Fitting the battle of life

Ubuntu brainstorm mentioned (in passing, I must admit) in the Guardian Technology section, in the first paragraph of this article, which describes Starbucks’ new website along the same lines as Brainstorm and Dell’s IdeaStorm.

It always makes me smile when Ubuntu gets mentioned in the news, even if it’s a tiny little aside as in this case. It just helps get the name out, I suppose.

Yes, terrorists are so rife within society these days - much more prevalent, much more organised, much better funded and equipped than the IRA ever was, of course -  that we need a draft of new legislation to protect us poor, vulnerable and innocent citizens from them, by which we mean giving up all our privacy and subjecting our private data to the security services so they can analyse our movements around London using Oyster cards to determine that we are indeed poor, vulnerable and innocent, not nasty horrible terrorists.

As for ‘cyber war’, surely they could come up with a better moniker than that? I’ve not heard the term cyberspace since reading Neuromancer, I swear.

Source: MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt

I just finished reading this story from the Guardian (sorry, it’s just my paper of choice) that has made me slightly angry. They concern remarks made in a leaked e-mail from a Tory mayor:

I am aware Islamic organisations are keen to promote a view that they are peaceful, forward-thinking individuals who wish to integrate into the British way of life.
The policy of clothing the feminine population of Dewsbury in black sack-like clothing from head to toe, the occasional trip out to cause mayhem with explosives and the proposal that all those of homosexual persuasion should be killed by shooting or other means is adequate and practical testimony to the level of progress being made in this direction.

These inflammatory remarks do nothing to help solve some of the problems we have in this country. As much as there is a very small (very small, if I might repeat myself) minority of people in this country who are willing to engage in acts of terrorism, I personally feel that they are not as dangerous as the kind of people who will equate that tiny minority with an entire religious or ethnic group to which they (claim to) belong.

Furthermore, where is the equal outrage from people like this man against all homophobia, for instance? I can’t for a minute believe he truly would like to eradicate homophobia; it is being used as a poor excuse (because again, that is the view of a minority) to make disparaging and damaging remarks against a particular religious group.

I also love how ‘the British way of life’ is trotted out as something that must be defended against all change forever, as if this nation should be stuck in a timewarp, repelling all immigrants and outsiders. There is no ‘British way of life; just look at London. The people and behaviour you might associate with (for instance) white English people living in Camden and Islington is very different, and these are two boroughs right next to each other. Extend the idea to all non-white British inhabitants of these two places and already the ‘British way of life’ is a hodgepodge, smorgasbord, veritable rainbow of customs and cultures. The ‘British way of life’, to me, is about accepting and integrating different cultures by preserving them, not by destroying them and imposing homogeneity.

Mayor Robert Bennett said:

I apologise for any remarks I have made which may have caused offence. I sincerely hope my comments will not undermine the important job of work that has to be done in building greater community cohesion throughout West Yorkshire.

He has rejected calls for him to resign; he is evidently wrong to have done so. I don’t think he can retain any credulity after such remarks, especially as a servant of the public. When he attacks part of that public, even if he later retracts those comments, the damage has been done.

I read, as those who know me will no doubt know, the Guardian as my paper (well, actually, being a broke student, website) of choice, and especially make sure to catch the Technology supplement on a Thursday, simply because techy stuff is a minor passion of mine. I’ve noticed over the past year or so (perhaps since I started actively looking) more and more mentions of Linux, and particularly Ubuntu. So it came as no great surprise to find this post by Kevin Anderson today.

He has been using Ubuntu for six months, and comes to the conclusion that it is “ready for advanced computer users, but not most mainstream users”, for example his parents. However, not only has he not asked his parents to try it, but the issues he brings up as ‘cons’ include mainly driver issues. One comment from an American describes a large group of Ubuntu users whose average age is 74 all humming along quite nicely, and (from my own experience) my mother is quite happy using Ubuntu - and I certainly wouldn’t call her an advanced computer user. After several comments, (including my own!), the author conceded: “I guess, that’s not much different now with a Windows machine”. Victory is ours!

I do admit that the issues he had with his own machine are genuine issues with certain video/audio drivers, but with the likes of Dell offering pre-installed issues in the mainstream market, the ‘average’ computer user simply isn’t going to run into the same difficulties. And, of course, it’s well known that Windows has driver issues, worse than GNU/Linux does. But I won’t turn this into a MS-bashing post.

The simple fact is, while all publicity is good publicity, articles such as this slightly skew the perspective an ‘average’ user has of Ubuntu. It would have been a very different article had the author taken a new Ubuntu Dell for a ride, instead of installing it on his own, older system. Articles like this do highlight the benefits of Ubuntu (and there is indeed a list of praise-worthy points), but at the same time aren’t entirely constructive. While the author added an update to the main article with a link to various features coming in Hardy, he didn’t update it to clarify his remarks about the ‘your parents’ test, which many people would miss in the comments.

Rant over.