The Linux Extremist

I have been thinking about my grandfather a lot lately; I thought of him a great deal yesterday, as I was putting the Xubuntu PC together out of spare parts.  He passed away in 1997, but I could almost hear his voice registering approval as I assembled all the spare parts, tested it, made it run.

People come to Linux by various means; some just get tired of Windows and are looking for something different.  Others want what’s best, or hip, or trendy or cool.  My father is a technologist who is in favour of Open Source, and he definitely had an influence.  However it’s my grandfather’s values I feel most strongly as I work on Open Source and write this blog.

My grandfather was an opponent of waste.  He used to pick up old bicycles that had been thrown out; he’d repair them and get them functioning again.  He used to do the same with radios and television sets.  He came from a Scandinavian background, had experienced poverty in the west of Norway, the land of his birth.  He lived through the Great Depression and World War II.  He dug his own garden, he scrimped and saved.  Waste was anathema.

He was left behind by the computer era, but had he been born in a later time, I suggest that he would have opposed Microsoft and all its works.  Waste is inherent in the Microsoft model.  Microsoft are counting on you, the consumer, to ditch your computer every few years and upgrade to something bigger, bulkier and more powerful - but not necessarily better.  Knowing him, he would regard this Xubuntu PC with pride - taking what once was considered waste, and turning it into something useful.

I loved my grandfather.  While he was not a great man by conventional standards, he never was an executive nor did he rise high in any profession, though he was a talented storyteller and musician as well as a tinkerer - he was a great man to me.  He still lives on in the things I do - writing, tinkering, and yes, enjoying old music.  And so I owe much of myself and all to him.  If somehow beyond this world he can read this message, tusen takk, Far.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS