Connections to Health

THE ISHTA HOLISTIC HEALTH CENTRE

CONNECTIONS to HEALTH

Dear Bill

Last week Microsoft launched its new operating system into the UK. It's called Vista. It requires large resources in a computer just to run it never mind any other applications. In fact most computers in the world won't be able to run it!
Another round of upgrades

So this will start off another round of upgrading and everyone will get rid of their computer and buy a new one. Great news for the computer manufacturers and the third world as our now obsolete computers are recycled there. Of course they still won't be able to run vista so they'll have to upgrade too.
If you were computing when the last major Windows system was released, Xp, you will remember that some of your existing hardware (printers, scanners etc.) wouldn't work in Xp, so they had to be changed too. Also some of your applications may not have been compatible so they had to go as well. I still keep one of our machines running Windows 98 so that I can use some of my favourite stuff.
All in all it was great for everyone, except the poor old consumer. I don't know enough about the new system yet to know whether my hardware and software will work with it or not, but I suspect that another changeover is looming.
How it should be, according to Allyn

I've thought about this problem for quite a while and this is what I think should happen.
For most home users, and indeed most small businesses, Windows 98 and Office 97 are more than adequate. I think that other experienced users would say the same thing if they were honest.

Now Bill Gates has come in for a lot of stick recently. He is increasingly portrayed as some kind of Machiavellian, grasping villain. However, I thank Bill Gates every day I use my computers. If it hadn't been for Bill, computers would never have evolved they way the have and still the only people who would be using them would be chaps with poor social skills, experimental facial hair and no girlfriends. As it is we can all boot up our computers and do what we want to do on them and in a very real sense it is due to Bill. So, a big up to Bill!

On the down side we are all now hopelessly addicted to them. How could we live without the internet, emails, minesweeper etc? In fact how could you receive this wonderful missive without your computer?
What Bill should do

So if we're all addicted I think Bill should make a basic operating system freely available to everyone in the world, that hardware and software manufacturers would support. Let's face it. Microsoft is never going to be able to sell Windows 98 again or Office 97 for that matter. Why not make them freely available to everyone. It would suit most people's usage needs and if they wanted something with more oomph then Microsoft have those products to sell them. Think of the good will generated to Bill if everyone in the third world was given a CD with an operating system and application package which would allow them to communicate with everyone else in the world, and would run even on the low spec' machines which we give them. What an improvement to communication and understanding world wide.
Now if only I had Bill Gate's e-mail address.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one…

Enter stage right someone who wants to do just that, and it isn't Bill!
Mark Shuttleworth, a high tech millionaire, has decided to do just what I suggested Bill should have done. He started the Ubuntu Community.
Ubuntu is an ancient African word that means "humanity to others". It also means "I am what I am because of who we all are".
He is providing an operating system and application suite free to anyone who wants one, anywhere in the world. It uses much less resources on computers than does the newer Microsoft releases. It is called Ubuntu.
What's the catch?

The catch, if you can call it that, is that it is a Linux operating system. For those of you who don't know there are three main operating systems in computers, pc's, apples and linux. It comes on a free CD and in fact you can ask for as many as you like, within reason, and pass them on to others to spread the word. All the office applications are compatible with Microsoft Office so you can still talk to other people who haven't made the change. Better yet it is very stable and very secure, so there is no real virus or hacker problem. Even better is that it could revive that old computer sitting in the cupboard under the stairs as it can run on much lower spec' machines.

What's it like?

It does take a bit of getting used to if you've only ever used the one operating system, but you can run it from your CD drive without having to install it. When you get used to it you then simply install it and it runs much faster.

To find out more, order CD's or download the files directly go to http://www.ubuntu.com/Welcome
Alternatively Allyn has a few spare CD's and he'll let you have one.

It's still not too late Bill!