Re: [tlug] Founder of Ubuntu Linux will be in Tokyo

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Jun Kobayashi wrote:

>Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, and some members of
>Canonical Ltd will be in Tokyo from the 3rd to the 6th Feb.
>
>They plan to host a meeting on 3rd Feb with local campanies,
>local press representatives and members of local LUGs. 
>So, I'm sending this to TLUG ML.
>
>The details of the meeting are:
>
>  Date:      Friday February 3rd 2006
>  Time:      09:30am - 12:00pm
>  Location:  Park Hotel Tokyo, Shiodome Media Tower, 1-7-1, 
>             Higashi Shimbashi, Minato-ku
>  
>

This is OT, but just in case it might be of some interest to someone, 
I'm putting my blog entry from today below.  It was quite interesting 
meeting the Ubuntu people by the way....

Lyle


2006/02/03

"Ubuntu Linux"

I often mention Linux to my friends and acquaintances - and generally 
they say "Linux?  What's that?" - to which I sadly shake my head and 
attempt to explain something about Linux Torvalds and the worldwide 
Linux community.  After talking about 30 seconds, I look at them closely 
and am generally shocked and dismayed to see their eyes glazing over.  
It's a depressing thing my friends - when something as profoundly 
important to peoples' lives as the computer is not deeply thought about, 
you have to wonder what sort of future is in store for this planet's bipeds.

Yeah - I'm joking... sort of, but I'm also serious.  The thing that 
people forget when discussions turn to a certain sinister and 
monopolistic software company (hereafter referred to as "CSMSC", is that 
the issue doesn't begin and end with whether a CSMSC-run machine is easy 
to use or even if its performance is better (which it isn't in many 
cases).  The connection between what you support and how it influences 
all of us is worth thinking about.

What to do?  At this point in the short history of our long lives, there 
is a way to escape the tyranny of CSMSC.  Using Linux, you can 
completely eradicate CSMSC from a computer and use the hardware - which 
is yours - with software that is yours as well (remember that CSMSC 
never allows you to own the software that they overcharge you for).  
Linux is getting better and better, but what worries me is that there's 
too much of a complacent "I'll wait until it's perfected" attitude with 
most of the people I've spoken with who are not using it, but are at 
least thinking about it a little.  The problem here is that CSMSC is not 
sitting still (they are taking out patents on things that have no 
business being patented) and if there is not a strong stand for our 
computing freedom, the chance staring us in the face now could be lost.  
(Mind you, I'm not anti-CSMSC because I want to be anti-something, I'm 
anti-CSMSC because of the threat CSMSC poses to our computing freedom.)

Okay.  Enough preamble.  I'm going on and on about this because I met 
Mark Shuttleworth and Malcolm Yates of Ubuntu Linux today.  And... now 
that I've finished the preamble, I realize that the Ubuntu Linux story 
is deserving of more time than I have right now, but I'll be back with 
details.  In the meantime, have a look at the Ubuntu Linux website:
http://www.ubuntu.com/

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/