Sep
9
2008
A new beginning
Author: BoompoetLINUX! The Ubutu distrubition, Hardy Heron build to be specific.
That’s right boys and girls, I’ve gotten into Linux, the open source free man’s (or woman’s) operating system. When I was in college, I used a Unix system (the basis for linux) and a text based web browser called Lynx to get online along side telnet for chat. Later came graphical interfaces like Netscape. I eventually fell into the trap Microsoft has lain for us all and became… and end user.
Now-a-days, I like to think I’m smarter than the average user, but I’m defiantly not an U83Я l33t h4ck3r (uber “leet” as in elite hacker, see leetspeak) either. I thought, that’s all that used Linux. Not just the hackers, no Linux users were the elite hackers who had ideas about politics and art and literature and when they spoke, out poured important utterances that would set the coffee house on a roar with debate. These are the people who, while trading pirated software in back rooms of smoke filled techno clubs, wearing faded black sweaters with torn jeans and beanies, sporting silk scarves and dark round sunglasses, would comment on the instability of Darfur and how the oppressive regime currently trying to control the country was nothing more than a mouth piece for the corporations that really ran things and arguing the benefits of pirates over ninjas or vice versa.
This was my misconception. I am more of an end user than a real authority on the subject of all things tech, but that proves the versatility of the OS. Linux has proven it’s self to me so far as a solid and relatively easy to learn operating system. My system is faster and It’s getting easier to use. The only issues I have are some programs that have to have windows to run (Photoshop is a prime example), it’s not as intuitive as I’d like but that can be fixed with some tweaking of the GUI and the inability to sync some devices though I’m looking into that. The best part is a community of support. Windows offers a little database of issues, but there’s no one that really cares. Linux users really want other users to enjoy and have an easy time of Linux. The forums are full of helpful and nice people who are eager to help. All in all, it seems like a hit, but we’ll know more as time goes on.
