Introduce yourself

[freexzai]

I am Nate. I moved to Florida from California. I work for a video company that records music videos and shoots show footage for DVDs. My day job is whatever work I can find fixing computers for my moms friends. I surf but only in the summer because I hate the cold water and wet suits are uncomfortable. I love tattoos and have quite a lot of them.

I started using Red Hat Linux 5 years ago and I was faithful till Fedora core 6. I tried out Ubuntu and it was nice. Really nice.

[Bordy]

My name is Chris, I started in Sarasota, then off to Penn State, then Cali for the Marine Corps and now back home in Florida, but in Lakeland now (where I could afford to buy a house).

I am still very new to linux at all, having only used any flavor of ubuntu for about 7 months now (now in Kubuntu) so I am pretty sure every one of you knows more than I do, and I will be haranguing you constantly for help

I am excited that the group is taking off so well, and hopefully we can accomplish something here.

[bodycoach2]

My name is Danny. My Blog: http://coachdanny.blogspot.com

I'm in Winter Park, just north of Orlando. On a short walk, I'm in Orlando.

I started using Linux with Fedora Core 4, for a class. After 20 years as a personal trainer, I'm back in school to get a degree in Information Technology. I needed Linux for a class on Operating Systems. After a few days of using it, I really liked it. Learning more about LInux brought me to try Ubuntu. I now use it as my primary OS, mostly because everythiing 'just works' with Ubunut. Didn't do that with Fedora.

The main reason I stick with Ubuntu is Mark Shutteworth's vision. I think he has some really good business ideas, and by getting in on Ubuntu now, I'll be on the 'ground floor' of something that will probably be very big.

[feravolo]

Hello:

My name is Mike and I am from Cocoa Beach, I have been using numerous types of computers, programming languages, development environments, and operating systems for many years.

I got my Computer Science degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and worked for GE Corporate while I was in college.

I also worked at the Cape for about ten years as a software engineer for the Air Force, but have since left to join the small business community of Central Florida.

In light of the latest software abomination bought to us by the people who live were it rains over 300 days a year, I have decided to "upgrade" to Ubuntu instead. I like Ubuntu as both a replacement for both servers and workstations, since it can run any type of software application that is written Linux.

I hope that I can spread the word about Ubuntu and in the process build a demand for people who understand how it works. People seem to like the idea that they can save money on software and still do everything that they want to do [ and more ].

Peace

Mike Feravolo
Cape Royal Building #121
Cocoa Beach, Florida 32931
Cell: 321-278-8642

[martinw89]

Hi,
I'm Martin, from Orange City, near Daytona. I'm just finishing up getting my IB Diploma, and then I'm off to UF to pursue a Electrical Engineering degree. I moved to DeBary (also near Daytona) about 8 years ago, from Rhode Island. I started playing around with Linux about 4 years ago with Fedora Core 4.

Danny- I know right where Winter Park is (you probably know where I am in Volusia). It's cool to see so many local people with the greatness that is Ubuntu. And I agree, Ubuntu is by the far the easiest distro I've ever used. And it's still very advanced and customizable. I used to use Gentoo for the level of custimization, which I eventually got to work very well, but then I realized I had just wasted a month of my time...

[laytek]

Hello everyone,

My name is Alan. I am living in Palm City, very near Stuart.

I am a pilot for a big (the biggest) airline. I have been using Ubuntu and Debian since last summer, so I am pretty new to all of this. Just saw that this team had been formed, so I thought I would drop in and help if I can.

I would like to find out more about the Free Geeks and the idea of spreading Ubuntu to the local community. I think that Ubuntu has great potential, but it is not "buy and play" like MS products. There is a steep learning curve in many instances. I still keep my Dell/MS equipment running just in case there is something that must get done, but I haven't found the OSS solution. MSMoney and KMyMoney2 are the latest examples for me. But I have enjoyed learning about LInux, Ubuntu, and Open Source.

LayTek

[Bordy]

Hey welcome aboard, Alan. I see you and I might be in the same boat re: linux experience
Did you sign up for the mailing list? You can find the address either on our wiki or in the thread called Resources.

[Linuturk]

My name is Justin, and I live in Tallahassee.

I currently work as a Web and Information Systems Specialist. That means I do just about everything.

I help run the local LUG (www.lugot.org)

[max.diems]

I'm Max. I don't have a job, as I am in middle school. I have been trying to start the LoCo for several month, and am glad to see someone get it.

[raptor2552]

My name is Mike and I’m a UNIX & tech junkie! Caution: You may be amused, bemused, enlightened or otherwise edified by this, perhaps less than brief, intro with a sprinkle of editorial.

I worked 30 years at Wisconsin Telephone, later named Wisconsin Bell, then Ameritech, then SBC. The first 19 years as an Installer, Cable Splicer, Cable Repair, mostly outside construction. This afforded me the opportunity to learn cable print reading and rearrangements, no end of test sets, copper T1 carrier, and Subscriber Loop Carrier (SLC, aka Pair Gain) including the construction of remote terminals, light wave cable, digital multiplexers, and all the test sets that went along with it.

In 1990 I accepted a Central Office Technician position in Ameritech’s Midrange-Computer Operation Center where I cut my teeth on UNIX. Computers used included, and these are old ones kids, PDP-11’s, VAX, ATT 3B2, 5, 15 and 20 (developed just for the Bell System), Unisys (total junk), AS 400’s and several other makes. These machines used reel to reel tapes and moving head drives that utilized a removable disk pack, and UNIX System III. Does anyone reading this remember 8 inch floppies? How about ferrite core memory?

During this time I had also learned the workings of digital/electronic switches including Nortel, ATT 5 ESS, and Siemens. I also became admin for an ATT product called Datakit, a circuit-switched digital network similar to, and a direct product of digital voice switching technologies. If you’re interested, all this equipment can be looked up on Wiki.

I have no formal education, or degree, other than classes provided by the company and several night school college courses in computer languages including Basic, COBOL, Shell programming, and C. Back in the day, techs were given a box of parts and a heap of software tapes and told to make it work. So a lot of my training was hands on. In addition I was trained to administer Sun Sparks and completed Sun’s basic and advanced System Administration coursework including their hardware trouble shooting course.

In 1997 I was offered and accepted a position with Ameritech Communications to help support their fledgling long distance venture. Here I had the opportunity to polish my shell and Perl programming skills and get more deeply into UNIX (Sun Solaris) administration running on Sun Enterprise computers. Our group, although not named UNIX Administrators, were the first line in trouble resolution and problem solving the applications relevant to the support of the long distance applications. Administrators were contracted through Sun Microsystems.

After SBC bought Ameritech it was decided that, to save money, the older employees had to go and so, after some threatening sounding letters, I decided to take SBC’s voluntary separation package and in November 2000 was released. I understood I was too young to retire and that the money I had would in no way support me the rest of my life found a contract position in Melbourne, FL with Harris supporting their Netboss system as well as UNIX administration of our clients Sun systems. Some moron decides to fly several planes into buildings and that was the end of the Harris job. Aside from the fact the Network Services Division of which I was apart was losing tons of money.

I pretty much haven’t found a suitable job since September 2001. I did take, on Florida’s dime, several of the MCSE courses through a local community college and hated it. The instructors were morons and I was appalled by some of the things Mr. Gates claimed to have invented. They made it sound like old Bill invented IP and network communication with Active Directory. UNIX has been doing this stuff nearly since it’s been in existence.

I never quite understood why Microsoft didn’t make an effort to blend the power and flexibility of a UNIX like OS with the ease of use of an OS like XP. Their recovery console sucks and in my opinion is one of the most useless things on the planet and the registry idea is just a nightmare. Guess again if you believe you have true administrative rights, by MS own admission there is a bug that sometimes won’t allow even administrators to delete certain files. How do like having to restart your computer after loading your new software?

Ubuntu is a step in the direction in its attempt to blend ease of use with power and flexibility. If they could just make it simpler to: plug stuff in and have it work and run current ******* software without the fuss, that’s what the masses want. If nothing else you can’t beat the price.

There are several problems here in Melbourne, or anywhere for that matter, including my lack of a formal education although I have huge amounts of practical, real life experience. It’s a little like the first Star Trek motion picture where Voyager returns with the knowledge of the Universe and everyone is intimidated by it until the benefit is realized. I guess my value just has not been realized. Not to diminish those that have gotten degree’s, you worked hard to accomplish that and I congratulate you, not to mention the investment made. The second is I don’t have any kind of security clearance, an important aspect since many of the companies here have government and DOD contracts.

It’s not easy trying to cram a lifetime of professional experience into a few paragraphs and what is here is in no way complete. I hope I didn’t bore you too much.

BTW this may be an opportunity to network with like minded people, if you know of someone hiring ex-telephone, burnt out techie types… _