openswitch

Imperishable Inheritance has a very good article exploring the biblical basis for missions as seen in the Old Testament. Missions is not just a New Testament idea.

w00t! My Bears are going to the Super Bowl! My Bears are going to the Super Bowl! I’ve been waiting since ’86 for this moment!

One thing I’ve discovered is that in freelancing with web design it has become a challenge to set aside time for blogging.

Let me just start this post with an admission: I have stolen software and music before. The problem is I couldn’t live with the guilt, knowing that what I was using was stolen. I’ve since repented (turned the other way) and now I either 1) buy the product legitimately or 2) use an open source or free solution.

Introduction

Some call it “sharing” and the quotation marks must always be present when using the term in this way. Others call it getting a “five finger discount” but this obviously doesn’t apply to software or Internet theft; that would be more like a “10 finger discount.” That’s what I’m focusing on in this post, software and Internet theft. Stealing is wrong. There are precious few circumstances in which I would say stealing is permissible and most of those circumstances are hypothetical.

Keeping it real

I don’t want to get into “what if” arguments which end up being values clarification exercises. I don’t want this post to turn into questions like, “What if someone was going to kill your son unless you stole a pack of gum for him? Would it be OK to steal then?” Those are the theoretical things I’m talking about that rarely if ever happen; though I can’t say they never happen, I’m just saying it’s rare.

The forms in which most of us encounter stealing and theft are a little more innocent (or at least more common).

People rationalize stealing in different ways

A burned CD here, a cracked copy of Adobe CS2 there, some illegally shared mp3 files thrown in for good measure. People rationalize stealing in different ways. Maybe it’s really expensive software like Photoshop CS2 or Microsoft Office and you’re a poor college student (or just poor) so you rationalize the theft because there’s no earthly way you could spend that much money on a bunch of 1s and 0s; and that’s all it really is, right? Or maybe it’s an overpriced music CD and after all, the RIAA is corrupt anyway, right? No matter what the rationalization, in the end it’s still theft and stealing is wrong.

Virtually every civilization throughout history has recognized stealing as being detrimental to society. There is nothing good that comes from stealing and when it comes to computer software there is almost always a free or open source solution that is equal or greater than the proprietary version. There’s even free music (it’s called Creative Commons music or a radio).

This is getting personal

Relative to the people immediately around me I’m poor. I can’t afford Photoshop. For the past year I’ve been using a burned (stolen) copy of Photoshop7. Recently I’ve realized that as a Christian it destroys my witness to use stolen software. If I claim that it’s a sin to disobey the governing authorities then how can commit the same crime I say is a sin? Is it realistic to condemn people who steal $500 from a cash register but condone stealing $500 worth of Photoshop software?

Since realizing the error of my ways I have moved to The GIMP for my image editing/creation and have found it to be equally useful for everything I need. I enjoy using it just as much as Photoshop and I’ve heard no complaints from my clients in terms of the quality of work I produce. In fact, most can’t even tell the difference. I also don’t buy a lot of music CDs. Instead

I listen to the radio in my car and to Last.fm when I’m at my computer

I listen to the radio in my car and to Last.fm when I’m at my computer. I don’t have one illegal music file in my entire collection. I also can’t afford Microsoft Office so I use Open Office which I’ve actually found to be more intuitive and user friendly than its über-expensive counterpart.

Solutions

Of course, I do agree with some of you. The RIAA is corrupt to the core. The software companies charge outrageous amounts of money for their software. I agree that it’s unfair for drug companies to charge the insane amounts of money they do, limiting quality health care to the wealthy (or at least the well-off).

The RIAA is corrupt to its core

But instead of rationalizing theft I think it would be much more effective and ethical to work to change the system. Vote for people who share your values, or better yet, run for public office yourself. Don’t like how expensive software is? Contribute to the open source solutions available. Get involved in the process to effect change. Don’t lower yourself to the station of thief, rationalizing your crime all the while. Raise the standards you set for yourself. Expect better from yourself. Change your world. Don’t become part of the problem, become part of the solution.

Man, I’ll bet there are hundreds of reviews out there that compare Gimp to Photoshop. I don’t even want to Google it to find out. At any rate, here’s a good article that seems to give a fairly balanced view of the issues at hand. I’m really starting to love The GIMP.

A couple weeks back I put this very quote on my about page because it struck such a chord with my soul. Today, as I was looking for who originally said (wrote?) this quote, this poem, I came across a YouTube video. Not being one to post lots of YouTube videos on my site I was hesitant to post this one but in the end I decided that some people, especially those of you I know best, would benefit from seeing this.

Well kiddies, it’s that time of year again. When Google updates its database of virtually every site on the Net and assigns a brand-new pagerank to each. For over a year Open Switch has had a pagerank of 0/10 because it was blacklisted from Google’s spiders. It seems that before it was owned and operated by a devout Christian (me) it was a porn site. Heh. The Net, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

At any rate, Open Switch now weighs in with a pagerank of 7/10 which is pretty darn good for a personal blog. For the sake of comparison, 9rules ranks a healthy 8/10, The New York Times is busting at the pagerank seams with 10/10 and the Numa Numa guy gets 6/10 for his pagerank. So 7/10 is pretty good considering I’m not a huge network of incredible blogs, nor did I make an embarrassing video of myself and put it on the Net. I’m happy with my pagerank.

But all this pagerank, subscriber count, and blog traffic crap is way over-hyped. All these things do is measure a site’s popularity and popularity, my friends, is not a sign of worth. You can’t measure the things that really matter in blogging like passion, honesty and transparency. If you’re a blogger I challenge you this year to ignore the numbers, ignore the popularity contest that is Digg and Digg-esque sites. Focus on being passionate, engaging and having fun with the medium. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that if you’re able to turn a blind eye to the numbers game you’ll find that you enjoy your blog and blogging in general all the more. After all, the things that really matter in life aren’t measurable.

Here’s an brief post at Eyes Turned Outward that made me stop and think about things. Does reputation really matter?

This post is not designed to be a “help center” for people having trouble with their Ubuntu or Linux installations. This is merely an informative post. For support and help questions you need to go to the Ubuntu support forums.

Here’s a brief (clickable) outline for this post:

• Introduction
• Section #1: Installing ubuntu (including dual boot with Windows XP)
• Section #2: First steps into ubuntu
• Concluding thoughts

Introduction

Me writing a post like this (stepping out of Windows and into Ubuntu) is somewhat self serving because anything I can tell you here has already been documented (usually better) elsewhere. Most of what I’ll do here is help you learn to help yourself by pointing you to those resources and inserting some witty commentary along the way. I’m writing this post with the average Windows user in mind.

At this point I should point out a couple things that may or may not be obvious to you:

1. I’m not an Ubuntu (pronounced “oo BOON too”) pro, by ANY stretch of the imagination. That said, I’ve recently converted from Microsoft & Windows to full time Ubuntu and not only do I feel comfortable with the equipment, I actually feel more competent with it than Windows. This is why I feel that I’m equipped to give a little advice to those who might be considering stepping out of Windows and into Ubuntu.
2. Ubuntu, being FOSS, might not be for everyone. If you’re wondering about the differences between Linux and Windows and trying to figure out if you want to take the plunge, this article is a must-read. Linux is not Windows. I feel that it’s a superior solution but it’s definitely not the same. You have been warned ;).

On with the post!

Installing Ubuntu

Installing Ubuntu linux truly could not be easier. All the hard work is done for you. There are two methods of installing Ubuntu. You may either dual boot it along with Windows or you may reformat your hard drive (erasing Windows) and install Ubuntu in its place. Either way works fine though it’s recommended that you not dual boot Windows and Ubuntu on a hard disk smaller than 30Gigs; it would get awful cramped in there!

Both methods are basically identical except for a couple things which will be noted in the steps below.

NOTE Most users won’t have to manually install separate drivers for their computers. Most users will find that Ubuntu installs all your drivers and stuff automagically. For that reason I don’t cover installing drivers in this tutorial.

1. Download the latest release of Ubuntu which, at the time of writing, is version 6.10 nicknamed “Edgy Eft.”
2. Burn the file you just downloaded onto a blank disk. Note that burning an image is different than other ways of creating a CD. If you don’t know how to burn an image onto a disk (I didn’t know how) here’s a great tutorial.
3. Defragment your hard drive. (You don’t need to do this step if you’re going to erase Windows.)
4. Put the Ubuntu CD into your drive.
5. Restart your computer. It should boot to your CD. If it doesn’t boot to the CD and instead boots to Windows then you need to go into your BIOS (not as scary as you might think) and change the boot order of your drives. Just make sure that your CD drive boots before your hard drive.
6. Select the first option in the Ubuntu menu that appears. It says something like “Start or Install Ubuntu.” That is what you came here to do, right?
7. When Ubuntu finishes booting double click the icon that says “Install.”
8. It will take you through a few basic steps, getting information about what language you speak and what time zone you live in. Then it asks you how you want to install Ubuntu, either as a dual boot system or all by itself. If you want to completely remove Windows and put Ubuntu in its place just check the option that says something like “reformat entire drive” or whatever. Then click “next” and finish out the install process.

   If you’re desiring to dual boot with Windows XP then tell it that you want to manually edit the partitions (I forget the exact wording). When you click “next” you’ll see that there is currently one partition on your drive. Click on the big box and then look in the menu bar, click the icon that looks like an arrow pointing at a wall. Then click and drag that big box to make it smaller. Click on the gray box that says “unpartitioned” and then “add new”. You need to create two new partitions in this unpartitioned space. The smaller one has to be something like 2 Gigs. The larger one should just be whatever is left over. The smaller partition will be used as “swap” space (whatever that is.) The other larger partition will hold your Ubuntu install and will be used for the “/”. Just trust me.

9. Assign each partition to a particular purpose. Remember, the smaller partition will be used for “swap” and the larger for “/”.
10. During the install process it may tell you that you have not assigned anything to Partition #1 and you can either go back and assign something to it or not use it at all. You don’t want to use it because that’s where Windows is. Continue installing.
11. Done!

If you’ve replaced Windows with Ubuntu then first let me say “Kudos.” Second, you’re ready to roll. If you’ve dual booted with Windows then when you reboot your computer the very first thing you’ll see is an option of what OS you want to use. Make your choice (but choose wisely). OK, enough with the Indiana Jones quotes. Let’s talk about your first steps into Ubuntu.

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First steps into Ubuntu

Remember when I said that Ubuntu is not Windows? Are you wondering what that means? It means “Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye.”

Automatix

If you’re completely new to Linux and Ubuntu then I highly recommend you download and install Automatix. Ubuntu (the community) doesn’t “officially” recommend Automatix. Not because it’s bad or anything, mostly because it’s considered 3rd party software. But trust me, for first time users this will save you a lot of headaches at the beginning.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the file you download to install Automatix isn’t an .exe file or a setup file. It’s called a .deb file. Double click it and install the package. To use Automatix you go to Applications>System Tools>Automatix. Automatix is basically a program that makes it super easy to install commonly used software onto your computer. I would suggest you install the fonts package and the flash player for Firefox package.

Choices, choices, choices!

With Windows you really didn’t have a lot of choice in what software you used to accomplish a given goal. If you wanted a music player you had Windows Media Player, Real Player and iTunes. With Ubuntu you have quite a few more options. This can be unsettling for a recent convert from Windows. There’s no one there to make your mind up for you, you have to decide which program you want to use. If you have several choices then I suggest you try them all and find the one that works best for you.

You’ll find that most, if not all, of the software made for Ubuntu is like this. You will have many many more choices. But this is a good thing! Are you using Firefox for your web browsing? You should be. If you’re a Firefox user then you know how nice it is to be able to tailor make your web experience to your specifications. You have add-ons, Greasemonkey scripts and literally hundreds of themes to choose from. You make Firefox look and behave exactly how you want. This is exactly how Ubunutu is. Your whole computer is customizable.

If you’ve just come over from Windows making all these choices feels weird. You’re used to only having 3 themes to choose from. Unless, of course, you spend a big, fat, sweaty wad of money to get more themes (Ugh!). My recommendation is to try on different looks until you find one you like. My favorite resources (so far) for customizing my computer are the Ubuntu Art Community and Gnome Look.

That whole “root” thing

Again, I point you to a great article (clicky) and pull a quote that describes this “root” thing very well.

Linux/cars were designed from the ground up for multiple users/passengers. Windows/motorbikes were designed for one user/passenger. Every Windows user/motorbike driver is used to being in full control of his computer/vehicle at all times. A Linux user/car passenger is used to only being in control of his computer/vehicle when logged in as root/sitting in the driver’s seat.

There are some things in Ubuntu that you can only do if you’re signed in as “root.” But those things which require root permissions usually have the potential for being weapons of mass destruction; thus the limitation of who uses them. Personally, I don’t want my son to drive my car. I’d rather I do the driving and let him be the passenger. Why should my computer be any different?

Finding help

Chances are that this post doesn’t answer all your questions. If, by some chance, it does answer all your questions then you need to learn to ask more questions ;).

Ubuntu users know how to help themselves. When I first started with Ubuntu that’s what Phil Kay did for me, he helped me help myself. That right there is the first and most important thing you need to understand about Ubuntu, or any FOSS for that matter; you need to learn how to find the help and support you need on your own.

The support is out there, and there’s LOTS of it.

The support is out there, and there’s LOTS of it. You just need to find it & be patient with it.

Furthermore, you won’t be spoon fed. You’re going to have to get your hands dirty and … well … help yourself. It can be frustrating at first when you’re used to being spoon fed by fat software companies but trust me, the feeling of satisfaction you get when you help yourself goes beyond knowing that you solved a problem yourself; you actually have a better idea of how your equipment works. You’re better for it.

With Ubuntu you don’t have a company to rely on (thankfully), you have an entire community! If you’re not used to using open source software this might feel a little strange at first. But once you get used to it you’ll quickly realize that having a community to rely on for support is much better than having only one company. You may not get a response as quickly all the time, and you definitely won’t have people doing the work for you, but the relationships and skills you build through the community are invaluable.

The first place I look for help is the Ubuntu forums. Remember to search first, ask second. Be patient (something I have to work on) with people responding to your questions. It won’t be instantaneous.

If you can’t find a solution on the forums then your next source of help is good ol’ Google. When you search for something always throw the word “ubuntu” into your search. It’ll pull up much more relevant answers. I’ve found a lot of information searching this way.

Another option is to go to google.com/linux and search from there. Did you know that Google has a whole section set up just for linux users? Yeah! You’re not alone in using linux, you’re part of a massive, worldwide community. Make use of it!

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Concluding thoughts

Ubuntu linux may not be for everybody. Let me paraphrase Morpheus from the movie “The Matrix”:

You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to [switch to linux]. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on [Microsoft], that they will fight to protect it.

They have no desire to move away from it, and that’s OK, I respect that.

Some people, however, want more out of their computers. They want them to do more than just get them from point A to point B. If you’re one of these people then you need to try Ubuntu. And let me just throw this one out there for you: if you do decide to try Ubuntu give it at least a week before calling it quits. It feels weird at first, and change can be unsettling. It’s completely normal to feel like you’ve lost your “sea-legs” and are sailing on uncharted waters. Indeed you are! But you’re to be commended for your bravery!

Folks are looking for a ninja who assisted police and then left the scene as quickly as he had entered it. I heart ninjas.