A conversation in traffic

Having the specialty licence plate in California that reads GNU LNUX has its privileges. It also has its responsibilities. I occasionally get waves from Linux users, or sneers (or worse) from whom I presume are Windows fanboys (and in once case, a fangirl?).

Once, while driving on Highway 17 — a twisty, heart-in-your-mouth road connecting Santa Cruz to the Silicon Valley — a Toyota passed me while the passenger stuck his head out the window and yelled, “Debbbbbbbbbbbb-Eeeeeeeeeee-Annnnnnnnnnnnnn!” and sped ahead of me.

But yesterday I had a conversation with someone in traffic about Linux. Normally, a conversation in traffic involves discussion between people in the same car. But while stuck in the parking lot that Highway 1 becomes as early as 3:30 p.m. on any afternoon in Santa Cruz (duuuuuuuude, go figure), I was transfixed on the bumper in front of me when I heard a voice say, “Hey.”

I turned to my left. A guy in a cream colored Honda, passenger side window open, got my attention at 15 mph as we rolled forward in our own lanes.

“I have a Mac mini. What version of Linux should I run?” he asked.

Look forward. Check the car in front. Respond. “Fedora,” I responded, leaning out my window.

He repeated the drill to keep from running into the car in front of him. “I’m a school teacher, and I don’t have money. Doesn’t Fedora cost money?”

“Nah, Fedora is free. Go to fedoraproject.org and download it.”

“Thanks.”

His lane started moving faster than mine and he just waved and drove on.

Of course, I don’t know if his Mac mini is a PowerPC or Intel Mac, and I was kind of hoping that I could pull up beside him again and ask, but it was an opportunity lost. But hopefully there’s one more Fedora user out there thanks to a traffic jam.

(Fedora ambassador Larry Cafiero runs HeliOS Solutions West in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)