OS GUI

Here is what I was thinking:
* Value 1: Challenger thinking - Think like a challenger, be creative, challenge the status quo.
* Value 2: Team Work - Act as one.
* Value 3: Personal renewal & excellence - commit to being the best you can.
* Value 4: Community focus - focus on providing the Internet community with the best Linux Desktop resource on the Internet.

20-January-2005

 

Introduction:

 

This is an opinion piece detailing the experiences of one Linux newbie and his quest to help promote Linux on the Desktop. Read on for the highs and lows of a 4 year journey starting from trying my  first Linux OS to running a popular web site and contributing to the development of a Desktop OS.

 

 

My Story:

 

In 2001 my Linux journey started with being a unhappy with using Windows 98 and not wanting to use Windows XP due to some new features that turned me off at the time and the security issues involved with that operating system at the time. Much has changed since then and this is my attempt to put it into writing in a hope that the community around me can know what this one Linux newbie has gone through in the past 4 years.

 

I started by finding a Linux OS that would install in Windows or in DOS. I find one but can't remember what the name is now, it was horrible from my memory so I moved on quickly. At the time I was looking at websites like www.linux.com and www.linux.org to find information about Linux. Most of the news was about servers and I soon find out that  most Linux OS's where for servers at the time. I found Mandrake which had a lot of talk going on about it and lots of reviews where available for me to read. The download time was huge as the 3 ISO's required over 1 week of solid downloading using my 56k dial up Internet connection. I was able to install Mandrake successfully on my home made personal computer, when the desktop had finished loading I discovered my sound card and Internal LT WinModem would not function. Reading on the Internet reviled both devices where not supported by Linux at the time, please note most Linux systems support both devices now. Since I was determined to get this Linux system working and usable on my computer and purchased a better sound card and a external modem..

 

I think it was Mandrake version 8.1 that I had installed, the install was nice I remembered and so was the start-up sequence but in my opinion that was all I liked about it. I found the desktop environment to be cluttered and messy. I am aware that Mandrake has improved greatly since then and this is not a bash at Mandrake. in fact I would like to state that nothing I say in this editorial should be taken over seriously or to be 100% factually correct, I have taken every effort to write this to the best of my memory. So on with the story... I soon move don from Mandrake and found Lycoris which turned out to be a long drawn out set of relationships with a dozen different people.

 

My life with Lycoris started when Desktop/lx Update 1 was available and before public beta testing for Update 2 started. The date was 6^th of March 2002 when I registered on the Lycoris community website which at the time was run on www.myphpnuke.com web portal system and had been created by volunteers apparently. The Lycoris community website found at www.lycoris.org was and still is one of the best group of online users who have a common desire so share knowledge and help each other. However, overtime personality's have clashed as people have moved on in their lives and no longer share the same views and no longer want to help each other so opening and freely. I think this must be true of any online community which can survive over a long time period. People will come and go and maybe come back then go again.

 

As can happen when anyone just uses one product for awhile and ignores the other competition the Linux world continued to move on around me without me paying much attention to it. I was so court up in the Lycoris community. I moved on to Xandros when they allowed me to contribute to beta testing of Xandros Desktop OS 2.0. I had a falling out with several Lycoris community members and found myself unfairly ostracized from their website due to differences in personal opinion.

 

One day in December of 2003 I decided it would be a good idea for me to finally create that web site I had been thinking about creating for years, a website that would be exactly what I felt

 

Community Values:

 

 

Here is what I was thinking:
* Value 1: Challenger thinking - Think like a challenger, be creative, challenge the status quo.
* Value 2: Team Work - Act as one.
* Value 3: Personal renewal & excellence - commit to being the best you can.
* Value 4: Community focus - focus on providing the Internet community with the best Linux Desktop resource on the Internet.

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