Ubuntu 2
"I am because we are" is the most elegant translation I've heard of the Nguni word "Ubuntu", where Nguni is the collective name for a group of Southern Africa languages including Xhosa and Zulu. It's a beautiful sentiment, sometimes also translated as "humanity to others", with implications that extend much further. It lies behind much that is deeply appealing about African culture. It's also the name of a new version of Linux.
Ubuntu Linux is arch-lucky-geek-that-we'd-all-like-to-be Mark Shuttleworth's new GNU/Linux distribution. (Actually there's a lot of Free Software luminaries behind it, but Mark was the instigator). I've had some near-misses where I've got to know and collaborate with people who work with Mark, but I've actually never met the guy. This is probably A Good Thing as I'd have to resist the envy-driven urge to let out a primal yell and scratch out his eyes!
Anyway I spent a couple of hours yesterday installing and getting to grips with Ubuntu, and it *rocks*. It's the first version of GNU/Linux that I've tried where I'd really feel comfortable giving it to any reasonably competent computer user as a replacement for either Windows or Mac OS. It's all in the details, and these guys have put a lot of thought and energy into making a distribution that gives you just one application for each task, and integrated them into a nice clean computing environment. I'd wager that most Windows user would quickly feel more comfortable using this than they ever did using a Microsoft OS.
In fact it's so good that I think I can forgive Mark all his ridiculous good fortune and offer him a hefty pat on the back for bringing together all this goodness in one package (the name, the philosophy, the software - even the pseudo-erotic imagery).
