My first exposure to *nix was in about 1990 when I was given an account on a MicroVAX running Ultrix. Not too bad back then. Then we went to SunOS5 which to me, as a user, didn't seem to be a whole lot different. I had the Sun account until just about a year ago, but went through some time using VMS, and eventually OpenVMS on an AlphaVAX. I have to admit, I am kind of fond of VMS even today.
About a year ago, we got a new IT director who felt that Windows was the only way to go and all the real stuff got replaced with Win2k servers and Novell. I could go on about the problems with that setup (which continues to this day), but when a friend of mine offered me an account on his Red Hat Linux server, I jumped at it. That was probably about 6 months ago or so. It was like coming home again, and I ended up copying all my network files to that server and more or less abandoning the ones provided by my employer. I use those for backup purposes and not much else.
Last month I finally put my first Linux desktop box together. There's a big difference between just using a *nix account and actually setting up and configuring your own computer. I used to think I knew a bit of Unix, but quickly found that I knew some basic commands, some vi, and not a whole lot else. Without this group, I'd probably still be trying to get my hd partitions set up
Now, although I'll probably keep my Win98 home computer as is, I do most stuff at home on my Linux desktop. I hope to be buying a much better machine and upgrading to RH 8 in another few weeks and may eventually even see about putting a Linux box in my office after I get a bit more experienced with it and make sure that OpenOffice can support all my office needs. I already know that it can do everything else I need.
Although my resume is nothing like void main's, I do a lot with computers at work. I use computers to control the physical plant of the college I work at. The server is a WinNT4 box that communicates with 25 MBC's in the field. They use Z8 chips to do their things. The language used is PPCL, which is a Basic-like programming language. I (and my students) write the PPCL and put a GUI front end on the command line interface so that even Windroids can pretend to use the system. I also use the system to "harvest" data from the system that gets dumped into spreadsheets and databases to assist in determining fuel costs, system efficiencies and stuff like that. Oh, I have my students turn a lot of the data into pretty little charts and graphs for those that like that stuff too.
Until recently, I also maintained the department's web page. I did that as long as I could telnet into my www directory, use vi to write HTML, and put up the web page. I enjoyed that, and I felt that my students learned something from it. Now we're supposed to use Dreamweaver or some such nonsense, and the pages are about a year out of date. I'm too old and stupid to learn that crap.
Computers have been a part of my job, albeit a small part, since the mid-80's. Unix first came into the picture over 10 years ago, and with any luck at all, Linux will make it fun again. Windows sure managed to squeeze the joy out of it.
Jim
