(photo gallery to choose from, here)
When I started following Linux action on Twitter, one contributor stood out: mich_linux_guy. His tweets include, "Playing with the Android SDK", "Getting ready to install Fedora 10 on my son's XO laptop... Hope it's a win" and "Bought an Acer Aspire One at Costco for $350. Just installed Ubuntu 8.10. Did require fiddling with wireless packages. (googled it) Works!" His name is Don Stokes. He's a veteran hardware and software hacker living with his wife and three sons in Oakland County, Michigan, where he's also pursuing his MS in Computer Science at Oakland University. His startup is stokesautomation.com. And is favorite quote is from Spinoza: "Let every man think what he wants and say what he thinks." What follows is plenty of both. - Doc Searls
The first computer I purchased was a TRS-80 model 1. I goofed around with some text-based adventure games and played with BASIC programming. The next computer I bought had an Intel 80286 processor. It came with MSDOS, but I bought a copy of IBM OS/2 to run. Eventually, OS/2 died and I was forced to run Windows NT. I think it was in 1999 that a friend at work (Ben - what happened to you? Call me!) passed me a Red Hat Linux CD. (It was actually labeled "Red Ass Linux".) It required a lot of tinkering to get it to work, but for me, this was "fun"! Eventually, I decided to make it my primary OS.
For our anniversary, I bought my wife an HP laptop with a gig of RAM and put Ubuntu on it. She uses it for her email, web browsing, and to manage the music on her iPod I put Ubuntu on my dad's old Dell laptop about a year ago. Since he doesn't have the root password or sudo rights, he can't mess it up. Since it is a lot harder to attack Linux than Windows, I don't worry about the security of his system. It's a great OS for him. My mom is next!
I ran Fedora until Ubuntu Feisty Fawn came out. Once in a while I will boot a live CD of another distribution to see what they are up to. I also have Damn Small Linux running on a couple of machines. It is amazing how much functionality you can get using this distribution on machines that most people would leave on the curb for the garbage truck.
The best thing about Linux is that its modular architecture makes it so configurable / customizable. If I want eye candy, I can run Gnome or KDE desktops. I can even run the X server with only a display manager if I want to maximize efficiency. On machines with low CPU or memory resources, I can run with only a command line on a text display with no graphical user interface.
Another reason I use Linux is the huge repository of free software. Kids have very short attention spans. Even the best games won't keep them content for long. With Linux, I can simply go to the Add/ Remove option on the main menu and choose from a gazillion free applications - all installable with a few mouse clicks. Many of these applications are very educational; it's been a great experience for my kids. Since they don't have administrator access, they can't corrupt the machine.
I recently downloaded the Android SDK for the eclipse IDE. It is amazing how easy it is to create applications written in Java for Android. I got so excited that I went out and bought a G1 the next day. (That's how long it took the local T-Mobile guys to get some stock). I'm currently writing a simple encryption application for storing private information like passwords and account numbers. Collecting devices that run Linux has become kind of an obsession with my family (okay, me). Here is our current collection:
All the software I use on a daily basis is free and almost all of it is open source. I use Open Office for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and simple databases. I use Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird for web browsing and email. Pidgin is my instant messenger. I use gcc for compiling my C/C++ source and eclipse for my Java development. I also use Apache web servers and MySQL database manager for systems I have developed. I also use Umbrello, Octave, Kino, and VLC on a regular basis. I love my freedom!