Illinois & Chicago Shoutouts

[nixternal]

Hey there everyone, this will be our shoutout area, so please introduce yourself, let us know a little about you, and how we might be able to put you to work :)

OK, my name is Rich Johnson, I live out in Bloomingdale, DuPage county, small town just outside of Chicago (30 minutes). I have been using Linux since about 1994 while I was in the Navy. Hey, they had super fast internet, and I bought hundreds of blank floppies :) In 1996 I switched to the Kool Desktop Environment, which everyone knows as KDE. I have been using it ever since. I don't use Windows for anything, I don't depend on it, and I do not support it. If it isn't free (Linux, BSD, GNU), I don't mess with it.

I have been with the Ubuntu community for almost 2 years now. I work with the Kubuntu development team doing everything from packaging, development, to testing. I am also the maintainer of the Kubuntu system documentation (KMenu -> Help -> Kubuntu System Documentation). I am currently working with KDE developers for KDE 4 and also helping out with KDE documentation. I have quite a few handbooks you may have read in KHelpCenter for KDE. I maintain the KDE documentation for projects such as Katapult, Mailody, and many others. I will be working on the new KOffice 2 docs just as soon as we have a stable build ready for KDE 4 (next month baby!!!). As you can see I do a lot of documentation work. The reason being that I love to write. If you don't believe me, check out http://fridge.ubuntu.com, yes I am a Fridge developer. To see what else I dabble in check out my Launchpad Page (http://launchpad.net/~nixternal) and my Blog (http://blog.nixternal.com).

If you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to contact me for help or whatever. If I have it, and I can help, I will be there for you! My email and other info of course is in my signature below. Welcome everyone and thanks for stopping by!

[dasnipa]

greetings.

I'm Greg Taeger, Im a student (well soon to be grad) of Eastern Illinois University. As I just mentioned, I will be graduating in 3 weeks. Eastern is a nice school, and fairly underrated as far as Computer Science programs go. We are definitely pro - linux here and all CS courses are taught in a linux environment. Anyway, college was my first contact with linux, my freshman year i installed about 8 distros on an old pentium 1, 200 mhz computer i had lying around... (gentoo was one of them, which i recommend for anyone who wants to know what every config file ever does). it took another year and a half before I gathered the courage to install on my main machine, and Ive never looked back. My first attempt was with debian, but as i was having some problems i soon switch to ubuntu and have been using that ever since.
As im graduating, i dont know if ill be staying in Illinois as i go through the process of finding a job, but Illinois will always be close to my heart. I hope to find a career somewhere hopefully with an open source-friendly company... ah well. gotta pay the bills somehow... anyway thats me
Greg

[whitesox]

Sup. I'm RJ Marsan. Hell i don't do much work for you guys other than occasional help if you ask nicely and bug reporting once in a while.
I Live in Elmhurst, I'm 16 and goin to york/Elmhurst college (Long story), been using linux since 04 when I made my first computer, and been using Ubuntu since 5.04 (ive been registered in ubuntuforums.org for almost as long).
I pretty much spend my time idling on IRC and bouncing around from project to project (all open source of course)
So yeah, i go as Red_Herring on irc.freenode.net and ya can find me in the one and only #ubuntu-chicago along with mah homie nixternal up there

[smeagol]

Brian Green here. I've been doing generic IT work for a few years now (mainly MS stuff, some Cisco) and tried using Linux several times, but it finally stuck after I tried Ubuntu 5.04. Ubuntu was the first truly user friendly Linux distro (IMO), and while I've learned a ton, I still have a lot to go. I have a workstation/server at home running Linux and am a MythTV proponent as well; I also just got a Macbook Pro that I triple boot with OSX, WinXP and Ubuntu 7.04 (just because I can!!). Currently I've been supporting VMware ESX in the workplace so I've been getting my hands dirty doing some shell scripting and whatnot (ESX uses a Red Hat based admin console).

I'm trying to learn the bug reporting process during my troubleshooting adventures (though I've had fewer and fewer of those in my Ubuntu experiences!), but I'd say my biggest contribution is as a Linux evangelist to those people who have not been had any Linux/Ubuntu exposure, and frankly, just don't get it (yet!).

I try and loiter on the IRC channel when I have time, under the name billbrasky.

[SigmaX]

Yo. I'm a student at Andrews University in southwest Michigan -- and I call home Fairfield, Illinois (Waay down south). The closest I've been to a Chicago LoCo meeting yet was the first day of the Flourish conference at UIC a couple weeks ago (Which doesn't count, especially since I didn't meet any of you guys if you were there), but I pop up my nose once in a blue moon on the mailing list :-P.

I've been using Linux for about three or four years now, and have gotten several of my classmates to use Ubuntu on their laptops, which I see as a very good thing since the Intro to Computer Science classes here use Visual C++, and none of the other Freshman had any UNIX experience. Now one of them has a job making the new network security client for computers all across campus -- which, I suspect, he wouldn't have been able to do if his horizons hadn't already been widened by Linux (Most of the servers are Solaris).

I work in the dean's office of one of the schools programming a Windows-only .NET document management system, which I've convinced them to let me open source (http://sf.net/projects/aucas). Right now I'm working on integrating an OSS PDF viewer and ditching the ultra-proprietary Microsoft Office Document Imaging component, which was the easiest to implement at first (And which some of the UNIX-using professors complained about -- kudos for them!). This summer I'll probably be working with the IT department to start implementing something similar campus-wide -- there's still a lot of paper floating around in the system. I expect to learn a lot then -- I'm still a novice, though I think for an 18-year-old I'm doing pretty good :-) (I'm no Firefox Kid, at any rate).

Oh, and of course, my home page & blog: http://www.SigmaX.org

My #1 reason for using Linux (Besides that it rocks and that it helps me learn quicker as a student) is the lack of games. Having Windows is dangerous for me -- I too easily get addicted to Halo & AoE & the like :-).

Siggy

PS: I also have a dual-booted Macbook (Windows on a VM so I can't game :-P), though it currently has Fedora, 'cuz Edgy gave me bootloader grief. Sometime after Feisty comes out I'll probably replace it with Ubuntu :-).

[Vorian]

<sinatra>My kind of town, Chicago is</sinatra>
Congrats on the Forum Chicago/Illinois :)

[Lux9698]

Hello,
My name is juergen (pronounced Yuergen).
Yep, I'm burn and raised in Germany and live since 4 years now in central Illinois.
As an ISSS, I needed to have a lot of contact with Microsoft, pretty much since DOS 2 :)
I tried several times some different Linux Distros, but, all of them could not satify my needs.
As Ubuntu was coming along 6.10 tried it LOVED IT and stuck with it.
I'm also a gamer (City of Heroes, WOW) that's the kind of Games I really appreciate :)
Since the short time I'm working with Ubuntu, no doubt there is a good learning experience, I feel
already pretty confident with my new OS of choice.

So, I hope, I can help once in a while.
I think, this thread is an awesome Idea, GO Illinois.

And by the way, If you have any question about German, ask me.


Peace with you

\\:D/

[Sentinel-Being]

Rich Wagner here.... I am a Web / Database developer for Walgreens. I have dabbled in Linux for quite some time now but until recently have not immersed myself 100%. I'm happy to say that I no longer run any other OS at home besides Ubuntu. I am no Evil Linux genius as many of you are, but I am coming along quite well. I have a good friend a the office who is constantly helping me dig myself out of holes!

The majority of my tech career ( 10 years ) has been centered around the Microsoft server platform. During that time I had run various version of Mandrake linux running SAMBA and APACHE. It wasn't until Ubuntu that I realized I could survive my day to day operations without the need for Microsoft.


We have a convert here..... :KS


Are there any Ubuntu users groups in Chicago that meet up?

[SigmaX]

Are there any Ubuntu users groups in Chicago that meet up?

Yeah -- most of us are here from of the Chicago LoCo (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ChicagoTeam) Team mailing list.

Siggy

[eponymous]

hey hey
i started using ubuntu as my first ever linux distro about 2 months ago.

i realized there was nothing i needed in windows that ubuntu didn't have (native) except WoW, and since i have yet to put forth the effort to get WoW running under wine it appears i didn't need that either.
so i went cold turkey with edgy on my media PC and feisty fawn beta on my main box.

i'm really happy with ubuntu and i even enjoy grappling with the various problems that crop up.

thanks alot for starting up this forum.
p.s. i've lived in chicago 5 years, grew up in the suburbs, and work for an industrial supplies company, developing an ms Access app (gah!) atm.

[Chadarius]

Hey All! Chad AKA Chadarius here!

I'm a member of Ubuntu Chicago and we are a great group of people. I'm glad we started the forums up here. I just installed Ubuntu 7.04 server. I'm configuring LAMP, dns, dhcp, ldap and samba. I'm upgrading my old Gentoo box. So far so good!

[j1mc]

Hi All,

I'm Jim, a member of the Chicago loco team, and all-around ubuntu / linux enthusiast. I dabbled with Linux starting with Red Hat 9 back in 2000 or so, and tried other distros since then, but Ubuntu finally got me hooked on Linux with Breezy Badger. So, I've been using Linux full-time for just about one full year now!

I'm primarily involved with helping out the Xubuntu linux project, doing work with documentation and coordinating community testing of images prior to release milestones. While Xubuntu doesn't have some of it's bigger brother's fancy apps installed by default, it's very fast and usable. I like those aspects of it, but it is not right for everyone. It just depends on your needs and interests.

At home I have an HP AMD-64 desktop running Xubuntu 7.04, a PIII micron computer in my closet running Debian Etch - serving up files for the household, and a Thinkpad running Xubuntu 7.04.

There are some new names that I'm not familiar with in this forum post, so . . . I look forward to meeting each of you somewhere down the line.

[CaptainTux]

Hi, my name is Patrick Green. I am currently using Feisty on my Acer 5100-3949 laptop and loving every moment of it. I have been using Linux since late 2001 when I started working for the (now non existent) Alescere. Alescere made turnkey SIP Based PBX systems. After that I branched out on my own and started a company called Silver Strand Solutions (Linux Migration Consulting) and was a co owner of Gigastrand (pre installed Linspire Linux laptops and desktops). Some of my clients included Linspire, Novell, State of Indiana and a few local private schools. Along the way I have been honored to write a Micheal's Minute and a Linspire Letter. I also have a smattering of articles in searchopensource (not very sexy unless you really get off on 64 bit bladeservers). I have spoken to a few local universities (such as University of St Francis), computer clubs (such as the Chicago Computer Society), and conventions (such as the Desktop Linux Summit). Current memberships are as follows: Vice Chair, Freespire Community Board; Member, Chicago Ubuntu Local Group; Member, University of St Francis technical advisory board; Member, Chicago Computer Society, Linspire Insider, and some other stuff.

I have closed my business and now work for Turtol LLC. I am their in house technical writer. Basically, I write whatever needs to be written. Sometimes that means internal docs for our internal stuff, sometimes it means how to's for our clients, other times-like my most recent project-it means writing copy for our clients. Being a technical writer may not be as sexy as what Marcel Gagne' does for a living, but every day is different and every project is a challenge. We are mostly a gentoo shop, but two of us have Ubuntu on our laptops. It is cool to be working for a company that not only develops and supports GPL wares, but does so for real world clients like the National Alzheimers Association.

They are doing some real cool things these days and will continue to do some real cool things in the near future. This fall I will also be teaching a practical use of computers class at Christian Life College.

Anyway, that is a little bit about me. Looking forward to taking a greater part in the Ubuntu woods.

Cheers

Patrick

[Fire]

Hey, I’m Jacob Mathena, I currently live in Montgomery, ill but am moving to Waterman in the next few months.. Waterman is out near Dekalb. I work In Wheeling, a bit of a hike but I will be doing that for the time being.. I first started With Red Hat back in 97 but with school and work I used windows so much and it was always just kind of a side project. About 2 years ago I started really getting back into Linux and at this point I am running a Ubuntu Lamp Server at home with Ubuntu Laptop, Desktop, and a Xubuntu desktop. I have another one or two systems that I am messing with. With the move coming soon I only have the server, a desktop and my laptop in use. I also use Ubuntu to run World of Warcraft and it has been working very well although I have not had a lot of time as of late.

I am currently getting my MBA with a focus on network and communications. I have been handing out CD's and talking with people in the class about the upsides of Linux. I have actually gotten 1 guy who works at a small company to move thier servers from Windows to Ubuntu. He likes it so much better and he no longer has the costs. Load Webmin on it and it becomes so easy to admin the system.

I am also looking to start up a side business for doing computer repair and administration out in the North Central Illinois area. I am excited about Dells announcement to start distributing Ubuntu Loaded Systems. Maybe a chance to help Linux spread. Time permitting I try to help the community by testing software as it comes out on as many of my systems as I can.

[nixternal]

Jacob,

Welcome. And I believe I know you from the 90s, early 90s, high school. Your name is way to damn familiar. It may have been before high school years as well. I went to GBN from 89-93, live out in Hangover by mount trashmore. Name is Rich Johnson, have a brother Kevin, dunno, but your name rings a big time familiar bell. If you think it might be you, or you know who I am, email me at nixternal AT ubuntu DOT com.

[francisco_athens]

I'm Francisco Athens, a Classroom Services Coordinator at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.. whew..

I converted to GNU/Linux a few years ago and have not looked back since discovering Ubuntu. I run a Free Software group at the school to promote and discuss FOSS. I like to brag that my three year old daughter is an Ubuntu user :D

[trepidprism]

Hey I am eric, I live on the north west side of the city limits. I am brand new to linux, but have already cleaned windows off my computer.

I really would like to help with programming with the open source community (I have never programmed before) so I have already started teaching myself python with the help from the programming forms.

Had beryl and my wireless card working the 1st day with a little bit of tinkering, and loving every minute of it. Cant wait to really start pushing the limits of linux and my comp in the months to come.

I have not yet tried IRC yet soon though, for not my AIM is OpsoleatSN.

[Rab22]

Hello everyone,

My name is Richard Berglund, although I'm commonly known as "Rick" or "Rab". Home is just south of Chicago, in the suburban town of Lansing. Although I have moved to the Bloomington/Normal in central Illinois for school and work. I am a graduate from Illinois State University where I studied Information Systems and currently work in the IT field as a Systems Analyst.

I have been using Linux for almost a decade now. My initial exposure to Linux was from a friend, that ironically works at Microsoft now, who was running Red Hat. Impressed by what I seen, I bought a couple beginning books on Linux and started reading. Sadly, since the only computer we had was the families I had to wait an entire year before I could install Linux (I worked as temporary help to get enough money to build a new computer).

Several years later and after many PC builds I have tried several distributions of Linux. I started with Red Hat (7.x series) and have toyed with versions all the way up to Fedora Core 3. I have also worked with SuSE/Novell, Gentoo, Slackware, Mandrake/Mandriva, BSD, and of course Ubuntu; which has become my distro of choice for the last few years.

-Rick

[SigmaX]

Hey I am eric

Heya! Me too!


I am brand new to linux, but have already cleaned windows off my computer.

Good man. Brave, too. It took me a year or two before I stopped dual-booting -- mostely because of a long-lasting game addiction. Welcome to the world of *real* computing :-).


I really would like to help with programming with the open source community (I have never programmed before) so I have already started teaching myself python with the help from the programming forms.

I know the feeling. I imagine we have a lot to learn, but I aspire to be the next Linus ;-).

SigmaX

[DeadSuperHero]

Hey,
My name's Sean Tilley, I'm almost 17, and I live 30 minutes away from Peoria. I started using Ubuntu last year, due to a failing machine. I switched to Linspire, because Ubuntu was clunky with wifi. I came to dislike Linspire, so I just put Windows back on it, and let it die.
But then, one day, I fixed up my computer, and put Feisty Fawn on it. I use a Buffalo Airbus for wifi, and dual boot with XP for Linux-unfriendly games. I've started on a hobby project known as Centrifuge, and I've been working slowly on getting my Windows games to work better on Linux. I'm also learning Python, because, well, why not?
And so, that's me. I also tend to hang out on adventure game forums a lot. I love writing, singing, and one day wish to start a band, for fun.
Peace
Mr. Psychopath

[ryan.riverside]

Good tidings, Chicago,

My name is Ryan (duh) and I live in the Calumet area. I'm attending Purdue-Cal for a computer major (haven't narrowed myself enough yet). I've been dual-booting for about a year. Started with ubuntu because a computer god named Spuds told me to, and because XP was having crash problems. It still does. >.< Completely randomly the computer power resets. I've given up on trying, mainly because my machine is 6 or 7 years old. PIV 2.1 Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 45 Gb HDD, split 25 ubuntu/ 20 xp. I'll probably get a new machine soon. I am a writer (aside from school). I'm pretty passionate about writing, but I don't have many people to share with. Whatever. Hit me up ryanDOTriversideATgmailDOTcom if you want to. I'd like to show up at the next meeting, if I can.

~Ryan Riverside

[gwoodard]

Hey my name is Greg Woodard (hence the nickname) I actually live down near Decatur, IL (not specific on the town for privacy) I am also going into my Senior year of high school

[Sam Lars]

I'm Matt, I live near Bloomington, I'm going into my senior year of high school. I've used Ubuntu since 5.04 or so. I use older hardware (for now), and the Me I had installed was ugly and temperamental. Linux looked great, and Ubuntu looked like it was something I could install and use, and I've been using it ever since. Runs very nicely on 500 Mhz.

[dustrho]

My name is Chris Rhoads, and since 1998 I've been known as "dustrho" on the Internet. I live out in Aurora, have been living there the last seven years, and I've lived in the 'burbs all 34 years of my life. I've been playing around with Ubuntu when Edgy first came out, but that was just tinkering around with the OS. Since Feisty's come out, I've been 90% Ubuntu at home and the same here at my office in downtown Chicago. I'm a Security Administrator for a large law firm, and you can't get more secure than with Linux (over Windows, of course!). I'm so excited with the progression of Ubuntu, and can't wait to see what future versions will look like.

GO BEARS!:cool:

[p_quarles]

My name is Lee, and I live on the south side of Chicago. I liked Linux from the very first time I installed it, but only came to love it after I was able to rescue an old machine. My 5 year old Dell was experiencing more and more problems under XP. It's now running Ubuntu and working as a multi-purpose server. I now fully expect to get several more years of use out of it.

Go Sox! (no fairweather fan am I)

[Spaceman3750]

I am Ryan. I live approx. 2mi east of Springfield. I am a high school student currently attending the local career center for the Cisco Academy program. I am a Junior, and after high school I plan to earn a BS in computer science.

[BudaAlien]

Hi everybody. Tony here. I'm in Logan Square, Chi. I have tried *nix off and on since around 2000. I now run feisty solo on my laptop. I have thus learned a great many things and look forward to much, much more. I have an IT background (read MS headaches!) but am not currently in the field. I am looking for projects to irritate myself with! Glad to be here and will see you around.

[posingaspopular]

Hey All. I didn't realize all these people were in the Ubuntu-Chicago and Ubuntu-Illinois Forums. I've been representing/promoting Ubuntu in the area pretty hard for the past year, but I don't recognize alot of these names.

#ubuntu-illinois redirects to #ubuntu-chicago on IRC but if all these people are serious about -Illinois, then the team has a strong base of operation, imho.

I should introduce myself before I ramble on some more. My name is Eddie Martinez, and I live on the southside of Chicago. I do lots of work for the locoI(s), mainly in setting the agendas and planning the meetings. I've been hooked on Ubuntu for the past year or so, around the time of Dapper/Edgy. Since then, I haven't looked back. I also work as a webmaster for a chamber of commerce in downtown Chicago.

Back to the topic of Ubuntu Locos/Teams. I set the agenda for the first Ubuntu-Illinois meeting we had. Myself, j1mc, manchicken, xjdriver, and my brother Freddy (Admiral_Chicago) atttended. It would be amazing to hear more from the rest of the people in the area though, so we can set up more meetings. A install fest at UIUC is planned for early 2008, which Mike Stemle (manchicken) is supposed to be a big part of. He is the 'head' of Ubuntu-Illinois.

If it is not obvious already, most of the people who I know to be 'active' in Ubuntu type stuff hang out in IRC and on the mailing list. If I am exclusing anyone, please except my apologies. I understand how giant the State is, and how hard it is to get to the meetings.

I mostly run Kubuntu (mostly meaning 99%), but I have run Edubuntu, Ubuntu and Xubuntu. I am a fan of all those releases. Gutsy just dropped and I am excited to help out with the next release. Outside of Ubuntu, I am a member of the Chicago Gnu/Linux Users Group, attendee of BarCamp Chicago, skateboarding genius (*cough I wish Cough*), and big time lover of computers. I am a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and i like talking to people.

Hope to see/talk to you guys more.

-Eddie M.

ps.

posingaspopular.wordpress.com
posingaspopular-IRC
skatern00b -AIM
eddiemartinez@gmail.com

[posingaspopular]

Hey guys. If you are not on the Mailing List, you should read this. The Ubuntu Chicago team is going to be having a special meeting this TUESDAY OCTOBER 30th on IRC (#ubuntu-chicago irc.freenode.net) about a event we are planning on throwing at 11AM. Again, Tuesday Oct. 30th, #ubuntu-chicago at 11am. irc DOT freenode DOT net We will be discussing an event designed to bring ubuntu to the masses, as a sort of into to tech event (very 1960s. radical!), with the help of many other Open Source companies etc., but specifically thrown and hosted by the Loco.

This meeting will be chaired by myself and Rich Johnson (loco head aka nixternal) and we are asking for you input, attendance, ideas, contacts lists, enthusiam, etc. if for some reason you can't attend, we will be recapping/summarizing the meeting on the mailing list, so those who aren't able to attend can respond back with feedback.

This will be the next meeting we have for a while, so it is imperative that we get lots of input from the loco. remember, you dont have to a coding genius to suggest pizza for the event ;p. Please make it if you can.

Also, the next meeting after this coming Tuesday is Dec. 1st at the Institue of Design from 1pm-3pm. We will be hosted by the ChicagoGNU/Linux Users Group (chiglug.org) and it should be a great time.

Sorry if this is short notice but this decision was made for the meeting around 9pm on Sunday night and i have been trying to fix my own computer since that time.

-Eddie Martinez

ps. please come (/me stops asking people to come)

also I checked and Ubuntu-Chicago doesnt have it's own forum space because we chose not to. If anyone wants this decision changed, come to the meetings and speak up. thanks.

[copilot]

My name is Will, I live in Lake County. I started using ubuntu right after the first release due to my inability to get things working with redhat 7.3, which is what we were using for a system administration class I was taking. I was sold from the start with the ease of use and community that was willing to help with advice other than "RTFM". I've been doing my best to learn more about linux for the past few years and once even tried to start my own little users group. I'm really excited about being part of the Illinois LoCo team and look forward to talking with you all in #ubuntu-chicago.

[Northsider]

I just discovered this part of the forums! Awesome! Greetings from the 11th floor of the Boeing Building!

[Perpetual]

I am from Illinois as well, central though, bout 3 hours from Chicago. Have never met another Ubuntu user here but I am sure there must be another lurking around.

[sports fan Matt]

Im Matt, live 5 blocks from Wrigley on the north side of Chicago (Go White Sox! and Packers) and grew up in Crystal lake, and started learning about linux when I honestly kept having one too many blue screens of death on my xp box.

I remember never actually enjoying it, it was a pain in the butt with the reinstalls and such..To me, computing is fun again:)

[nealklomp]

Although I am currently NOT running Linux, I will be soon.
My first taste of freedom came when a friend convinced me to check it out. My interest grew quickly. I downloaded maybe a dozen different distros and tried them dual booting with Windows on my laptop.
All went fine and fun, until one day, thinking that I had made a copy of my files on a CD--turned out later that I had, but I'd misplaced the disk--I accidentally pressed the wrong 'yes' button while installing--my home windows were being replaced, and I was on the phone (multi-tasking and installing is a bad idea!). By the time I realized what I had done, Windows was gone.
Ubuntu became my distro at first only because it worked with my laptop (Inspiron 6000) wi fi.
Time passed, i found the lost disk with all of the papers I had written, all my files, my books that I had written (no great loss there, but the academic papers would have been quite damaging). I was happy. I pulled an old desktop out of the basement, wiped it, used it to drive my printer. Freedom was precious, but still I asked Dell for my copy of Windows XP, and reinstalled. I was dual-booting, 90% living the Ubuntu life, but occasionally, for work, to print, to connect to some networks, I returned to Windows.
Then I decided to go to gradschool for English. I determined that Ubuntu had to go. This 'hobby' could not become a liability. I might find myself unable to be compatible to other networks, or might run into some problem and have no quick solution and lose data or miss a deadline... So I wiped both computers and put fresh installations on each, the original XP home for the lappy and XP pro for the nearly 10 year old desktop.
Now, a semester into my program. A year after my return to the darkside, I feel complete indifference towards my computers and OS. With Ubuntu Linux, I could easily and freely adapt and change my GUI to suit my mood with near infinite variations. My laptop, the work horse, was mine. Now I use my computers more than I ever have before, always feeling alienated from the work space.
I realized over the holiday break that I had to make a change.
So I have ordered an external hard drive for easy backup and storage. In the coming weeks I will return to my computing home and breath the free air once more.

[figure9]

I'm a 42 yr old father of 2. Work as a mechanical technician at a small company which means I do everything, Designing - Programming - Machining - Customer Support - Field Service - I even fix the toilets!
Got into Linux just because I like to learn new things. I love how far Ubuntu has progressed! I am still learning. I sometimes wish that documentation was better for applications such as the Gimp. But other than that I am a Linux fan.

[odduck]

Hello everyone. I'm very new to linux (I just installed Ubuntu onto my desktop last week). I've been interested in Linux for a little while because, like the last guy, I like to try new things and I've finally taken the plunge. I have to say that I like what I see so far and can't wait to get in even deeper. One of the things that I love so much about Ubuntu is this community that it has behind it. I suppose that could be said about Linux in general, but the Ubuntu one seems to be particularly nice.

As for me, I'm originally from Brookfield, just west of Chicago (we have the zoo) but I spend most of my time in Champaign/Urbana while I go to school at UIUC.

You'll probably find me lurking around the IRC channel under the name eiki from time to time.

[swoody]

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in this thread before. Well, for everyone in Illinois I haven't met, I'll go ahead and introduce myself :)

My name's Steve, and I'm a student from the NW Chicago suburbs. You can find me as 'swoody' anywhere online. I have been using Ubuntu for about a year and a half, and have fallen in love with the OS and the community. I have never in my life experienced a community as friendly and willing to help as the people who are involved with Ubuntu.

I have recently become active with the Chicago Loco, and had a great time at the 2009 Global Jam. I'm really looking forward to participating in more Loco events, and hope to see the IL and Chicago groups grow and prosper :)

[ddecator]

Hey everyone, I'm Draycen DeCator (aka Dray) and I'm currently an undergrad student at DePaul University. I'm working on getting my BA in Psychology and then I will continue on to get my PhD. I spend a lot of time volunteering around campus with Circle K (part of Kiwanis, not the gas station), and hanging out with friends when there is time.

I started using Ubuntu in the late days of Intrepid and became hooked very quickly. Now, I am working on getting more involved. This involvement includes bug triaging, mentoring new triagers, some packaging for the Ubuntu Mozilla Team, and now offering support for Ubuntu+1 users and beginners.

If you want to contact me for any reason, you're more than welcome to!

[ladypcer]

No college student here, or IT tech. I'm Bren, a 54 yr old grandma. I've been dabbling with Linux since around 2000, but I was never a fan of Ubuntu until I tried the 9.10 and now 10.4 beta 2.
I'd say I use it 99% of the time, and only go to Windows to print coupons, play Yahoo downloaded games, or edit an image in PhotoImpact.
I build my own computers, and have built around 20 towers over the last 10 years.

[kmrs75]

Hello everyone

Were from Morris Il

I have been here a while not but I never really got to this page until now. About 3 years ago I changed one of our systems over to Linux, just wondering what was it like. Even thought my better half wasn't too excited about it, I did it any way. She always said I don't listen very well (why start now). From the first load I was shocked - my video drive, wireless card, sound, Ubuntu found everything and I didn't have to do anything more than install the CD. That was a first for me! The more I used it the more I loved it.

A few months after, my wife started a vinyl business, decals - signs - store fronts - t-shirts .... with my brothers help he has done it for years before her and I thought he know what he was doing. He loaded a bunch of software on her computer(still windows) both for designing and cutting vinyl. Well little did I know EVERYTHING he loaded was pirated and yep virus city ad ware it was BAD. It was left to me to clean everything up. At this point she was up and running, down time was a problem. Knowing what little I knew about Linux I was able to start to run a few things in a virtual terminal. It was ok really wasn't the solution. I spent weeks and weeks trying to bring her cutting software over to Linux and no one has been and to do it stable and easy.

For months I looked and looked. Then I came across a guy in Nova Scotia that built a program that is used for engravers. hmmmm engravers use HPGL... vinyl cutters use HPGL... I wonder. So I sent him an email and with alot of help from him it is now an awesome program for anyone that uses engravers or vinyl cutters. I am so happy with it I put my first YouTube video out there.

So before I let her try it out I did months of testing to make sure that it is stable and it is going to do what she needs it to do. From time to time she used my computer (Linux) and she liked it, no big deal - UNTILL !!!!! I install TUX PLOT and from her first time cutting she loved it - "O MY It just works" until that point no one has been able to cut vinyl in Linux stable or had a program that will work across the board very very little to tweak - there is a few out there but there not this easy. Now she will not go back to windows ever. We're both here to stay.

Well I am rambling I will shut up now.I hope to catch up with everyone someday and say hi.

[BslBryan]

My name is Bryan, and I have just moved into Chicago's South Loop. My father is from here and I'm glad to finally live where I've wanted to all my life. Done lots of LoCo work, hope to do some for IL.

[kmrs75]

My name is Bryan, and I have just moved into Chicago's South Loop. My father is from here and I'm glad to finally live where I've wanted to all my life. Done lots of LoCo work, hope to do some for IL.

welcome we have been in the loco for a cpl of months and we have found out there is alot of good people in here - were mainly on the irc stop by sometime --#ubuntu-chicago

[KegHead]

Hi!

KegHead here in Mad Co---downstate

Greeting!

[morttisfer]

hello to everyone that I'm new here so I'm good at last I have Illinios expenrecia in kde or gnome and debian both in my native language Spanish installation has fascinated me since the version ubuntu Karmic you could say my groin English is not good if you could but I understand that most documentation is in ubuntu try to translate the best possible for my blog is happy to participate here am fond eye so I am not a college student: D:);)I hope I can help somewhat greetings

[1Michael1]

Hi, I'm Michael.
I'm a student from Sweden who's spending my time in Chicago (South Barrington) during the summers & winters working at an IT firm. I might consider spending a year going to university here as well. I'm totally in-love with the city and the people around me in Chicago.

[wsandner]

Hello, I'm William (bike-bill), a long time Ubuntu enthusiast. For my career, I am a web developer with lots of Java, Rails, Django, etc. I'm looking for a fun project or just to help in general.

[ZeroCool96]

Hey guys!

I'm Dakota, from the northern chicago burbs and I've been using ubuntu for awhile now (started back on 6.06). I stopped using it for awhile because me and command line never got along so I started up again back on 10.04 and been using Ubuntu on my laptop and server ever since!

I know some things about Ubuntu and I know alot about windows and hardware. I can answer any of your windows or hardware questions! I would also like to try to learn some command line! (i'm workin on it!)

[Dragon1464]

Hello to the Illinois & Chicago Ubuntu Forums Local


I am a long time user of other OS systems. But decided that I want to
learn more about the data processing and the programming. I tried to find

resources in other venues but they are all so financially demanding that it

became a problem. So when I read about the concepts of Linux and the

free software ideals. I though that this may be a place to fit in and learn

the higher components.


Due to circumstances, I sort of bounce around northern Chicago area, between
nw Cook and se Lake Counties quite a bit, so a home is not exactly a true
statement at the present time. I am looking for a trading relationship, where I will
help others with their goals and desires to accomplish things, in exchange for free or
very inexpensive resources where I can improve on my own skills.


I have only had a machine dedicated to ubuntu up and running for a little over 48
hours, and although I have read some things related to Linux, on the whole I am
rather new to the whole program. So resources on how to in silly baby steps are
appreciated.


Michael


ps does anyone know if they intend to begin the training section on the groups? A well
indexed wiki book on ubuntu could help propell this system faster than anything else I

could think of. Any system sparks and moves with numbers and education. This one
seems to be moving but the education materials are in my so far exploration a

bit obscure.

[ubuchignome]

Hey all, I am Tom, i'm in Chicago. I have been interested in, and using Unix -Linux since 2000 and I divorced windows a few years back. I use Ubuntu desktop and Ubuntu server. I am looking for people in the area who share the same interests in Ubuntu and the open source community.
Looking to start a users group or something of the sort.

Peace.

[CleanSweep]

Howdy,

My name is JP and I am a Pastor and a computer geek, a father of 4 in Rockford, IL. I have been working with other *nix for several years on servers etc. I had been running CentOS and KDE as a desktop but a friend told me about Ubuntu LTS and after 5 minutes I switched.

My main draw was that many of the people I was helping in the ministry were stealing Windows product. By using Ubuntu I could offer them a solid desktop and let them free on the computer. I have used Ubuntu with several laptops and desktops and always had happy faces when they realize that they don't have to be frightened about Linux.

My wife still clings to her Windows 7 but two of my kids have Ubuntu and one has KUbuntu on her PC as well. I am very hesitant to list myself anything other than as a beginner, however I am looking forward to getting a local group here in Rockford.

-- JP

BTW: CleanSweep is my Gamertag on XboxLive if you are looking for COD fodder I may be available

[shevin]

DePaul Linux Community invites all the Linux geeks in Chicago to join us a meet up conference in DePaul University.









https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/C7HU-RIbXiV0PwrtFOkz2KFO__w7IPLcRxVA6YQzjOkSDarwZmonlwm FvM0hh4pFzvIcYjQmADz8TLdx7oE0h4uGiaISlQOBLcDOyivc5 _dkimIVgLZ8-V4zIooL7k9kpg




Location: DePaul Center 8010

1 East Jackson, Chicago,

IL, USA




Date: April 22nd 2013




Time: 2:00PM – 4:00 PM



For more information please contact: dlinuxcommunity@gmail.com



http://blog.shevin.info/2013/04/meet-up-linux-geeks-in-chicago.html

[mofpeaches]

Hey. I'm Uriel in Chicago. Age 12 and use ubuntu. I want to know who are the others around who use ubuntu and see what their community is like. That's it.:p

[sdansmith]

Hey Richard, what did you do in the Navy? I'm currently in (17 years) and live in North Chicago at the base.