On the importance of Linux and Ubuntu

Another article that I wrote for the Daily 49er a while back. The recent version of Ubuntu now is Gutsy Gibbon, with Hardy Heron coming in 2008.

made a switch from Windows Vista to Ubuntu Linux on my laptop in late August. It took me a day to get used to the new controls and install the right applications. After getting the hang of it, I embraced it as if I owned my own house (which I do).

When I asked one of the staff at the College of Business Administration computer lab if he could install a link to allow my Linux laptop to print, he said, "No, we do not support Linux because Microsoft is paying us to use their products, exclusively. Our labs use only Microsoft products."

I find it galling that a computer lab at a college rated as one of the best can be so technologically one-dimensional.

It's a blatant dereliction of responsibility to students who use open-source software as an alternative to paying hundreds of dollars for an operating system that will be obsolete in a few years.

Linux and open-source software are the future of computing because you don't have to pay a single dime to download them. And the community that embraces "distros" - Linux distributions like Red Hat, Linspire and Ubuntu - is working to improve and fix any potential problems.

Why hike your phone bill to call Microsoft support when you can go to a forum and find out how to do it?

I am convinced that CSULB needs to look at these alternatives instead of being wined-and-dined by the "sugar daddies" from Microsoft. There are many companies around the world who currently reap the benefits from software they can customize to their hearts' content.

But as long as these power brokers are courting CSULB, we will be slaves to an OS that already has the world longing for freedom from its unrelenting, suffocating grasp.

It's time to reject the hegemony of Bill Gates' posse and embrace more user-friendly alternatives.