I reject all the works of the the predators and seek to rid myself of their social, financial and psychological shackles whenever I can.

In that light it has given me great pleasure to help two friends migrate to free open source software during December. Many of us need our computers both for work and to stay in touch with the world. Traditional main stream media (MSM) is now corporately owned and can not be trusted.

It is through the multiple perspectives of the internet, and in particular dedicated bloggers (many of whom are experienced journalists in their own right) that we can make sense of the big picture. (I will post later about Mr Kurt Haskell in this context.)

It's a big step to embrace a new operating system (OpenSuSE 11.2, the latest version). Not only your professional competence but some emotional security is likely to be embedded in that expensive, bug-ridden, virus attracting, intrusive, predatory system (Windows) that you are used to.

The possibility that you might lose all your data or have an unworkable machine is tough to contemplate. In the first case everything went like a charm, a couple of minor things to clarify during installation - but otherwise it was beautiful. But the second case - finished last night - not so.

A Windows Vista dedicated Toshiba laptop with peculiar and proprietary drivers was a tough install - not helped by the habit suppliers have of not providing a dvd with the machine. It was tough, but my friend stuck with it and rode the roller-coaster of despair and hope. Well done Kris.

Posted by Nicholas Moore    6:00:47 pm