Rev for Linux "Seal of Approval"

[Richmond Mathewson]

I think that the word 'Linux' (or, if we want to be picky 'Gnu-Linux') is becoming increasingly distracting!

I have customers who come to me because they (like 95% of Bulgarians)
 have a "P" copy of Windows on their PC and are just waking up (!!!), 
mainly stimulated by the marching feet of the European Community. 
If I use the word 'Linux' it is almost as bad as offering a Hasidic chap a 
bacon sandwich - they go "all funny" and that is the end of my chance.

So (what a 'naughty' fellow I am) I tell them that I have a number of OpenSource
OS's available that I can install, and then I name them: "Ubuntu", "Kubuntu",
"Puppy", "Tilix" and so on; then tell them what software packages are installed with each
OS and their capabilities. My customers don't know about Linux, don't care, and
just want me to get their PC up and running with the capabilities it had when running 
Windows before cops get to them and fine them $5,000 and confiscate their PC: and
with the -buntu family I can honestly say I can do that very quickly indeed.

The other day I went to buy a Logitech mouse and on the box it has a Windows 
and a Mac symbol so I knew it would work with both those OS's - now had it
has an Ubuntu (for example) symbol I would have felt even better. Had it
had TUX I would have felt queasy; very queasy; as I feel comfortable with 
Debian-derived systems - but not other Linux systems.

So we need "seals of Approval" for OS's. not some vague term that covers
a multitude of things.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson
 
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"Philosophical problems are confusions arising owing to the fluidity of meanings users attach to words and phrases."
                                       Mathewson, 2006
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