[Linux-aus] Just give me a minute ...

[Don Knowles]

While I wipe the egg off my face.

To introduce myself:
I started using Linux with RedHat 5.2 which was given to me by a shop
owner whom I'd helped with his computer.
I installed it in a Pentium 133 with a whopping 32MB of RAM and a 2GB
HD, that I shoe-horned into an old 386 PC box.
Along the way I've developed a liking for Mandrake/Mandriva, and a
reluctance to use Ubuntu, mostly because of networking "oddities" in
getting it to talk to my ADSL modem/rounter through the N way switch I
use to share internet connection with up to 4 PCs at a time.
Now I'm using Fedora Core 6 on this PC, with SAM-2007 by PCLinuxOS
(Belgium?) on a Dell laptop.
I also occasionally "play" with various LiveCDs (Knoppix and DSL) and
all the LiveCD/InstallCDs that come my way.

So, I'm a sort of ham-fisted self-made Linux user.
I'm not a programmer, in fact I doubt I could write a shell-script to
save my life ... or even print "HELP" onscreen :-)

I'm trying to do my bit in promoting Linux/FOSS by "spreading the
word" amongst my colleagues at work. I work in a State Government
department, and we are in the fortunate position of being able to buy
the "end of life" PCs, at an agreed "trade-in price" set by the
suppliers of our new PCs.
Because the Microsoft products installed on them are supplied under
strict terms including "no resale", the hard drives are wiped. Very
effectively, I assure you.
I placed a "posting" in the departments Regional online notice-board
... and got responses from Brisbane (640km south) and Mackay (300km
north). Go figure.

To Nick's Wife: thank you ma'am for your injection of some real
information, into what seemed to me an otherwise ordinary debate.
Seven genders? No wonder I feel confused at times.

To Janet Hawtin: "we desperately need a scientifically literate
general population, capable of thinking rationally"
I've felt for a long time, we desperately need to stop denigrating
thinkers in this country. The "tall poppy" syndrome has become
ubiquitous in Australian society, to the degree that I get the feeling
it's almost impossible to have a rational conversation that stretches
beyond "accepted wisdom".
Of course, the problem might be that I'm just totally off the planet,
and only I don't know it ...

To Gareth:
you responded:
Posting that a disscussion on sexism in the Open Source communinty (and
computing in general) is "a bunch of familiar bods having a whinge about
anything they feel like" is head slappingly offensive to me. Almost like
you have just signed up a gmail account to Troll.
I hope I am mistaken.

Well, I didn't sign up to a gmail account "just to Troll", I've been
using that gmail account for some time, because some of my favourite
email newsletters appeared to "go astray", and I was suspicious of
BigPonds anti-spam measures (which I don't subscribe to) or some other
difficulty with BigPond email.
Shades of 2003 and the big email collapse. So I have any newsletter I
value sent to gmail, and set gmail to forward it to my BigPond email
for download and reading. Funny how none of them seem to have
"dissappeared" since?? In any event the archived emails on gmail give
me a backup, with no effort on my part.

As for the "discussion on sexism", there was 3 days or so of it ...
and I'm well aware sexism exists in human society, not just the
computer industry.
I couldn't really see there was anything more to be added ... although
(as above) I appreciated some of the later contributions.

Thanks to all those who made encouraging remarks, I'll stick around
and see if I can make a viable contribution. RockLUG anyone?

-- 
Don Knowles
Rockhampton 4700 AUSTRALIA