clivesay
Group: Guests
Posts: 935
Joined: Dec. 2003 |
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Posted: Oct. 15 2004,03:59 |
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Since we are getting sentimental, I'll share my story....
I looked back and see that I registered on Dec 31, 2003. Many of you who have been around here for awhile know that I started a not for profit organization in Sept, 2003 called No Computer Left Behind, Inc. My goal was to refurbish old computers and give them to needy children by working through local schools. It started as a church ministry. Up to that time I was strictly a PC user with NO development experience whatsoever. I quickly realized that the reason many people are not doing this is because of software. NFP's were having to pay $5 per license for Win98. That doesn't sound like much until you take 5 x 1000 computers. I didn't want the organization's success to be determined by whether I had $5 to put a PC together. I had heard about Linux and thought I would investigate. As anyone new would do, I looked at RedHat, Mandrake, Vector, etc....but they required too much horsepower. I knew that I would be getting tons of PI 133 type machines. After some searching, I came across DSL and was intrigued. I thought it might work but I was clueless on how to use it. So, I contacted a few LUG's thinking I could easily find some Linux "geeks" who would want to tackle this with me. Well, I was wrong!! When I mentioned DSL they were not interested in helping. They always recommended that I try to use fedora or suse and if a machine couldn't handle it, I should part it out!! I was frustrated but, very determined. I decided to roll up my sleeves and see what I can do. I believed I was being driven to do this.
I came to the DSL forum and started learning. The thing that really struck me was how friendly this forum was. People were very patient with me. Every once in awhile I would try another distro but always ended up back here. Now, almost a year later, I am a proud Linux "geek" who is tweaking his own OS that is based off of John's vision. I have a box with an insane number of partitions, multiple distros and a remastering environment. I think I have been officially converted!!
I will keep you all posted of some exciting things that are coming about because of this work.
John - Thank you so much for pushing your vision and sticking to your guns. I can't begin to tell you how much I have learned. It is fun to wow the IT guys at work.
I have to mention the people who have been instrumental in guiding me....CappyCaffiene (where is he, anyway?), cbagger01, roberts, ke4nt1, TyphoonMentat, hasty, roadie, clacker...there have been many.
I can't wait to see what the future holds................
Chris
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