First post.
I’m new to the site, so I’ll introduce myself.
My name is Barry. I’ve been a Gnu/Linux user for about 6 years. I started because I was an engineering student fed up with waiting on the Sun servers to do my C programming homework. I’m usually friendly, but kinda emotionless and blunt at times.
I started with Debian Woody, shortly before Sarge released (2004). I wanted to get into GNU/Linux years before that, but never got around to it. I considered RedHat and Suse because they were packaged distros I could buy at the store with CDs and a manual and everything. But I also heard some people talk abotu Debian and how it was really stable and easy to maintain. When I finally took the plunge, one of the TAs for my programming class said he would help me if I chose Debian. That pretty much sold me and I installed Debian on my laptop. Since then, I tried a couple other distros, but none ever felt right like Debian did.
Apart from computer stuff, I’m partial to craft beer and very expensive gin. If there’s one thing that will bring geeks together that isn’t computers, it’s beer. I primarily enjoy oatmeal stouts, scotch ales, and IPAs, but I also go for wheat beer during the summer. Someday I’ll try to brew my own.
One thing you should know about me: I got into GNU/Linux to learn about it. I refuse to use “easy” distros like Ubuntu because they hide the very things that I want. It’s fine for others to use it, but I don’t want to feel like I’m using Fisher-Price’s My First Linux. When people complain about how hard it is to do things in GNU/Linux, I laugh and tell them to be glad they’re not using Slackware. When I get another spare box, I’ll try Slackware myself. There are some things I can’t learn unless I run an even less “friendly” distro than Debian, and my thirst for knowledge will compell me to move forward.
That said, I also have a box running Debian kFreeBSD. It’s not Linux, but rather GNU/kFreeBSD (GNU userspace on top of the FreeBSD kernel). This box gives me the most challenges, and is thus the most fun to use. Just getting sound to work was an adventure, and I felt like I was a better person for having overcome the challenge.
So there. You can tell the kind of person I am by reading all that.
