An Immigrant from the City of Ubuntu

Continued from:

• Compassion in the Aftermath of War
• Journey from the Kingdom of Microsoft to the Land of Linux
• A New Life in the Village of Mint

One day as the shadows were lengthening and the sun was nearing the horizon, a horse-drawn cart slowly made its way through the streets of the Village of Mint. The cart was piled high with all sorts of furniture such as a kitchen table, an iron bed, wooden chairs, a large hand-carved wardrobe, and various other items. It looked as if the entire contents of a small house had been loaded onto the cart. The man driving had the appearance of a vagabond. He was a dark, shadowy character, with dirt on his face and rips in his clothing exposing dirt-covered flesh on his left arm and left leg. It was obvious that some misfortune had befallen him, and his dazed look revealed that it was not long ago.

Even though he looked disheveled and befuddled, he had a steady gaze and a clear sense of purpose in his direction; he knew where he was going.

A few of the villagers called to him as he rode by:

"Are you all right?"
"Can I help you?"
"Do you need something?"

To all these queries, he answered, "No thanks, I'll be fine soon."

He continued on his way through the streets of the village until he came to the outskirts where new mint-green houses were being constructed by volunteers. One of the houses looked nearly complete. Swinging down from his cart and limping up to the house, he spoke to the workers, "Hello, will you be done with this house today?"

"Yes, we have just finished now," was the reply.

"Is it spoken for already?" asked the man.

"No, it is yours to dwell in," replied a worker. "You look as if something dreadful has happened to you. May I ask what?"

"It is a long story," replied the man, "but in the end I'm not quite sure what really happened. I had spent a long time fixing my house in the city of Ubuntu. I had everything just the way I liked it, but then this afternoon the house crashed down around me. I don't know what caused it, but I was able to escape with my life and a few extra bruises and scrapes. I pulled out my belongings from the rubble, which I brought here in this cart. I came to the village of Mint because the houses you build already have most of the modifications I had made in my old house in the city of Ubuntu. This house looks almost like a house I would build myself. There are only a few things I will have to add."

"I'm glad to hear that you like our houses here," replied the builder. "Many people have come from the city of Ubuntu to live in our village. I hope you like it here."

"I believe I shall enjoy the quietness of this village more than the noise and hurried pace of the city."

"Well, we must be going. Enjoy your new house!"

After the workers left the house, the man washed himself and had a good night's rest. Before noon the next day, he had unpacked all his belongings and set up his new house just the way he liked it. He was very happy that he had an entirely new house in the village of Mint that was every bit as good as his highly customized house in the city of Ubuntu.

* * * * * *
By the way, this story is about me. For some reason, the Ubuntu computer I use at work refused to boot after a software update. I was able to boot from another partition on the hard drive that had an earlier version of Ubuntu so I could work the rest of the day. At the end of the day, I installed Linux Mint in about 20 minutes, and it was pretty much set up the way I liked. The easiest part with the reinstall is that all my files were in my home directory, and I didn't have to reconfigure every application. The next morning I installed the rest of the tools I use. In all, I don't think I lost more than an hour or so. Try that with reinstalling Windows!