Will MEPIS Come Back to Life Again?

The development of MEPIS, my favorite distro, has been in a long hiatus.  While I have MEPIS 12 Beta installed and it works very well, I wonder if I'll ever be able to see a new release.

I'm not the only one.  Many at the MEPIS forum have waited and waited...and waited.  Some have shifted to a different distro, some have stayed.

In the past, other distros I like have been shaken, too.  Mandriva, for example, seemed to become extinct.  But the turmoil produced two great distros instead: Mageia and OpenMandriva.


Pardus was another one.  When they decided to drop their unique PiSi packaging to go to a Debian base, such idea actually made a group of tenacious members to create the Anka Team, and their effort paid off when their project, Pardus-Anka, became Pisi Linux.

In the MEPIS tents, something similar is happening. The lack of news about MEPIS development lead several members of the community to join antiX, and together they put together a very interesting project:  MX Linux.

MX-14.3 is pretty robust and the developers constantly add new interesting features.  It has inherited the stability of MEPIS and the power and flexibility of antiX; I couldn't complain!

Still, whenever I boot into any of my MEPIS systems, I ask myself if a new MEPIS will ever see the light...

Learning to Slack with Kongoni!

Some days ago, I had said that I was bored since my multi-boot systems were working perfectly. I also said that I wanted to try Kongoni GNU/Linux.

Since booting the live CD wasn't enough, my quest for knowledge led me to actually installing this Slackware-based distro. Three were my main motivations to add yet another head to my hepta-boot desktop computer:

1. I have not tried a purely Libre distro.

2. I've always wanted to try Slackware, but I feel I'm not yet up to it.

3. I felt it was about time for me to see if I could do well with a text-based installation.

Thus, last night I took up the challenge, encouraged by a rainy night during which sleep had eluded me.

Kongoni's text installation did not bite me. Actually, I could understand quite well most of the questions (I'm not going to get into details here, but they asked about partitions, locales, the clock and such). My only problem was when I reached the part in which the installation asked me about the mounting points for my multiple partitions. Being careless as I am, I had forgotten to take note of that beforehand, so I said "What the heck! Let's live life dangerously!" and chose "ignore" for all the mounting points. After all, being Slackware an OS that encourages people to build their own systems, it must have some way to mount those things later, whatever they were! :P

After some time of file-copying, Kongoni's installer gave me good news: My system had been installed successfully! (I couldn't help feeling proud of myself because that meant that I could actually install a GNU/Linux distro without the help of any GUI).

Next was rebooting to meet my brand new Kongoni OS! Yay!

Kongoni's Grub greeted me with many (and I mean it) entries to boot. It seemed that all my previous Grub entries (functional or not) came to a dance and waited for me to pick them. Incredibly enough, my tortured brain was able to remember vaguely which OS was on which partition...and there were many in that Grub that simply didn't correspond to my OSs.

I let them alone and picked Kongoni, of course. I braced myself for chaos and despair, but in a matter of seconds I was happily navigating Kongoni's KDE desktop.

Again, although there were some desktop effects, I couldn't get the cube to work. Oh well, being a humble Mepis 8 user with no Compiz, I can live without it, hehehe!

The second test: music and video. They had not worked during my live session. Did they work now?

No. Amarok and Dragon Player worked, but very silently. That's bad if you actually want them to give you some sound, right? Moreover, Dragon Player crashed again...



While I'm aware that such problem can be corrected somehow, I'm just beginning my Kongoni-Slacking experience, so I opted for an easier approach. How about installing VLC?

How does Kongoni manage the packages? Oh, I had to meet PIG and got familiar with the concept of "ports".



Apparently, PIG took something and compiled it along with its libraries and dependencies. I didn't understand much what was happening, but hope to learn more in time. It showed me the whole process...I wish I knew what all that meant! Whatever PIG did, it did it well because after waiting for some time, I could find VLC in the application launcher:



So, did I get sound this time? Yes! Perfect! I tried different kinds of videos and audio files from my different partitions (no problem accessing them, by the way) and VLC played all.



The downsides of this experience? First, when trying the Grub options, I made a mistake with Mandriva (which had previously stood several of my destructive attacks and was a bit unstable) and rendered it unusable. Even though it tried to repair itself later, it didn't work out this time.

Also, since I didn't like that Grub, I used Mepis System Assistant to repair it and later I manually edited the file "menu.lst" to enable Pardus, that was absent.

Now I have to reinstall my Mandriva system...but I guess I'll wait for the brand new Mandriva to arrive. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to learn more about Kongoni and will start my slacking!

What Is Going On Lately?

The semester is almost over and the best word to describe the atmosphere around here is hectic.

Still, I've been able to notice a few cases for personal analysis and meditation:

1. A colleague's computer got useless due to a virus:

Well, not the computer. The computer is still functioning perfectly...at least as long as he keeps using his Mandriva Live CD. What got useless was his XP system. Oh, yes, I can almost hear Windows fanbois saying that it is all my imagination and that it is because the user was "extremely unlucky" or "too stupid to run A/V or anti-malware software." This one is VERY careful about security updates and runs all kinds of anti-malware programs under the sun, so he must be one of those in the "unlucky" group. Anyway, this unlucky colleague called me and told me that thanks to Mandriva, he could get his job done. That is doubly important considering the university's present times.

The question here is why if he is using Mandriva without any problem, he still wants to use XP. Because it is better? Because it is an OS that lets you get your job done? I have my hypotheses. Anyway, if he wants to keep using Windows, I think he should install Vista/7. Oh, wait. That's not necessary because XP is still well supported by Microsoft until 2014, or not?

2. Another colleague's computer got infected and is on its way to HD formatting.
Wow! Another unlucky one! Well, this has less to do with luck and more to do with plain statistics if we consider that the campus and its surrounding photocopy shops are among the most dangerous places concerning USB safety. You can actually get a pretty nasty USB malware collection in a 10-minute-walk. It doesn't matter what A/V you are running or how updated you think it is, this is Virus Land. You could play Russian Roulette with your system after plugging your USB stick into any shop's PC here or you could try another approach. How about cleaning your USB using a Linux Live CD and a few clicks?

3. Another Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 Starter started acting up.
I don't know what's happening. As ironical as it sounds, it seems that Starter decides all of a sudden not to start. Is it Toshiba? Is it Starter? I actually don't care; I use Linux. Let those who use Starter care and fix their problems right at Microsoft's Headquarters, because unlike Linux users, these computer owners do have the solid support of Microsoft, right?

4. Three more students have told me they want to install Linux.
One of them said that he'd settle for Ubuntu Natty Narwhal because its desktop was amazing. While Unity does not sum up what I consider an amazing desktop experience, I must recognize that many others do love Unity. I am more from the old school, I'd say. Having a computer behave as a giant cellphone does not sound fun to me, call it Unity, Gnome 3, or KDE Netbook. Now, if this student likes something like that, good for him. It's his call.

5. A colleague experienced a moment of "File-Type Madness" while teaching in a workshop.
She had made her multimedia presentation with PowerPoint 2007 and unknowingly saved it as a .pptx file, the default format. However, when she tried to open it on one of the university's laptops, she learned something the hard way: compatibility was not one of Microsoft's top priorities when pushing their new format. She had to use instead her tiny netbook, which runs Mandriva, and could use the presentation, albeit not 100% compatible with Open Office.
You see? That's why standards are important. That also highlights the importance of using our software with a critical eye instead of trusting it blindly.

Aroint thee, Linux Penguin! Thou Hast Made Me Look like a Fool!

The following is a historical account of some events in which different Linux distributions have made me look like a fool. Read on, ye reader and learn about my misery.


1. I had installed Pardus on a student's laptop some time ago.
Her Vista system was almost dying. A week later, she told me Vista got totally damaged and wouldn't even let her enter her account. Then, I lost contact with that student. That worried me because she had just met the big Turkish cat, so I expected a myriad questions from her. Since she didn't contact me, I assumed she had given up on Pardus and had reinstalled Vista.
Then, I met her again. I asked her about the state of her computer and got ready to hear how she had sent Pardus to Cat Heaven, but she said instead "Great! I love Pardus! I could even fix Vista with it!"
I haven't yet fixed any unusable Windows system with Linux and she fixed her Vista herself? Is she a Linux genius? She is indeed a smart girl, but far away from the geeky type AND she's a total Linux newbie. She says that she can't figure out LibreOffice's Calc, for example. But she could fix her Windows with Pardus...How does that make me look? Megatotoro: Thou art a fool!

2. I installed Pardus on my mother's computer:
I still remember her reluctance to use Linux. I also remember many comments from people saying "Linux is not for Mom," but I simply closed my ears to them.
Yesterday, I went to her house and we spent some leisure time watching funny Youtube videos...I thought I'd be in charge of doing the computer stuff but believe it or not, Mom was using her Linux computer! Again, I asked myself: Is my mother a gifted computer user? Is she a power user? Unfortunately for me, she is neither...so much for genetics making me a genius, too! The truth is that my mother is a regular computer user whose needs rarely go beyond surfing the Web, typing mail or documents, and playing her favorite little games. Pardus hasn't let her down and has built her computing confidence up. Silly ye, Megatotoro! Thou hast underestimated Mom's computer-using potential and Pardus rubbed thine silliness on thine very face!

3. I messed up my Mandriva system.
Unlike my brother, whose main system is Mandriva, my Mandriva skills are very scarce. I use it, true, but maybe twice a week. Mandriva is one of the alternative systems I go to when I want a change from Mepis 8 & 11.
Anyway, one day I tried to play mad scientist with Mandriva and something went very wrong. The worst part is that I made newbie's mistake 001: I didn't even remember what I had done (because I didn't have any idea of what I was supposed to be doing.) My Mandriva collapsed! Recalling my 10+ years of Windows training, I got my Mandriva Live CD ready for wiping my damaged system and reinstalling a new one.
But the mad scientist was still there. He told me to wait. Since Mandriva was already done with, it wouldn't cause any harm trying to fix it, would it?
"Megatotoro: you are indeed stupid!" I barked to myself. "What on earth makes you think you are capable to fix Mandriva? It is different from Mepis!"
Still, I read the messages my dead Mandriva sent me from its Mandrivish Heaven. It urged me to try I don't know what command. I made Newbie's Mistake 002: Didn't take note of what I was doing.
I just remember Mandriva asked me many questions that went like "Do you want to fix [insert something unreadable with a number here] Yes/NO?" I chose "Yes."
That went on for a while. I pictured myself like Homer Simpson working in the nuclear plant and pressing a button when prompted by the system. When I reached number 900, I got tired and turned off the system. Newbie's mistake 003: Instead of turning my PC off, I chose "reboot." Thanks to that, I saw the computer start while I still had the CD on my hands.
When Mandriva booted, it started fixing itself! Whoa! That's MAGIC!
Did it work? You bet! My Mandriva is as good as always. Was it a lucky strike? Well, very likely but I never got such lucky strikes during my Windows decade, even if I had better tools and much more experience. Linux, by fixing itself, made me look like a double fool. I, the Penguin, can stand thine foolishness and can come up alive. Thou ought to try harder to kill me...

The moral I learned after my pride was shattered: You don't have to be a genius anymore to use Linux. Any plain, regular individual may use it provided that he or she remembers it is something different and thus wants to learn about it.

Pardus 2011.1 Beta1 and Mandriva 2011 Beta3

This is a short note for the followers of Pardus and Mandriva. Both distibutions have relased beta versions for testing.

For more information, follow the Star or talk to the Leopard...

Mandriva

Pardus

Gradual Change...A Busy Week

They have kept me extremely busy with work this week. Now, looking back to what happened during my free time, I can recall:

1. The new Pardus user reported that she fell in love with the big cat from Turkey. Her Windows Vista went totally useless due to malware issues and now she is understanding the big difference between "computer infection" and "Windows infection." Really, it is only until you step away from that old paradigm that you begin to understand and enjoy using your computer freely.

2. I helped Mechatotoro with the installation of Mandriva 2010.2 into the netbooks of two respected professors in our university. They looked happy and eager to try their brand new OS. Apparently, Windows Vista/7 Starter is doing a marvelous job turning users to Linux! Of course, nobody wants to be bullied.

3. MEPIS 11 went to RC 2! I am very happy because MEPIS 11 turned to be all that they promised and even more! I upgraded my Test Mepis 11 to RC2 from the repositories and everything went seamlessly.

4. I downloaded Mageia beta 2 and gave it to Mechatotoro. I'm still waiting for his review, but I guess it will take longer because he apparently went back to Windows. :P

Times are changing...more people are willing to step away from the four sad squares even if the one in charge disguises them now as a circle.

Zombie attack: University Network Collapsed!

I survived my first week of this new semester at the university! However, the network during this first week went from slow and unstable to totally useless. It seems it didn't survive the first week of classes!

What happened? Nobody quite knew until Mechatotoro told me. A zombie computer started sending spam and caused a networking collapse.

Now, let me correct my words. It was not a zombie computer. It was a zombie WINDOWS XP computer. Why do I make the distinction? Because in the same office, there was a computer running Mandriva Linux and it was the only one that was clean.

At this point some might be thinking "But XP is an old OS! That's what you get when you rely on old technology!"

Is that so? There was a Windows 7 computer in that office, too. Was it any better than XP? Not quite. You can read Mechatotoro's account here.

Again, we are talking about Windows flaws, not about computer problems. The computers were in perfect shape.

So, could we say that Windows 7 is actually a more secure system than XP? The case in this office clearly shows what system is superior (and it does not come from Microsoft.)

Also, where was the "great support" from Microsoft? As far as I know, the university had to solve the problem on its own even if the computers had original copies of Windows.

Maybe it's about time users got smart and instead of sheepishly accepting Windows security flaws as "computer problems", started nagging Microsoft until this company actually released some secure OS version or at least took full responsibility for the flawed systems they ask so much money for.

Mandriva Linux 2011 Alpha 1: A Quick Peek

Well, I downloaded the first alpha release of Mandriva Linux 2011. As with all alphas, it is not intended for production use, but for testing. That said, this is what I this live DVD looks like:


1. Mandriva 2011's future desktop:



Hey! Did you notice the penguins? I like them! The black and blue pattern is reminiscent of my Mepis 8.0 wallpaper (my favorite). For some, such color choice may be too dark, but I couldn't possibly like it any better.


2. The application launcher:



There you have it. It's the new one! Mandriva boasts KDE 4 SC 4.6.0. As with all Mandriva releases, you may change your language and locale at start the DVD.

3. Applications:



Concerning applications, it comes with Firefox 4 Beta 11 and OpenOffice. Interesting...they didn't pick LibreOffice. Also, this release comes with useful tools for images, movies, and audio. There weren't any issues related to sound or my wired connection. I did miss K3b. Apparently, it is not included.

4. Issues I encountered:



At first, the window display was a bit buggy, but then it stabilized. Interestingly enough, this time Mandriva was unable to activate desktop effects. Again, no big deal being this an alpha. I wonder if I could make them work the same way I did it with Mepis 11 Beta 1.

To sum up, this alpha looks robust enough to say that Mandriva devs have been working hard. We can expect Mandriva 2011 to be as solid and powerful as it has always been.

Linux in a University Workshop

Yesterday, Mechatotoro and I were in charge of a workshop on technology and education for a congress at our university. The basic idea was to apply Freire's philosophy that education needs to be eye-opening and mind-freeing while the current approach to technology is somehow acting conversely in the classrooms.

We conducted several experiments showing how both teachers and students take technology for granted and generally view it as a positive, monolithic and inclusive force while in reality it hinders meta-cognition and favors linear, algorithmic mental processes (not to mention it also excludes individuals.)

As part of the workshop, we exposed our audience to two Linux distributions: Mandriva and Mepis.

The sole concept of Live CDs helped the participants observe that the symbiotic relationship between hardware and software (in this case, Windows) responds to economic and political factors. Why is it that nobody told them before that you can use a CD, DVD, USB or even a memory card to boot a computer with an alternative OS when Windows fails? Of course, in Windows culture, someone gets the benefit when "computers" crash. Again, are the computers (hardware) to blame or is it an OS failure? Very few had actually thought about that before.

Interestingly enough, the teachers who initially had problems locating Microsoft Word on Windows XP had no problem finding and using OpenOffice Writer. They didn't have any problem locating and using some basic software tools for teachers like the calculator, the drawing program, or the spreadsheet, either. Again, if all those tools are there and are free, why is it that nobody had told them before they could use them?

Needless to say, the neat appearance of Mandriva and the eye-candy of KDE helped debunk the stereotype that Linux is only a black screen with cryptic commands. The concept of virtual desktops and the desktop cube seemed to attract their attention quite a bit, too.

Then, we discussed viruses and malware. While Windows didn't see them and the lab antivirus failed to detect four viruses stored in my USB pendrive, Mepis Live CD put them in the spot. I showed the participants how to get rid of USB viruses with Mepis in two clicks (literally). I also showed them how to rescue files stored on Windows using Mepis Live CD.

At the end, we had several issues to reflect upon: Was Linux hard to use? Was it useless and undependable? Why aren't teachers being empowered with this knowledge and conversely, they are kept in a technological paradigm that directly contradicts new cognitive and pedagogical tendencies? (Freire, Vygotsky, and even Gardner come to mind)

I hope our workshop may have contributed to a new technological paradigm in education...at least the participants seemed quite satisfied and motivated. I am thankful they attended the workshop.

A Mepis User Rooting for Mageia...WHY NOT?

Today I read something very good: Mageia Alpha 1 will be ready for January, 2011!!!

At this point some users of other distros may be thinking "so what? My distro is much better anyway!"

Others might be secretly grinning while thinking "Look! A Mepis user rooting for Mageia!" "It seems that this guy is coming from the moons of Coockoo-land or Mepis is not such a good distro after all!"

Neither is true. Well, maybe I'm a bit crazy indeed...some colleagues say it is a vital requirement for my job! :P

But that has nothing to do with my support to Mageia, or the fact that I am learning to use Mandriva, or that my main OS is Mepis.

To me, the crazy ones are those who push only to favor their distro. That "MY distro is THE distro" mentality, in conjunction with a constant mudding of all the other distros is, in my honest opinion, what keeps many away from Linux.



True, I have my favorite distros: Mepis, Mandriva, Pardus, Antix...

Also, some Linux flavors out there don't please me much. But the fact that I dislike them does not mean those distributions or their communities are useless. If there are 2 people following them, that means those distros have something to offer. Is that so hard to understand? Still, some Linux fans, or better said, Distro Trolls, don't seem to understand it.

True, something happened among the ranks of Mandriva and that led to the birth of Mageia. Should we then be forced to choose one or the other? Should we, users of other distros, throw mud at both of them so that our distro may have less competition?

I have a question. Who are we competing against? Are we competing against someone? So, is choosing free software the equivalent of entering a giant arena?

This is not right. I don't even see free software as the competition against Microsoft or Apple. Why? Because Open Source belongs to a different model. Open Source is about learning, sharing and improving. The greedy ideology of the traditional business model and its compulsive "kill or be killed" philosophy do not fit well in Open Source mentality.

Let Microsoft and Apple do the competition against each other. Also, let them keep directing lots of resources trying to kill Free Software. So far, they haven't been successful in spite of all their money. They are wasting money trying to kill an idea...an idea that grows slowly, but that keeps growing thanks--paradoxically--to their abusive business practices.

Instead of competing against them --or against ourselves-- let's invest our time more wisely: let's support each other...let's root together for Mageia!!!

A New, Happy Mandriva User!

One of my colleagues, a proud owner of a netbook HP Mini, but not so proud of the crippled Windows 7 Starter it came with, had asked me to help her switch to GNU/Linux.

Her netbook, although little as a netbook can be (though not quite like my Toshiba NB-100, which literally looks like a toy) put up a titanic struggle to block me from installing Linux.

After some research and tests, I finally had everything ready to install the friendly penguin on a dual boot as my colleague's primary operating system. Yes, she was totally fed up with Windows--in spite of all the praises Microsoft sings about it--but I told her to keep her Windows 7 as a secondary OS. Why? Because then she will have the opportunity to actually compare Linux and Windows fairly and will make her decisions based on her own experience. That is more valuable than a million words in favor of Linux, I'd say.

Then, I had to settle for which distro to install. I chose Mepis 8.5 because, following my line of thought, it would be easier for her to learn and for me to help her out in case of need. Unfortunately, the HP-Mini wanted to put some more struggle. Mepis was not the best choice for that netbook: even though all the computers in which I've tested or installed Mepis--desktop, notebooks, or netbooks--presented no problems, this one seemed almost Mepis-proof (at least from my limited Mepis knowledge.)

I was getting closer to solve the hardware incompatibilities, but then I decided to try a different approach. I had read that Mandriva did a very good job specifically in those headache-causing HP-Minis, so I asked Mechatotoro to bring along a Mandriva One Spring live CD and let the legacy of Mandrake do its magic where Mepis magic didn't work.

Right, Mandriva did it. What would have taken me some extra time configuring in Mepis, Mandriva got it out of the box. My colleague was also dazzled by Mandriva's KDE effects (I knew she would!) She kept Mandriva, that was a no-brainer.

Today, she told me a friend had seen her new computer and wanted Mandriva, too. ^_~

She also told me that she had used her little Mepis knowledge trying to place a different wallpaper on each desktop, but had not succeeded. I offered some help. I did my best, but even though I actually placed different wallpapers, KDE refused to show them. I knew I was missing one step in the process, but which one? I am not very acquainted with Mandriva.

Then, I remembered Mechatotoro had placed a tutorial for that on his blog. Following it, I discovered the missing link and got the four different wallpapers happily rotating along the desktop cube.

My colleague's satisfaction was beyond words. She had her netbook running exactly as she wanted and with no absurd limitations. Can somebody say the same of Win7 Starter? :P

When Mandrake Linux was first released, the slogan was "A new star is born." So, let me borrow those words and say "a new, happy Mandriva user is born." Congratulations, Mandriva! ^__^

Mandriva to become MAGEIA?

Last night, I got news from Mechatotoro that left me speechless: Mandriva Linux is actually forking. It seems that the members of the community couldn't put up any longer with the company behind Mandriva and decided to create a new distro on their own. This new distro will be named "Mageia" (White Magic), and many of its contributors are former Mandriva employees. You can read more about Mageia here. The new Mageia model will include a non-profit organization instead of a company, for business decisions are somewhat what members of the community are not pleased with. Let's remember that Mandriva was born out of the merging of two companies: Mandrake Linux and Connectiva.

Needless to say, the decision of splitting roads with Mandriva to create Mageia was not hasty. Members were thinking about it and discussing the subject for quite a long time. They even conducted a poll in which they asked fellow members what distro they would use if Mandriva folded. Most of them (26%) responded that they would start a new project. The most popular choice was PCLinuxOS (a Mandriva-based distro, with a 17% and OpenSuse with a 15%.

And the least popular distro among Mandriva followers? That was Mepis, with an unbelievable 0%!
T__T

¿Usuarios de Ubuntu? ¡¡Mejor se regresan a Windows!!

Ese parece ser el lema de la actitud anti-Ubuntu entre (¿varios/algunos/muchos?) usuarios de Linux. ¿Por qué hay tanto odio contra una distro de Linux? Bueno, Ubuntu no es solamente “una” distro de Linux: resulta que también es el sabor de Linux más popular.

¿Por qué los usuarios de Linux tratan tan duramente a los que apoyan a Ubuntu? Quiero revisar algunas de sus razones y también agregaré mi posición personal.

Razón 1: Ubuntu es popular mientras otras distros no lo son.
Entonces, la idea es que Linux permanezca en las sombras para siempre, ¿verdad? Si Ubuntu es popular, ¡bien por ellos! Eso quiere decier que habrá más usuarios de Linux, ¿o no? ¿Será el olor de la envidia lo que detecto por ahí?

Razón 2: Ubuntu es demasiado fácil.
Bien, entonces ser fácil de usar es un pecado en el mundo de Linux. Si es así, ¿por qué ahora tantas distros se apoyan en instaladores gráficos y manejadores de paquetes más sencillos? ¿No es para simplificar dichos procesos? Mandriva posee un excelente centro de control, de seguro diseñado para hacerle las cosas más simples a los usuarios de Mandriva. Perdón por decirlo, pero cuando decidí migrar a Linux, precisamente escogí SimplyMepis por su uso sencillo. Yo, como la mayoría—si no la totalidad—de los usuarios de Windows, quería que mi cambio de Sistema Operativo fuera tan poco traumático como pudiese. La mayoría de usuarios aprecia la simplicidad al migrar, diría yo.

Razón 3: Los usuarios de Ubuntu son unos ignorantes sobre computadoras.
Eso puede ser generalmente cierto, pero yo no sé como compilar un kernel. Más adelante lo intentaré, pero estoy seguro que voy a terminar con un “Pánico de Kernel”. Supongo que soy otro ignorante que no merece un lugar en la altamente técnica comunidad de Linux. El aprendizaje es un proceso...Windows no nos enseña; la mayoría de nosotros empieza a aprender después de conocer a Tux. Echarle la culpa de la ignorancia informática a Ubuntu sencillamente es injusto.

Razón 4: Ubuntu es la mejor distro de Linux.
Aquí tengo que estar en desacuerdo. Ubuntu es de hecho una distro grandiosa, pero no es la mejor. En realidad, no conozco el nombre de “la mejor” distro de Linux. Linux es una herramienta como muchas otras. ¿Cuál es el mejor martillo? ¿El de mejor calidad? Pero ese también puede ser el más caro, por lo que no será el mejor para mi bolsillo. Del mismo modo, el propósito a menudo determina nuestra percepción del valor. Si deseo usar un martillo como parte de una escultura, la calidad de dicho martillo puede ser totalmente irrelevante o incluso puede ir en su contra, pues yo podría estar renuente a utilizar—y perder—ese martillo caro y de gran calidad. Me gusta creer que la gente comparte cierto grado de afinidad con sus distros de Linux. La gente de Fedora no es mejor que la de Mint y la de Mepis no es más valiosa que la de Mandriva. Del mismo modo, la gente de Ubuntu no es la mejor (ni la peor).

Razón 5: Ubuntu limita el alcance de Linux.
Los seguidores de otras distros de Linux a menudo aseguran que Ubuntu indirectamente se presenta a sí mismo como el único Linux. Me parece una queja justa. He escuchado que algunos migrantes potenciales, después de probar Ubuntu, terminaron por no quererlo y pensaron en regresarse a Windows porque tenían la idea de que Linux era Ubuntu. Nadie les dijo que tal vez otras distros les podrían haber agradado más. De nuevo, es como si los desarrolladores de Ubuntu pensaran que "si no funciona en Ubuntu, de seguro tampoco lo hará en otras distros de Linux". La anterior es una conclusión falsa. Otra vez, en el variado mundo de Linux algunas distros manejan el hardware mejor, otras obtienen mejores calificaciones en estabilidad y el atractivo de otras es su funcionalidad en computadoras prehistóricas (¡Sí! Eso ES importante para algunos, ¿lo sabían? ¡No todo el mundo tiene acceso a equipos de última tecnología!)

Antes de terminar, permítanme decir que a mí no me gustan ni Ubuntu ni Canonical. No obstante, no gustar es diferente de odiar. Yo no usaría Ubuntu, pero estaría feliz si alguien lo escogiese para migrar desde el software propietario.

Si los desarrolladores de Ubuntu instruyeran un poco más a su comunidad y le hicieran saber al mundo que Ubuntu no es el único Linux, tal vez muchos de sus “enemigos” actuales también podrían apoyar más esta distro grandiosa.

Ubuntu user? You'd better go back to Windows!!

That seems to be the motto of the anti-Ubuntu attitude among (several? some? many?) Linux users. Why is there so much hatred against a Linux distro? Well, Ubuntu is not just "a" Linux distro: it happens to be the most popular Linux flavor, too.

Why do Linux users treat Ubuntu supporters so harshly? I want to go over some of their reasons and will add my personal position, too.

Reason 1: Ubuntu is popular while other distros are not.
So, the idea is that Linux remains in the shadows forever, right? If Ubuntu is popular, good for them! That means more Linux users, or not? Is it envy what I smell there?

Reason 2: Ubuntu is too easy.
OK, so being easy to use is a sin in the world of Linux. If so, why are so many distros now relying on graphical installers and simpler package managers? Isn't it to simplify those processes? Mandriva has an excellent control center, surely designed to make things easier to Mandriva users. Excuse me for saying it, but when I decided to migrate to Linux, I precisely picked SimplyMepis for its friendly use. I, as most--if not all--Windows users, wanted the OS change to be as less traumatizing as possible. Most users appreciate simplicity when migrating, I'd say.

Reason 3: Ubuntu users are illiterate about computers. That may be generally true, but I don't know how to compile a kernel myself. I will eventually try it, though...but I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a Kernel Panic. I am another ignoramus that deserves no place in the highly technical Linux community, I guess. Learning is a process...Windows does not teach us; most of us start learning after meeting Tux. Blaming lack of computer literacy on Ubuntu is simply unfair.

Reason 4: Ubuntu is the best Linux distro.
Here I have to disagree. Ubuntu is indeed a great distro, but not the best. Actually, I don't know the name of "the best" Linux distro. Linux is a tool like many others. Which is the best hammer? The one made with the best quality? But that one might be the most expensive, too. Thus, it won't be the best for my pocket. Also, purpose often determines our perception of value. If I want to use a hammer as part of a sculpture, the quality of such hammer may be totally unimportant or even work against it, for I might be reluctant to use--and lose--an expensive, high-quality hammer. I like to believe that people share a degree of affinity with their Linux distros. Fedora people are not better than Mint people and Mepis people are not more valuable than Mandriva people. Likewise, Ubuntu people are not the best (nor the worst).

Reason 5: Ubuntu limits the scope of Linux.
Advocates of other Linux distros often claim that Ubuntu indirectly presents itself as the only Linux. I find this as a fair complaint. I've heard that some potential migrants, after trying Ubuntu, ended up disliking it and thought of going back to Windows because they had the image that Linux was Ubuntu. Nobody told them that other distros may have pleased them better. Again, it's as if Ubuntu developers thought "if it doesn't work in Ubuntu, it certainly won't work in other Linux distros." This is a false assumption. Again, in the varied world of Linux some distros handle hardware better, others obtain higher marks in stability and the appeal of others is their functionality in prehistoric computers (yes! that IS an issue for some people, you know? Not everyone has access to high-end equipments!)

Before ending, let me say that I myself dislike Ubuntu and Canonical. However, disliking is not the same as hating. I won't use Ubuntu myself, but I will be happy if someone picks Ubuntu to migrate from proprietary software.

If Ubuntu developers educated their community a bit more and let the world know that Ubuntu is not the only Linux, many of their current Linux "enemies" might be more supportive of this great distro, too.

Pardus y Mandriva...

Ya están disponibles las descargas de dos de las distros de linux que más me gustan: Pardus Linux y Mandriva Linux.

La versión de Pardus es la 2009.2 BETA (es una versión de prueba), y la de Mandriva es 2010.1 (Release Candidate)

Ambas se pueden poner en español, así que el idioma no es excusa para no darles una oportunidad.

¿Y SimplyMEPIS? Por el momento, no hay nada nuevo... T__T