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bytor4232
March 2nd, 2007, 11:06 PM
Greetings! I've been lurking for quite some time, and figured I'd introduce myself. My name is Arthur H. Johnson II. I hope this post doesn't come across as too haughty, I'm trying not to pat myself on the back too much, just being honest.

I'm 34, have a Wife and two children, one who is seven and already a Linux advocate, and a four month old baby. My family is big on Soccer, Ive been coaching since High School and try to find some pickup games here and there. My wife played most of her life up untill college. I help run my daughters AYSO Soccer League and serve as the regions Assistant Chief Referee, which is pretty much a glorified secretary that refs games and tries to make sure these poor kids have officials at their games. With 10,000 kids playing every weekend, its a pretty tough job. I wind up reffing about 3 games a weekend, in addition to coaching my daughters games. I'm going through the application process to become my daughters Scout Leader, which I'm sure is going to be a pretty fun adventure.

Not much to say about the baby, other than the fact that she is beautiful, just like her sister and mother: http://rose.jfmi.net (those are old, she's gotten even more georgeous as she's grown).

Enough about my personal life. On to the topic at hand:

I've made the conversion to Ubuntu. Mostly I was curious to find out what everyone was so excited about. Installed 6.10 on my secondary test machine to give it a whirl, and this baby really blew my hair back.

Wow, what a distro. Clean, stable, up to date, and everything just works. I love how Gnome has been layed out, and the desktop is hardly bulkey, yet not lean either. It seems to make Linux and GNU seem more in competition with OS/X and Vista/XP rather than lagging as with other distros. I'm proud to offer a Ubuntu CD to someone in need, and eager to spread the word. I haven't felt like this in YEARS.

Plus, as I've said it before, everything just WORKS. I mean really works. I plug in my iPod, up pops Rhythmbox. I insert a CD, it asks me what I want to do with it. Updates hit the airwaves, it helps me install them. Thats the way it should be.

Not that I need help, I'm hardly a newbie.

I started with BSD in the early 1990's, but quickly jumped to this new thing called "Linux" as soon as I could. Being an avid OS/2 user, I simply got tired of IBM's shoddy support, and was looking for the next Microsoft alternative, and I couldn't afford a Mac. Started with Slackware, moved to Red Hat when 5.1 came out, to Mandrake for a short time, then finally Debian in 2002 when Woody hit the mirrors.

In fact, the machine I installed Woody on is still active and in service for the last five years as my main Linux box, which now serves as a workstation, personal video recorder, and family intranet server. I lovingly named the machine Cygnus back in the mid nineties. Its like one of my children. The only thing left on it from the origional 486 is the floppy drive, and I only have that plugged in to maintain that link to the origional machine it was built and upgraded from. I doubt the floppy drive still works, haven't used it in years ;)

I'm also a Linux professional. I've worked in Linux consulting and systems administration since 1997. Employed with Tucows for several years, worked for The Linux Box in Ann Arbor Michigan for a few years, then finally came to rest where I am today, Able Team.

I am very impressed with the community, and the methodology behind Ubuntu. I'm gradually going to move all of my workstations over to Ubuntu eventually, and attempt to seek an active role in the community. I'm a pretty busy man, but will find the time to give back to this venerable project.

This is the first distro in years that has made me want to advocate for the cause all over again. Ubuntu, and its related projects esp Edubuntu, are amazing. This project breaths new life into a stale and stagnant elitist community and puts Linux back where it belongs, in the People's hands.

You have definately won over a faithful convert.

- Arthur

adam.tropics
March 2nd, 2007, 11:50 PM
Another happy camper! Welcome!


...two children, one who is seven and already a Linux advocate, and a four month old baby...

That's funny, every time I have tried to convert my daughter (14), she has thrown a blond moment!

Pikestaff
March 3rd, 2007, 12:36 AM
Welcome! I felt largely the same when I stumbled across Ubuntu, I was just impressed with how good the OS was.

old_geekster
March 3rd, 2007, 04:33 AM
Welcome to the big U.

You don't sound too haughty, simply like a great family man! Congrats on a wonderful family. Also, you would be foolish not to be proud of your extensive career.

I have tried other distros of Linux and finally landed on Ubuntu Edgy Eft. I'm not new to command lines since I began with M$ DOS, but like the idea of a GUI interface. It certainly makes the learning curve much less daunting.

I also was impressed by how well my hardware was recognized. This was one of my major complaints with other distros. Does everything work to the max, No, but as I learn more I will do some tweaking.