Freedom and Informed Choice

“Y’see, wonderful though they are, each of these awesome Linux
distributions comes with a hidden price for all that ease and
convenience. Each is run by a single “benevolent dictator” who
makes several choices for the user. Ordinary users don’t care. They
just like their free (as in money) software, and the freedom from
the relentless vigil of maintaining Windows with all that expensive
bloatware that requires a substantial investment of time as well as
money. That is fine for those folks, and I’m happy to share those
wonderful ready-made Linux distros with them. It really does work
for most “Windows refugees,” and they are as content to use them as
the majority of automobile buyers are to drive automatic cars with
power windows and power brakes. Stick-shifts are for “the more
mechanically inclined.” And I dare not look down my long geeky nose
at them as though they were content to remain “on training wheels.”
But they really do have more choices than they know, and they need
not simply gratefully accept what is handed to them. XCHAT, for
example, is configured in Linux Mint to take you automatically to a
single IRC server that hosts the Linux Mint channels. Yes, you can
work around it if you know how, but most newbies don’t, and if they
want to chat about something other than Linux Mint, it takes a bit
of work to find their way to a favorite server and channel. The
same applies to Firefox’s default search engine in both Ubuntu and
Linux Mint. And to Ubuntu’s Software Center. And Linux Mint’s
Update manager.”

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