[CENTER]Matthew G. Copple
IRC: PenguinistaKC
The Ubuntu Counter Project - user number 17115 | Registered Linux User #453289
My name is Matthew Copple. Along with Joe "jbrouhard" Brouhard, I cooked up the LoCo earlier this summer and currently serve as team contact and head cheerleader. I have several years of experience in the IT industry, where I had the opportunity to use and support Linux, Solaris, and Windows. I also co-owned a computer store and repair service for a while in my hometown.
I was first introduced to Linux in 1998, when my wife and I moved to the KC Metro. For our first few months in the area, we lived with some friends in an old mansion in Leavenworth, KS who had an ISDN line and a router running on Red Hat. Joe Brouhard gets credit, however, for piquing my interest -- he brought down an old Packard Bell machine one day and we installed Linux on it (with no X -- the video couldn't support it). I'll never forget logging in for the first time and then asking him over IRC, "Now what?"
I have been a Linux user ever since. I have had the opportunity to use Linux professionally and as a hobby, and have used nearly all the major distributions -- Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Yellow Dog (on an old Apple g3 laptop), Slack, and Gentoo. After several weeks of rebuilding my Gentoo system by hand because of poor quality control in the portage tree, I decided to check out Dapper Drake. Ubuntu is now my primary distro.
I got involved in the LoCo scene because I believe that with Ubuntu, we finally have a distribution that is easy enough for a layperson to understand and use, and powerful enough to satisfy the demands of business, academia, and IT. For the first time since proprietary OS's began taking over the technology world, a platform exists which can meet and beat the best of them head-to-head. Better yet, unlike its competitors, that platform -- GNU/Linux -- gives you the freedom to continue to innovate as *you* see fit, not as the developer sees it.
After several years of using both Windows and Linux together, I am at last closing in on my personal goal of becoming Windows free. I am looking forward to using Ubuntu with you!
[CENTER]Matthew G. Copple
IRC: PenguinistaKC
The Ubuntu Counter Project - user number 17115 | Registered Linux User #453289
[CENTER]Matthew G. Copple
IRC: PenguinistaKC
The Ubuntu Counter Project - user number 17115 | Registered Linux User #453289
I think we've all had days like that Matt. Some more than others.
Welcome, Richard! My wife has a lot of family in Central Missouri. Her parents live up in the Moberly area, and she has about a regiment of cousins, as well as a sister, who live in Columbia. We met at the University of MIssouri and lived in Columbia for several years before moving to KC.
There used to be a really active LUG in the Columbia area, but I don't know whether it is around anymore. You might contact the CS department at MU -- if anyone would know where the Linux guys are hiding, they would.
[CENTER]Matthew G. Copple
IRC: PenguinistaKC
The Ubuntu Counter Project - user number 17115 | Registered Linux User #453289
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Last edited by erichmj; December 23rd, 2009 at 01:05 AM. Reason: because I can
My name is Milo Housknecht. I have used Linux for a few years now off and on. Lately more often than in the past and I now have one of my 3 PC's completely Ubuntu! I consider myself only a novice Linux user for now. I would like to bump that up a notch quickly, which is part of the reason why I joined the group. I'm not particularly helpful yet since everyone else here knows a crap-load more than I do, but I have not been slacking on converting people over to the light side! I got a few people interested already at my new job at Handmark! A friend here and I are going to try to convince the company of the need to get the OpenMoko phone for some Linux development
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