Ubuntucat

Yup. You know all those high-and-mighty folks who don’t watch TV and who say TV is polluting the minds of youth and making people lazy and fat? Well, they’re talking about me. I don’t think I’m lazy or fat, and I think my mind is okay (but how would I know?). And yet I watch a lot of TV. I’d say I watch TV probably about four to five hours a day. Something like that.

My new favorite show is The Bonnie Hunt show. I’ve always been a big fan of Bonnie Hunt, ever since Jerry Maguire (didn’t like the movie but I liked her in it). Return to Me sealed the deal for me. That is one funny movie!

If anyone watches The Biggest Loser, I just want to say I’m so glad that Michelle won and Vicky didn’t. I guess sometimes there is justice in the world, even on reality TV. I also want to say that Jillian Michaels would have made a much better Sarah Connor for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. She’s buff and tough and reminds me a lot of Linda Hamilton from T2. That new Sarah Connor seems a little too wimpy.

Oh, and How I Met Your Mother is the new Seinfeld.

Really, though, I don’t see what’s so bad about TV. It’s just another medium to tell stories through, just like paintings, songs, novels, poetry, dance, and comic books. The quality of TV shows varies, just as the quality of books does. Books are not inherently better than TV shows. In fact, I’d much rather watch three seasons of Dexter than have to read another single book by John Gray “Ph.D.” (I want back the time I wasted reading Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus).

I did abstain from TV in high school, and I’m glad to know I can live without it if I want to (I’m not one of those addicts who just says “Oh, I can quit any time”). Still, I’m glad I came back to it. TV can be a good drug if you watch the right shows.

I know some people like to go to sleep in total silence. They want tranquility. They’re entitled to that.

My wife and I used to go to sleep to the TV. Now we’ve switched over to NPR (National Public Radio).

Last night was a little funny. We were listening to NPR and there was a little program I found fascinating about students cheating in school. She declared it a “snore” (i.e., a bore) and then switched to another NPR station that was talking about the economy. I told her that was a “snore.”

Funny our different perspectives on what’s boring. Guess who won the battle of the radio stations.

One of the popular criticisms of Linux users is that Linux users can’t take criticism well. This criticism happens to be true. And I happen to have, at one point, been one of those Linux users who could not take criticism well.

Why can’t Linux users take criticism well? Why couldn’t I before? Does using Linux do something to your brain? Does it cause you to have kneejerk reactions?

Well, I think it does at first. I can speak only for myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other Linux users had this happen to them, too. When I first “converted” to Linux from Windows, that’s exactly how I thought of myself—as a convert. I felt as if I’d seen the light. For decades, I’d been enslaved by Microsoft and now had finally seen the light in Linux. Praise Jesus! I wanted to share the “good news” with other Windows users. I wanted to tell them what they were missing. I was so enthusiastic for Linux that I couldn’t understand how anyone could level criticisms against it.

It was more than that, of course. Even after my new-convert zeal died down, I didn’t take criticism well because I knew many of the criticisms were not valid or constructive ones. If 95% of the criticisms people throw at you aren’t valid, it can be difficult to figure out which 5% are valid and give people credit for that little bit. In other words, you get in a defensive mode, the same way a dog who is used to being beaten will shy away from even an intended-to-be-loving touch.

Once the zeal went away and once the defensiveness cooled down, I started trying to deflect criticism into pragmatism. After all, what does it matter if I—a Linux user, not a Linux developer—hear your criticisms? How would I know how to fix things any more than you would?

A little bit of this I have retained, and I still will refer complainers to Brainstorm and Launchpad.

But I’ve stopped toeing the party line. It’s taken me three and a half years of Linux use to do so, but I’ve stopped. Yes, there are many things that are the fault of third-party vendors. Yes, there are many things that are out of the control of Linux developers. In the end, though, Linux developers are human—just like you and me. They make mistakes. That’s why some thing that used to work in an older release no longer works in the current release. That’s why that update broke your X server. That’s why that security vulnerability snuck in and took a while to get patched.

Linux isn’t perfect, not even for what is within the control of the Linux developers. And not all Linux developers are volunteers. Many are, and I appreciate their generosity of time and energy. But many are also paid. But they’re human, folks. They make mistakes. Is it okay for you to criticize? Sure. Criticize away.

I’ve had my fair share of problems with Linux. I’ve been a Ubuntu user for over three years, and I saw Ubuntu storing passwords in plain text (that has since been fixed). I’ve had all kinds of problems getting drives mounted and unmounted properly, and I’ve filed bug reports. Sometimes I get annoyed that they won’t fix bugs in the current release unless they’re security-related. That’s okay.

In the end, I don’t believe in conversion. I believe in using what works for you. If you believe Windows has fewer problems, then use Windows. If you believe Mac has fewer problems, use OS X. If you believe Linux has more problems than Windows and Mac but you just want to torture yourself, use Linux.

I happen to have experience with all three major platforms and have found problems with all three. I could level criticisms at all three. In the end, I choose Linux because I like it, warts and all. If you want to offer your criticisms, I won’t pretend I haven’t heard them all before, but I also won’t call you a troll or tell you that nothing is the fault of Linux developers. Use what works for you, and do your best to improve it with whatever’s within your power to do so.

When I was growing up, I never understood that saying about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach. I got it intellectually. I knew it meant it’s about feeding the man to make him happy. I just didn’t get it get it.

It’s sad to say, but when I was growing up, I didn’t eat much good food. Neither of my parents prided themselves on being cooks. And when we ate out, it tended to be at chain restaurants instead of local mom-and-pop eateries. Pizza Hut is what we considered gourmet.

Generally, my wife and I fix our own meals (we don’t have similar food tastes). We also tend not to fit into traditional gender roles. But I do feel like that stereotypical think-with-your-stomach man every now and then. Last night was one of those nights. Every time I have one of Park Chow‘s apple pies a la mode, I’m in food heaven and definitely feel the link between my stomach and my heart. I hope my wife wasn’t too embarrassed that I practically licked the plate clean.

Park… Chow… apple pie…

Recently, a school teacher named Karen in the Austin Independent School District confiscated what she thought were copies of illegal software but were actually Linux CDs. She then wrote an angry email to Ken Starks (aka, Helios), who then published the email and wrote back his own angry response. At least that’s what Ken Starks would have you believe happened.

I’m annoyed that the Linux community is getting on this guy’s side, and he’s trying to make off like a hero. I even question the authenticity of the email. I believe it’s either (depending on how cynical you want to get) a rewrite of an actual email for extra dramatic effect, a completely fabricated email referencing an actual event, or a completely fabricated email referencing an event that never even happened but one that Ken Starks considers realistic or plausible.

Let’s say—for argument’s sake, since I have no proof yet that this is a hoax—that the email is authentic and that the incident actually did happen. If that’s the case, Ken Starks’ blog post does not put the Linux community in a good light at all.

If the teacher’s email is authentic, it’s still not ethical for Starks to publish without the author’s consent what would otherwise be a private exchange, especially for the purpose of public ridicule.

More importantly, Starks does go on to ridicule the teacher in question and offer her personal insults as well. Here are some highlights:

You should be ashamed of yourself for putting into print such none sense [sic].

The fact that you seem to believe that Microsoft is the end all and be-all is actually funny in a sad sort of way. Then again, being a good NEA member, you would spout the Union line.

A dedicated School Teacher would recognize that fact and lobby for the change to Free Open Source Software and let the money formally spent on MS bindware be used on our kids.

A teacher who cared about her students would do that.

Now this teacher—if this incident really did happen, and if she wrote that actual email to Starks—is certainly extremely misinformed. Linux CDs are not illegal, and software can be free. It’s possible that “Aaron” was being disruptive but well-intentioned, and she was a bit harsh to the boy. However, if Starks really wanted to inform her and have her change and get educated, he should have written a kinder reply. His vitriol serves only to alienate her and tarnish the image of Linux communities.

To Karen, if this incident really did happen, and if your email did actually get published without your consent for the purposes of public ridicule, I apologize on behalf of the parts of the Linux community that will let me. You didn’t know that what that student was doing was perfectly legal, and you might have overreacted, but you probably thought at that time that what you were doing was right. If Starks hasn’t totally turned you off to open source software, I’d invite you to explore it yourself some time. It is perfectly legal and cost-free.

P.S. I find it disturbing that this is starting to appear not just on Digg and Slashdot but as actual news stories on tech websites when it’s clear that the only source remains Starks’ blog post. There is currently no outside verification whatsoever that the incident occurred or that this Karen (no last name) teacher actually sent that email to Starks.