Learn Ubuntu Org Inc Classrooms

As far as the word Ubuntu here is what we know of what the word means...

An anthropologist proposed a game to children of an African tribe. He put
a basket full of fruits under a tree and he told children that the one who reaches it first will win the sweet fruits. When he told them to run, they all took each other by the hand and ran together, then sat down together to share their sweets. When he asked them why they had ran like that,
while one of them could have all the fruits to himself, they said: UBUNTU!
UBUNTU in Hausa culture means: "I am because we are."

Children of the Hausa Culture Demonstrate the Circle of Ubuntu
"I am because we are."

Throughout these courses I always like to use the word we instead of I because that makes us all feel like we are working together, in the true spirit of Ubuntu, on a common goal. However in order to qualify myself to offer this I will tell you a bit about myself and how I came to the point of starting this Learning Ubuntu Linux Project. Especially with a system such as Ubuntu Linux, which is only possible through the efforts of thousands of contributors around the world it seems selfish to use the word I instead of we. Occasionally I must speak from the first person, to qualify myself or to offer my personal opinion, so please forgive me for blowing my own horn.

My first introduction to Linux was back in 1996 when I had the foolish notion that I wanted to create my own ISP (Internet Service Provider) business. Back then we ran Linux Slackware and it was all command line only. I had an ISDN input to my system and 6 US Robotic modems to offer dial-up to my handful of customers. The basic hope, was to take in enough money to pay for the ISDN connection which at that time was about 200 per month, if I remember correctly. I was a newbie and fortunately had a mentor, a friend of mine, who helped me to get it all setup. At that time I actually had a full Class C block of version 4 IP addresses.

During the years 1999 through 2002 I had also been teaching computer technology first for a Local Adult Education Center in Sussex New Jersey, and then for NJIT, and Sussex Community College. However most of these courses were based on Microsoft operating system and applications. That eventually led me to a project of teaching some IT Internet based course for the African Virtual University, still based on Microsoft products. One of the problems I often encountered was that the students could not afford the licensed operating systems and software.

In the meantime Linux was growing and becoming much more user friendly and stable. The Ubuntu project was started to deliver a user friendly distribution of Linux based on the Free Open Source Software FOSS and the GNU license. The introduction of the Gnome Desktop brought about a user friendly system that is as easy to use as a Windows system or even a MacIntosh. The friendliest part of this new Ubuntu distribution of course, is its price, free!

Illustration 1: Microsoft Windows7 buy it for 199.99
(upgrade only)

Illustration 2: Ubuntu Desktop buy it for $0.00
(even if you only contribute 10 - 15 dollars it is still a bargain)

Not only is the operating system free but all of the applications are free as well. These include the popular OpenOffice or LibreOffice:

Open office.org / LibreOffice $0 <-Your choice-> Microsoft Office 329.95    

If you are into graphics and photo production then you have choices also:

GIMP Image Manipulation $0.00  <- Your Choice ->  Adobe Photoshop $699

Also shown above left are other media production tools available from the Ubuntu Software Center for free including, Blender, a 3D graphics animation programs and Inkscape a graphics program for working with Scalable Vector Graphics. There are many programs available to perform media production and we cover a lot of them in our course

The Vidiots Guide to Multimedia Production with Ubuntu Studio

Richard Stallman  Founder of GNU

For more information about the GNU and the Free Software Foundation you can follow this link:

http://www.gnu.org/