This article is about philanthropy on a massive scale. It involves millions of people working together to produce something for the common good that is now freely available throughout the world.
Imagine you could exchange your computer system for one that was completely free.
I’m not talking about the hardware; the mouse, the discs, the keyboard and the screen. I am talking about what makes the computer actually go. It’s called the operating system.
Imagine that in addition to the basic operating system, you could also receive completely free hundreds of practical programs to help you do whatever you wanted to do.
Has Christmas come early?
Is the writer of this article completely bonkers?
How good is this system? How good are these programs? Do they actually work?
Many would argue that the system is better and the programs are more advanced.
The name of the system I am referring to is linux and the particular version of linux that I personally use is called Ubuntu.
I started using this system when the system I had purchased at great expense did not work fast enough for my purposes. This was several years ago. I needed a 64 bit operating system and I needed it straight away. I could not find a paid for system that would do the job so I turned to linux. I never went back. The linux system ran my programs seventeen times faster than my old paid for system and solved all my time problems.
Yes there are limitations. This article is being dictated using a speech transcription program that is not available for linux. But, for the vast majority of activities I need to perform on a computer, linux provides a very satisfactory solution.
Indeed, you probably often use linux without realising it because a very large number of web sites are run on computers configured with linux operating system because it is so reliable.
To find out more about this philanthropic computer operating system, simply go online and type in linux or Ubuntu. You will find a huge community of computer users and computer programmers who are maintaining this wide variety of systems completely free of any charge.
If you wish to try out Ubuntu, which is one of the easiest versions of linux to get started on, you can do so by going to the Ubuntu Web site and downloading the system. There is a support community that can answer all your questions too.
Perhaps, if you start using linux or Ubuntu, you will feel able to contribute some of your time to the vast programming and testing exercise that is making this open source system possible.
Or perhaps the next time you see somebody in need of some help, instead of walking by, you will reach out your hand to help them.
They say that what goes around comes around and perhaps it is these simple acts of philanthropy that really makes the world a better place to live in.
What does Ubuntu mean?
Ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’.
To me, that says it all.
Bye for now
Rob
