The Road To Linux: First Blood

My recent essay on "Secrets of Linux", which chronicled my painful and clumsy first attempts to master the OS Beast, drew more than 2,000 e-mail messages in less than 24 hours, a record for me on any website. The responses ranged from talks about Slackware, Red Hat and Debian to quotes from Yeats and invitations to Installfests. Since so many of you shared with me, it's only fair to share back.

Within 24 hours of my posting "Secrets of Linux" Tuesday, I'd gotten more more than 2,000 posts, a record for me, despite the fact I've written on Hotwired and other websites for five years and been involved in numerous cyber-brawls.

The column obviously touched some powerful buttons, and provoked lots of equally strong responses.

Because so many people wrote, and it will take some time to read through and answer them (I will), I thought it was important to write quickly about the reaction to "Linux Secrets."

The single word I'd use to describe the messages would be generous. "My intent is to send you a loaner Linux system that will allow you to plug in and go," wrote one hardware developer. "Attach monitor, keyboard, mouse power cord and the fun begins.."

The other word would be fascinating. Jonathan Winters wrote about his experiment providing tech support for his entire family and getting them all on Linux - his story could be a script for Linux, the movie. I learned about "Installfests" from Peter Neal. "If you are in the Palo Alto area," he wrote, "then come to the Dec. 19th InstallFest at Cisco. We'll be putting Linux on boxes, socializing, and doing some system tweaking. Details about the meeting are available on www.svlug.org."

Lisa wrote about an alternative OS movement, FreeBSD. There were thoughts about Slackware (a name I never heard until last week). "Just one quick word of advice," wrote Robert M, "take the Slackware 3.0 disk between your thumb and indix finger, throw it as far as possible, and go down to the shop and get yourself a more modern distribution. I'd recommend either Redhat 5.2 or (my personal favorite) Debian 2.0 (another word I'd never heard before)? Dan offered me his used books. Root offered me his extra Redhat 5.0 CD along with "Linux for Dummies."

One of my favorite messages came from Justin Simpson, who recently read "Essential System Administration," published by O'Reilly & Associates, where there was an explanation of the term "Daemons". The author noted, wrote Justin, that Daemon (a common hacker moniker that is familiar to me) is an old word, dating back to Ancient Greece. Wrote the author: "Yeats wrote at length about Daemons, defining them as that which we continually struggle against yet paradoxically need in order to survive, simultaneously the source of our pain and of our strength, even in some sense the very essence of being. For Yeats, the Daemon is 'of all things not impossible the most difficult.'"

"Sound familiar?" asked Justin.Sure did.

Any site where you encounter Yeats and Slackware is for me.

People suggested books and software (especially Redhat). I was invited to join Linux groups, meetings, forums, and steered to websites, and offered Linux boxes, even pre-configured machines. I was offered telephone and e-mail tech support, including a score of people who volunteered to come to my house and install Linux, or invited me to come to theirs. Countless fearful lurkers told wrenching tales of struggling to install their own systems, and the struggles they had.

I was cautioned against going too quickly, given easier book titles than "Linux Secrets," and told that I should skip installation and just fool around with programming for a few months before I tried to do much. After absorbing all these ideas, I'm considering two options: buying a pre-configured Linux system, or buying an old PC and installing Redhat.

There were plenty of other ideas, suggestions and experiences, too many to list here.

There are also some other points I need to make:

Many thanks to all those who offered so much sympathy and support against the occasional flamer. I can promise you, I have an asbestos hide when it comes to flaming. Intelligent criticism is a lot more intimidating to me. Flames are loud, and almost always public (which sometimes distorts their power), but very small in terms of percentage. Flamers are bullies, usually writing either from anonymity or distance, and I have a visceral loathing of bullies. It's always a privilege - God's work for me -- to challenge or torment them in any way I possibly can.

Lurkers are vastly more numerous than flamers here on Slashdot, a silent and largely voiceless but overwhelming majority. I get tons of e-mail everytime I write something from people who never post, and many say they are not comfortable posting because of all the head-butting. This was also very true on Hotwired and other sites where I've written. Flamers have every right to flame, and they will always be around, but they are no friends of freedom or free speech, as they intimidate people into silence and they deprive all of you of the chance to see some of the worthwhile messages people like me get, but can't share.

Even when this mail is critical, it's often interesting and useful. Like the post from Andrew Sullivan suggesting I'm in error conflating the political and technical elements of the Open Source movement. The technical side consists mostly of hobbyists sharing their passion, he says, while the political side is something entirely different. (I take his point, but don't quite agree. But I'd love to hear more from you about this).

People can be intensely political even when they don't intend to be, and the lines seem very blurred to me).

Writing on sites like this is different from writing almost anywhere else - the level of scrutiny is unprecedented. In this forum, every word is intensely analyzed by people whose work and lives often involve intensely scrutinizing every word, symbol and number.

I make mistakes. I write books and articles as well as Web columns, and I work frequently, quickly and impulsively. I don't have assistants, interns or researchers to screen my work or back me up, especially online, where voices are and ought to be more informal and spontaneous. But to programmers and developers, mistakes can be costly and damaging. So I hear quickly about mine. My point is, writing here requires an ability to listen, but also a strong will and big ego. In that context, I have good hardware.

One important thing: I never thought I'd ever have to announce this, but I can tell from my e-mail that I do. I am not an observer of geeks.

I am a geek.

I came out a long time ago, and am proud and happy to use the term to describe me. I have been using computers for more than a decade, have written seven books using them, browsed, trawled and navigated thousands of websites and written hundreds of columns and articles about the Net and the Web. I was first called a geek when I was in junior high, by kids who beat the hell out of me. I've been called a geek countless times since.

I'm writing a book called "The Rise of the Geeks." I've been traveling the country for months interviewing, living with and watching geeks. I've been visiting Geeks Clubs at high schools and universities. I well understand the origins of the term - it dates back to the 1400's and has been alternately used to describe fools, carny freaks and bums - but some some of you are not onto the fact that it has a very new and positive meaning.

Geek is a term used all over the country with great pride by smart, obsessive, individualistic, idiosyncratic people. There are computer geeks, art and music geeks and art geeks. In San Francisco last week, I even talked with some music rave geeks. While technology and geeks interests me the most, technology isn't essential to being a geek, certainly not extensive technical mastery, although technology and geekness are powerfully connected. Linux geeks are one kind of geek, by no means the only kind. And geek is not a pejorative term, and hasn't been for years.

So this following message cried out to be shared. It came under the heading "The Secrets of Linux Are Only For Geeks":

"Please stop using the word "geek," call us computer experts, gurus, or even techies," wrote David, a computer science student from a college in the Pacific. "For a non-technical person to call a computer expert a geek, is like a white man calling a black man a "nigger," very insulting."

But, lectured David, it's perfectly okay for "a black man to call another black "nigger", likewise with geeks." Although this idea had me literally - and very rarely - speechless -- David, hopefully, doesn't live near many black people, many of whom would be happy to explain the difference between those two words -- it was followed by this: "Please speak a little more humbly too! You are a stranger and guest in our home?"

David and I continue to share feelings on these subjects. We are narrowing our differences.

There is a noxious - although distinctly minority - tendency here to try and define geeks as only being Linux users who are deep into programming and code. This is the silliest and most transparent kind of macho posturing. I've spent weeks with kick-ass gaming, networking, programming, development and other kinds of geeks of both sexes all over the country. Some of them are poor, working class kids who've patched together computers from scavenged parts of the dead computers of families and friends, and who have never been near Linux. They hack, trade and pass MP3's around like candy. They network, play multi-user MUDS, and use the Web to buy food, clothes and get news and directions.

They use the term geek constantly and with considerable pride to define themselves. They've paid their technical dues in lots of ways, and can stand toe-to-toe with any braying, puffed-up programmer on the planet or this website. And not one of them has ever challenged my use of the word, or my notion of myself as belonging to that tribe. Nor have I ever felt more at home with anybody. The bottom line: everybody has a right to define themselves. Or not. Even though I am eager to get on with using Linux, it's not a matter of personal definition, or a means to separate myself from other people.

Although it's become important to me, I have to be honest about it. I don't aspire to being a technical or programming wiz. I'd much rather write a best-selling book. If I make it, I hope Linux won't ever be a means of of trying to exclude, patronizing or diminish somebody else. If and when I do get to use Linux, I'll jump up and down for joy, because of the personal accomplishment and political meaning for me, but if any of you ever catch me strutting or putting anybody else down because they can't or wont, please, roast me alive.

This idea of superiority and arrogance is techno-bigotry, completely antithetical to both the technical and political goals of a place like this - sharing, progressing, inclusion, freedom. It's noxious and offensive. Bag it. It isn't representative or worthy either of the site or most of the people who frequent it. As OS grows and more people come by to see what's going on, this silly bravado will seem even more foolish. Newcomers especially should be welcomed and made to feel at home - as I have been, in overwhelming numbers, and despite some of the strikingly dumb public postings.

So I got the message hundreds of you sent me: I need to take it easy approaching Linux and figuring out the best way to start using it. Impulsiveness and bravado are poor strategies. I understand that I don't need two-pound books, or rush into approaches that will guarantee frustration and defeat. I will have all the help in the world when I do.

The daunting part is that I have only begun to grasp what I don't know. Every message brings new terms, language, ideas, programs I never heard before. I know what it feels like to be dropped in a foreign land, struggling to understand the language, symbols and signs. But every day I know a bit more, recognize a few more terms, grasp a few more ideas. I had no idea there were so many layers and levels to this world. As a lifelong and happy Apple user, I'm only beginning to see what I never saw. This is a revelation.

As I go through the all of these posts in the next week or so, I'll share them. Thanks for sending them. You can e-mail me at [e-mail]