Fwd: You lost a new Ubuntu user

[Evan Dandrea]

I'm forwarding here as Peter's email implies permission to do so.
Please CC Peter on replies as he is not subscribed to the list.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peter Henderson (2nd Acnt) <pk.henderson at westnet.com.au>
Date: Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Subject: You lost a new Ubuntu user
To: ubuntu-devel-owner at lists.ubuntu.com


Dear Development owner,

I'm sorry I really don't want to have to go through all the rigmarole
or joining a forum when I only have one message to put on it and move
on so I'm writing to you. If you want to put it up on the Dev Forum
that's up to you.

The problem in a nutshell is I've been a lifelong Microsoft user and
before that I used Gary Kildall's CP/M. I have basically reached a
point where with such a complex operating system and every day I see
Microsoft heading towards more DRM and with it I'm losing the original
rights as a user and ultimate manager of my operating system to
someone that every time I do something I'm prey to Malware, the
operating system "phones home" my actions or software is starting to
dictate what I do, I see these as processes that are getting worse,
not better.

The short answer is I seriously considering going into open source
software so I can theoretically verify there is nothing but 100% code
designed to purely to put me in charge in the most efficent way
possible for the least amount of complexity and to be completely frank
I love a little "eye candy" as well.

For the last couple of weeks I've been asking around  "who has the
best FOSS operating sysem" and the average answer is Ubuntu so when I
got the chance in reformatting my HDD to allow me to start the first
steps in changing over I obtained Ubuntu. I started the desktop
version I downloaded and I thought it was marvelous with graphical
screens and a huge range of options that took a bit of work to figure
out but I slowly picked up how it did things for where I wanted the
system to go and to be honest "I was as happy as a clam at high tide".

Then came the deathnell for using the system because at 82% of
installation IT SETS UP AN INTERNET CONNECTION AND USES MY ADSL MODEM
AND WANDERS OFF TO SOME WEBSITE(MIRROR) FOR SOMETHING I DON'T EVEN
KNOW AND I DIDN'T ASK FOR...........

There are heaps of us guys under the shadow of MS that are thinking
about Linux as the alternative not because we want to tinker all day
with a esoteric command line sequence but simply we want a robust OS
and the paradigm of "the user is in charge".

If your aim is for someone who wants software to make all the
decisions then I supose this is their system but if this is how the
installation program treates me, who is to say what is is the rest of
OS.

Many thanks for providing me with software to begin with, I appreciate
there must have been a lot of work go into it.


Peter Henderson