About this

About 2002, I moved to a new company. They have a very bizzare policy of providing almost no support to the users. The response I got was 'This is a computer company, everyone should be able to manage their own computer.' Which ranks up there as the laziest policy I have every heard. So when I finally got my computer, it came with no OS. 'You should be able to run Win2k on this,' I was told. So where is the CDs? I asked.

'Some guy on the some other floor. Get it from him. I only deliver this.'

Which was a big mistake because I got so pissed that I decided to load up Mandrake 8.2 on my computer. I wanted to see how far could I go before someone in the company stopped me. I have used Linux on and off since 1992 and in my previous jobs put it on servers doing all sorts of things, mostly Internet related. I am not even OS shy as in my last job I have both MSWindows and MacOS 8 on my desk. But even, at my skill level, I wasn't sure. Now, 2 years later and still on Mandrake 9.1, I am still using Linux in the office full time. No Windows-made-in-Seattle on my machine.

In learning to use Linux full time, it made me confident to make the jump on my home machine. This is the machine I share with my wife (also a computer professional) and my kids. It still has Windows, sort of (that's another story) but 99% of the time it's linux.

Now, I use mostly Mandrake on the desktop and RedHat/Fedora on the servers at the office. I hope to share my experience with the hope it'll help at least one more person make the jump.