[Buddha-l] Linux as a buddhist practice

[jkirk]

Oh  man---thanks for the laffs everybody---I'm still laffing...
JK 

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Richard
Hayes
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:07 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Linux as a buddhist practice

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

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