NSA: Please Turn off the Lights When You Leave. Nothing to See Here.

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz shows how the general public can take action to truly protect their privacy using GnuPG with Evolution email. Read the details.

Mailvelope for Chrome: PGP Encrypted Email Made Easy

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz officially endorses what he deems is a truly secure, easy to use PGP email encryption program. Read the details.

Step off Microsoft's License Treadmill to FOSS Linux

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz reminds CIOs that XP Desktops destined for MS end of life support can be reprovisioned with FOSS Linux to run like brand new. Read how.

Bitcoin is NOT Money -- it's a Commodity

Linux Advocate shares news that the U.S. Treasury will treat Bitcoin as a Commodity 'Investment'. Read the details.

Google Drive Gets a Failing Grade on Privacy Protection

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz puts out a public service privacy warning. Google Drive gets a failing grade on protecting your privacy.

Email: A Fundamentally Broken System

Email needs an overhaul. Privacy must be integrated.

Opinion

Cookie Cutter Distros Don't Cut It

Opinion

The 'Linux Inside' Stigma - It's real and it's a problem.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Turn a Deaf Ear

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz reminds readers of a long ago failed petition by Mathematician Prof. Donald Knuth for stopping issuance of Software Patents.

Showing posts with label Freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freedom. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Linux: What it means

Freedom is a choice. You have the power to mak...
Freedom is a choice. You have the power to make it. (Photo credit: Derek Keats)
Written by Guest Author: Jack Wallen

It was deep in the heart of 1996 and I'd had enough of Windows. After a bit of Alta Vista searching, I discovered something that would completely change my life. That something? Linux. It was Caldera Linux 1.0 and it was a challenge. You're probably assuming I was studying computer science in the dank basement of some elite university (maybe writing my dissertation on super computers or UNIX). Wrong. I was an actor and a writer. Strange bedfellows, but I was also a big fan of the underdog. That was enough to spur on a curiosity that would, eventually, land me a gig writing with Techrepublic. At the time, there were few tech writers who had a firm enough grasp of the Linux operating system. And honestly, I got lucky. How? I connected with a guru. His name was Mark and he introduced me to AfterStep and the command line. Had it not been for that connection, I probably would have given up on trying to keep my modem consistently connected to the network. With Mark's help, I wrote my first bash script that kept watch on my system to retain my network connection. Luck? Maybe. But I like to chalk it up to fate.