Sunday, January 20, 2008

Ubuntu

After some experimenting I've settled on the Ubuntu version of Linux. DSL and KNOPPIX are good, but Ubuntu is really good. It's fast, free, user-friendly, provides access to all sorts of interesting and useful applications, and has a cool name.

Rather than boring you with the details of how I installed it etc. I thought I'd share what I learned about the word "Ubuntu".

According to Wikipedia, the word Ubuntu originates from the Bantu languages of South Africa.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is quoted as saying,
"A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."

This is a YouTube video of Nelson Mandela talking about the philosophy of Ubuntu -