the great software blog

I give away my old computers to lower middle class and poorer kids around town and in my neighborhood. But never with proprietary software installed, only Linux and open source software. The reasons are obvious:

• the kid can’t afford to buy software, and I’m not going to pirate it for him;
• Linux is more stable and secure than Windows;
• the kid should be using office software in an open document format (ODF);
• the kid doesn’t need to be exposed to Microsoft or Apple. (When he gets a fucking job, or finds someone who’s willing to fund his software and hardware, then he can pay those companies).

Only once did I have a kid (and his mother) tell me they didn’t want Linux, only Windows (XP). I promptly took the laptop back and gave it to the kid across the street who’s father had lost his job due to his company going out of business. He was happy to have it, and even the father later thanked me. That’s always nice, too, much like giving a book as a gift and the person actually bothers to read it.

But as school teachers and administrators are demanding more property tax increases and levies, they want to use a significant chunk of the annual budgets on buying Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office software. But in this sheer hell of an economy that is free-falling, who the fuck do these people think they are that we should be sending money to Redmond (annually!) just so they can save their files in proprietary formats!

Use free software, such as GNU/Linux, OpenOffice, Gimp, or go to the cloud and open accounts on Google or Zoho. I don’t care. WE’RE BROKE. Fuck Microsoft. They have enough money. But no way, no how should taxes be raised to put Microsoft or Apple software in schools.

http://www.getgnulinux.org/
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*This post was carried over from the old blog, from which most of its content was archived.