community.linuxmint.com

Sorry, now gone to SolusOS.

Retired Engineer, (and in the end Accountant when I gave up the will
to work!), living with my wife in Barkingside, Essex, England.  I've
been playing with computers since the days of the Commodore
PET at work and a Dragon 32 at home.  (I still have the Dragon and
it still works!! - Motorola 6809 processor and all.)  At work I've also
programmed PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) from
Mitsubishi to control complex conveyor systems.

I taught myself BASIC for the PET and the Dragon plus OPL
(Organizer Programming Language) for Psion Organisers (a very
underestimated portable computer of the 1980/90s).  Today I'm
trying to teach myself Python, C and all but the brain isn't as willing
as it used to be!!  (The pain killing drugs may have something to do
with my lack of knowledge retention now though.)

Most of my computing life was spent with Microsoft Windows until,
when they wanted to charge me £65 to reinstall my personally
purchased copy of XP, just because I'd changed a few bits in the
computer, anyway Windows was thrown out of the window.  I had
been looking at Linux as an alternative to Windows, which was
another reason for repeated re-installations of Windows.  At the
time I settled upon openSUSE 10.3, after trying a number of
distributions, but dumped that about the time Pulse was introduced
as I couldn't get the sound to play nicely.  A search took me to
Ubuntu but I just couldn't get on with it so I drifted to Mint 6.  Mint
provided the right level of user participation, (Root was a dirty word
in Ubuntu), plus the screen real estate wasn't wasted on secondary
task bars.

I currently run two computers, a 64 bit dual AMD desktop, running
with SolusOS, 64 bit.  The second computer is a SONY VAIO
laptop, in the Conservatory looking out into the garden.  This
computer is now running with SolusOS 32 bit.

In addition to the normal (Angry from Barkingside) letters, database
of DVD owned and Blood Pressure records, I use the desktop to
record activity outside the front of my home through a webcam and
the program motion.  The files generated from this are now
automatically stored to dated directories in case they are ever
needed.  I also record radio programmes for me to copy to a
'music' player and listen to them whilst walking my dog Buttons. 
The laptop is for daily use whilst looking out onto the garden.

I run LuckyBackup on the desktop to another drive in the box plus a
USB drive with hard drives slotted into it.  I also have a NAS
running on my Wireless Router employing a Western Digital My
Book.