A speedy mapping of the days before the present
I started off with a windows 3.11 machine, 6GB hdd and a 333MHz CPU, laughable by todays standards but a decent spec for the time. I was about nine. A short while after that (before I had a chance to learn Win3.11) we were updated to Windows 95. This machine was my first experience of what we would now call a GUI. All was good until it went up in smoke. Black. Literally.

Through the years I have had a selection of machines, too many to recall, from 386’s to AMD Athlons.

My first experience of linux was, as far as I recall, when I started college and I went to my first LAN party. They was a guy called Blade who was handing out Ubuntu Linux discs. From there it\’s been a case of slowly using it more and more as I find things better and/or easier.

Whats happening in the present…
My server machine is the one running xUbuntu, it runs 24/7 and controls most of what happens across my network. Its main purposes are P2P file sharing, repo mirror (Ubuntu Hardy, Debian Etch and Lenny), PXE server and an IRCd for a few friends. This machine has to be the most stable on my network… strike 1 to Linux?

The machine I use most of the time is Windoze XP Pro SP3, mainly due to Visual Basic, games and photoshop.

The yellow brick road
The route I plan to take involves alot of learning. This doesnt mean its not going to happen, quite the opposite. The prospect of learning new languages and new methods of working actually excite me. I will be moving towards more open and free (as in speech, but beer is still good :D ) software. This will inevitably end up with me running a GNU\Linux based system on everything that I can.

Conclusion
So there you have it, my tech life in a nutshell. I am currently working on running an open desktop. This means that I run as many application that are open on a restricted environment to get the best of both worlds (in my opinion).

Other interesting… more useless, information
I love Sinclair ZX sectrums, and as such swap all C64 stuff with steve (Yes, FossGeek himself!) in exchange for speccy items.
I like cheese, in unnatural quantities.