Orionds

Authored Comments

As I read the article, my emotions got the better of me and I couldn't stop the tears welling up.

I am a retired teacher of English in Asia, in one of its modern metropolises. Windows (and even Apple) is so deeply entrenched in the psyche of the users here that it is a constant struggle. I volunteer at my old school's library and we have resurrected a number of old single-core PCs, notebooks and netbooks using Linux (all Xubuntu now).

We use them mainly for streaming English video that have only English subtitlles in an attempt to expose students to more English as well as its culture. Too much of the teaching of English here is on grammar rules, vocabulary memorization (of words in isolation) and rigidly guided speaking and writing. Much of the fun, even wackiness and also the finer art of the language are lost. English becomes here, for most students, a source of pain and anxiety.

Teachers here don't have their own classrooms to put in the things they want like the Linux PCs for the Asian Penguins. So, as a volunteer in the library, this becomes even more of an impossible dream.

The Asian Penguins need not worry about their future. Like Linux throughout the world, from the smallest devices to the most powerful super comptuers, they can only grow. I would like to congratulate them on their missions and wish them even greater accomplishments to come.