{"id":116,"date":"2007-06-29T17:17:28","date_gmt":"2007-06-29T17:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubuntucat.wordpress.com\/2007\/06\/29\/my-time-has-no-value\/"},"modified":"2007-06-29T17:17:28","modified_gmt":"2007-06-29T17:17:28","slug":"my-time-has-no-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/my-time-has-no-value\/","title":{"rendered":"My time has no value?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever read the phrase <i>Linux is free only if your time has no value<\/i>? It&#8217;s the mantra of the frustrated migrant&mdash;the Windows user who&#8217;s sick of Windows, thinks desktop Linux is a drop-in replacement, and then has no idea what problems she&#8217;ll run into installing and configuring a new operating system from scratch. <\/p>\n<p> In some ways, there&#8217;s truth to this idea. Linux isn&#8217;t just free Windows. You don&#8217;t have to pay money for Linux, but in the vast majority of migrations to Linux, you or someone you know has to take the time to learn a new operating system, download it, burn it properly, (probably) repartition the hard drive for it, install it, configure it, troubleshoot it. Especially if you have incompatible hardware or peculiar software needs, configuring and troubleshooting a new Linux installation can feel like a full-time job&#8230; that you&#8217;re not getting paid for. <\/p>\n<p> There are two major reasons I object to the statement in question, though: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>A lot of people do not get paid by the hour.<\/b> So if I use my time to learn a new operating system that saves me money, I am not losing money that I would be making with that time otherwise. Even if you do get paid by the hour, you do not always have the opportunity to work overtime. The idea of more time working necessarily leading to more money applies mainly to freelancers or the self-employed.\n<li><b>You don&#8217;t have to do it yourself.<\/b> Even the Linux users who are not active evangelists tend to be more than willing to help new users get set up. And that help comes for free! <a href=\"http:\/\/ubuntuforums.org\/showthread.php?t=410977\">This poll of Ubuntu users<\/a>, for example, shows that 91% (of 132 polled) of Ubuntu users would be willing to install and configure Ubuntu for someone free of charge (roughly 48% for anyone, and then roughly 44% for only friends, family members, or co-workers).<\/ul>\n<p> So if you&#8217;re frustrated with your new <i>Linux installation<\/i> but really want to give <i>Linux use<\/i> an honest try, contact a Linux user you know and say, &#8220;Hey, I really want to use Linux, but I find the installation process a bit overwhelming. Any chance you could help?&#8221; And if you don&#8217;t know any Linux users personally, find a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linux.org\/groups\/\">Linux User Group<\/a> (or LUG) and contact its members. They&#8217;d probably be more than willing to help you learn Linux. Many LUGs hold annual &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Installfest\">installfests<\/a>&#8221; to help new users install and\/or troubleshoot Linux. And all the help is free. <\/p>\n<p> Cheapskates: there are no more excuses about Linux being free &#8220;if your time has no value.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever read the phrase Linux is free only if your time has no value? It&#8217;s the mantra of the frustrated migrant&mdash;the Windows user who&#8217;s sick of Windows, thinks desktop Linux is a drop-in replacement, and then has no idea what problems she&#8217;ll run into installing and configuring a new operating system from scratch.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/my-time-has-no-value\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">My time has no value?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}