Summary of 2013 and New Year's list

From my wishes for 2013, I am happy because I got most of I wanted.  

A.  Distros
Whereas I got many great distros to work with regularly, I am still missing Elive and Pisi Linux to have all the distros I want in my laptop.  I hope I can get them before Mageia turns 4.

B.  Tablets
I never got the Vivaldi tablet... but I received a great ZaTab instead.  My three-year old daughter is enjoying it: she has learned how to operate it and she finds no problem switching from a desktop with Mageia/MiniNo to a laptop with PCLOS/Mageia and then to the ZaTab with Android.

C.  Games
Desura and Steam have truly compensated for my lacking gaming experience on Linux.  When I migrated, I abandoned gaming because some of the games I liked were nearly impossible to play.  However, I have discovered some new games that I really like:

1. The Bard's Tale
2. Braid
3. Worms Reloaded
4. Machinarium
5. Violett

D. Consoles
I am not such a heavy gamer as to need or want a console.  However, I am considering getting a Steam Machine...

E.  Projects for 2014
Besides writing several articles, poems, ans short stories (using Linux, of course), I'd like to learn some Python and, why not, trying to learn how to develop Android apps.  I mean, I am no programmer, but it sounds like fun.

I am also considering to save some money to buy a new Linux laptop.

Another interesting fact is that now I can buy laptops with Linux preinstalled here.  Well, they only do Ubuntu, but it's refreshing... The world is changing.

Ubuntu used in a video about viruses?

I was bored yesterday and this Yahoo! feature got my attention. It is about how tell if your "PC has a virus".

I might be mistaken, but the image they used to illustrate the first symptom of those annoying virus infections that plague Windows users seems to have come from... a computer running Ubuntu!

If that's the case and the illustration was used unknowingly, the reporter really needs to evaluate her sources.

However, if it was used intentionally, then "frequent crashes" in Ubuntu are being used as a misrepresentation of virus infections... For what purpose, I ask?

Judge it yourselves...

A nice surprise

It might have been a year ago or so when I entered this small computer shop near the University where I work. That day, I asked about a webcam and the clerk, all smiles, brought it to me. Then I asked the dreadful question that wiped out his smile in a fraction of a second: "Does this support Linux?"

I recall he stuttered and asked, "Linux... Is that...UBUNTO?" When I explained to him that I did not use Ubuntu, but Mandriva, and that there were compatibility problems because of drivers, he pretended to be a Linux authority and said "Oh, Mandriva!... That OS gives many problems." His absolute ignorance about Linux couldn't be more visible.

Today, I visited the same shop after a particularly hard day of a rather stormy week. I went in looking for an external HD and another clerk brought it to me. I instinctively started turning the box trying to find a Tux signal somewhere and the clerk noticed, so he politely asked me: "Excuse me...What are you looking for?"

Mentally, I sighed and said to myself "here we go again" before I told him: "I want to know if these devices support Linux".

His immediate answer startled me: "Absolutely, sir. I know they work with Gnome and KDE distros." I raised my eyes from the cover of the product, dumbfounded, and his amused smile denoted that he might have noticed my surprise. He even continued, "Do you want to install Linux to the HD, sir? They work very well to boot up a computer".

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So, how about that? In about a year's time, this small shop went from the utmost ignorance about Linux to very helpful toward clients who run this OS!
The same happened in the place where I normally buy my computers. Last time I went, the technician did not frown when I told him that I wanted a new Ethernet card and that my computer ran Mandriva and Pardus Linux. What's more, he even had a Linux sign over his desk!

Besides, I have noticed something interesting: UBUNTO, er, Ubuntu signs are beginning to show in several places of the country as well.

This indicates to me that Linux, despite gloomy market share statistics, is ACTUALLY becoming more known and used everyday.

Whatever the case, I'm typing this entry while all the info in my HD is being backed up to the new external HD... Yes, the one that works with Gnome and KDE distros and that responds particularly well to boot a computer up if one installs Linux to it... (can you see my grin?)

Names, responses, and FLOSS

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
(T.S. Eliot, "The Naming of Cats")

Funny as it may, this very same dilemma of naming is attached to the computer world. It generates multiple reactions, which range from amusement to irate responses sprinkled with prejudice, especially when addressing the interaction with FLOSS communities.

Let me exemplify. In numerous occasions, I have read the argument that one hindrance to the advance of Open Source is the name given to applications. The reasoning is that "geeky Open Source developers" give their applications "geeky names" that make it harder for the end user to be able to work with them, something that is said NEVER HAPPENS under the Windows environment. That names are always clear in Windows is slanted information: "Excel" and "PowerPoint" give very precise clues of what the user can do with them, don't they? Writer and Calc are more accurate than Word and Excel in that sense. But let us overlook that stone and approach the idea playfully. Once I read: "If I read 'Photoshop', I know it has to do with pictures. But what is GIMP for?" I laugh at this pedestrian position that rests upon laziness and ignorance. After all, the name "Photoshop" can be just as misleading if you have never seen the application (Photoshop is an application to buy pictures online, Photo-shop, right?). On the other hand, if the user looks up the meaning of the GIMP acronym, "GNU Image Manipulation Program" seems more accurate than Photoshop is to describe what the application does. Now, that aside, the argument is flawed in itself because it overlooks human linguistic capacities. You use a mop to mop, a brush to brush, but a broom to sweep and no one complains! What's in the word "mop" that tells you what it is for, other than a symbolic association cemented in our brains by constant reinforcement? Do I need to know what GIMP means to be able to operate it? What do we do when the technologies are not given a name at all? Remember TWAIN (Technology without an interesting name)?

Now, if developers have the right to call their application anything they like because, in the end, the user will learn by exposure and association, what's the big deal if developers name applications using references to literature (Scrooge) or culture (Banshee)? Or if they use words foreign for an English speaker(LibreOffice)? English speakers should remember that, thanks to the Norman Conquest, English adopted lots of French words, so let us be more realistic. A name does not make a technology better or worse, just as a name does not reflect on the nature of the person bearing it.

One interesting feature about names is that they do speak of hegemonic power struggles. In a sense, names manifest dominance, division, and impositions. Have you heard of the tug o' war name between Canonical and Gnome? The former was calling something "appindicator", whereas the latter went for "state message". It's not that they didn't agree on what to call it. Actually, the problem was that the two parties pushed for their own name of choice and that's different. If I call the bird "hawk" and you call it "falcon", there's not any problem provided that the convention has it that the animal can be referred to by the two tags. Yet, if I want you to call something the way I do, then we have a problem. Certainly, it is more one of power than it is of naming.

One great source of fun developers have in the Linux world is the assignment of names to versions. So, Mandriva 2010 became "Adelie" and 2010.1 went by the name of "Farman". Other distributions resort to a set of conventions that makes it interesting for developers to find a name. Linux Mint has, for example, a rule of giving the version the name of a woman using a sequential letter of the alphabet, but the name has to end with an "a". Since I remember, that gave us Felicia, Gloria, Helena, Isadora, and the now popularly acclaimed Julia. Ubuntu has a different formula for their code names: "letter X adjective + letter X animal". Consequently, from the moment I joined the Linux world, I have seen Karmic Koala, Lucid Lynx, Maverick Meerkat, Natty Narwhal and they just announced the successor, Oneiric Ocelot.

Of course, those codes give room for people to start playing with the patterns. Thus, they come up with very creative names of their own to bash the distro, as in this (troll?) comment posted in www.tuxmachines.org.

Naming is always a difficult enterprise and there will always be complaints. Eliot's cats, however, do not have such problem: They have a secret name of their own. Maybe applications are the same and they crash, under-perform or fail to launch because they are also lost in the contemplation of their "ineffable, effable, effanineffable/
Deep and inscrutable singular name".

Ubuntu Fan? How about a writing contest?

I stumbled on this and found it sort of interesting: Cult of Ubuntu is offering a Dell netbook (with Ubuntu preinstalled, of course) as a prize for the winner of their writing contest. Read about it here.

Is Ubuntu 10.10 the perfect rescue distro?

The coming of Canonical's new release, Maverick Meerkat, has stirred a beehive and we hear a lot of noise among Ubuntu fans lately. Claims like "the best Ubuntu release", "the fastest boot up", and "a truly horrible wallpaper" were repeated in many blogs. All these words in the wind have stung my curiosity.

Although I am not particularly a fan of Ubuntu, in my quest to find the perfect rescue distro, I decided to download the Meerkat Live CD and give it a try. One never knows...maybe Canonical discovered the philosopher's stone.

A rescue distro is what I call a GNU/Linux distribution that can help a computer user backup, restore, and modify files from other OSs sitting on different partitions. That is, a rescue distro does not need to be installed to achieve that purpose, otherwise most Linux distros would do the trick. Another characteristic that I ascribe to a rescue distro is its ease of use: a plain computer user should be able to resort to it without a great deal of effort or technical training.

Can the Meerkat enter the arena and claim the crown? To discover Ubuntu's potential as a rescue distro, I ran my newly-downloaded distro and
I found that the fast boot claim is true, even for a Live CD. The Meerkat started in less than 1:45 minutes, beating my install of SimplyMEPIS 8.5 and the boot of Mandriva 2010.1 ONE in Live mode (which takes a lot longer). There is a catch, however. Even though you see the familiar aubergine desktop, it is not ready for use: you get the installation/trial screen next. So, I chose "try" and the boot up sequence got a little prolonged. I could use the system after 3 minutes had elapsed. That is rather fast for a Live CD in my opinion.

Unfortunately, I cannot say anything about what new features Ubuntu brings for I am not familiar with this Linux distribution. I was not crazy about the wallpaper, but it was not so disturbing as the one I had seen Ubuntu fans criticize so much. I had also heard that this Ubuntu release would bring LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice.org, but I saw the latter.

Positive Side: performance and software
I liked the fact that you get an automatic preview of .ogg sound files by just hovering over the icon (this feature does not work with MP3s, though).
Firefox (3.6.10) runs fast, too. The dictionary is a nice add-on. Hibernation seems to be working (I am not sure because I was running a Live CD, but the computer reacted as it should have). Both my USB card reader and my MP4 player were supported. Wired network connectivity was perfect.

Negative Side: performance
Interestingly, Ubuntu Software Center crashed when I was just browsing the options the first time I used the Live CD (I tried to replicate the crash unsuccessfully, so maybe it was an isolated problem).

Although other partitions are mounted, the Meerkat did not let me delete files from any of them. I can copy files to a Windows partition from Ubuntu 10.10, but it is impossible to copy to or delete files from my Mandriva partition and, therefore, I must conclude that the Maverick Meerkat does not outperform SimplyMEPIS 8.0 for rescuing a troubled OS in Live mode. Maverick Meerkat might be very good to recover files from Windows in Live mode, but it did not work with a Linux system like Mandriva.

I must keep looking.

Windesperation

As I was browsing the Web, I read this comment of a user who considered that Windows is a necessary OS "to get things done". He said this in the context of his disappointment with Linux because of the need of the command line (it was actually Ubuntu that he meant, but people very often fail to understand that Canonical's distro does not represent accurately all other Linux distributions).

At home, I have a dual-boot desktop PC that starts by default with Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring (PowerPack). The other OS is Windows XP SP3, which I had not used for more than three months until today. After I read the comment, and since I hadn't used Windows at home for quite a long time, I thought that it would be fun to boot my desktop in XP to finish installing all the software that was pending after my last formatting, so I restarted the system in Windows "to get things done" and this is what happened:

The First Woe: Fear the Curse of Fear
The PC greeted me with the long-forgotten warning: "Your Antivirus is outdated. Click here to update it". After enjoying antivirus-free Web browsing with Mandriva, one quickly forgets that this warning is the second display of affection that you obtain in Windows after not using it for a while. Well, I complied and clicked for the update. In so doing, I remembered that Spybot Search-and-Destroy was also outdated and, logically, I asked for an update of that program, too. After a five minute wait, both programs were ready, so I immunized the browser with Spybot and decided to run both Spybot and the antivirus to see if they could catch something...an action that took me to woe number two.

The Second Woe: Do You Care for a Byte of Memory?
The download of the AV updates was acceptable, but you know that scanning for viruses is not usually a five-minute operation. Thus, I braced myself for a rather long wait...But why waiting? I did not turn my computer on to WAIT, but to GET THINGS DONE! So, I boldly opened Word...well, "tried to open Word" is more like it. XP eats memory like candy and, when running two different scans at the same time, you understand how slow your PC can become. I took a peek at the progress of both programs and the bar discouraged me. Hence, I forgot about Word and decided to kill some time with a game that is not too heavy on resources. That lead me to woe number three.

The Third Woe: Can the Taskbar Multi-task?
The answer is NO, of course. Since the two scans prevented me from working, I opened a game. But I silenced the effects and the music and opened Winamp (a very old version that I like because of its light weight) to play music. When I was surrounded by twelve flying insects on Planet Formica and the battle was becoming interesting, XP closed the game. The reason? A memory violation...

I thought: "OK, if XP does not want me to play, I'll GET TO WORK!" I located an anti-malware program and decided to install it. But first I waited for the scans to finish. After 40 minutes, they stopped and reported no threats. So I installed the program only to remember woe # 4

The Fourth Woe: Karate Kid Computer, Turn on / turn off
In Linux, the ritual of rebooting after an install becomes a hazy memory buried in the back of your brain. But this WAS Windows, not Mandriva Linux. With full lungs, XP said to me, "I don't care what you do in Sparta, but THIS-IS- BOOTLAND!!!" and I had to reboot to try the program... After almost an hour, I was getting closer to getting things done at last.

But then the firewall blocked the anti-Malware program. When I was trying to solve the problem, the firewall showed an alert of a high-rate attempt to access my computer from the outside. And then, it flashed a warning: "the Win32 Sality Virus that disables antivirus programs is becoming too common. Your version of the firewall cannot stop it, but an upgrade of the program can. Do you want to upgrade for free?" A year ago, I would have clicked YES immediately. However, more than an hour and 15 minutes had elapsed and I had not accomplished anything. The missing installation required me to knock off the firewall, but the firewall was asking me to update! This was too much. I felt completely unproductive in front of the computer. I was mad while I thought that this was XP, the most popular OS today. From what I have seen happening to happy users, Windows 7 performs pretty much in the same fashion, except that it requires more computer resources to run properly. That, in itself, is a funny paradox. I buy clothes that fit me; I do not buy shoes too wide for my feet hoping to fatten until the shoes fit. However, Microsoft expects you to drop XP and buy Windows 7 and to buy new hardware if your PC does not fulfill the requirements for 7. So, Windows is an OS to which the computer has to accommodate! Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Overlooking that fact, you still have the same rebooting rituals and security problems in Windows 7. But wait, there's MS Security Essentials! As it is stated here, it is a paradox that the Essentials are not included with the OS. I laughed in relief at the fact that Microsoft does not make cars for, if the Redmond company did, you would probably have to go to MS EssentialsGarage after buying your car to get the brakes and the door locks! Of course, you would be very happy because you get them for free. (?!)

Following a freeze during installation and a reboot, the program finally decided to launch. I updated it and guess what? The computer asked me again for a reboot. So I rebooted it... only that this time I started Mandriva.

Windows for getting things done? Good joke.

What does it all mean?

This is a string of facts that led me to several questions for which I lack a proper answer. However, since I do not fear the curse of philosophers, here they go:

A. THE FIRST PUBLIC LINUX COMPUTER

Although I personally dislike Canonical, I must confess that, to say the least, it was heartwarming to see a public computer displaying Ubuntu's aubergine desktop for the first time. I ran into it by coincidence as I was having lunch in a very small cafeteria near my house. It is the first non-Windows computer I have run into in my city and, of course, I felt happy because I found ONE LINUX system in the open at last.

When I mentioned the fact to the manager, a man over sixty, his reply made me think about something that is boiling in developing countries, a side-effect of Microsoft's licenses policy that is doing a disservice to Ballmer's cause: lawsuits on piracy. The manager of this small business said to me that he had installed Linux on the cafeteria's public computer "because it was important to protect himself against piracy". Honestly, I would have expected a reply that went more on the line of "I need to protect my computer against viruses", but his answer revealed his business wisdom to me. As a costumer, I was concerned for computer security. Yet, as the manager, he was concerned about staying on business. This man had it clear that a virus that can destroy a $2000 computer would inflict a minor harm to his investment but, if had he installed Windows 7 illegally, the possibilities for his blooming business to go through the drain would have been extremely high. How can he survive one of the choking lawsuits that Microsoft wages? Therefore, he decided that, if his costumers need to browse the web or to quick-type a document, Linux provides him a win-win solution. And it makes sense because this man's reasoning grants him an indirect advantage: his computer will spend less time in service.

Can this become a new trend, something that Microsoft itself spawned and was not expecting?

Update: Because of certain glitches, the manager says that he feels inclined to switch to... Linux MINT!

B. DELL AND UBUNTU

Dell certainly knows about the security facts described above, as does any Linux user. However, the ambivalent policy that Dell keeps undermines its Linux partner, Canonical. I mean, Dell did advertise that Ubuntu was SAFER than Windows but, maybe because of hidden pressure from Redmond, the statement on the Dell site was modified to read "UBUNTU IS SAFE" (read about it here).

This is interesting because Dell mostly sells computers running Windows. They were saying "Ubuntu is safer than Windows...don't you want to buy a Windows computer from us? No? Well, there's always Ubuntu." Very motivating...

Dell's INVISIBLE LINUX discourse is not helping anyone. I thought they had figured it out by now.

Who are they trying to please...Canonical, Microsoft, or costumers?


C. POPULARITY AND MANDRIVA

Along with this thread of INVISIBLE LINUX, I noticed that, a little after the Spring release, Mandriva stayed at the top of visit count on Distrowatch for three days. I am currently using this distro and I cannot hide the fact that I love it. Nevertheless, knowing that the company that develops it was on the verge of extinction, one cannot help but ask two questions:

Is Mandriva SA actually devising a strategy to effectively advertise their great distribution?

What will happen to Mandriva (the distribution) in the future?


D. FREE INTERNET ACCESS FOR EVERYONE!

I heard on the news that a congress person proposed this project to grant free internet access to all Costa Ricans as a way to help in the development of the country. This is an ambitious measure that is backed up by studies that show that education and opportunities have a positive impact on societies. Well, that sounds great but the government is actually fighting the main universities because of budget issues. So, we have contradictory policies here: the government wants people to have access to tools, but it is reducing the opportunities for the institutions that can contribute to the education of people and, therefore, to the development of the country. But is this realistic? After all, if all Costa Ricans eventually get free access to Internet, the measure will be useless unless citizens can get an affordable computer with an OS and, obviously, a browser!

I blame the government for their ignorance. However, they are politicians, so what can you expect? But I also blame national universities for their ambivalence. Take the University of Costa Rica, for instance. They spend a lot of money on licenses for Microsoft to have the gigantic administrative apparatus working (letters, memos, emails, etc). The actual President of the Republic, Ms. Laura Chinchilla, once proposed the reduction of state costs by introducing a project favoring OPEN SOURCE in government institutions. The University of Costa Rica could do the same. This is a good time to promote Linux here in Costa Rica, right, Mandriva?

Why doesn't the University of Costa Rica promote Linux and Open Source if the institution is facing budget cuts?

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I think that, whether or not these questions remain unanswered, time will tell. What I know is that these are changing times and we need to break away from old paradigms to be able to face the future. You read about changes everywhere: the slow decline of traditional industries (music & software, for instance), the foreseen death of the PC and the advent of the tablet, the flux from the desktop to mobile devices and back, the cloud... In other words, the world is changing and people must change with it.

What does it all mean? Making stereotypes aside, these are times in which a sixty-something restaurant manager decides to install an alternative OS and knows that there are other Linux choices out there to experiment with. So, do you still believe that the younger generations will be like us, who grew up under the spell of Microsoft and knew Windows and nothing else?

I believe that, in the 21st Century, thanks to the post-global reality of developing countries, people will need to speak more than two languages to land a job...and they will have to know how to operate a computer using MORE than a single operating system as well. I remember the days in which including "Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet" in a CV would give the candidate an edge. Today, that impresses no one, but try "Experience with GNU/Linux operating systems" and let's see how that goes.

That Linux Attitude...

I might be very passionate about Mandriva Linux, granted. After all, not experiencing a single virus attack for over a year of heavy internet surfing WITHOUT an antivirus can be very motivating. The BEAUTY of the system itself contributes, too. Seeing that a computer can be used safely, simply, and even artistically by people who where formerly paralyzed by fear is what makes me tell others about Linux.

I want to tell the world : "No more blue screens! No more panic! No more sluggish performance after a while!" That is how I see Linux: as a friendly community, as people who care for others and want to help computer users in need.

Windows users generally know very little about Linux. When they become interested and decide to try it, as they think that Linux is ONE OPERATING SYSTEM, they retreat baffled when they hear about Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mepis, Xubuntu, Mandriva, Mint, PCLinuxOS, Tuquito, Sabayon, OpenSuse, Fedora, Debian, Slackware...or any other of the 300 available distributions.

Just imagine this poor Windows user locked in a room, surrounded by 300 bouncing penguins crying out: "Try me, try me, TRY M-EEE!" Appalled, the user yells: "But which one is Linux??" For two or three seconds, the penguins remain quiet and then, with a renewed vigor of bouncing,the penguins synchronize their squalling...the sound wave hits the ears of this person: "I AM!!!"

I felt that way when I decided to give Linux a try. However, that is not the point of my discussion.

Windows users sometimes feel reluctant to approach Linux because of how Penguin lovers treat them. Windows might be a flawed OS, but throwing stones at its users does not help them.
After all, most Linux users were Windows users once.

As there are Linux distributions and forums, there are communities behind them. Some of them are friendly and welcome new Linux users; others scare them away. Everyone should know this.

In my navigations through forums, I realized that there are Linux distros that I dare not touch, not because of the distro itself, but BECAUSE OF THE COMMUNITY BEHIND IT.

No offense, but although I personally dislike Ubuntu (the distro) and its company (Canonical), the community is wonderful. They work hard to HELP and maybe that's one of the reasons behind Ubuntu's popularity. The Ubuntu slogan ("Linux for human beings") becomes a reality in Ubuntu's community.

Mandriva's community is amazing. They welcome you as a member, help you, and TEACH you, not only about Mandriva, but also about off-topics. They even have a community chat where everyone can start threads about virtually ANYTHING. They do not offend you, even if you offend them with real silly questions. I once read a thread posted by a person who asked for help to UNINSTALL MANDRIVA AND PUT WINDOWS. I thought the Mandriva forum administrators were going to butcher him, but people replied and helped him... maybe not very happily, but they taught him what he wanted to know.

Mepis forums might be small, but they are cozy. There, I read a post that went like this: "Although it is probably late for saying this, let me say it: WELCOME TO MEPIS!" How good is that, I ask? You really feel you mean something in Mepis.

Now, again, without meaning to offend, I won't go anywhere near PCLOS... I understand the value of one's own exploration, etc., but, plainly, their forum rules make you feel UNWANTED there.

So, people should really think about this before starting their trip to TUX Land...Please remember that turning against Windows users or novice Linux users antagonizes the very spirit of Free Software: the COMMUNITY is the POWER OF TUX.

¿Mandriva? ¿Por qué no Ubuntu?

En el mundo Linux, Ubuntu es la distribución más popular. Siendo así, ¿por qué decidí usar Mandriva (que generalmente se clasifica como una distribución medianamente difícil de usar) y no Ubuntu?

Sin considerarme un experto, y buscando la mayor objetividad, estas son mis tres razones:

1. Wi-Fi en netbooks
El talón de Aquiles de Ubuntu es la detección del Wi-Fi de las netbooks. El 10.4 "Lucid Lynx" no captó ninguna señal inalámbrica por sí mismo, ni hablar de conectarse automáticamente. Según los foros, para poder levantar la red, hay que usar la terminal en muchos casos ...Eso no es nada AMIGABLE para el usuario novato. Mandriva capta las redes y habilita el Wi-Fi con solo escoger la red y pedirle que se conecte.

2. El peso de la distribución
Mi hermano me dijo que había leído una vez que, en máquinas donde hasta Windows XP corre, Ubuntu se arrastra. Resultó ser un comentario totalmente cierto cuando probé Ubuntu en mi Asus EeePC 900. Con su modesta configuración de 1GB RAM y 20GB de disco duro, la computadora NUNCA ARRANCÓ la distro más popular. Windows XP corría a duras penas. Mandriva corre sin problemas.

Baso mi tercera razón en mucha lectura en foros, blogs y páginas Web. Esto no es odio; son hechos que he recopilado.

3. La filosofía ambivalente de Canonical
Algunos ufanos usuarios de Ubuntu pasan en los foros de otras distribuciones flameando ("Mi distro es más fácil de usar", "mi distro es la más usada", "mi distro reconoce todo", "Ubuntu es el mejor Linux") sin realmente enterarse de que los Live CDs NO los inventó Ubuntu, ni los Live Pendrives, ni que las "innovaciones" que tanto proclaman los ubunteros no pertenecen a Ubuntu, sino que son parte del software libre. Canonical, la empresa detrás de Ubuntu, no muestra ningún interés en educar a sus usuarios al respecto. Como decía Stallman, "Ubuntu es fácil de usar porque Gnome es fácil de usar". Gnome, el entorno gráfico de Ubuntu, NO lo desarrolla Canonical, solo lo toma y ya. Otras empresas que usan software libre INVIERTEN para ayudar a los desarrolladores. ¿Y Canonical? Para tener la distribución más popular, la contribución de esta empresa al software libre es raquítica: Ubuntu aporta apenas un 1%. ¿No debería Canonical ser más consecuente y apoyar a los desarrolladores cuyo trabajo incorpora en Ubuntu, como Gnome? Después de todo, Shuttleworth es millonario y hasta fue a la luna como turista.

Además, Canonical, a diferencia de Mandriva S.A., NO DECLARA SUS GANANCIAS porque sus cuarteles se encuentran en la Isla de Man, un reconocido paraíso fiscal. Por esta misma razón, esta distro que se hace llamar "Libre" incorpora drivers privativos sin notificar a los usuarios y sin sufrir la injusta cacería de brujas por parte de las leyes de propiedad intelectual. Por eso reconoce más periféricos y "es más fácil de usar".

Y no olvidemos los tratos con Microsoft; al remover a Google como buscador por defecto e incorporar a Yahoo, las ganancias de la publicidad iban a dar a Microsoft... ¡Cuántos ubunteros anti-Microsoft se pavoneaban de su distro, mientras ésta, sin que ellos supieran, redirigía el dinero de la publicidad a Redmond, para que Ballmer pudiera invertir en atacar a las otras distribuciones Linux!

Por esto, digan lo que digan, yo NO recomiendo Ubuntu a aquellos que quieran abandonar Windows.