Reinstalling Linux Ubuntu brings a flood of memories

Memories came back to me as I downloaded Ubuntu in my brother's Lenovo ThinkPad. 

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It was his old work computer, wiped of any traces of work-related memory, and reduced to the laptop's version of a tabula rasa. It runs on Windows, a fine operating system whose most current version feels foreign to me. (I think Windows reached its peak of elegance and user-friendliness with Windows 98.)

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This ThinkPad looks old but not that old. It bears scratches of use. I love this aesthetic: the gamit na gamit look. The Japanese may call it wabi-sabi, the  imperfection that comes with the natural cycle of decay. 

I automatically decided to partition the hard drive to house both Windows and Linux operating systems. I still had the skill to do that many years later, like riding a bicycle. 

I could think of no better Linux distribution than Ubuntu. Has it really been 17 years since the ISO disc had arrived in the mail, addressed to my UP Diliman dorm room in the year 2008?  I remember how excited I was then, intrigued by the concept of having a computer that looks and feels different. I had great fun upgrading to various versions. I wrote that playing around with the OS, specifically installing Wine, a layer over Ubuntu that allowed me to run Windows programs, gave me "the thrills."

This time, instead of waiting for my installation CD to arrive, I downloaded a 5 Gb file to the ThinkPad and, using a special program, converted my flash drive to an installation disk. The download took less than 10 minutes; today's internet connection is so fast compared to how it was -- oh my, here we go again -- seventeen years ago, when I had to wait for an entire day for the process to complete. 

I plugged in the installation hard drive as I rebooted the computer and pressed F12 repeatedly. The Ubuntu installation proceeded smoothly from there.

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I did not realize the process of installing Ubuntu in an old, overused laptop would bring a flood of memories, many great ones for which I am extremely grateful. My Yakal dorm room and my bunk bed, my roommates, my old college life, my friends from Molecular Biology and the Dorm Christian Fellowship. Life was simple and uncomplicated. I could not have imagined what I would be 10 years after college graduation. I am way past that timestamp. It has been seventeen years, and God's goodness has run, and continues to run, after me.

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Comments

  1. UnknownThu Jul 03, 09:23:00 PM GMT+8

    that looks like a well-preserved Thinkpad to me! what will you use Ubuntu for?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lance CatedralSun Jul 06, 01:46:00 AM GMT+8

    It's in great condition pa. Work and hobby, mostly the latter, as back up. I use a Macbook Air for my clinic and lectures; an iMac desktop computer at home. The files are uploaded in a cloud, so it's easy for me to switch devices.

    ReplyDelete

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