D
Deleted member 151145
Guest
I was so involved with trying to get a problem solved, I kind of neglected to do this. My bad. LOL!
First, some personal info. I was asked "how up there?" by wizardfromoz so I'll begin there. In February I'll turn 65. I sat down in front of my first computer in 1976 while a member of the US Army. Those were the days of the monster mainframes. I was a computer operator and programmer on IBM mainframes and spent time on pretty much every model of the 360 and 370 families of them. We used FORTRAN and COBOL in those days. I later went on to system 36 systems and then on to mid range computers like the AS/400 series. Along the line I started playing with personal computers. My very first was one that was built on a small piece of plywood. That was a Radio Shack deal. Then it was on to 8088, 286, 386, etc, etc, etc, PCs. Towards the end of my career I spent a lot of time working in the computer and network security arena. I got all those really nifty certifications that really did nothing for me, other than to be able to say I did it. I got really into DOS and even got into Batch files and Power Batch files. You can't really call that programming, but I could sure make a PC do a lot of things with a simple batch file.
That's enough of my computing history, but it kind of explains why I never got into learning the inner workings of Linux and the Linux command line. By the time I decide to get into Linux, I was near burn out on computing in general. I think it was in 2000 that I installed Linux on my own PC and left Windows behind. I've run nothing but Linux on my own computer since that day. About 15 years ago I switched the wife's computer to Linux. She was a bookkeeper before retiring and she would come home everyday and really complain about her Windows PC at work. She'd tell me horror stories about how many times her PC locked up on her, requiring a hard reboot. A lot of those times she'd lose a certain amount of the work she had entered and it really ticked her off.
I'm in Southeastern Illinois. I no longer will even consider working on a computer that belongs to someone else. They all have Windows PCs and I won't touch one. I have, however, converted quite a few people to Linux over the years. Towards the end of my computer career, I decided to open a small engine repair shop to allow me to decompress after a day of staring into a computer screen. It was a great way to relax. My wife finally retired two months ago and it took all of about one month for me to figure out that I needed to find a way to separate us for at least a few hours a day. I am in the process of opening a new small engine repair biz out of the garage. I'm not looking to try and make a living off of the biz. I just want to keep busy and keep harmony in my marriage. I've been buying old, non-running push mowers, which I'll refurb and resell. The one thing I regret is selling off all my specialty tools used in the small engine biz. I'm having to buy all that stuff all over again and it costs a LOT more than it did 10 to 12 years ago.
So, that's a kind of lengthy personal introduction. If anybody has any questions, just ask. Oh, crap. I guess I should include some info on my computers and OS. I'm down to only four laptops running in the house and all of them run Mint XFCE 20.3 right now. I won;t buy a brand new computer. I always built my own desktops and then I'd buy 2 to 3 year old laptops off eBay and load them with some Linux distro. I still do that. All four of these Lenovo laptops were purchased on eBay. I paid about a fourth of what they cost new and other than adding some memory, a newer wireless adapter, and a couple of new 1 TB SSD drives, they are pretty much the way I bought them. All four were being sold because the previous owners thought they needed a new laptop because Windows was running like crap and it just HAD TO BE the computer, not the OS. LOL!
First, some personal info. I was asked "how up there?" by wizardfromoz so I'll begin there. In February I'll turn 65. I sat down in front of my first computer in 1976 while a member of the US Army. Those were the days of the monster mainframes. I was a computer operator and programmer on IBM mainframes and spent time on pretty much every model of the 360 and 370 families of them. We used FORTRAN and COBOL in those days. I later went on to system 36 systems and then on to mid range computers like the AS/400 series. Along the line I started playing with personal computers. My very first was one that was built on a small piece of plywood. That was a Radio Shack deal. Then it was on to 8088, 286, 386, etc, etc, etc, PCs. Towards the end of my career I spent a lot of time working in the computer and network security arena. I got all those really nifty certifications that really did nothing for me, other than to be able to say I did it. I got really into DOS and even got into Batch files and Power Batch files. You can't really call that programming, but I could sure make a PC do a lot of things with a simple batch file.
That's enough of my computing history, but it kind of explains why I never got into learning the inner workings of Linux and the Linux command line. By the time I decide to get into Linux, I was near burn out on computing in general. I think it was in 2000 that I installed Linux on my own PC and left Windows behind. I've run nothing but Linux on my own computer since that day. About 15 years ago I switched the wife's computer to Linux. She was a bookkeeper before retiring and she would come home everyday and really complain about her Windows PC at work. She'd tell me horror stories about how many times her PC locked up on her, requiring a hard reboot. A lot of those times she'd lose a certain amount of the work she had entered and it really ticked her off.
I'm in Southeastern Illinois. I no longer will even consider working on a computer that belongs to someone else. They all have Windows PCs and I won't touch one. I have, however, converted quite a few people to Linux over the years. Towards the end of my computer career, I decided to open a small engine repair shop to allow me to decompress after a day of staring into a computer screen. It was a great way to relax. My wife finally retired two months ago and it took all of about one month for me to figure out that I needed to find a way to separate us for at least a few hours a day. I am in the process of opening a new small engine repair biz out of the garage. I'm not looking to try and make a living off of the biz. I just want to keep busy and keep harmony in my marriage. I've been buying old, non-running push mowers, which I'll refurb and resell. The one thing I regret is selling off all my specialty tools used in the small engine biz. I'm having to buy all that stuff all over again and it costs a LOT more than it did 10 to 12 years ago.
So, that's a kind of lengthy personal introduction. If anybody has any questions, just ask. Oh, crap. I guess I should include some info on my computers and OS. I'm down to only four laptops running in the house and all of them run Mint XFCE 20.3 right now. I won;t buy a brand new computer. I always built my own desktops and then I'd buy 2 to 3 year old laptops off eBay and load them with some Linux distro. I still do that. All four of these Lenovo laptops were purchased on eBay. I paid about a fourth of what they cost new and other than adding some memory, a newer wireless adapter, and a couple of new 1 TB SSD drives, they are pretty much the way I bought them. All four were being sold because the previous owners thought they needed a new laptop because Windows was running like crap and it just HAD TO BE the computer, not the OS. LOL!
leastwise I'm not right however from what I can tell I ain't alone. 
