[Buddha-l] Linux as a buddhist practice

[Richard Hayes]

On Sat, 2008-07-19 at 02:04 +0600, Richard Basham wrote:

> NTYC (Not That You Care), I am enamored with Mandrivia 2008 and
> surprisingly in its the Gnome flavor. It seems an excellent distibution
> -- I installed and played with several recently.

NTIAOMBWDOLYU (Not That It's Any Of My Business Which Distribution of
Linux You Use), but membership in the exclusive buddha-l club is limited
to those who use Ubuntu Linux. KDE (or even XFCE) is strongly preferred
but not strictly required. To be honest, I occasionally run Gnome
myself, just for variety's sake. Ubuntu, as you know, is built on the
Debian distribution. I've heard of Mandriva but don't know much about
it. If it meets touch buddha-l specs, we may consider allowing Mandriva
users to subscribe (but only as moderated contributers).

Being a dyed-in-the-silicon self-power kind of guy, I am deeply
resentful of anyone who makes anything easy for me. What first attracted
me to Linux was that it was so bruisingly difficult to install
correctly. I used to be able to spend entire days getting no work done
at all as I fiddled with settings and recompiled kernels. But all kinds
of goody two-shoe bodhisattvas started transferring their merit, and an
insidious other-power culture crept into the once-pristine Linux world.
Now even people with no training at all in macho Zen can use Linux with
ease. I learned of the Ubuntu distribution from a teenage girl, for
crying out loud. She told me, rightly it turned out, that Ubuntu is dead
easy to use. I tried it out anyway. And to my everlasting shame, I
actually LIKED it. (Oops, sorry about that. I forgot that words in
uppercase letters are reserved for abbreviated cliches. Richard probably
thought that LIKED was short for the first noble truth: Little Is Known
Except Despair).

Real Buddhists will want to avoid the LTS (Long Term Support) versions
on Ubuntu, since they tempt one into believing in permanence. The LTS
editions offer guaranteed support and updating for five years. Ubuntu
8.04 LTS offers support until April 2013, the year after Mayan
prophecies predict that the world will come to an end. Impermanence
purists will prefer the ordinary Ubuntu distributions that become
obsolete every six months. Being an American, I'm waiting for a good
UIOATIA (Use It Once And Throw It Away) distribution of Linux.

This reminds me, I went into a stationary store the other day to buy a
fountain pen, which is what I used to use before I bought my first
computer. The salesman asked whether I wanted a refillable fountain pen
or a disposable one. I guess they make fountain pens now for people who
like to do their bit to help keep landfill sites overflowing. (I asked
whether there is a momentary fountain pen for devout Buddhists.) 

Disposable fountain pens! Ye gods, this taketh impermanence too far and
maketh me grumpy.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico