I've been asked to do an intro...
Okay then.
I'm Martin. 40 years old, lives in Denmark - tiny country sitting on top of Germany, and known at the world's oldest democracy/kingdom. We've had kings and queens for a thousand years in a row. We even have houses a thousand years old. Those are usually found inside churches, and i'm quite sure they've once been churches too.
In Denmark there are 5 million danes.
Here i live, work and enjoy.
I live in Jylland. Most likely that doesn't mean anything to most of you guys/girls, but what the heck - now i've said it. There. To Danes living on the island of Sjælland (wher we also have our capitol København) this means i'm most likely a farm-boy. Sort of like NewYork versus Kansas... Well, we really need to be nice to the americans out there - they know nothing more than America, right? There's America - and then there's 'the rest of the world'.
I work with computers on a professional level. But before you go all 'Ah, a PC guru!', we'll need to define 'computer' a bit more.
To me, a computer is anything electronic that will execute instructions.
A PC is a computer. But so is a microcontroller, and those are my area of work. Tiny scraps of silicon, holding next-to-nothing code memory and even less RAM. User interface is often a LED i can blink at the world with
Blink-blink...
I enjoy being a father to my kid. Kids are nice. Come to think of it, kids are hard to live without, once you've bonded to them, as fathers do.
All you kidless folks out there have a real treat coming your way, once you get to being kidless-no-more
I also like cars. Well, not Toyota Corollas - try something with more of an attitude. Italian sportscars. Tanks. American muscle cars. Limousines. Anything that will make me go 'Wow! when I examine it.
And last, but probably not least, i have quite a bit of fun tinkering with what is known as PCs. Not just Intel, though. Commodore Amiga. Sun UltraSparc. Just bring 'em on!
Most of these machines are capable of running Linux. And so, i've found myself being a Linux addict.
Well not addict, but more of a 'I've seen the light and this is the way to go'-kinda guy. If you get my meaning.
My thing these days is Debian.
Started out with Slackware (i think it was) back in '95. Moved past RedHat (too commercial) to Mandrake (End-user-beginners-graphic-desktop-thing) and was quite comfortable there (mostly because of the graphics), until i discovered a world outside Mandrake.
The thing is, Mandrake is also commercial. And their selling point is software. How much of it you want, that is.
The free version comes with only the basic stuff.
A bigger 'version' with more software available will cost ya.
An even bigger version will cost ya more.
And then i saw the light!
Debian is free. But it comes in three different versions - at least. How come?
Don't they all have the same amount of software? Then what's the difference?
Well, the difference is how far out on the ragged edge you want to be.
You can have almost ultimate stability - or you can have the newest and fastest and smartest stuff in town.
For free. And you get a political 'state of mind' for free, too. These guys are devoted to being noncommercial. To me this means 'no catch'.
Increasingly important as time goes by, if you ask me.
Oh, did i forget to mention that i dislike cardboard-box-salesmen like those found in most 'superstores'? You know; sharp-dressed guys with a smartass-haircut, coming your way to convince you that this-or-that-product is impossible to live without. Know-nothings, living off the fact that all too many customers in these superstores know even less, and are thus easily tricked into buying this-or-that.
I've developed a habit with these guys. One of tricking them into believing i'm a regular-joe kind of customer lookin around for a bargain.
I'll politely talk to them, and let them get all warmed-up, thinking "What can i sell to this bozo?". Then we'll get a little technical. Just a wee bit. if I then catch this likely-to-be-a-lyin'-piece-'o-crap salesperson not knowing what he's talking about - i'll RAM him against the wall (metaphorically speaking) and simply take him apart - preferably in a loud an clear voice.
Politely, of course. Good manners 'n all. But i will nonetheless take him apart, stomp him into the ground and p*ss on his grave as a grand finale.
Wearing a polite smile.
My humble hope is that this will make his pea-brain go 'Ah, i'll simply HAVE to go figure out what it *is* i'm selling!'. On the average I have little success. On my subsequent return to such a store, these human cockroaches will simply duck and run for cover.
Few have the guts to stand up and demonstrate their newfound knowledge in the area of 'stuff I sell'. I suspect it's because they forgot to go home and do some reading on the subject. Or they simply don't care.
The bright side of this is that these salespeople do at least duck and run. It might be a sign they actually have a conscience. On the other hand it might also just be that they don't particularly like being splattered all over the floor in full public view...
But IF they do stand up and talk to me again, and i discover they have learned about the ways of the computer (or inkjet-printer or...), i'll happily do business with them.
Should anyone in the audience feel the urge to copycat me, one sure way of bringing most smartass-salespeople off-balance is telling them "I intend to use it with Linux!"
Ah, you've already tried that...
Goes to show that salespeople in general are a crummy lot.
Which brings us back to LinuxQuestions. Here you can reach out for help and actually get it.
How nice!
Really.
