hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1970.txt

Episode: 1970
Title: HPR1970: How I got started with Linux
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1970/hpr1970.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 12:41:08

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This is HPR Episode 1970 entitled, How I Got Started with the Linux, and in part on the
series, How I Found Linux.
It is hosted by Swift 110, and in about 28 minutes long, the summary is, I talk at length
about how I got started with Linux.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code, HPR15, that's HPR15.
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Hello, this is Swift 110.
Thought I would go ahead and do an audio recording on here about how I got started with Linux.
Now this story goes pretty much to the beginning of 2010.
So now it's been nearly six years since I embarked on this wonderful journey known as Linux.
My situation at the time was that I was rather broke, and I remember looking on Google
and I would be at the library for somehow a free operating system to use, and for the
longest time I couldn't find anything useful.
And then one day I happened to be at the Barnes & Noble that was this large bookstore
in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, and that place was awesome because you
had multiple levels to be able to go to and enjoy the books.
Magazines were on the first level, and I just remember going up the escalator and just
having the availability of so many books.
But one of the magazines on the first floor caught my interest.
You know, it said something about Linux, and I didn't really know much about Linux at
this particular time.
All I had heard from anybody I'd ever mentioned it was that it's hard to use and pretty much
you got to be on a certain level to be able to do anything with it.
And so it's just interesting how I looked back all these years later, and apparently
somebody was very misinformed, or maybe they only knew about certain distros of Linux.
But going back to the beginning of my story, I was broke.
So I needed something that would make it possible for me to do more with my computer at home.
And that computer wasn't the best by any stretch of the imagination.
I think I paid like $140 for it in April of.
I don't even remember when I got it.
It's been that long.
Actually, I'd say it was April of 2008, but that predates Linux, and that's the subject
of another recording likely.
So back to Barnes & Noble, I see a magazine for Linux, and I just never heard anything
that was encouraging me to use it.
So I opened up the magazine, flipped through its pages, and I'm trying really hard to remember
the magazine that it would have been at that time.
It could have been Linux Insider, a possibility, hope I don't start sneezing, hey, you know,
you get that little itching you nose for no good reason.
But inside the magazine, I was exposed to a Ubuntu 910, a comic koala.
It sounded so good, it was just what I was looking for.
So it's pretty excited to go home, put in the live CD at this time, and it's just interesting
how this all took place, because all I did was pop it in, and I decided to dual boot
it with Windows XP.
And being a person that I'd only known about Windows at this time, this is a big move.
I put the live CD in there, and I installed, and then it just opened up this brand new world
to me, a world that I'm so happy to be a part of.
It's funny, I think about this, and I reminisce about having the Linux day, a day designated
during the week, when I would try to research how to do stuff and solve issues, excuse me,
and learn to use a different software, and one of the things early on that really impressed
me about Linux was that now I had easy access to being able to play audio.
Media is free media center, word processing, yeah office suite, not word processing, but office
suite, and just everything I need to do, I mean it still took some getting used to, I
admit, getting used to not downloading.exe files, and using Toronto or Synaptic, or even
the Ubuntu software center, you know, using different methods of downloading the programs
that I need, that I wanted to add, that's just, was a new frontier, I tell you, this one
thing that you'll probably think is quite funny, moved, I had my phone too close to my mouth,
and it's not necessary to have it that close apparently, so let's go along with what happened
with the sound issue, I'll tell you that story, this hilarious, oh my goodness, so as I mentioned,
I installed Ubuntu 9.10, but the problem was, I could do just fine, but I didn't have any sound.
The reason I didn't have any sound was because I didn't have the appropriate codex. Now,
had I been using Linux Mint, that would have came with the codex already installed, and I would
have been able to be up and rolling from the jump, but Ubuntu did not come with the codex I needed.
Now, keep in mind at home, I have the internet, so I was just running from what was available on the CD,
and playing with what was on there, and what I did was I did some reading, trying to learn
more about what was going on, and I was able to learn, I was able to get the idea rather that,
why don't I just go online at the library, put the codex on a USB drive, bring it home,
and install it to my computer, yeah, that's right, sneaker net, got it.
So, I called myself doing that, but somehow I didn't understand the instruction,
and I just couldn't seem to get it working. So, as a result, for months and months and months,
I had no sound when using Linux, and this was really annoying, and what happened,
and the reason why it took so long for me to finally get this together was because I got so frustrated with it,
and I said, forget it, you know, I'll revisit the issue later, and it took me months to really revisit it,
and look at the instructions, and be like, okay, this is what you need to do, this is what you need to do,
but that moment when I finally got it right, and I got sound, I was like, oh my goodness, I got sound!
It was just such an exciting moment for me to have sound, and you're probably really laughing at me right now,
it's a big deal, when you overcome such an annoying situation,
because now it may Linux more useful to me, and I just remember gradually using Linux more and more,
and at some point, I tried to put 1004, I made an attempt to do an install,
I made an attempt to do in place install of Ubuntu 10.04, that would have been,
trying to think which one that would have been, Karma Koala was 910,
yeah, Karma Koala was 910, Ubuntu version 9 got 10,
10.04 would be Maverick Miracate, so I installed 10.04,
10.04, Maverick Miracate, and that went horribly.
Also around that time, I managed to completely board my Windows installation.
This by this time, I had a laptop by this time, so it would have been later on that year that I managed to get my hands on a laptop.
Actually, yeah, after a while, I was able to pick up a laptop.
No, one of my friends gave me a laptop, there we go, a Fujitsu 4215,
I've mentioned that before, recordings on here, it was the very first one that I had.
I've had three, so that you can understand what I'm coming from,
and the one that I had left is not one of the original ones.
The one I was using at the time that I first got started with Linux was actually the one that was given to me by a friend.
That's not really important.
On that particular machine, on the laptop, finally, I had the freedom to be able to go places and use Wi-Fi and not be stuck using the library's computer, which of course runs Windows.
I was trying to use Linux more and more, and honestly, I found getting online to be a little more complicated than I wanted.
So I still wasn't exactly ready to use Linux full-time just yet, or even the majority of the time just yet.
I kind of cheated by having Windows and 7 and Ubuntu dual-booted on my laptop, and I cheated by doing that.
And what ended up happening was when I bought Windows 7 on there, it forced me to use Linux instead.
And I got more confident in being able to use it on a day-to-day basis.
Not being our old man. Will the internet come on? Will this happen? Will that happen?
And I'm so glad that it took place because it's like when you learn to ride a bike, maybe at first you have training wheels on that bike.
But when you take the training wheels off and you're just able to go and go and go, and you have this level of freedom that you just didn't have before.
You feel less encumbered because you don't have those blasted training wheels.
Yes, they're good for stability, they're good for getting started, but eventually it's time to take them off.
I remember when I was nine and I had a relatively large bike that my grandmother had gotten me, and my mother remember her pushing me on the bike and falling to your kid you don't care.
But I never forget because real soon after I was riding a bike, my grandmother took the training wheels off.
I was like, oh my goodness, what are you doing? I'm not ready yet. But it made me learn.
You know, when you keep those training wheels too long, they become a crush. You get stuck in an environment.
And that makes me think of what happens to most people. You get stuck doing things in a particular way.
Muscle memory kicks in and all of a sudden you don't feel comfortable doing anything else.
So people get tied up with regards to using Microsoft Windows. They get tied up and using Max.
You know, more specific Mac OS X.
And there was a time when I used to be really anti-Apple.
Now, to this day I don't really care that much for the company itself, but yet I own several of their products because they were given to me as gifts.
My goal was always and continues to be, make the best of what it is that you had.
I learned over time to be more flexible. Use what's good for what it is you were trying to accomplish at that particular time.
So now, Linux, keeping in mind, I'm still learning. I was still learning at the time.
Getting used to using the terminal to software center like I mentioned earlier, Synaptic.
And just being amazed at the plethora of programs and games and whatnot that I could just click, put in a command, what have you.
And I had what I need for free.
Here it is I've been using Linux for over roughly six years.
And I've never had to pay for anything.
I've paid for the hardware to run it on.
I've paid to upgrade various things over time, but never directly for Linux itself, never directly for any programs that I run on Linux.
And that's absolutely fantastic when I think about how much money a person would spend on products to use Windows or Mac OS X.
It's just phenomenal with what is available.
Anytime I'm able to use a programs, programs as diverse as say, Abbeywords, Abbeyword, Library Office, then at that time though it was open office before they had that fork because the whole Oracle issue.
Oh, I'm messing up big time.
So something happened.
Some people were upset with open office.
They forked off and created library.
It's been so long I forgot what happened directly.
But the thing is open office was in the thing at the time now.
So library office has been that way for a long time now.
But just being able to use from Abbeyword, which I used before, I even got started with Linux, open office at that time.
I'm trying to stick to this to a timeframe here.
Because I can always make more recordings later about later times.
But, you know, so these different programs that are covered also being able to use a program such as the GIMP,
also Blender, Scribbus, Calibra.
Just it bothers my mind when I think of all the programs that are available for free.
You know, I'm looking in the education section on my laptop right now.
And there's just so much stuff that I'm able to do.
Whereas if you did this with other operating systems, you'd have to pay for it.
You know, it's just like when, for example, I would be at Microsoft and I used to go there.
And it'd be like a kid going to a candy store.
I would go to Microsoft and just be so excited at all the gear there.
And just being drawn with this election.
Oh, man, this is there.
I, seven, I, five, core, this, core, that.
Oh, my goodness, really.
And I forgot what I was trying to say, actually.
But oh, so I'd be there.
And I remember one particular day this lady is asking for office software.
And in my mind, it, it, it took so much for me not to just scream at her, install library office.
And that will take care of what you need.
Yeah, yeah, I know you're going to, there's going to be haters out there that are like, well,
not 100% interoperable with Microsoft Word.
Okay.
Personally, I've never had a problem with that really.
Yeah, sometimes the format can be a little scary, but that's because Microsoft Word keeps changing their blasted formats.
They keep doing stuff to make it not be so compatible.
They try to lock you into using a particular program.
And it's not always on the basis of that program being the best out there, or the quality of it.
It's own reputation.
These companies like to do different things to have different schemes.
And it's understandable because they're a business and the purpose of a business is to generate money.
Get that.
But they're not content with generating money based on advertisement based on the goodness of their product.
And I really don't like it when people feel a need to play dirty, so to speak.
Throw dirt in the eyes of someone that's willing to just go at you straight up.
You know, I just don't.
I don't really care for that.
Just, you know, let it be.
Let it stand up when it's on merit.
Enough for it.
But I managed to keep from screaming at it.
And she ended up spending over $100 for Microsoft Office.
Most of which in the office week, she's never, ever going to use.
Let me reword that.
It's very likely that most of what is on that program she will never use.
Oh, and you want to get around the whole issue with word?
How about converting the document that you are making into a PDF format?
PDF is across the board.
You can allow you to send a file to someone.
Turn into a PDF format.
Oh, wait.
In Linux, you can also download a program known as Calibur.
And then what you're able to do is to convert the file.
Now, I'm good.
Okay.
Some more on one of the chairs.
Why you didn't just get chairs from somewhere else?
Really?
Okay.
So I'm trying to get back to my thought.
But the thing is, yeah, using Calibur, C-A-L-I-B-R-E,
in case I'm not pronouncing it correctly, which is a very distinct possibility.
Now you're able to convert it from one particular text format to another.
I do it a lot.
I'm able to convert something, for instance,
I might find an article online in HTML.
And then I'll take it and make an EPUB or a PDF out of it.
I like being able to do these things for free.
Not everybody has money to just dump on stuff.
And then as it turns out, the software that they're downloading,
they're not even using all of it anyway.
Very likely, many of you are.
Many people are.
And that's fun.
But it's not the best use case for me personally.
You know, so a man is not the screen.
Maybe he spent all this money.
I know it's not my business, but I care, dog, on it.
I care.
But goodness.
It's interesting getting started with Linux.
I had a very jacked up computer.
Well, I'm not really a jacked up computer, but I had a rather interesting setup.
Computer I had at the time was this Pentium 4 machine.
And it had 110 gigabyte hard drive.
And it had an 80 gigabyte hard drive.
And so do building Ubuntu obviously was on the which hard drive was not probably 80.
I had a grand total of one gig of RAM.
Now that one gig of RAM included the graphics card that I happened to just randomly stick in the computer.
I scavenged it from another PC that I was given.
And it just happened to work.
But it was 128 megabyte graphics card.
And that's how I was able to have a full gig of RAM.
Crazy.
Now, of course, running a full operating system, doing everything on a gig of RAM, you know, would be you'd have to use a lighter.
Using a lighter distar would probably be better at this point, but we're jumping ahead of things.
So let me just go back way back back in the time.
Remember, you know, at the in the very beginning being excited, telling people about what I was learning.
Just an awesome time of discovery.
And also coincides with me taking the course and help desk technician.
And I would just talk about Linux.
Most of the course was Windows base, which irritated the mess.
But I was promoting Linux Linux Linux.
People look at you crazy because they don't know what this Linux thing is or they heard that you can't use it.
Let me tell you something.
This guy right here has gone from only knowing about Windows, hearing bad rumors about Linux.
To using Linux.
Every day.
And that's not an exaggeration.
I use it as much as possible.
There are a few things that I continue to use Windows on.
But.
I use Linux Linux Linux.
So be very honest with you.
I feel as though if I could do it.
And all I did was put at the time a CD into the CD drive and install the thing.
It wasn't even hard to install.
You know, you have like a little video that tells you what's going on.
Hey, put the date in a time.
You set things up the way you want to.
I had no problem installing the thing.
My only issue initially was when it comes to the audio codex.
Now in hindsight, I know how to avoid all that completely.
But you know, that's just how it is sometimes.
You live and you learn.
So I'm grateful that I was able to be exposed to Linux.
I'm grateful for Barnes and Noble.
Unfortunately, the location at which I was at that faithful evening.
It's no longer there.
It's now a Reebok store.
Which is very annoying to me.
But I realize that Reebok has a company.
Not Reebok, Nike.
As a company, it's a very...
What do you say?
It's a very... something that makes a lot of money.
It's a very profitable venture.
So I argue that there in a much better position to hold on to that square footage.
It was a big Barnes and Noble.
And, you know,
I said, I'm going to go ahead and make this statement.
I ain't mad at you.
And I'm choosing to keep my head up.
Even though that place has a lot of good memories in it.
I'm keeping my head up.
Because, ooh, child, things are...
Messing it up.
Because, ooh, child, things are going to get easier.
And they have.
I'm able to go other places into use.
To have them the laptop.
And I'm using Linux.
So, hopefully you guys, hopefully someone here,
will be inspired to use Linux.
And they'll be able to start their journey on a fantastic voyage.
I hope you all have a great day.
Take care.
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