Ok... I'll admit that I am 55 (almost) and using Linux. I have been involved with computers since 1969 (a lot of you were not even born yet).!!!!
A bit of history.. I learned the IBM 402 punch card programming (a slab with wires). I graduated from there to a Univac 1050 (8 K of memory) running the Console exec (my memory fades here a bit - I know there were three execs). The programming was similar to ALGOL but then we graduated to the Uniivac 9300 with 32K of memorry (heaven!!!!) and a 360 assembler like language. I developed what we called RORI (roll-in roll-out programming --- today it's called paging)
In 1972 I started working on IBM 360/65's and 165's (256K memory) and the IBM 360 assembler language which we upgraded to Assembler "G" ( University of Waterloo -- the first cooperative CS and separate CS faculty -- 1965).
Although I loved assembly language and writing macros, I knew that higher level languages were emerging -- Cobol, PL/1, PL/S, Pascal and C). My lust for machine control led me into the micro computer world in 1976. There I excelled in process control systems (writing your own OS and commands) and learning the breadth of computers. In the 80's I had my own consulting firm and supported many financial customers in the Systems Programming area and make-shift priogramming.
I learned basic on my first PC, a Compaq Deskpro (v80 chip), and developed my billing application using basic.
My son used my PC to setup his first BBS in 1984!!! I then moved on to OS/2 and some windows but leaned more towards OS/2...
Since I had some Unix like experience (DG 8/40, 2/10, Varian v66's ) I was sent to learn AIX admin in 1995 but at that time Windows 3.5 was emergng and I was transferred to suuport this OS. In 1998 (still ruinning OS/2 at home --- Merlin), I was assigned to a project running on Solaris 8. I embraced this project and re-discovered my love for Unix-like OS's.
Since then I have tried Mandrake 8.0, Suse, RedHat 8.0and 9.0 and finally Fedora FC1.
I currently run 3 FC1's at home, one being my Firewall, one a multi-purpose using Vmware and the other my DNS, DHCP, Squid, Apache, Samba, NTP, etc...server.
I still write scripts and I have developed a D/R set of scripts for our Solaris systems which can be found at:
http://www/gurski.com/Netbackup , I have also ported these scripts to Windows ...alas Unix/linux rules in scripting.
At work I not only function as a Windows administrator (200+) but also Solaris (9 servers) and Fedora (4 servers plus my laptop).
I am curious as to how many other Old farts are using linux and enjoying it....
Ed
Old Farts Using Linux
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