[Beds] Who's Here?

[Stephen Newey]

> 1. Say Hi! So we know who's here.
Hey, I'm Steve!

> 2. Whereabouts are you?
I'm in Shortstown just on the edge of Bedford

> 3. What's your relationship with Linux? (how did you come to use  
> it, what do you use it for, etc)
Having seen a Sun Netra server running Solaris several years ago at  
school I became intrigued by the idea of UNIX-like systems. A teacher  
lent me a cover CD containing FT-Linux (now long defunct I believe)  
and it got me hooked. Suddenly it felt like I was learning a lot more  
about how a computer actually works than I ever did with Windows! I  
soon discovered SuSE (around version 5.something) and it became my  
distro of choice and within a year I was rarely booting into Windows.
Nowadays I use Linux all the time for work (general consulting, and  
specialising lately in IPTV systems) and at home I use it as a file  
server, router, digital video recorder and PBX. I'm afraid for my  
desktop usage I've been seduced by the shininess of OSX, but I've  
always got a couple of terminals open to Linux machines here and there.

> 4. What's your preferred distribution? (no need to get into why  
> unless you really want to, just establishing a demographic!)
For desktops, Ubuntu. For servers where stability is most important,  
Debian Stable, and for servers where the latest versions of various  
pacakages is important, Ubuntu again. Go apt :)

> 5. What do you hope to get out of being involved with a Linux User  
> Group? What sort of things would you like to see the group do?
I hope to be able to help get more people involved in using Linux,  
meet like-minded people and exchange ideas and experiences. I'd like  
to think the LUG could promote the use of Linux within Bedfordshire,  
for home use, in schools and in businesses.
I think it could also serve as a useful place to make connections for  
work, hopefully serving as a place for local organisations to find  
skilled people and for skilled people to find opportunities and  
interesting projects. Beds needs the free software economy :)

--
Steve
www.freakymousemats.com