A Midsummers Evaluation

At the beginning of the year, when we initially make some half hearted drunken new years resolutions, we often set our selves up for a fall. Thankfully, this year I didn't make any! and now I'm having my mid year personal review, I feel the better for it. “Fail to plan, plan to fail!” being the usual story of my life. But in these circumstances its actually worked in my favour. I've not set my self any real expectations / direction this year and so I haven't really failed to do anything. In fact I think I have achieved more this year than in previous years, especially when I think about the time I have frustratingly wasted with my previous PC set up.

So far I am proud to say, that I have moved from Windows to Ubuntu, managed to use only the applications that came with the OS and not had to purchase any additional software. I've got the whole family using the new system without a single grumble and persuaded others in my neighbourhood to change to Ubuntu. I have been called a geek yet have managed to maintain my personal appearance. All things I feel proud of.

I think I've come a long way from the wife of a geek, who used to ask good old hubby to fix all the bugs and problems encountered on my old system. He thinks my I.T. knowledge has greatly improved and that I now know how to fix all my own problems. The fact of the matter is that there are no problems. In the six months I've been using Ubuntu I have had ONE crash where I had to reboot my machine. My old system crashed practically everyday. Neither has there been a problem changing all my applications. If you know how to use a word processor, then any one will do. There's nothing that different about any of them, they all have roughly the same layout and the same functions. Even changing from Photoshop to the GIMP has been seamless enough, I am still able to save in the same old formats that I used to...and again, the layout and functions aren't all that different to what I used to use.

The children are cock-a-hoop with the many games like potato guy and four in a row. They can still access all their old favourite games at the bbc's cbeebies. Their hand eye coordination has come on leaps and bounds because of this and so has their general PC literacy. All this for free, I've not had to put my hand in my pocket once. Not once.

I have though, calmed down on the evangelical work. People were starting to avoid me and perform U turns in the street when they saw me coming. Fiends stopped answering their phone and hid behind twitching curtains. We have come to a mutual agreement that they stop moaning about their Windows systems and I will stop lecturing them on the pros of Linux. For those of you who read lasts months rants, I don't really phone F.A.S.T on poor PC users who cant afford to buy legitimate licences for their Windows operating system....but I do tell people about such an organisation!

I have even been called a geek.....but I haven't grown an out of season Christmas beard for a little robin red breast to nest in, and neither have I traded in any of my footwear for a pair of Black knee high goth boots (is that goth or Nu metal.....I cant tell the difference!) I still look exactly the same as I did last year. I did kind of go down hill a little though during the Easter Internet drought, when I had a fortnight without broadband whilst changing service providers. I lived in my pyjamas and pined loyally at my PC until one sunny morning I hit the refresh button on my web browser and it produced a mountain of unread Google mail for me to sort through. At no point though have I had an urge to dress all in black.

I think my Linux journey so far has been exciting and thought provoking, and definitely one I feel better for. I have learnt many lessons whilst on this path, not just about technology and operating systems but also of community, values, ethics and life. That wasn't exactly the tag line I read on the Ubuntu web site before I downloaded it, and may be it would be a bit of a hard marketing line to swallow. However, I do feel it to be true (even if it does sound a little cliché) and I have heard these sort of statements before from Linux users and open source advocates. I wouldn't really say that Linux has changed my life, but it has certainly made it a calmer and a less computer raged existence.

And so for the rest of the year I will amble on as I have done for the past six months with no purpose or direction to see where this crazy Linux path will take me next...