I'm 60. Gentoo since November 2005. I was first exposed to the *nix concept through the DOS compiled Unix utilities produced by the FSF in about 1992 or 3. Once I returned to civilization from a remote Pacific island, where I was using the *nix text tools for a lexicon project, I had to have Linux, of which I had learned by following the FSF News Bull. Started on Slackware. After about two years, I moved to Debian. A few years later, I started using Knoppix to install and ran Debian. I started using Gentoo as a self-torture exercize, to cure myself of fear of configuration. I have looked at Ubuntu and MEPIX in the meanwhile, even running them when I need a quick install. I have never seriously looked back from Gentoo, however.
I'm not from a computer background, which seems somewhat unique among respondents. Rather, I have been using GNU/Linux to enable my work, education, science, publishing w/ TeX/LaTeX, making tide calendars. I owe a huge debt to the developers. I would like to pay it back, perhaps working on Documentation; perhaps I am too scatterbrained and although I have taken a basic course in Computer Architecture, programmed in Elisp, and taken a course in Mathematical FORTRAN, I feel somewhat ovewhelmed by the nits. Alan -- Alan Davis, Kagman High School, Saipan [EMAIL PROTECTED] I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. --------Richard Stallman Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. ----- Thomas H. Huxley -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
