On Fri, 2003-01-17 at 11:40, Cam Ellison wrote: > * Lloyd Zusman (ljz@asfast.com) wrote: > > "Scott --sidewalking--" <sidewalking@webpipe.net> writes: > > > > > [ ... ] > > > > > > 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? > > > > > > Just curious... > > > > Well, as for me, I wrote my first computer program in 1969, and we all > > used puchcards and paper tape and printouts, as well as console entry > > switches on the computer itself. We programmed in Assembly Language, > > FORTRAN, PL/I, and some people used a new, state-of-the-art experimental > > language called Basic, which actually ran on an interactive terminal (a > > 10 character-per-second teletype that also accepted paper tape). > > I can top that by a couple of years, since I started in 1965, but > didn't have the pleasure of working with Unix, since I shifted into > psychology (I'm now an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, and I > won't explain because the explanation is proportionately as long as > the label). I'd hardly consider myself a hacker, but I guess it's all > relative. One of the things I particularly enjoy about this list is > that relatively-unlearned guys like me have an opportunity to offer > help to someone else. If you've had to solve a problem, the odds are > that someone else will shortly have the same problem. You help them > with it, and get to look like a genius. > > Just for the record, I encountered Windows 1.0 at work, hated it, and > haven't used it willingly since, unless you count having to install it > so OS/2 could deal with M$-centric software. > > Cheers > > Cam > > -- > Cam Ellison Ph.D. R.Psych. > >From Roberts Creek on B.C.'s incomparable Sunshine Coast > cam@ellisonet.ca > camellison@dccnet.com cam@fleuryassociates.com Y'know, I used Windows 1.0 as well, on an AT&T 6300 PC (the one built by Olivetti, where you removed the bottom to get into the system) and only once in over a year succeeded in crashing it, while running PageMaker and scanner software on 640 KB of RAM. It wasn't the most technologically advanced platform, and was well shy of the Macintosh, but it was the most reliable version of Windows I used until NT 3.51, and better running. I went to OS/2 when DOS 6.0 blew up on my (yup, doublespace) - going with Stacker for OS/2 on OS/2 2.1 and dual-booting to DOS 6.22/Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Later, I replaced that 486 box with a Pentium, where I started with OS/2 and after a year, also NT 3.51. OS/2 was actually quite something in *certain* respects, mostly unleveraged, unfortunately, such as the ability to make use of extended attributes for whatever could be useful - what program(s) use the file, search keywords, creator, icons, and any manner of things not yet envisioned. Then I started seeing that Linux was to the point where you could find distributions with accompanying software on CD. In 1997, I got the first CDs, in 1998, got it working, and *evolved* into using it between 1998 and early 2000, when the drive that had NT (and the OS/2 boot manager) died and I replaced it without restoring NT (hadn't used it in months,) devoting much more disk space to Linux. The old OS/2 partition didn't work right, so it got a new one, too, but it was never anything near the old system, and as the year finished out, I got my current machine and made it a dedicated Debian GNU/Linux system, while OS/2 was relegated to when I wanted to play Galactic Civilisations. I have played with various BSD at points on a second drive, but they aren't proving to be what I am looking for now, and I don't want to be without my main Linux system in the time it would take to make them usable. When I get the additional boards, I'll play there ;) -- Mark L. Kahnt, FLMI/M, ALHC, HIA, AIAA, ACS, MHP ML Kahnt New Markets Consulting Tel: (613) 531-8684 / (613) 539-0935 Email: kahnt@hosehead.dyndns.org
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