Episode: 4052
Title: HPR4052: How I got in to Linux / Micro Edition
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4052/hpr4052.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 19:03:03

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4152 for Tuesday the 13th of February 2024.
Today's show is entitled, How I Got Into Linux Micro Edition.
It is the first show by Newhost Geospart and is about five minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is a slightly boring story of my introduction into Linux.
How I got started in Linux, the Micro Edition.
Hi, my name is George Dasha, online known as Geospart.
How I got started in Linux, I was working at IBM Slash Radio Shack.
I had a part-time job at Radio Shack in upstate New York.
I was using OS2Warp at the time and I was really liking OS2Warp.
I've supplied free by IBM, I guess.
We had done a switchover to using Windows.
We had some Windows 311 and Windows 95 systems coming in.
I was not liking Windows so much.
Somebody had given me a copy of Windows to use on a home PC.
Not really super impressed, I kept crashing it and doing bad things to it.
One night I'm working at Radio Shack before my third shift at IBM.
I was describing how I really was not a fan of Windows.
One of the guys working there told me about Red Hat.
He told me you could buy it at Electronics Boutique, which was also in the mall I was working at.
I went down, I think I paid $50 for Red Hat.
Five point one, I still have the discs and book here somewhere.
I installed it and I've been using Linux ever since.
Now on and off, I was doing both.
I was ambidextrous, so I would have some Windows systems and some Linux systems.
Primarily these days, in the last couple of years,
I'm at home, I'm 100% Linux.
At work, I had to use Windows because, you know, they use Windows.
At home, I've been primarily using Linux.
I'm going to save for 12 years.
I don't think I've had a Windows systems in my house in at least 12 years.
I mean, other than a virtual box for testing or other things, but I haven't.
If I buy a system and it has Windows on it,
Windows lasts as long as I can back it up to USB disc and then toss it into a drawer and then put Linux on.
My Linux is in order, pretty much, have been Red Hat.
A distro known as Lucorus after Red Hat.
I was using that. It was nice.
It was simple.
Let's see, after Lucorus, I used Open ZUSA.
And then Ubuntu for a bit until Unity.
And then when Unity was introduced into Ubuntu back in the day,
I switched Mint on a friend's recommendation because I was upset with Unity.
And I've been on Mint ever since.
So around the time when Unity came in, I switched to Mint.
Now I test other distros and I still have one or two systems in Open ZUSA,
mostly servers, but everything else, all my desktops, my laptops,
my walk around systems are all Linux Mint.
I've just upgraded to 21.3, which is the latest, I think that's Veronica,
and got the Elvis Costello song going through my head.
But that's me. That's my Linux journey starting in the mid 90s up until now.
Not much to say. I'm more or less, I would put myself as an advanced user.
I'm going to do a little bit of coding, but nothing crazy.
I worked for developers at IBM, but I didn't develop specifically for them.
I know how to, but I didn't. And that's it.
Oh, and some other personal journeys to nothing too great.
But at IBM, also the stuff I did is now museum worthy.
I mean, it was a Lotus admin. I did Lotus 4.5, 4.6, as far as being certified.
I was Blackberry certified, T2.
I think that was 2003, 4 somewhere in that time.
And I still have the certificate somewhere around here, but those are museum pieces.
Nobody does this stuff anymore.
New OS 2, OS 2 Warp.
What else?
Mainframe, MBS. I did a lot of stuff in MBS.
Multivideo system.
I don't know. Just things, tech things.
But I'm old now, so I just stick with mint. It's easy.
And I could just do the stuff.
Well, thanks. I'm trying to submit a show here, so hopefully this is too boring for you guys.
Have a good one. Thanks for listening to Hacker Public Radio.
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