Today I have had a Launchpad account for ten years!
I got started out on this road around 1992. I remember the day Stuart got a PC and installed Minix on it. That box was biege, naturally, was about 3 feet square and constructed from inch thick iron plate. Minix was totally alien when compared to the Acorn MOS and RISCOS powered machines I’d used until then, and absolutely intriguing.
A few years later at university I encountered VAX/VMS and Sun SPARCstations and The Internet and Surfers and Mozilla and a Gopher connected Coke machine.
Then out into the big wide world of work and run-ins with AS400 and RS/6000s running AIX. During this time I started seeing more and more Red Hat in places where there once would have been the more established players, providing email and web servers. The fascination with *nix was always there and I started using Red Hat at home for fun.
I quickly ran into frustrations with RPMs and Stuart, always a source of wisdom, suggested I try Debian.
Dpkg made my life a whole lot easier and I started using Debian as my default OS for everything. Pretty soon after that I found myself compiling kernels, modules and software packages because I needed or wanted something in a newer version. Coupled with the availability of cheap unbranded webcams, sound cards, network cards, TV cards etc and a strong desire to make these things work with Linux meant that I had found a wonderful way to stay up until 4 in the morning getting more and more frustrated. The phrase “I’m going home to play with the kernel” was frequently questioned by my boss Jeremy. I wanted these things to work but was endlessly faffing about trying to make it happen.
Better call Stuart.
“You should try this new Debian based distribution called Ubuntu” he said.
So I did, and it just worked. A box fresh kernel with all the goodies I needed already compiled in and an up-to-date GNOME desktop (I’d set my allegiances before trying Ubuntu so this was another tick in the box), not forgetting one of the brownest themes known to man.
And that was that. Ubuntu worked for me and I was immediately a fan.
And here I am today, 10 years later, still running Ubuntu. My servers run Ubuntu, all the desktops in my house run Ubuntu, I have an Ubuntu powered phone and soon I’ll have an Ubuntu powered Mycroft with which I’ll be able to control my Ubuntu powered things while wearing my Ubuntu T shirt and drinking tea (should that be kool-aid?) from my Ubuntu mug.
I salute my Ubuntu brothers and sisters. Thanks for making all of this possible.