The Linux Project part II: My qualifications, a short history of Linux and I, and some words to the wise. By Pappy McFae
Some might ask the question, "what qualifies you to write a series of articles about Linux?" Well, willingness to jump into that pool of sharks would be the short answer. Often times, that's really all the qualification one needs to do anything in this world: willingness. It can move mountains, change the course of rivers, and even drive someone to write about open source operating systems.
For the long answer, I would have to delve a bit into my personal history. As I said in the first part of this article, I received my first computer almost thirty years ago as a Christmas present. It was a Texas Instruments T.I. 99/4 A. Basically; it was a game system that had a keyboard and a BASIC interpreter on internal ROM. It had a slot to accept game cartridges as well as an expansion port for peripheral devices. Bill Cosby did the commercials for it way back when.
While it was pretty cool, and I did write some BASIC programs for it, because we only had the cassette tape drive, pretty much every time I wanted to make it work, I had to key in the programs. It was either that, or play the video game cartridges. At the time, I was way more into making it run my programs than I was playing the games. Unfortunately, my parents balked at buying the floppy drive, or the extended BASIC cartridge. I can only imagine how far I would have gotten in life had I been able to write more complex programs and store them. I might be one of the Microsoft millionaires.
Somewhere down the line, that computer went the way of most Christmas gifts: into the garbage. Along with it went my hopes to become what I thought I wanted to be at the time: a computer programmer. I forgot that computers even existed for some time after that experience. It wasn't until I was about twenty-four that I crossed paths with a computer again.
This time it was an HP 150 system. The 150's big claim to fame was a touch screen interface. In this case, touch screen is a bit of a misnomer. Instead of having a touch sensitive film on the screen, there were a series of infrared LED's along the edges of the screen. Placing your finger on the screen would break the beams and thus you had a touch screen.
I found that old system in the back area of a business where I was working. The machine had been retired because it died a smoky death. When I asked my boss about it, he gladly gave me not only all the parts to the machine, but its numerous software disks. I was so happy to have it, it didn't matter that I had to repair it before I could use it.
It had died a smoky death because for some reason, the main power capacitor had exploded. When I say it exploded, I mean it shredded parts of itself all over the inside of the drive unit, and blew a blackened hole into the power supply PC board. With a little solder, some effort, and gratitude that the explosion didn't destroy the plastic cover with the ratings for the cap, I fixed it and had it up and running in short order.
I didn't get that computer simply to say I owned a computer again. It wasn't about having a computer for its own sake; it was about having something on which I could write. You see, I was into writing poetry at the time. However, due to my horrific handwriting, once I finished a poem, I had an incredibly difficult time reading it. At last, with this machine, I could write to my heart's content and easily read what I had written.
Of course, me being who I was, I couldn't leave well enough alone. All the years of it sitting out at that work site had filled the touch screen LED's with thick dust. That caused some problems with the computer running properly. I tried to fix this problem. I didn't know what I was doing, and I wound up corrupting all the data on the hard drive. Of course, the first program to die was the word processor.
This meant I had to get a hold of another computer. I had become used to being able to read what I had written. Not only that, I had begun writing a novel. I had to resurrect it! The novel didn't die (that time), but the word processor sure did. It was the only program disk I didn't get with the computer.
The new computer was a 286. It ran MS-DOS 6, and NOTHING else. It was barely usable, but at least I could continue to write my novel. Because of that machine, I began to get deeper into the world of computers. I even found a job at a computer shop. That's a story in and of itself that would take too many pages to recount. Besides, it's not important really.
Linux and I
By virtue of the job at the computer shop, I started amassing a bunch of old computer parts. As customers came in to upgrade, I wound up with the guts from their old machines. By the time I left that job, I had three complete systems, as well as a goodly supply of extra hard drives, controllers, video cards, memory strips, and other assorted odds and ends.
One of the computers was used to run a computer BBS. A BBS, or bulletin board system, for those who don't know, is like the Internet on an extremely small scale. People would call into that computer, read email (non-internet and internet depending upon the software used), post messages, debate issues, and play lame ANSI RPG games. My computer was a part of a bigger network that ran throughout the Toledo area and up into southwestern Michigan. There were five other systems in the network.
Someone who I can only consider to be the utmost computer geek I have ever known owned the lead system. It was called The Particle Board. Literally, the main system was a motherboard screwed down onto a piece of particleboard. Entering the basement of this home was like entering a computer graveyard. There were systems of every type scattered everywhere. It was amazing!
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