GACK! Just bought a new computer. I haven’t purchased a new one in nine years. I have three computers, two Macs and a Lenovo PC. The iMac (the desktop Mac) came home with me from the Syracuse Apple Store nine years ago yesterday. The other two, a black Macbook and a Lenovo netbook had been given to me as gifts (used, but nonetheless valuable and greatly appreciated) by good friends who had the notion that since I’m a writer and blogger, I should have a laptop.

The iMac has seen better days. The CPU and optical drive fans have been running hard, and from what online support I have found, this indicates it can use an interior cleaning. Dust and things can find their way in the over nine years.

The BlackBook no longer has a battery. Apple doesn’t make a battery for it anymore, and buying one is expensive, at least for a machine seven years of age.

The Lenovo netbook is fine. I’m using it now to write this, but at 1GB of RAM it is incapable of doing more than one thing at a time. My intent for it is to use it exclusively for writing and blogging, as it runs LibreOffice well. But as things go, I need to look up stuff, or get caught up on Facebook or Awestruck, and so Firefox is running several tabs, and LibreOffice is open…. and then it slows to a crawl.

The Lenovo runs Linux Mint 17.2 for its OS. The computer I am considering is a Dell Inspiron 14, in the 3000 series. AND it ships with Linux Ubuntu preinstalled! I prefer Mint to Ubuntu, and so may change then when it arrives. We’ll see. (Definitely a “We’ll see,” as I have found online reviews indicating it might be hard to install a different Linux distro other than the Dell-specialized one.)

To the uninformed: Linux (be it Ubuntu or Mint, and there are scores of other versions, too) is an alternative computer operating system. Not Microsoft Windows, and not Apple Mac OS X, it is a free and open source OS. “Free” as in “no cost,” but also as in “liberty” and “freedom.” Unlike the other two OS’s mentioned, you own the OS totally, can do whatever you wish with it, such as install it on any computer capable of running it, give it away to friends, whatever. No proprietary restrictions like Microsoft and Apple imposes. The “open source” means that the source code (the underlying code) can be viewable by anyone who wishes to look at it and they can also change it to suit their needs. This capability is useless to probably 99.9% of computer owners, but it is important from a philosophical or ideological viewpoint, as well as the usual technical ones.

Ubuntu is the most widely used version of Linux, Mint is also very popular and as I said, my preference for now. Fedora is another version with a good following. (One terminology lesson: the preferred term for “version” in referring to a brand of Linux is “distro,” short for “distribution.”)

My philosophical and ideological reasons for preferring Linux to Windows or OS X differ a little from the typical. Most Linux users prefer it from the freedom standpoint, as well as a dedication to open source software. There is a definite commitment amongst the Linux community to these ideals; and while I share them, (I like the idea that I can own the OS, as well as knowing that open source provides for a great diversity in software. More on this at some other time as this post is getting long enough already!) my reasons differ.

But my peculiar reason is that owning a Linux computer and using free/open source software, is that it’s very Distributisty. What’s that? Is that like a Linux “distribution?” No, but I find the similarity amusing. “Distributism” is an economic theory derived from Papal encyclicals, and subsequently developed by English writers such as GK Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Fr. Vincent McNabb. I must have blogged about it before, given that there’s a “Distributism” category, but in short, it is an economic philosophy in which the ownership of the means of production are distributed as widely as possible. There is a decentralization of economic power; power isn’t concentrated in the hands of the few who primarily wish to obtain more, as is the case with capitalism as traditionally practiced; and also not socialism, for that, as traditionally practiced concentrates economic power in the hands of the State.

In both capitalism and socialism, the individual is subject to the economy. To paraphrase Jesus, “The economy was made for Man, not Man for the economy.”

Property is widely held: home ownership along with sufficient land to live on is encouraged; the means to “own” your job (traditionally either in arts and shopcrafts or farming; nowadays either similar professions or any manner of self-employment. Worker’s cooperatives are common alternatives to this.

And in my opinion, as a writer and blogger and therefore a creator of things, free/open source software, including operating systems serve a Distributist model. I own the PC and all of the software on it. No leasing, no restrictions on use that serve only the corporate interest. (I mean, seriously, why should I have to buy several copies of MS Office for each PC? If I own the thing, I should be able to install it on as many PC’s as I own! Oh, you mean I don’t actually own my copy of Office… I merely lease it…?)

I own the means of production concerning my wordsmithing. Linux; LibreOffice for writing and creating blog drafts; WordPress, the blogging platform I use; Mozilla Firefox, the web browser I connect to others with and look up stuff; and Mozilla Thunderbird for email. All are free/opensource and I own my copies of each. It’s very Distributisty.

(I’ll probably blog more on Distributism over time; to get you started, read “Rerum Novarum” by Pope Leo XIII. You can find it here: Rerum Novarum )

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