We run GNU/Linux

Dear Dad,

This is a moment of triumph. I publish this post from a computer with GNU/Linux as the only Operating System on it. And I it is connected to the internet through a Tata Indicom USB modem. I am falling short of ASCII codes to express my happiness.

I still remember the days when we both individually and together tried to get GNU/Linux connected to the internet and the printer. We failed. The idea subsided for years until a few days back when Pramod SMS'd me to ask about the free software alternatives for some proprietary software used in his trade. I found a good comparison of proprietary and free software in Wikipedia which I sent it to him. This inspired me to take up the GNU/Linux dream again, since I have been trying to improve my otherwise uneventful life in this godforsaken place by involving in a wide variety of not-so-familiar activities. They include washing and pressing clothes, cooking, blogging, watching world cinema, reading and writing poetry, painting, photography, listening to and learning about Carnatic music, learning probability and statistics, learning process control philosophy, trying a faux hawk haircut, and what not. Partly, this is due to one of your best non-mathematical lessons - to always keep the mind engaged, and partly due to my inherited insanity. Yet let me assure you that even watching a Kurosawa movie or following the aadi-talam of a Tyagaraja composition or tasting my finest dal-spinach curry did not give me such satisfaction as I have in writing this post through an internet connection on a GNU/Linux platform. I have succeeded where I had failed once.

Dad, one big mistake we did earlier was trying to have a dual boot system. I have experienced that when we have a dual boot system, we have a tendency to use windows for things which we haven't been able to do in GNU/Linux. But when we have only GNU/Linux, we are forced to survive and grow in the new environment. We struggle, we learn, we discover, we survive, we rule. So, the day after Pramod's enquiry, I searched and found a portable hard drive from a friend and backed up my personal data files ready to have some fun with my laptop. Then I travelled twenty kilometres to the nearest town to hunt for a copy of GNU/Linux. My modus operandi was to approach the computer institutes first. On the way in the bus, I browsed for computer institutes in my mobile who provides GNU/Linux training. I noted the phone numbers of each and called them for GNU/Linux CDs. Sadly, none of them were neither providing GNU/Linux training nor had an installation CD. But one Aptech Institute gave me the address of two shops who could sell me CDs. I approached one of those and surprisingly I found a copy of PC Quest RedHat Linux 7.1 (Seawolf). Remember we had installed it once? (I had a such a fascination towards the names of RedHat releases like Seawolf, Enigma and Valhalla that I used them as my password for my email accounts.) I bought the CD, came back and tried installing it on the system. But the second CD had a missing file or a corrupt media. And in the process of trying to re-install, I ran the Disk Druid in auto mode. I hope you know what it means. Yes dad, I deleted Windows. Yes, no Ctrl-Alt-Deletions or (not responding) crap anymore. And I was proud of it. Now I will be forced to survive on GNU/Linux. I will not find refuge in Windows where GNU/Linux doesn't seem to work. Although the re-installation didn't work, I was happy that I deleted Windows. So I went back to the shop and bought a CentOS DVD which too didn't work due to some 32 bit-64 bit conflict. My laptop lied Operating System-less for a week before I went to the other shop which the Aptech guy had mentioned. It was interesting to note that this guy, a DJ (Disk Jockey) runs a software CD shop and a DJ song CDs and accesories shop parallel. There I found a copy of RedHat Enterprise Edition 5 with five CDs. Out of experience we know that each CD geometrically increases the risk of installation failure. Also, it was the RedHat's latest version and my laptop was nearly four years old with a Celeron processor and a 256 MB RAM. Nevertheless, I bought it. Back home, I ran the installation with the bare minimum components and it was successful. I ran my laptop only with GNU/Linux OS installed on it. Step one over.

I run GNU/Linux.

Now a bigger challenge lied ahead - connect to the internet. While surfing popular internet providers, I stumbled upon a page in the TataIndicom website listing the support of Photon Whiz on Linux platforms. Also, I saw a pdf file describing how to configure Photon Whiz on a GNU/Linux. I took a printout of it and that evening went straight to a TataIndicom shop with Malu and told the charming young lady at the customer service desk that I need a connection that works on GNU/Linux. I told the lady that I need her show me a demo of the connection and only if it works I will buy. She was not confident at first. So I encouraged her to call their technical support and ask for help and even flattered her by saying that how would someone ever deny such a sweet request. Malu pinched me everytime I flirted with the lady. The technical support guy could not tell anything more than what was there in the print-out. So I decided it to try it out myself. The lady was so astonished to see a GNU/Linux powered laptop that she called all her colleagues and showed it to them. She was also surprised to see me typing commands on the terminal window referring the instructions. The way she was staring at me, for a moment I felt I was Richard Stallman himself coding the latest version of Emacs, though what I was doing is not even a thousandth of what he might be doing on an average day. I took the sample modem she gave and I followed the instructions in that print-out and guess what? It worked! Internet on GNU/Linux! Hallelujah! I opened the GNU website. It did work. I hope you read the mail I sent conveying my surprise and happiness right from the shop. Though a smaller and advanced version of the modem didn't work, I compromised for older one. Yet, it was a moment of triumph. It was finally done. That was step number two towards freedom.

A whole road of freedom lies ahead. Freedom from propietary software, freedom from pop ups, viruses, computer crash and hang and so many other irritants popularised as inevitable by Windows. Now, I also need a good office package, a music player, an image editor, so on and so forth. 'The woods are lovely, dark and deep... And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.'

This exercise taught me sevaral valuable lessons. One can live without Windows. One needn't be a software engineer or a geek programmer to use GNU/Linux. You don't need to be in the Silicon valleys of Bengaluru or California to use it. GNU/Linux is not for people in the Artificial Intelligence lab of MIT. Even a common plant operator like me can install and use it. You can find it, install it and use it while being in place where paan and maawa sells more than books and pens. Dare is all it takes. One can use it even without professional obligations. One can use it purely for pleasure, or for the sake of just using it. One can use it for political reasons. One can use it as an anarchist or an anti-authoritarian propaganda. One can use it just to try something extra-ordinary. One can use it be in the one percent of the population. (Pardon me Pramod, for I am not the common man here.)
Finally, a privilege which I got in a town where GNU/Linux is generally unknown - one can use it to make advances: As I walked out of the Tata Indicom shop, I handed over my visiting card to the charming young lady and said, "Call me if you have any configuration trouble with GNU/Linux...", and I continued softly, "...you can call me even if you don't have any trouble." And believe me dad, she acknowledged by giving me her visiting card. Such is the power of GNU/Linux when it comes to networking.

Regards,
n@vneet