Old Farts Using Linux

[egurski]

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

[Picomp314]

I began my computer usage probably at the age of 4 or 5, My family has had a computer for as long as I can remember. Our first one was a Macintosh IIci, with a 100MB HD, and a 740 MB external SCSI drive, as a child I remember playing children's games that ran on MacOS 7.5 (or was it 7.4.6??)

Several Years later we then moved up to a Macintosh 7500 PowerMac with a 68040 processor, this computer served us well for probably 4 years, I learned alot despite it being a Mac... I taught myself basic applescripting and other such things...

My Father had grown tired of Macintoshes, and finally decided to purchase a PC with a 1.2 Ghz processor, this was now at the very beginning of my freshman year of High School. With the New PC i gained a rapid learning curve, and soon surpassed 90% of my school. I longed to experiment with other operating systems, Linux in particular. I began running LiveCD Linux distributions on the PC and experimented with Linux more and more...

I decided that I needed my own computer and asked for one in the winter months of my Sophomore year of High School. I built the computer with an Athlon XP 2200+, and so began my journey into the world of Linux...

I initially installed Red Hat 8.0 and my high speed of my learning continued I soon surpassed probably 99% of my school... Eventually I discovered Fedora Core 1 and Installed it, and I recently upgraded that to Fedora Core 2 Test 3; There are probably only two People I know that have skills that are comparable to mine.

Some find it hard to believe that I have only had an x86 based computer for < 3 years, yet I have much more ability than many people who have been using computers for much longer than I have been alive.

I am 16 years old and will turn 17 on the 28th of this month.

[crackers]

I guess I qualify since, when answering surveys, I find myself checking the "45+" option. Who came up with that dubious distinction anyway?

Started in 1973 with a Hewlett-Packard 9810A (desktop calculator and used RPN as a programming "language" - blech!), then on to Watfive (Fortran V) on an Amdahl 470V6, etc. My first "real" job (with a grand total of 1 hour of college CS) in 1982 turned me into a Unix weenie and, despite having had to suffer through a period of all-Windows-no-Unix using, I've generally stayed a Unix weenie.

I started using Linux with kernel version 0.99something (good ol' Slack on floppy disks downloaded over a 2400 baud modem). I started using RH at around 5.0 and, despite flirtations with other distros, have stayed pretty close to home.

And, just to blow my own horn, I have a nice little hacking "HowTo" up on Fedoranews.org (http://fedoranews.org/contributors/e_a_graham_jr/ndis/)

[ewdi]

woah, u all have great experiences, as for me i did not start computing until i was 14 years old which is around 1993

so i'm still in dos era however did not went into classic computing

I only started using linux since 1998 which i tried with enthusiasm and failed to install right actually (i did not know that i need to install boot loader to boot sector )

after that i've started to like linux and use it a lot at school and home for school work (i'm in computer science major)

i never use other hardware platform beside x86 since i compute.

i did use computer when i was 6 years old i think with TYAN 8088 System where it give u electric shock everytime you turn them on from the side of the system but i only use it to play game called DIGGER, so dont call it computing

[crackers]

Originally posted by tux
woah, u all have great experiences

Heck, I lost count of how many different systems, OSs and languages I've used. I just consider myself fortunate (and old enough) to have seen the rise of computing from monstrous main-frames to PDAs. (Did I mention the Amdahl's 2Mb core memory?)

As egurski would probably confrim, if you stick with it long enough, you'll end up with plenty of "great experinces" yourself. The trick is to keep learning and poking your nose into places that look interesting...

I can just see it now: in 20 years, telling the kids about how you remember when a computer took up more space than a box of tissues!

[Ug]

My first comouter was an Amiga 600+ at the age of 8.

[mark]

Yeah, I qualify -I turned 50 in January (and got my first mail from AARP 2 days later!).

Started fiddling with small computers in the late '70s (an S100-based Godbout CompuPro 8080), kept trying to get it to do something useful but never developed any real "feel" for programming. However, when I discovered Boolean logic, things started to fall into place and I began to understand (I think!) some of the magic that was going on inside these nondescript boxes.

Went to work in the early '80s for a major small printer manufacturer that decided to get into small computers by offereing an alternative to "the Evil Empire" (IBM/Microsoft) - anybody remember the QX-10 and Valdocs? Nice idea, lousy execution - but the QX was still one of the best d**n CP/M machines I ever used.

I was transferred from my native Atlanta to southern California in late 1986 and was promptly given the task of setting up a call-tracking system for our Tech Support center. With no network, next-to-no budget and just the (by that time) PCs on everybody's desk. The consultant that had been hired to do it spent about a week on it and then returned his fee. So I wound up setting up a XENIX host running a DataFLEX database app I cobbled together, connecting the PCs via RS232 serial cable, running some DOS pop-up TSR terminal emulator. And it all worked...somehow.

Thus began my love/hate relationship with various *nix flavors. It came to a head when I purchased a spiffy new Sony VAIO laptop last year and discovered that I really, really could not stand Windows XP.

So here I am...

[Ug]

I feel so young...

[Lindy]

Originally posted by egurski
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).!!!!

I still had baseball cards flapping in the spokes of my bicycle in '69, so the question I have to ask myself is "am I an old fart?"... Well, erm, ahh, hmm... Yea. I probably am, or atleast slouching in that direction anyway.

My first exposure to Linux was with Slackware 3.3. Fortunately for my sanity I found Redhat soon there after.

[sailor]

46 years old here...I am lovign my FC1...I use it more than WinXP now...
I started back in late 70's with a old IBM 8088...it was owned by a friend of mine who got it from work (don't ask)...we got newer equipment as the years went by...we were so impressed when he got his 286 with vga graphics...whoowhoo...hehe
I used to sell Commadore 64's and 300's at a little office supply I worked at...I couldn't afford to buy my own computer till the mid 90's...
I guess the first OS I first used was DOS 3.0...i think...
I dont miss those days...but then again it was fun when thats all we had...

[EnnisMac]

44 years old here ....

My first computer was some kind of mini-computer at my high school in 1977. I learned basic and wrote a tick tac toe program that was unbeatable, you could tie it, but not beat it.

From there I went on to Prime mini com puter in the early 1980's, and some Windows PC's.

I learned Solaris in 1989 and have been with it ever since.

I've also learned Linux, Red Hat, SuSE, and now Fedora ..

I like Linux the best ...

Ennis

[crackers]

Since I forgot to mention my first personal computer, it was an Apple //e - with a whopping 128Kb (swapped, of course) memory and one of the absolute gawd-awful pieces of crap ever invented by mankind: the DuoDisk (two 1/2-height 5.25" floppy drives in one enclosure). It spent more time in the shop than it did connected to the computer. Oh, and I bought a 300-baud (non-acoustic!) modem for it, too.

Oh, and my first e-mail address was a "bang-path" address.

[mark]

Originally posted by crackers
...Oh, and my first e-mail address was a "bang-path" address.

Yeah, mine was one of those impossible-to-remember Compuserve/CIS thingies - something like 72354,1431. And my first modem was a 300-baud acoustic coupler....

[jcstille]

I had a nice old pc. I am talking first pc produced by IBM. Then I upgraded, and threw os2/warp on there. Had a text only browser. Ah the good ole days.

[Avon]

Being a young slip of a lad, my first computer at age 10: BBC Micro model B. Don't think it was ever popular in the States, which is too bad because it was a hell of a good machine at the time. I still have it, in storage currently, but I bet it still works. Just need to modify it slightly to work with a US power supply

First encountered Unix (in the form of Dynix on a Sequent Symmetry) at university in 1990; I only wanted access to email but it came with a shell account. I eventually stumbled across the man command and the rest is history