Dear Friends,
For those of you using Windows, I wonder whether you have learnt anything good so far from it…? Try of Linux… A world of new inventions & innovations and it is very helpful for those of you who are interested in Programming, it comes with everything that you need… be it interns of applications it has open office for sound you can you Rhythmbox, for internet you can use Firefox, Evolution mail, to manage downloads you can use Ubuntu One – its a free on line service offered by Ubuntu to store your data for you up to 2GB and finally software upgrades are usually available from the Ubuntu Software centre for free and many more.
With Windows you need to purchase the operating system CD for $200 on top of that you will need to buy an office suite for about (office 2007 costs about $ 120, in addition to that you will require a genuine antivirus to keep you system safe for about $ 40.
Now add up the total, it comes to $ 360.
While with Linux there is no need for an anti virus because the file system are different and viruses can easily be seen on the screen inform of files and you can click on the virus file and press ‘delete’. Again the community for Linux is very wide. Incase you encounter any type of a problem with your Ubuntu, you can post your matter on the Ubuntu site and it will take maximum 3 days for your problem to be solved while Microsoft may take up to 1 month to react to your problem. And the best thing is you can download the system together with everything in it for FREE!.
So for those of you using windows think about it again…
It’s been about 6 month’s that I have been using Linux Ubuntu. Well comparing it with windows, on average if you are surfing the internet when using windows without having an antivirus installed, it takes on average 40 minutes for your windows computer to get infected.
Today’s computer machines are much more faster compared to what they were 10 years back. Then why not use something much more ‘efficient’ which is faster, lighter and safer. Learning with a Windows computer or under any closed-source system is like learning to dance while wearing a body cast.
Again you are hackers favorite targets. Well for those of you using MAC OS X, you are slightly better off only part of the system is open source and you are likely to hit a lot of walls and you have to be careful not to develop the habit of depending on Apple’s source code. I still do not understand why one will use Windows in the information age?
Welcome to Viken's blog 
Useful information in here…. But let me point out the major Advantage of using Windows is the User Friendly Interface compared to Linux.. Also just to add…Because of the large amount of Microsoft Windows users, there is a much larger selection of available software programs, utilities, and games for Windows over Linux. You also know that Microsoft Windows includes its own help section, has vast amount of available online documentation and help, as well as books on each of the versions of Windows unlike Linux…
Feel free to correct me where am wrong..
Ooh and just to point out Windows Vista was a big Disappointment…
I like your comment. But I disagree with you saying windows has a large support community as compared to linux. I would like you to visit: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000575.htm Then check on your comment.
Yes I am very happy to hear that Vista was a great disappointment, so was windows 7, no wonder you can get it for free when you buy a computer. Linux is VIRUS FREE because every programmer on the planet can access the source code unlike for Windows whereby only people who work for Microsoft can access it. Try out Ubuntu, the Land of Living
Seems you don’t know much about the linux world … as of this writing – 38,000 free packages including more than 2000 games all for free! And everything under the sun – complete office suites, LibreOffice and OpenOffice, the worlds favourite word processor – AbiWord, EMACS for a really serious programmable, self documenting IDE/text processor, VLC to play any media file under the sun, MIRO for torrents, Stellarium for astronomy work, QCAD for a full professional CAD software suite, tools to develop software in 38+ programming languages … need I go on?
Add to that no need to constantly type the 3-finger-salute of WindoZe
In your first article you said and i quote “Linux… A world of new inventions & innovations and it is very helpful for those of you who are interested in Programming” So not everyone is into programming and i would bet you got your first hand computer basics using windows so i still insist windows has a large support community over Linux…
Now over to my main point i am sure you are aware of ‘Windows 8’ counter this main facts and benefits it has…
* Start Menu of Windows will be replaced with a Start Screen which can be customized according to the application in use.
* Notification window that is always up-to-date information about the program you are using.
* The ability to switch between applications running in a smooth and natural.
* The ability to shift and change the size of an application to the side of the screen, so you can actually multitasking with the maximum.
* Program web-based applications are built using JavaScript that maximize HTML5 and full performance of a PC.
Interesting.Windows does have a user friendly interface that can be used globally. It does have a good gaming platform compared to Linux. But I’d like to see how your Windows 8 compares to Lubuntu ( http://lubuntu.net/ ), which is designed for running on low-spec hardware. And one thing for sure there is no way windows will boot faster than Linux. My computer takes 9.5 sec to boot up. Try that on windows 7 or (8 once its out).
It is like comparing chalk with mouldy cheese.
Linux may be infinitely better for the programmers and the tech savvy users amongst us, but for the end user it comes down to the old adage;
“You gets what you pays for…”
Windows may be system hungry but gives a fantastic user experience. The user support from MS is par excellence. You get to complain – as you have paid for it. In open source systems you cannot complain, you request for a change or function, or you do it yourself. It is a collaborative effort.
Windows (7) is now a mature and stable OS.
Whilst they are free, the apps on Ubuntu leave a lot to be desired. For example, in specific applications such as music making (which I know something about), the Ubuntu apps do not even clear the post. Until recently, Apple had a stranglehold on the music business. In the last five years windows has taken over. Most, if not all, the major music studios have ditched Apple for Windows. Why? Pro tools for Windows has become the industry standard.
Let us look at another example, Chess. If we look at Fritz or Chessbase as the benchmarks that the pros use, any of the chess applications on Ubuntu or Apple for that matter look like broken toys.
Not too sure about the claim of Abiword being the world’s favourite word processor. In simple market share terms, Microsoft Word is the world’s favourite word processor. You can have a million free applications but what if they all, in mod colloquial, ‘suck…’
It is clear economics that paid for products will be better than free products. They need the edge otherwise no one would pay for them. Given that rational people are still buying Office in their droves…
All the free apps on Ubuntu are available for free on the windows platform too taking the sting out of the argument; Openoffice, Calibre, VLC, etc etc. Whilst functionally, no doubt, Openoffice as supported by Sun, or Libre Office by Ubuntu, may be at par with MS Office, the user experience on Ms Office 2010 with the intuitive Ribbon interface just blows your socks away. Openoffice does not even compare.
Years ago, there were similar arguments put forward by Mac users against using Windows. That is until Apple became one of the “big boys”. This fight has now dissipated. It can no longer ping accusations and throw its toys out of the pram. Consider the protection by Apple on what works on iOs and the lobby from homebrew and jailbreak against this. Apple used the monopoly argument against MS once. What about overpricing, protectionism etc Mr Apple? Hmm. Cheeky, Mr Apple.
If you are a mechanic, a great DIY kit car may bring you boundless joy, but the driver who does not look at how the machine works, but uses it for work, will always prefer to drive the paid for Mercedes off the forecourt…
Windows rocks something fierce…but I love baby Ubuntu too…
Answer duel boot
It’s a simple decision really: At the end of the day if you like Windows stay with Windows. If you believe it frees you to learn more, makes you more capable and a better and more literate computer user then stay with Windows. If on the other hand you’re paying attention then you’ll have seen that Android is based on Linux not on Windoze and the fastest growing platform on the planet right now is not the PC and certainly not the PC on Windoze. It’s Android based on Linux. (http://gizmodo.com/5548591/androids-growth-in-the-last-18-months-in-numbers).
But at the end of the day all of you are right – there are those humans who want to use a microwave oven to make toast and those who want not to be trapped in the technology that one company owns but want to fly free, make the most of their lives and be a part of this huge, huge phenomenon called open source. If you’re not one of those then carry on as you were – no one is going to care one bit either way.
As they say – ‘if it’s too hot for you – get out of the kitchen!’
Dr Neal Aggarwal
Open Source Kenya LTD.
Vicky
What is most important for you is that you’ve finally weaned yourself
off Windows and started down a road that will take you to heights you
would never have reached had you stayed on a closed source, closed
thinking plane. It’s all fine and dandy to read through comments on
your blog and indeed it’s good that you challenge your thinking but do
remember to use your own intelligence to arrive at your own thinking.
Like so many before you that I’ve taught to ‘see the light’ it took a
long time to get you to see that windoze was just holding you
back. Now if you fall off the wagon (which is a phrase normally
reserved for recovering alcoholics – and I do think that windoze users
are like alcoholics – blind to the fact that they are alcohol duped)
you’ll simply slip back into old, lazy ways and stay that way for a
long, long time. Don’t let that happen. Keep pushing the envelope;
keep working at it; keep flexing that mind. Otherwise you might end up
a pen-pusher helping someone grow his business not your own (and as
you’re studying accountancy – even helping him count the money you
make for him 😉
Many of the comments are worth reading maintaining a questioning
attitude for they strengthen your knowledge of Linux when you try to
find out if there is any merit in what the author is saying. However
several comments are complete nonsense and are being written by those
that don’t really know linux and are not bothered to find out more.
You know full well from your own experience now that it does take a
little effort to work out how to get real power in anything on this
planet of ours and some people don’t want to do that work but want
their hands held for them. It is up to you to sort out the wheat from
the chaff. Keep your mind open, learn something each and every day and
when you find someone saying linux can’t do x, y or z do YOUR OWN
research and you’ll find not only that linux CAN do the job but that
in fact it can do it far, far better than windoze ever will.
For example the comment that — in specific applications such as
music making … the Ubuntu apps do not even clear the post — should
get you thinking about what linux offers in this area. I urge you to
check out my Korg Oasis Keyboard running Karma OS on a Macbook Pro. I
also run JACK as a sound server on Linux and Rosegarden as my
sequencer. I have to admit that I find this latter setup much more
satisfying than even the big bucks Karma unit. But then I don’t let my
mind take the easy way out at any time – I push it to achieve more,
more, more. I would not have been able to do half the things that I do
had I adopted a sit back and let windoze cheat me through a
half-hearted job not even questioning where the limitations might
lie. OS X is of course a UNIX beast as is Linux but comparing them
with windoze is indeed comparing chalk with cheese. We do not compare
rally cars with Mercedes Benz’s nor do we compare Trikes with Cessnas
– the comparisons don’t work. It’s like saying a charcoal bar-be-que
is inferior to a microwave oven!
Google these terms and see what you find. Comments can really, REALLY
serve to get you keyed in to new topics that will expand your
knowledge exponentially.
As to comments about software not being available on Linux or being
inferior to that found on Windows – well, that is JUST PLAIN BUNK. The
very commenters that say that have no work of their own to show on the
net. ALL, and I do mean ALL, my photographs are done on hacked Canon
and GoPro series of cameras, pumped through GIMP for editing and
enhancement/colour correction and then uploaded to Picasa using
Google’s own Picasa program which as you well know is a Linux package
developed on Linux and then ported to Windows to allow the windoze
users access to that tool. Have a look at my photos once again and
tell me what difference you can detect between GIMP edited work and
Adobe photoshop. And imagemagick – what would we do without that linux
tool? And don’t forget that in the linux/open source world there is an
openness that you cannot find in the windoze world – just look at GIMP
– it is fully scriptable using a version of LISP called ScriptFu. Can
you find any, ANY windoze image manipulation program that offers you
such power?
The comment that ALL the free apps on Ubuntu are available for free on
windoze misses the point that were it not for the free and open source
movement there would be no free apps to run on windoze!
And that the user experience on Office is better than on Libre/Open
Office is a debatable point as user experience is such a varied thing
one mans meat being another’s poison. I personally don’t use any word
processor preferring to do all my authoring in EMACS especially in ORG
mode which to me TOTALLY blows away all the competition out there. A
users experience, years working with computers, skill set and so many
other variables all go to influence what she will call user
experience. For example using EMACS here to type this document is all
the user experience that I need. It does not distract me, keeps out of
my way, provides me with key chord combinations that allow me to type
very much faster than most typists out there. It is such that my
experience is that that the computer is not even there. I close my
eyes and type – just type – and the ides flow with no interference of
fonts, little squiggly lines under words, eye candy galore, dancing
paper clips and other nonsense interfering with my workflow. Want
fonts – well, I do that later and use Latex – a type-setting language
– or just have org mofe export as html all with a simple key
combination.
But most of all Vicky – the argument about wordprocessors misses the
point altogether and is perhaps the most telling about this discussion
– that those who have not woken up to what they’re missing perhaps
never will. The proper way to develop a written document is to
concentrate first on ones thoughts and get those down on
paper/screen. In this endeavour the wordprocessor only gets in the
way. I’ve spent all of 15 minutes writing this note to you using
EMACS. With a single key chord I will send it to your blog as I’m
reading that blog inside EMACS in another buffer. Switch to a
different buffer and I have my newsreader there in GNUS which also has
my mail account open in it. In another is my calendar and in yet
another my live running LISP code that is making money for me doing
what I do best – High Frequency Trading. All my HFT work is running an
a machine that is itself running CentOS for I cannot trust nor get
windoze to load balance for such a demanding job as that. Yes windows
is good for certain people – those that need a consumer level product,
a black box that they don’t need to and in fact can’t peer under the
hood of. But want more out of life? Want to defy the odds and fly a
cloth and wire machine that beats the pants of a metal bird? Want to
build that machine in your back yard with your own two hands? Want to
install an Electronic Flight Information System into it based on linux
of course for windows does not even have any offerings of that kind –
then you have to learn to tinker, dig under the hood, figure out how
things work, study the code, tweak it, make changes, re-compile and
watch as YOUR creation takes flight.
Anyway – long enough post for now. A little random and I apologize for
that but I really wanted to impress upon you that the comments you are
getting here need to be researched more fully and you should look at
that as an opportunity your readers are presenting you with – an
opportunity to expand your knowledge and grow by that and not get
discouraged. I would hate to see you fall off the wagon now and head
back to where you were a few years back. I’m pretty sure you won’t for
once your mind is open that door can’t be shut again. Have fun, dig
in, learn something new each and every day and come visit and see the
things we build with linux which has give us 3D printing, trikes,
rally navigation systems, music systems and so much more. And you do
know full well don’t you that even little Gaia will throw a fit if you
mention windows at no.15 Nyari Estate 😉
I’d like to add one more note:
I am not a windoze basher just for the sake of it. Both Ami and I are
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers which qualification we obtained
in order to ease our entry into Australia (a bloody waste of time best
left for another story). I am an MCT also (Microsoft Certified
Trainer). I have written a lot of software to run on the windows
platform and quit that platform after much disillusionment with
it. Losing years of work to viruses, trojans and root kits is
painful. Having an operating system I cannot depend on to keep running
through all kinds of load situations is not something I can afford to
have especially when a lot of money is riding on the back of that
OS. Having a operating system that dumbs down my students and even my
own children is not acceptable. This is where I come from when I
criticize windoze.
What an impassioned argument. I love it. Would expect no less from an educator.
I love Linux, in particular the Ubuntu distro. I have duel boot. However, I am NOT a Windows basher and that is probably because I have never suffered ANY setbacks as a result of Windows. In the early days, yes, the stability issue of Windows was a joke. But no more.
I agree with most of what has been said, in particular about keeping an open and questioning mind, except;
That Ubuntu has comparable music making software. I have searched ceaselessly and spent many hours looking for these in the past. None are as good as Ableton Pro or Sonar Pro. I am not saying there never will be. But there are none at present. There are no apps as good as Chessbase on Ubuntu. Not just plain bunk! Assuming a general lack of knowledge of Linux is somewhat cavalier and is folly.
“The very commenters that say that have no work of their own to show on the net”. None of the commentators here appear to have said this. Anywhere! Impassioned is all very well but I fully agree with “concentrate first on ones thoughts and get those down on paper/screen”.
As for the rest of the examples… well there is nothing here that cannot also quite easily be achieved in a Windows environment…
The choice of an operating system will never dumb you down. Not having a questioning mind certainly will. One must also learn to have the courage of one’s convictions.
Let’s hope Vicky can follow this. Last I checked he is firmly in the Linux camp … phew! He as stagnated long enough and now flies free. Try cogbuntu (http://wiki.opencog.org/w/CogBuntu) to see what we’re up to and where we hope to lead our world but be forewarned — there really is NOTHING in the Windows world to prepare you for what you’ll find there and ff you always lived in Windoze the doze is going to be hard to break out of 😉
Vicky – I’d like to see you write some retorts to the comments. That’s a key way to learn. Even if you just point out spelling errors like duel instead of dual you’ll be honing your English skills while sharpening your ability to pick out errors from the mass of text – a skill which as you know now is often needed in code writing and debugging. But I’d really like to see you handle issues like this comment by Dan Magothe wherein he says:
Program web-based applications are built using JavaScript that maximize HTML5 and full performance of a PC.
Let’s have your take on the dangers of Javascript it’s horrible monolithic structure and this claim that it maximizes the performance. Dan does not seem to have HTML5 figured out yet. What do you know about it that you can bring to this table to educate Dan? Don’t know enough — well then here’s your chance to Google it and tell us what you find. Bring out your knowledge of the linux kernel here and what we have found in reverse engineering windoze -> the mess that lies in the spagetti code. Hey – why not even publish some of the code here to compare the elegant linux way of doing things versus the thrown-together windoze way.
You asked me yesterday how you’d build up a web presence that shows what you’re made off – this is how you start.
I do not understand something here. Is HTML 5 and the Linux Kernel related in anyway? Could you tell me what code I publish? HTML 5?
Vicky
The most important thing you could do in this life if you are aspiring not to get caught up in ‘the tyranny of the job’ and start up a business (where you work for yourself and your only limits are bound by the amount of effort YOU want to put into making something) then there’s no better place to start than with:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-Z-H-1.html
I have taught close to 700 students now and they’ve all gone through the above book for I insist that they do this no matter how long it takes them. Of the 700 only 43 have managed to really learn and understand the material. Those 43 now find themselves in lives that are beyond their wildest dreams.
As readers start to get to around page 150 magic begins to happen and they write back to me with all kinds of amazing stories to tell. It’s not easy to do and there’s no one who can tell you an easy way to ‘cheat’ your way through it but unlike going to a gym to improve your state of health where there are ways to cheat the machines (like walking on a flat treadmill and just whiling your time away getting no benefit) there really is no way AT ALL to cheat here. You have to put in your due and struggle mightily to get to grips with the material. The rewards for all the struggle are tremendous. I can vouch for this.
I took me 10 years of struggle to get through the book; it took me 4 years of hard study to figure out how to repair a motor vehicle; there were many times when I came close to giving up when I’d remember Eric Raymond words: “Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it.” I couldn’t agree more.
So, dig in … put your head down and fight, struggle, dive in and come up for air when you’re stuck but keep at it, keep at it, keep at it …
Oh and BTW – here is some more food for thought from a champion of the Open Source movement: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/
All I Can say is….. I Have Learned so much form this comments Neal Aggarwal and Dipesh Patel… Thank you for your wisdom and content even tho one is hating calling it “windoZe” (funny) and another “comparing chalk with mouldy cheese” (in this case Linux is the mouldy cheese) verry funny…. Anyway i am compelled to use Linux now more than ever…. but let me add on something that i think is very important..
Linux companies and hardware manufacturers have made great advancements in hardware support for Linux and today Linux will support most hardware devices. However, many companies still do not offer drivers or support for their hardware in Linux. for instance am using a Packard Bell IMEDIA J2422 Computer will i get all my drivers if i install Ubuntu on it?
Another thing is There’s no standard edition of Linux. Whereas Microsoft offers several different editions of each version of Windows, there are countless variations of Linux. For a new user it can be confusing to work out which is best for you. In this case please advice me… What version should i start with?
Because Linux is neither as popular as Windows, nor a commercial product, support works in a different way. You may have to look harder to find the answer to a problem and, while Linux supporters are more likely to offer help, it may not always match your own level of technical understanding. Because all this things on HTML 5 etc are majorly technical don’t you think?
My parting shot is Microsoft Windows includes its own help section, has vast amount of available online documentation and help, as well as books on each of the versions of Windows so its so easy and hands on…
Let me know what you think……
Windows includes it’s own help? You kidding right Vicky? Linux has 130,000 pages of documentation built right into the OS as it ships and as of my last looking there are over 6,000,000 documents on the Ubuntu forums. A google search on the quoted phrase ‘linux documentation’ yields 19,100,000 hits! Don’t blame the OS. Have you actually fired up info inside of EMACS? You figured out the pages? And don’t confuse what the mouldy cheese has as it’s underlying philosophy which is to give control BACK to you not spoon feed. In the spirit of linux if you can’t find drivers you ask on the discussion forums for help. I have never failed to find a driver. If you do fail to find one learn to write one yourself. It’s hard – very hard do to but once done you have grown in leaps and bounds we cannot even spell out in words. Then you feed it back into the community and if you’ve done some useful work you get to see it appear in the kernel and are then holding the coveted title of kernel developer. This is how ALL of us started in the days when we HAD TO write all our own drivers.
Oh and by the way – mouldy cheese is some of the best cheese out there – we just LOVE our blue cheese – but then some would not call that mouldy and some wouldn’t go near it with a 10 foot pole. But then what do those ‘some’ do with their free time? Watch hour upon hour of TV I hazard.
Sorry Dan
I thought Vicky had written that insightful comment. Glad that you are learning from our feedback. Keep your comments coming. Most importantly – get some hardware and install linux – any distro – and play with it. Secret: Therein lies some magic … and the future of computing!
Hi Dan,
For somebody who is new to Linux I would suggest to him to try Ubuntu Linux. Why Ubuntu? Because it is a very friendly OS, newly released applications can easily be viewed and reviewed in Ubuntu software center. It also has a good work space switcher – where you can run multiple programs on different windows.
For help Ubuntu comes with an in built help documentation which address various issues like Graphics, sound etc.
In my experience (a few hundred Linux installations) I’d suggest you try Linux Mint 12 LXDE(http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php). It’s very fast, has low hardware requirements (we say it’s ‘light’) and you’ll find yourself at home even quicker than with the somewhat off-the-beaten-track Unity interface on Ubuntu 11.04 and later. If you grew up on a Windows 98 class interface you’ll be right at home in LXDE.
Let us know through these comments how you’re getting along.
I agree with you.that Linux Mint is a good and stable OS however it is not as popular as Ubuntu Linux which is used on over 20million computers daily. A new user to Linux should also keep in mind what he wants from Linux first because I myself first started with Open SUSE which I found it difficult to operate. Later on switched to Ubuntu which I find it easy to use.
Through your comments I am learning a lot. Every day you mention new things in your comments which I go over it.
Vicky you need to make yourself aware of the fact that Mint is an Ubuntu Clone! On distrowatch it’s consistently above Ubuntu in the rankings (as unscientific a measure as that may be). I think the switch to the Unity interface was a terrible choice. I differed greatly with my Ubuntu kernel developer buddies and as a result distanced myself somewhat from Ubuntu. Acacia, Gaia and Ami all use Ubuntu in it’s various guises – Acacia – Xubuntu on her netbook, LXDE on her laptop, Gaia – Lubuntu on her netbook, Ubuntu (11.10) on her laptop, Ami – Ubuntu on her netbook and KDE on her desktop. I have gravitated to barebones installs of Debian which I grew up on in the bad old days of kernel hacking to build Ubuntu for the clueless on top of it. I come across more than 20 different distros in my day-to-day work but I have to admit that it makes little difference to me now after all these years as they all have linux underlying them. From the command line I can do ANYTHING and as I was telling you last weekend I live in the command line via EMACS 24/7/365. I still say MINT is a better for someone starting out in the real world coming from Windoze. They need hand-holding. Once over the initial learning curve they can graduate to Debian and really unleash the power.
Oh and by the way – on Sunday when you come for lunch you can have a play at true dedicated 100Mps internet access and there’s a couple of videos on robotics that I want you to see as well as one with a guy that looks and talks so much like you and who invented a bloodless instrument to measure haemoglobin levels in blood to detect anaemia which should interest you as all these veggies around us have runaway iron deficiency syndromes. See you on Sunday.
Dear Students:
Two articles that point even more clearly to two of my favourite topics: The Leapfrog Effect and The Singularity is Near. The first shows my internet speeds: http://speedtest.net/result/1866181075.png. Note this is a single line. I multiplex 10 lines (from different providers of course for redundancy sake) for about 10 times this speed. I also use my own linux based caching server which gives me a speed boost up to 10 times that again. I need these kinds of speeds to sustain my HFT – High Frequency Trading systems which are now trading several hundred transactions per second.
The Leapfrog Phenomenon (http://goo.gl/AbBBh) is something that’s been talked about a lot in the past (I used to teach it at my college and have guest lectured on it at JKUAT and UofN for 6 years now) – it covers how the developing world has had no real infrastructure to be tied to. In the US they have over 25 million (yes that’s not a typo – MILLION, six zeros!) kilometres of copper wire which is capital expenditure they cannot afford to throw away. In Africa though we have no such burden. We can invent new things, pick up the latest technology and run with it. Our 4G telephone networks (which render this article already obsolete http://goo.gl/trjuK), our uptake of fibreoptics, our adoption of the latest medical equipment (http://goo.gl/hpSSU), our freedom to express ourselves. These are all things we can afford to do while the West languishes and falls behind because of the trillions they’ve already invested in technologies that have now gone so old they cannot ever hope to pull some rabbit out of the hat and make the copper run as fast as fibre. Here too linux shines (Oh and please get it right – don’t say lynucks – say it the way it’s meant to be pronounced – leenucks – you wouldn’t want someone pronouncing your name awfully now would you 😉 (http://goo.gl/iKsnD). Linux frees us to express ourselves, to invent new things. For the first time droves of young Africans are finding they can compete with the rest of the world as they now have the knowledge to be able to compete – there’s now no hidden secrets – we now can dethrone the dinosaurs (Microsoft) that ruled in the past and create small fast-moving teams that invent tools, software, hardware that we can even use once and throw away because we have a brave new world here and new technologies that were kept from us until our heros Torvalds, Stallman, Kurzweil, Venter came along. Look around you – Konza Technology City – what a gem! (http://goo.gl/0YV0T), Multimedia University of Africa (http://goo.gl/cOiYW), Sameer Industrial Park (where nearly every company is an IT based one) (http://goo.gl/tNvlf).
At this point in your education it would be worth reading “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman (http://goo.gl/ItNVG), watching the BBC documentary series Wikileaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower (http://goo.gl/Ey5rD) and James Glieck’s “Information.” (http://goo.gl/DPMry)
Just as we don’t have old infrastructure to hold us back we don’t have the huge, huge, huge debt burdens hanging over us (http://youtu.be/14WEg0dBFLM). That’s why our housing and stock markets (small as they are) are growing in leaps and bounds. Here’s an article to tickle you; note that its from what is probably the most prominent and well read business journal of current times: http://t.co/00KHtCYS. And here are some links pulled from other places in this blog: http://goo.gl/7MIYn, stop ‘hungering’ for greener pastures – click on the infographic and see for yourself the hole ‘they’ are digging themselves into http://goo.gl/dBsNe and finally http://goo.gl/rjzdn – a great take on things by Soros himself, that man who broke the Bank of England in similar conditions to where we find ourselves today. What will he do this time – a total crush?
The Singularity Is Near (http://goo.gl/pDgDr); it really is and gets nearer by the day. We are on the prowl for young minds to join us; to make it all happen; to make it happen in a soft not hard take-off. I urge you and your readers to google these terms and discover for yourselves what I am talking about and then get back to me with questions and to find guidance for where to head next. If not then you and many hundreds are going to find yourselves on the other side of the digital divide. You wouldn’t want that just by keeping still you suddenly found yourself living and suffering in Kibera slums now would you?