Christian OS?

[Bainespal]

I ran across the Ubuntu Christian Edition website a moment ago, and the concept of a specifically Christian operating system seems so bizarre but also intriguing that I'm impulsively posting about it here:

ubuntuce.com/index.htm

One of the stated purposes is to get Christians to adopt Linux? Well... anything to break the image that Christians only use ugly beige Windows 98 boxes.

[rjj7]

Well, I guess the only way to make OS arguments more like religious arguments is to--well--bring religion into it.


Though this puts me in mind of another potential market. Republican Operating Systems!

[Kessie]

I just want an operating system I can play games on, run my art programs on, and not have to use command prompts for any of it. Once Linux can do all those things, I'll consider it. Steam is only just starting to open up support for it.

A Christian OS is ridiculous. We might as well have Christian hammers and nails, Christian saws, Christian cars, and a Christian label on every other tool we own. Aren't we cloistered enough?

[Ranger Varon]

Absolutely bizarre. That reminds me of the Christian knock-off of the ipad and Testamints.

[birdnerd]

Ahh, marketing.

[yoda47]

Yeah, I don't seethe point either.

And doesn't have KDE...

[newburydave]

Hey, Ubuntu is a good system.

I'm downloading a copy. One thing you can use it for in the ISO version is set up a bootable dvd to run the system without loading it on your hard drive. This is a recommended practice to ensure online security.

What can I say, I'm a geek .

The specific Christian features that come preloaded look impressive.

I'll let you know how it works.

SGD
dave

[Joel P.]

Hey, you're not the only one, Dave. I've done that before.

I have to agree with Kessie on this - 'aren't we cloistered enough?' There's nothing (so far as I'm aware) inherently immoral about specific operating systems. Though, by buying an OS from a certain company which supports immoral practices you may be indirectly supporting them....but that's a whole other can o' worms.

[newburydave]

Joel;

I looked at the product page and thought the features that come preloaded were a useful package.

I like Ubuntu for another reason. I have an old copy of it that I run from a CD. It has a very small footprint for an OS, so it runs well on my older machines (OK, OK obsolete machines. I don't like to change until the machine or system is dead). Yankee cheap, you know.

And hey, aside from the hour plus download time on my DSL 3.0 iNet link the price is definitely right.

RE: being cloistered.

I don't think anyone but you knows what operating system you are running, the connectivity and interactivity on the net accepts them all.

Now a good, reliable filtering system...that sounds like a plus.

Write on beloved sibs
(on any OS you can)

SGD
dave

PS: the trouble is that all the worms in that can are connected to each other. kind of scary when you think of it.

This OS may let us live "off the net".

[Joel P.]

Wait, wait...."this OS may let us live 'off the net'"... Why haven't I thought of that? I should get started brainstorming programs to make that feasible along with my Linux-loving friend. Better yet, build a back door into the net so we won't have to have the mark in order to use it....oh yes. *sinister chuckle* This is grand. LOL.

Yes, Ubuntu is great memory-wise (and UI-wise) but I found the lack of compatibility...irritating. Of course, I use some obscure and/or outdated programs on a regular basis, so Ubuntu has never really been for me. If I ever get a secondary computer, though, I'd definitely use it.

And Re: RE: Being cloistered: I don't think I used the word correctly. Sorry. What I was getting at is this: the world already tends to see us (Christians) as being 'above it all' or 'high and mighty' or self-righteous. And 'look at that! They've got their own OS now.'

I guess it's just....it strikes me as something we shouldn't be wasting our time on. I wouldn't mind having a software suite with 'Christian' programs (like super-well-designed crack-proof parental controls) to install on my computer; but having a whole OS labeled as Christian...it seems to be overkill.

Anywho, there's my two cents (or five paragraphs). I don't have a problem if the rest of y'all want to use it, but I'll stick with my 'secular' OS.

[newburydave]

Well, I'm currently using Win7 and XP. I just like to experiment with other Linux based OS offerings.

I think that you do bring up a very current and important point though. Actually, I think your first choice, Cloistered, was a good turn of a phrase for a very real issue that each of us face in our Christian lives.

I've observed that too many Church goers do live "Socially Cloistered" lives and thereby miss their chance to be part of the great commission workers.

A statistic that our pastor quoted, in one of his sermons last month on "Jesus was a Friend of Sinners", was that Christians tend to shed non-Christian friends, so that after a few years they don't have any unbelieving friends, not true close friends. Acquaintances perhaps, people we work with yes but no true friends outside of the pale of saving faith.

As a whole evangelicals and observant members of the more formal churches gather themselves into Christian social ghettos and they arrange their lives so they can live within a "Cloister Force Field" that protects them from the corrupting influences of the UNGODLY.

Do you think this "fear to touch the spiritual lepers" around us supports the claim that we are indwelt by the Sovereign, Omnipotent God of the universe? I think not.

Our Pastors sermon was part of a series titled "I want to live like that". This series explored the practical living that Jesus exampled and commanded his disciples to follow. I never realized before how many times the phrase "live like this/that" or an equivalent occurs in the Gospel accounts of Jesus direct teachings.

Personally, since I was saved out of the world I/we never really fit into the cloister. From the beginning I made a point of mixing it up with as many unbelievers as possible. After we started the inner city street mission that became our "Church Crowd". I'm not a very bright bulb in the chandelier, but even I realized that you can't convert the already converted; in order to save souls you have to plow, sow and water among the unbelievers.

(On a personal level, I remember the feeling of drowning in the dark Christless ocean of alienation from God, with no known help in sight, before Jesus took hold of me. How can we who know Him not go out into that realm seeking our lost siblings?)

Now this social exclusiveness, I believe, is the true cloister that we need to be terrified of. Unless we move out of our social ghettos and become true friends to sinners (as Jesus was/is) we have little hope of bringing them to our savior.

(Okay, rant alert; Sorry, it's just a subject I feel strongly about.)

============

In my thinking an OS is just a piece of stuff that has some utility but no real intrinsic value. It is either a time saver or a time waster. Maybe I'm insensitive but I don't see how a Christian focused OS either adds to or detracts from the "Social Ghetto" that may have us imprisoned within our own hearts and minds.

Truly lifting up our eyes to the harvest field around us and going out to mix it up with the souls bowed down and breaking under sorrow (the grain ripe to harvest) with divinely empowered deeds of love and mercy; offering them true friendship (condescending to men of low estate as the KJV translates it) is the only way to bust out of our own personal "Cloister"; IMHO.

As writers we spend a lot of time sequestered of necessity; but to paraphrase E.M.Bounds "Life Giving Writing is not the exercise of study and research, but the out flow of a life lived for God." He wrote that about Preaching (in his book "The Preacher and Prayer") but I believe that as Christian authors it apples to us as well.

If we make a habit of befriending the unbelievers around us and loving them into the Kingdom (or at least trying to help them any way we can) then that theme will naturally flow into our writing and make our prose into life giving truth to some who read us.

Live out His Unconditional Love for the lost until it consumes you, then every part of you life (including your writing) will shine with His presence. And if we lift Him up, He will draw the world (the unbelievers) to Himself.

Write on beloved siblings
Think how bright is our Inheritance in Jesus, especially for those who work diligently to build it up in the time we're given here.

SGD
dave

PS - that off the web comment was sort of tongue in cheek. When the Babylonians were rolling down on Jerusalem for its final destruction God specifically intervened to keep the Prophet Jeremiah from fleeing out of the city.

His post of duty was in the midst of the dying city, bearing witness to God and His Salvation in the midst of the chaos. I am of the opinion that as Christians this is our place of duty as well. We are not to shrink from the fire, we are instead to labor in the fire to pluck as many "brands from the burning", souls of our lost siblings, out of the fire to eternal safety before everything is finally burned up in God's renovation of this universe.

We are of the number who are to overcome the Devil by "The Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our Testimony." Can you feel it?

[fluke]

These posts from JoelP and Newburydave make me wish we had a rep command like on the stackexchange sites. But the discussions here are exactly what SE doesn't want. They want questions that can be directly answered and accepted as correct, while we are more of a toss-ideas-around-and-see-what-works place.

[newburydave]

Umm...Fluke;

Pardon my total ignorance but "stackexchange" and "rep" are what?

SGD
dave