dont be decieved by this time line.. but i started using Linux with no previous real experiences other than some one giving me a SUSE in 2000.. where i completely scrapped a lap top in under 30 minutes. i actually started in 2006. I tried Freespire.. Ubuntu.. Slackware.. Mandrake.. So having to use a Forum.. or IRC. became common. Slack and mandrake were to different or too hard to solve my issues.. while in IRC though.. i have had both experiences. Freespire OS.. was far from ready.. but the help was amazing.. Terminal code.. i am still completely useless with that.. Ubuntu was easier to use.. but i had both super kind helpful persons.. adn ELIETE even NASTY persons who just assume that we should all ALREADY know.. and Forswear the use of any thing Microsoft. I even went looking for some sort of Online 101 class.. still has not found a class to show me Terminal command code.. I am a duel booted system now.. with Windows for one and only one reason.. A Game that came out in 94/95. Orion 2. Otherwise i use Ubuntu 9:04 only. I have installed for several family members in WUBI format.. and a Few Coffee shops with out incident. Thank GOD for those NOT so Elite persons who helped me with my issues while installing and doing work around s. I don't believe LINUX should unify.. or that it should be Purist.. but a good strategy for helping the NEW get into to it and learn how to use Terminal commands.. stuff like that .. would be immense in helping us bring it to the many others who would use it. we cant all have a decade of use under our belt or be IT's. FWJ

I am not as pervy to all the other crap a certain OS company puts out.. but when did they stop making quality software.. ? I have seen them buy and trash or conscript many others.. and re heat and sell at top dollar , the same OS without dealing with obvious issues. I have watched them use a lot of propaganda and power pressure to get groups to Toe the Line.. Now patent the crap out of any thing they can get their hands on. Wouldn't they more easily and cheaply solve all this competition by putting out undeniable absolutely Incredible products?When did all the Real code writers stop working there? Love the CORY quote .. chuckled. the Bare reason why groups like MAC , LINUX or UNIX will prevail.. because they develop real quality stuff.. and listen to what we need. FWJ

I am in my mid 40's and ran into it in the late 70's. it did open your head a bit and make you think, Dream , Imagine.. it also was a monumental time waster. It prevented you from learning or doing some thing that had lasting EXP points, in your True Life. You learned about skills and game play.. related to the game.. which were not related to skills useful in any type of every day life. Most of the kids i played with were obsessive about it.. i was.. for years. We even had a few Real Artists and designers make images for us.. and a few OCD members spend Days and Weeks and serious Months,designing new Modules. ( cost us all a lot of Lunch money to pay for the art too) But all in all.. there was no lasting positive effect on me or nearly any of the persons we played with other than learning how to draw real nice. I wasted the better portion of my Junior and High School years being a 26th level Magi or a 16 level Cleric. and DM'ing here and again.. I could have learned more in a Comparative Religion Class or taking a practical art class.. Hell Dating a little bit.. It was just over overpoweringly easy to obsess on such a game.. it gave you sense of RANK and Earning Rewards.. even Favor with your peer's. BUT all that passes the second you get old enough to have to deal with REAL LIFE. I can see using a Game.. one you play a little and then it's done.. this was nearly Demonic in it's effects on those who were young and impressionable.

amazing how your idea of business is skewed and your idea of FAIR only applies if "you" are making money. The world has not made a legally binding agreement before every one was poor and hungry.. but patents are that agreement for software and other computerized ideas. Supporting only the monopoly or the BIG dog's idea of fair is not healthy. Want to know why our country is so messed up in Finance? the idea that Capitalism is about LYING or CHEATING ,stealing and oppressing. Just because THEY do lie and cheat.. shouldn't become the WAY of it.. the standard we all some how agree to. Fairness laws are there for a reason. What ever happened to HONEST business?

Notice a lot of BSG crewin the Mix- UNEmpoyment Line must have been near the SGU cattle call, Lets hope this is not Just a show Bootie Sci-fi. Remake of BSG with atlantis tech. Bootie Soap with high tech Shoots and Ladders.

I think your real issue here is not weather you will choose to be a TECH still or Management. It's the typical TRY at which would make you feel Young still. You cant Go back.. and you can not feel like you failed because you are not what you were. You have to be what you ARE. YOU ARE a TECH.. and You are experienced enough to be Management. You'll still have to stay current.. as if you would ever stop trying.. your a Tech Geek.. It's in your DNA now. AND ITS NOT your over the hill... so give into being the "OLD MAN IN MANAGEMENT". Your relevant, current, Skilled.. seasoned.. Management would put all that to use. AGE happy.. take the managers job.. you worked for the ability to know what you know.. and now.. you can use that to help others GET what you got.

Ever think for a second that some might want to pay DELL the 50 as incentive to getting them to sell more LINUX based machines? and are tired of the monopoly that lines Gates pockets? it might be 0 to 0 to you.. but if i am going to spend the money.. lets spend it some place that LIKE ME and not a place that could give a crap what i think. i get it.. since in my experince of linux.. i found a distro on net.. never did it before.. downloaded the ISO..burned and installed in duel boot my first day.. and pretty much never went back.. in the next year i had downloaded 11 versions of linux.. installed in multi boot all 11 and had a blast messing them all up.. and stayed in.. UBUNTU.. at home and SUSE at work. yeah.. i get it FREE toys.. but for stable able.. it's nice to see a company preinstalling some thing WE Want.. and getting paid to do it. RJ

how bout this.. i am in your boat.. in a way.. i started about 4 years ago.. actually.. my first try was nearly 10 years ago.. but it was a night mare in which i destroyed a perfectly great laptop... but anyway.. i started really.. 4 years ago.. i chose a distro on the net.. downloaded it.. had a hella time getting an ISO to burn.. sum checking and all that.. got it to run a LIVE CD.. and liked it.. didnt love it.. so i left it run as a LIVE only off CD.. some one showed me how to DUEL boot .. so i could keep my XP going.. just in case. there were plenty of tweeks i had to learn to do.. or have some one basically DO for me in the forums.. thank GOD for great folks in forums with patents enough to help me out. 9 months later.. i suddenly realized i had not rebooted back to XP for any thing. ANYTHING! i was not super thrilled with the version i had chosen.. but still.. it was not that hard.. not that different. SO.. i chose to do a delete of that version.. backed up my files from it.. and did the Distro WHORE thing.. started downloaded and demo'ing many many versions.. Some were just so far out of my league i could never have done without help to get them installed. SO since then.. i had 11 versions all multi booted on my system to TRIAL them. SUSE.. Mandrakes mandriva.. FREESPIRE.. PUPPY.. Ubuntu 6 i think it was.. Slackware.. COOLIO distro.. honestly.. and quite a few others.. I learned to see the differences.. a little bit.. SUSE is great.. gotta love it.. strong and stable.. i could go on.. but if you cant strait out install on your system.. do a DUEL boot.. or for some thing like MINT or UBUNTU.. a thing they call WUBI.. where it installs Inside the windows system.. if it ever does get to overwealming.. put the disk back in.. and hit Delete WUBI.. you still have to config some things.. and mess arround with tweeks.. but wonders of LINUX is there is no ONE way to do it. I have now set up Linux systems for so many persons.. that i am known as the LINUX DUDE.. the GO TO GUY.. i am in no way a master.. at all.. and get stuck all the time.. but with support being free.. i ask questions and find out why my hard ware or theirs has an issue..and what the WORK AROUND IS. so some home work on your install before you INSTALL.. it will be a lot better for you. take a copy of your system hard ware.. each part.. chip set.. ram.. video card.. sound system etc.. copy it print if you must.. and check the requires or support from a certain type of DISTRO of Linux.. make sure the largest portion of your distro supports your hardware.. or there are BUG FIXS for the other issues.. not PENDING but done..real fixs.. and TRY a distro that supports your hardware. ONCE you found one.. GO INTO the forums Before you try and install. leave notes for others to help your or support your choice to install fresh or DEUL boot or even WUBI.. some will give you crap for a wubi.. but if they dont want to be like MS monopoly then they need to back up and allow folks to be FREE. once you have smart and provable persons to help you.. THEN do the install.. see how much better your LUCK will be.. You'll need to relearn alot.. but once you get into linux.. your likely NOT going to go back to Microscrap. RJ

yeah.. its rather DIM and uneducated of you to say.. that Religious persons support Creationism becuase of Fear.. its becuase there are NOT fully founded Facts in Darwinism that they CAN support. the Theory of Evolution is JUST THAT a Theory becuase it can NOT be prooved.
There is not decent there.. and persons who believe in Religion have just as strong a standing in FAITH camps as do Darwin Evolutionists. Meaning.. it Takes alot of faith to believe in Darwins theories. They Make Too many leaps of faith against common sense. Things Do not Get more and more ordered.. or my house would not need cleaning.. they get more and more Disordered. its Common Chaos theory.
a Person of faith is not just some Scared Child who can not think. many Very well versed Scientists Disagree with Dawins idea. For an IDEA it is ONLY.. NOT a fact. sounds like Dawinists are MORE afraid of losing the 60 or more year Grip they have had on the Science Community than Facing the true Facts. thre are quite a few Verifiable Facts to disbelieve in evolution. Regardless of Faith in some thing else or not.. it Takes more Shaky and spooky Faith to believe in the So called Sciense Fact of Evolution.Maybe.. show a TRUE Fact that can not be ignored.. and Faith campers.. will listen.