Rob (Retired)

As is true for many of you, I have been interested in computing and computers for quite a while. In my case that means back in the mainframe days. The first “user interface” I ever used was an IBM 026 Keypunch making punched cards for an IBM System/370. When the personal computer arrived in the 1980s I was ready to go! My first personal computer was a Radio Shack Color Computer that used a cassette tape recorder as its permanent storage media. We have certainly come a long way since those days.

I have dabbled a bit at programming in Fortran, Basic, C, C++, Python, and C#/VB.NET, but am not a professional programmer. I find that a working knowledge of computer languages is essential to survival in a technical field. Programming also represents a bit of enjoyable puzzle-solving. Some folks do crosswords or Sudoku, I write programs.

I have a long, on-again-off-again interest in Linux that dates back into the Slackware-on-a-hundred-floppies days of the 1990s. In the early days of Linux, I found it to be a bit of a frustrating experience because of my lack of exposure to Unix. As I slowly learned my way around what we now call “the command line” I found that it was actually possible to do useful work on Linux, and in some cases was easier to get things done there.

Today, Linux Mint is especially attractive because it just works. I find that the poking and prodding required to use other Linux distros is mostly missing from Mint, and that’s a very good thing.

I would not describe myself as a Linux advocate, nor as an open-source advocate. I’m a pragmatist… if it works, I’ll use it. I think Linux has some real advantages in some circumstances, and some formidable challenges to overcome in others. I use both Windows and Linux personally, and I don’t see that really changing any time soon. I don’t use an Apple computer primarily because I’ve never found a use that justified the additional cost. I don’t have much patience for the all-or-nothing fanatics on either side of the software freedom debate. Life just isn’t that simple, and there are good reasons why both free and proprietary software should exist.

[email protected]

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.20 (MingW32)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=2Wx/
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----