Ubuntu

We are currently Ubuntu fans. Before I was a Mandrake/Mandriva fan and before that a RedHat fan and before that a Slackware fan…..

What have I noticed in the past 14 years of using various GNU/Linux distributions ?  Three things:

  1. The distributions evolve best by doing better than their competition within their niche in the GNU/Linux world not competing against the Windows world. Make it simple for  applications to provide equal cross-platform  performance and by proxy then GNU/Linux competes with Windows.
  2. My children don’t actually care what distribution they can play games on. They know that certain applications run well in Windows, others are only found on Ubuntu (Linux) and that browser-based games are more or less cross-platform.
  3. New installations and upgrades have got easier and faster but as Familiarity breeds contempt, this means that it is trivial to wipe a machine, clean install a new distribution that you got from a Torrent if something has annoyed you with your current favourite distribution.

IBM is 100 years old this week in June 2011. Will Open Source technology such as GNU/Linux be with us in 100 years time ? You can bet your bottom fiat currency it will.