After 4 years of Windows XP, my old laptop finally gave up. It was dying and opening a couple of windows was freezing the whole system up. With both of us having office laptops for our day to day use, I thought this is the time to play around with something new. I installed Ubuntu in it and wallah! the dying laptop seems to have got new breath. With Ubuntu Intrepid, Firefox, Totem Movie player, Open office & Amarok, I pretty much can use it for the purposes I used it with XP on it. The reason for this blog entry is not to claim I know how to install and survive in Linux but reflect on why it took me 13 years after I started using PC to try my hand in Linux.After coming to Seattle and interacting with some amazingly talented people, I felt like a dwarf in the open source technology field. I have used a PC with Intel 286 processor, 560MB hard disk (yes you read it right!) with MS DOS on it from 1995. Saw the evolution of Microsoft through Windows 3.1, 95, 98 & XP - installed each of these and never felt the need for Linux or anything else to run on my PC. Even all the computer labs in my college and in most PCs in the campus (some (ugh!) geeks had Linux) were running on Windows. Meanwhile most of the graduates here in US have very good knowledge of Linux or other open source initiatives.
Well, I can think of only one reason for it - Piracy!. I never paid for a copy of Windows in my life till I came to US and bought my own laptop. For the first time it hit me, I need to pay for the OS. It was readily available through out my college and career for free. Why should I spend all my energy in trying to make any other OS work on my PC, when I have my shiny Windows out of the box available for me. But when you are in college and if you had to spend $$s (oh sorry, Rs) from your allowance on buying an OS or MS office suite, we would have definitely had looked for alternatives and stumbled upon Linux or BSD much before than I did.
Was this good or bad? Well good and bad I guess. If no Windows, I doubt whether common man like my father, who has adopted PC in his late 50s, would continue to use it. I cannot imagine him running anything from a Linux terminal and getting some stuff working. Even today with Linux desktop like Ubuntu Intrepid 90-95% out of the box usable for people like him, I am not confident he would have taken this much interest. For me personally, I love Windows XP and even with a Linux desktop in office, I rely on it for most of my use. But somewhere inside me there is a person who is yelling "Damn you Piracy! I would have contributed to forums, I would have contributed to the open source community in efforts to make my PC & OS better for my use and I would have become a linux geek!".
Anyway my life is based on one principle, someone close to me recently commented that it is the most over rated statement in the world, but I still believe it with all my heart - "Everthing happens for a reason and Whatever Happens, Happens for the Best". Look back into you life and you will know it is true.
PS: Even if you are not a technical fanatic, give Ubuntu a try. No need to install, just run it from a live CD. I can guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised as I was.
