[COLUG] a/s/l -- no, really.

[Mark Erbaugh]

Warner,

My educational background is Chemical Engineering. I had a little
exposure to computer programming in college, but personal microcomputers
were still hobbyist toys when I graduated in 1977.

I am now (and have been for almost 20 years) an independent software
contractor. I got into PC's through the Apple ][ , Radio Shack TRS-80,
and then CP/M on the Osborne 1. I moved to MS-DOS and then to Windows. I
tried to keep involved with Apple, but most of the clients I found were
dealing with Windows. When I was working with MS-DOS, I was pretty good
with a command line, but years of Windows changed that. Until about a
year ago my development language of choice was Borland Delphi. Since
then I have moved to Python.

I became interested in Linux several years ago and tried various Red Hat
flavors, but never really learned the command line all that well and
still needed to keep going with Windows to support my clients. My move
to Python has helped me start doing programming in Linux.  I'm not so
afraid to look at a script these days.

A friend gave me a CD with Ubuntu Breezy (5.10) in 2005 and I started
messing with it. When Ubuntu Dapper (6.06) was released, I found that it
would run on my notebook computer (Compaq Presario V2000) and I got
serious with Ubuntu.  While I haven't kept up with all the distros,
Ubuntu seems to be the first one that has targeted end users rather than
IT types and computer hobbyists. I know many people who only use
computers for word processing, spreadsheets, email and www browsing.
Ubuntu can do that right out of the box (i.e. off the CD) and the price
certainly is right.

I'm now doing as much as I can in Linux, although all of my workstations
still dual boot with Windows.  One of my Windows / Delphi support jobs
is going away and I'm hoping to replace that with Linux support /
programming.  I think that with Ubuntu, Linux is finally positioned to
take be a serious choice for the office desktop and I'd like to help
people get there.

Mark Erbaugh