Matt Daubneys Blog

In the latest ubuntu-uk podcast a question was raised that intrested me. The point raised was one about people pushing the “Freedom” thing to sell Ubuntu. I must admit I am slightly guilty about this, but it’s not the only way I sell Ubuntu.

One of the main things that pulled me to Linux in general was it’s technical ‘under the hood’ shinyness. There where lots of things in Windows that annoyed me a lot. Things like having to reboot frequently when working with large files, or whenever a program crashed I’d have to restart the machine, not just restart that program or windows.

One of the other major things that irratated me was if another user on the machine downloaded something nasy then my data would get damaged too. The other major thing that annoyed me was that when a new version of Windows came out, I’d need a new PC to run it.

All of these things are non-issues in Ubuntu. There are a million and one other things I’ve found myself doing since making the switch. My NSLU2 security cam wouldn’t be possible with windows, my doorbell wouldn’t have been affordable with windows (as I wouldn’t have been able to make it out of junk lying around), this website wouldn’t exist, as I really can’t afford to shell out for a windows Server license. I’ve managed to set up a home server so that all my emails are accessed in a single secure place, and all my IRC type things are done from there too.

To me, the Freedom thing is a non-issue. My reason for using Ubuntu has turned from things that annoyed me in Windows driving me away to things I never thought I could do drawing me on. So as I closed Windows, Ubuntu opened doors