[Buddha-l] Batchelor

[Richard Hayes]

On May 18, 2010, at 9:19 AM, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

> Oh about dana: don't forget the may open source programmers who give 
> away their products for free.

I believe there is a law in the USA against giving away software for free to anyone but billionaires.

> I just installes Ubuntu 10 on 2 laptops 
> and I'm very gratefull.

Ubuntu is an excellent product. The fact that such an excellent product is distributed for free almost makes me believe in bodhisattvas. I used to use Red Hat and Fedora Linux until a young Buddhist brought Ubuntu to my attention in 2006. I installed Ubuntu 6.04 in 2006 and have continued getting every upgrade since then. It gets easier to use with every upgrade, and new upgrades come out at the end of every April and every October. 

Over on the Indology list, Indologists are singing the blues about how much trouble they are having with Windows 7. The advice that keeps getting voiced is to go back to Windows XP. That's like telling someone who has just escaped from a burning building that it's much more dangerous outside and the best thing to do is to run back into the burning building. 

I believe there is a parable in the Lotus Sutra about a father enticing his sons out of a burning house by promising one a MacBook and the other a PC with Windows XP. Then when the children come out of the building, he gives them all computers with Ubuntu 10.04, and they all join Soka Gakkai as a happy family.

Richard