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Does Free Software Restore Dignity?

03.06.2011
The other day a high-school student came by the public library computer center where I work in Takoma Park, Maryland. I recognized him right away as a student who regularly visits the computer center to do his homework. On this visit he looked sad. "Do you have a restore DVD for this Sony Vaio laptop?" he asked, with his relatively new Windows 7 laptop underneath his arm.

"Sorry, no," I replied.

His laptop needed to be restored, and he had misplaced the restore DVD. He tells me Sony requires $139 to send him a restore DVD. He doesn't have a spare $139, and neither do his hard-working parents. I didn't want this student to leave empty-handed, so I said, "If you like, I'll install Linux on your laptop, and you can get it working again that way."

"That's just fine with me," he replied quickly.

About 20 minutes later we had installed on his laptop, and he was surfing the Web wirelessly using Firefox. Although he faced a punishing charge from Sony, he found a helping hand at his local public library. But I wonder: Do other public libraries help community members install Linux on computers? Do other public libraries hand out Linux CDs and/or CDs with OpenOffice? Perhaps a few public libraries do. For the most part, though, community members in other towns have few options when Sony requires a fee of $139 for a restore DVD.

Hmmmm. I wonder if that $139 includes the shipping and handling fee? If I were Sony, I'd charge $39 for shipping and handling. Might as well gouge people when they are at their most vulnerable, right? Might as well humiliate that high-school student in front of his parents. Serves him right for misplacing his restore DVD.