[Sussex] Introduction

[Rob Malpass]

After a few months of lurking around here, I thought it high time to 
introduce myself.

Hello!

I always find these sorts of emails impossible to write without sounding 
pompous, but here goes.... starting with a bit about myself.

I'm 31, living and working in Worthing since July this year having left 
London!   I'm definitely a Linux fan and a fan of IT in general.   My 
current house (which is temporary while we try and buy somewhere) is too 
small to afford any more than one XP box and a Debian machine - with the XP 
box almost permanently having a ssh session open to the Debian machine.

However I have had (and will have again once we've moved) a network of 
around 17 machines running various different OS's (XP, Win98, Slackware, 
Debian, Solaris (2 Sparcs) and an IMac).   Why so many?   Two reasons: 1) I 
like to use the best tool for the job (i.e. learning Linux I use Debian, 
server OS I use Slackware, graphics and web design, I use a Mac, programming 
I use Sparcs and for general surfing, burning CDs etc I use XP. 2) I 
absolutely hate dual booting.

My experience with Linux is pretty limited.   I've had a Linux machine since 
about 1998 but I've not done much with any of them.   I considered it an 
achievement to print, to network it to Windows and to get X running on Slack 
3.1 was no joke without knowing the intimate details of the graphics card! 
Furthermore getting sound out of the Debian  box was harder than it should 
have been.   My greatest Linux achievement has been to network 4 Slackware 
machines together to make a "heteogeneous parallel cluster" aka a 
Supercomputer but if we're being as down-to-Earth as we should be - 4 PCs 
running some message passing software to produce a .ras file of a mandelbrot 
set.

Three other things that might be of interest:
1) I'm doing an BSc in Computing with the OU
2) Buying a RISC, or maybe even Iyonix machine for Christmas from CJE 
Micros.
3) Best for last - I'm partially sighted so doubt I'll be able to make many 
of the "moots".

Cheers - look forward to contributing to this list.
Rob 



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