Joe Blog's

It’s that time again! Today we have one of our new additions to the Ubuntu Forum Staff, cariboo907. Somebody who I’ve found is very calm and focused no matter what the situation, and in my opinion – a wonderful addition to the staff. Without further ado:

1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.

My name is Jim and I’m located in Williams Lake, BC Canada. My parents who are in thier late 70′s soon to be 80 live with me along with 1 ½ year old Golden Retriever on 3.5 acres just out of town.

I am a certified heavy equipment mechanic and I have a computer repair certificate from Control Data Inc., that I earned in 1989.

I have held various jobs over the years, from an open pit mining equipment mechanic, to a home entertainment equipment repair technician, to being a field service engineer (their job classification) for Pitney Bowes and NCR. The last job I held working for someone else was as a tow truck driver.

2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?

My dad bought a used Commodore Pet back in the early 80′s, we never could get it to work properly, so eventually it became part of a project for Pitney Bowes, creating plastic id cards for hospitals. The second computer my dad bought was an Apple II clone, that we spent hours typing in programs from magazines, and eventually started creating spread sheets with Visicalc. I went on to an Apple IIg clone and eventually IBM clones.

I first started using Linux in 1998, when I saw an advertisement for RedHat 5.2 in a local computer paper. Back then high speed access wasn’t generally available, but one of the local Office Supply Stores stocked various boxed distributions, I went through 3 versions of Mandrake, plus a couple of others that I don’t remember any more. In 2000 I was involved in the private beta test of Xandros. I still have the manuals and cd-roms for all the boxed versions I bought.

I started using Ubuntu, when I saw an ad on a web page saying that they would ship you free copies of their latest version, a few weeks later I received a package with 25 copies of Warty. I never could get it to work properly on any of my equipment, so I went on to PCLinuxOS.

When Dapper came out I decided to give it a try, and have been using Ubuntu as my main OS ever since.

As far as hobbies are concerned, computers seem to be my main obsession these days.

3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?

I joined the forum in 2006, but really didn’t become active until 2008, I had an enforced holiday, and had lots of time, so I started answering questions, and I must have done well enough as I was asked to become a moderator in the spring of 2009.

4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?

I am not an Ubuntu member yet, but I plan on becoming a member in the next 6 months.

5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?

I am currently running several versions of Ubuntu on all but two of my computers. They run everything from Hardy server to Karmic to a custom version I created using the Jaunty mini.iso.

My favorite application is vlc and I really dislike Evolution.

6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?

My fondest memory is the thank you’s I’ve gotten from helping other members. The worst has to be some of the responses I get when giving a member an infraction.

7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?

I haven’t had much luck converting others to Ubuntu, as I am of the opinion that you should use whatever works best for you.  That being said most of my friends are either non-computer users or they only use computers at work.

I am considering starting a LUG if there is enough interest locally.

8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?

I would like to see more computers sold with Linux pre-installed, most specifically Ubuntu.

9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?

When things don’t work as expected, relax, don’t get in a panic. Take some time to check out the forums, as most problems have been solved several times over.