I admire people who don't speak English and take the steps to learn it.  From what I hear, it's one of the more difficult languages to learn.  (You can read about some examples of why on my personal blog).  I've talked to a few Chinese who were learning it who said English has too many naunces or exceptions to the rules.

How is this related to Ubuntu or Linux?  Well, as we all know, the latest and greatest Ubuntu 8.04 LTS will be among us in a few days.  I was google-ing Ship-It where I came across a blog post saying that Ship-It is taking orders for Ubuntu 8.04. 

The blog design caught my eye and I browsed the website a little more.  The blog is written by Pau and Álvaro who describe their website, SomGNU.org, as

"...a project that were born from SomGNU.cat (in catalan language). We decided to begin an English version of our Free Software Blog in order to:

1. Practising our English (so you have to forgive us if you think our English is not really good)

2. Promoting Free Software and GNU/Linux"

Good for them!  Not only do they get to practice English, but they do so in a way that contributes to Open Source, Free Software, and Linux communities. 

I suppose I can't blame people for taking things at face value.  Instant judgement calls and snap decision making run rampant in North America.  I'm no saint, I do it too.  But man, some people do it all the time or accidentally do it in really dumb ways.

Take this ZDnet article called My kid hates linux.  The writer describes how he has a linux machine with a virtual guest operating system of Microsoft Windows XP installed.  He lets his kid use the computer and the kid spends most of his time using XP, not Linux.

Later the kids tells him to install Windows XP "because Linux sucks".  Somehow the author can stake the claim that "the kid hates Linux".  

Uh no.  Such a claim cannot be made.   First of all, the kid didn't say he hates linux.  He said it sucks. The word hate and the slang meaning of suck have different meanings. 

By presenting him with a choice of using Linux or Windows XP with no clear incentive to take the time to learn Linux, OF COURSE a kid is going to choose the lazy option of using whathe is accustomed to using.

The only claim he could make, in my opinion, "when given a choice, my kid uses Windows, not Linux".

The article mentions the kid used Mandriva and Edubuntu which met his needs at the time.  So at one point, the kid didn't think Linux sucks. 

So first Linux doesn't suck.  Years go by where Linux has been making ease-of-use improvements.  Then suddently Linux sucks.  Something else is going on here but the author chooses to take things at face value and not delve deeper into WHY his kid said that.  If he would discuss WHY his post would have been insightful.

The world is an exciting place full of unique and wonderful places, people and ideas. A person is born learning and leaves the world still learning. It’s a part of life…or it should be…

Imagine being barred from experiencing or being exposed to the worlds wonders simply because you did not have the finances? Or you lived in a remote area with little to no educational institutions or resources such as teachers.

Ubuntu’s founder, Mark Shuttleworth, is talking with educators to start an initiative to provide free learning and learning resources online. The concept is dubbed “Open Education” and it is truly a global revolution.

My hat is off to you yet again, Shuttleworth. Thank you.

*edit*

I just found out that the concept “Open Education” has actually been around for awhile.  Check out Wiki Educator which was launched in May 2006.