine!” which is what I should have done, but I didn’t. I completely forgot about the fact that I still have a copy of Office that I could have installed. Now here’s the kicker: I’ve become so accustomed to using Linux / Gnome applications, I just didn’t even think to use it. Instead I went about things “The Linux Way” and hacked myself a working document to turn in.

I think it’s fair to say that I’m officially a convert.

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May 13th, 2007
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Nicholas
Posted on:
May 22, 2007 at 4:32 am

Hi

I was using your template and went to have a look at your site and saw this post on Ubuntu. I am a South African, and was wondering how you understand this concept? Do not know from which country you are, but it would be interesting to know.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Christopher Frazier
Posted on:
May 22, 2007 at 7:24 pm

Thanks for commenting! I’m from the U.S. and my understanding of Ubuntu, aside from the Linux distribution that goes by the name, is that it means “I am because you are,” or that an individual’s accomplishments and livelihood are inextricably tied to his community and those he shares the world with. I’ve heard Nelson Madela speak about the word on both NPR and the Ubuntu Linux video about Ubuntu, so I always associate the term in my mind with South Africa. What’s the wider use?

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Nicholas
Posted on:
May 23, 2007 at 1:40 am

Hi Christopher

You seem to have a very good grasp on the theoretical meaning of the concept. By the way, I did not know there was a Linux version called Ubuntu, I am using your Wordpress template, thats how I ended up on your site, still cant figure out how to use that “Quick thoughts” section of your template, I liked that very much. Anyhows, Ubuntu, the concept is really great, “Share the milk and everybody will look after the cow”. It’s just a very sad reality that in South Africa this is not happening. As a white South African, I would love to see this as true. I am young, so I do not have the hangovers from past generations on Apartheid and all that. Black people are cool, mostly, except the ones killing everybody :-) I have a few black friends, and they are driven people, intent on success. It seems an attitude of “There is a whole wide world” is very real among young white and black people. So we are all over the place, us South Africans. That is the more affluent among us. The poor people, black and white, are very stuck. Not because they do not want to, but because they just do not have access to opportunities and if they do, then they do not have the skills to grab them and not access to these expertise. And sadly, in many cases, not the willpower to chase their dreams. Ubuntu exists, but we are not living it, “Share the knowledge, and everybody will look after the source”, hope your week is great!

Nicholas

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Manoj Nair
Posted on:
May 26, 2007 at 10:19 pm

Nicholas, That is very enlightening. I myself use ubuntu, and i have been using it for quite some time now. I knew what the word meant, but you guys have given new dimensions to the meaning. That is really cool. :)

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Christopher Frazier
Posted on:
May 27, 2007 at 4:32 pm

Nicholas - the last part of your comment is something we deal with daily in Los Angeles. I often drive through my “East LA” neighborhood and wonder what Ubuntu would look like here.

Manoj - How’s it working for you?

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Nicholas
Posted on:
May 28, 2007 at 2:06 am

Yup, very real all over the world. The broad subject of my website will be stratification, I have started and stopped many websites, looking for that theme of passion. Found it in stratification. Anyways, thanks for the replies, will keep in contact.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Nicholas
Posted on:
May 28, 2007 at 5:15 am

Christopher

Do not know how else to contact you directly, did not want to do this as a post, but was wondering if you would add my blog to your blog roll? I am new to the “getting exposure” to my blog game. I will of course be adding yours. Can you suggest some good practices to get more exposure? Thanks.

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Patricia Ann Cupra
Posted on:
June 4, 2007 at 9:57 pm

“Share the milk and everybody will look after the cow.”

As an Ubuntu user myself, I totally love that explanation of the philosophy behind free and open source software.

Thanks so much for sharing that.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Otman
Posted on:
June 10, 2007 at 8:19 pm

Christopher,

What exactly do you mean by
“I often drive through my “East LA” neighborhood and wonder what Ubuntu would look like here.” I’m Hispanic, and I drive by “East LA” every day on my way to work, and I don’t exactly get the same sense you do. Yes, stereotypically speaking, you can say the majority of Hispanics are poor, and uneducated, but that’s far from the truth. Hispanics contribute a great deal to this country of ours far more than what the media would like us to believe. I, for one, am an Engineer working in the Aerospace and Defense industry for many years, and have made significant contributions. Although some times it’s okay to use generalizations, but we need to be cognizant and take responsibilities when we make them.

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Chris Frazier
Posted on:
June 10, 2007 at 11:21 pm

Otman - thanks for posting! Two comments:

1) I live and pastor in the East LA area. I feed and talk to the people who live under the bridges you drive on as you head to work. Poverty, in our area, touches every ethnicity and culture, especially now that East LA is no longer defined simply by its Hispanic heritage. As I watch the cars pass overhead with people on their way to work, I’ve often wondered how many of those people stop to give something back - especially when it comes to people outside of their cultural group.

2) Hispanics have consistently been at the forefront of bringing the fruits of prosperity back to their community. It seems like every store in my neighborhood has a kiosk for wiring money back to Mexico. That’s part of what I imagine Ubuntu looks like.

So, to use a horrible metaphor, I think we’re on the same street, but coming from different sides of the pavement. :)

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
Patricia Ann Cupra
Posted on:
June 11, 2007 at 12:15 am

Hi, I left a comment above a few days ago. Just wanted to say that I was so impressed by the ‘Share the milk…’ explanation of ubuntu by a commentor, that I decided to start a blog on free and open source software called sharethemilk.com. It’s empty now, but not for long!

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Nicholas
Posted on:
June 11, 2007 at 3:50 am

Wow, a lonely post got big!

It feels good to have inspired a website! A very original idea Patricia! Or rather that the philosophy of Ubuntu inspired a website. Will keep track of its growth, let me know when you get rolling on the site. Keep on sharing the milk!

Nicholas

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
Robert MacEwan
Posted on:
August 3, 2007 at 1:23 pm

Mandrake, Redhat, SuSE, Debian, Ubuntu Warty & Ubuntu ever since. I’ll be hitting 10 years of Linux come 2008. It just keeps getting better.

Comment Number:
14
Written by:
fak3r
Posted on:
August 7, 2007 at 11:16 am

hey, used to use one of your themes, happened by today and say this post. you’re doing the right thing, the fact that others are giving you files that are proprietary in nature is more their problem than yours; work around it and maybe educate them on using a more open format. they may not, but at least they’ll know.

Comment Number:
15
Written by:
jamesj
Posted on:
September 15, 2007 at 2:23 am

It took a long time old friend. :)
Ran across your site somehow and was pleasantly surprised to find you using linux and contributing to open source projects.

I still remember the scene in the server room in the middle of the night with a broken IIS box on my lap as we were trying to get back up the apu website (mid 90’s).

Comment Number:
16
Written by:
Chris Frazier
Posted on:
September 15, 2007 at 11:58 am

James! I have to admit that it did take a little too long, but at least I’m preaching the good news of OSS now that I’ve converted. :)
It’s amazing that, when we first started at APU, building dynamically generated sites was a still a debatable decision. It’s fun to see where the world has gone in the last 12 years.