[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu and Mozilla, the inevitable alliance

[David Robert Lewis (ethnopunk)]

David Rubin wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 3:58 PM, Helge Reikeras
> <helge.reikeras at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Businesses and government are
>> resistant to make the switch due to high switching-costs. This is the
>> nature of M$ tight grip the OS world. What we need to ask ourselves is,
>> what can we do to break it?
>>     
>
> Can we please stop refering to Microsoft as M$. If we can't refer to
> things by their proper names we aren't going to get any where our
> selves.
>
> Thanks
>
> David
>
>   

Hi David, I respect your views, but M$ is really just shorthand for the 
commercial paradigm, isn't it? I was reminded of this when I went into 
an iCafe today filled with blue screens and lots of African immigrants 
seeking jobs. Ubuntu fortunately changes the metaphor used in 
job-seeking. Instead of looking for a job, people ask, "How can I help 
the community?" This in turn creates opportunities and leads to the 
reversal of underdevelopment. OpenSource, as far as I am concerned, is 
really just the metanarrative for an open-society. Because Linux exists 
in a different economic paradigm, doesn't mean the paradigm doesn't 
exist or isn't valid. There are so many rub-offs for the rest of the 
world. In fact open-sourcing some of the basic services like energy for 
example, could liberate us all from untold drudgery. An opengrid in 
which energy is treated like information could prevent the 35% pa 
increase demanded by Eskom. The way I see it, Ubuntu is our last chance 
to create a truly equitable society and a sustainable future. Let's not 
destroy the community by trying to measure everything in terms of rands 
and cents.

DRL