My new job was lame. During the interview I was told my technical expertise would be respected. I set up my LAN with LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) on an AMD64 with 2gB RAM and 200 gB storage. I showed students the variety and virtues of GNU/Linux in the Debian distro and was shocked to find they preferred that other OS, XP, not for any valid reason, but because they could escape the scrutiny of my kid filter and process watching. The bosses even said the students should use Windows. I was disgusted. They actually want to use obsolete software from 2001 instead of current stuff. This is the first time in six years I have been told to use Windows. I even made long lists of advantages of Linux and documented its use in other schools and businesses, to no avail. The technicians in charge of the Windows system have not been able to provide accounts and printing services routinely for months. My Linux system has been running very smoothly.

I have given notice and will be out of here in two weeks. Time to find another job...

I go back to work on Monday, but I have a week to ease myself into the new job.

I find it stressful making changes but I love it, too. It can make me feel young which is getting harder each year. Meeting new people, places and systems is always overwhelming but it eventually gets done and I do my thing which is making the world a better place wherever I go.

I will be head computergeek/instructor in a remote location. If things go smoothly, I may be loved or ignored. If things go poorly, I am never ignored. Fortunately, I use Linux as much as possible and things usually go well. In six years of using Linux I have only had one installation go poorly and that was a minor problem compared to the nightmare of that other OS. Last fall, I had a system refuse logins occasionally and shed users when they logged out. No one lost any data, and the problem was fixed with an upgrade.

I think the learning curve of Linux has taken about five years from being a complete newbie to having several solutions to any problem. At this stage, I enjoy passing on the knowledge and showing the magic to new crops of newbies. My only regret is that few of my students catch the fire of Linux as I have. Maybe they are just smouldering and will burst into flame later...

In the first staff meeting I intend to demonstrate how an old doorstop can seem to come to life when used as a thin client of a powerful Linux application server. If that does not knock their socks off, nothing will. Students have always liked it. Staff are sometimes cool. This is a bigger school. I could have hundreds of potential converts. :-)

I built a server in January. I paid $100 CDN for 512 MB RAM. Today, I can get it for $50 CDN. Motherboards, hard drives and CDs are also cheaper. The 64 bit CPUs from AMD are coming down, too. Debian Sarge is down to 100 critical bugs, and I find it useable now.

Unfortunately, my employer hates computers and does not appreciate the 100 gB of static and dynamic stuff I serve in my department. When I arrived last year, there was not even a server. I took a stack of "obsolete" machines and some cat5 cable and made things happen. No good. I and my server will work elsewhere in the fall. I offered to leave the server behind for the next guy. No. My replacement was in town for a week and did not even look at it.