Re: Curious...Are most of you in tech-related careers/schooling?
On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, Scott --sidewalking-- wrote:
> All,
>
> I wonder if all (or most) of you are in similar careers and that is
> why you are so proficient with compiling and testing and tweaking
> all of this stuff. Or is it just a hobby that has gone on for so
> long that you have advanced your knowledge of Linux/Debian to these
> levels that all of you are at?
My linux path started out as mostly avoidance of MS products as much as I
could. My employer started out with a couple Windows machines that
weren't even networked, back in 1995.
But anyways, started out on Slackware in... Hmm. I remember 1.2.x kernels
more than the actual version. Something like version 3.0, which puts
it in 1996? Configuring everything was mostly depending on slackware to
do everything for me, and then we decided to start using it for internet
sharing at the office, as having seperate modems all over the place on
the win95 machines was becoming annoying. As well, our ISP kept killing
our account because we had multiple people logged in at once. Technical
solution won out over a social solution, as always!
Ran slackware for awhile, and then I heard of Debian and decided to try
that.
First time install was.. daunting, dselect can be pretty scary for someone
who barely knows what everything is. Ended up with a machine with
probably 10x as much stuff on it as needed.
Over the years, while learning how Debian worked I slowly got deeper into
it. In the last 3 years since my brother left the company I work
for, I completely took over Systems Administrator duties, instead of
trying to focus on handling the hardware needs. The last 2 years or so
have been the most learning and setting up everything up that we need,
getting deeper and deeper into what's possible with Linux.
As well, during that time I've tried to help whoever I can on the debian
and linux mailing lists, and in turn been helped many times by some of the
most knowledgeable people out there!
As for education:
I went to University in 95, decided very early the current program was a
waste of my time. Started working full time in the end of 96. Worked for
a year, and went back into the same university in 97. Dropped out after
two weeks after finding out that nothing really had changed there.
Continued to work full time, to present day.
My education and mis-education had no impact on the Debian path however.
So it's a hobby, and it's a job. I'm on unpaid call 24/7, so when I'm
not babysitting my pager, I'm constantly popping in and out checking my
email accounts, and seeing what is interesting that I can read and write
about. During the day I stick mostly to technical issues that I need
help on, or that I can help on. Night is the "social" side, such as this
email.
Mike
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