Hi everyone, I hope it’s not considered rude if I don’t give out my actual full name like so many of you have done so far. I guess it was always pushed into my head never to give out much personal info on the net much if it can be helped, though I usually share that tidbit and such with people I really get to know after a while. For now, I guess I’ll introduce myself as GLGamer, though “GL” is fine as a short nickname!
I thought I’d make an intro post here after my first post where I asked for some tech help, then inevitably managed to figure out what went wrong (and how to fix it better with some help from wolfman and lah7!) I’m around 32 years of age, live somewhere in the state of Ohio, and have been messing about in linux for about one of those years of my life roughly. When I use computers, it’s mostly to dabble around in artistic or creative stuff, or to play games and communicate with some online friends I have. I remember being fascinated by computers at a rather young age, but not knowing how to get into them, or what an OS even was for the longest time. I’d say my earliest experiences would be with Apple IIes (for games mostly of course) at elementary and middle schools, and eventually I’d get my own PC which would be a windows 3.1 machine. I’d stick with Windows up until 7, only vaguely knowing about apple/macs, and only a few years ago hearing something about Linux.
I started out dual-booting between Linux Mint Cinnamon and Windows Home Premium 7 last year, late spring I believe. It only took a while of a few short months or so before I decided to completely wipe out my Windows partition, and haven’t looked back since for myself Can’t say I miss it, save for a few games that aren’t as important as they used to be. I got into Ubuntu Mate this year sometime in the spring with the 14.04 LTS, then decided to try the 15.10 version. I’m now on 16.04 LTS, and I’ve been enjoying it more I think than even Linux Mint.
I guess I’ve always believed (once I realized what an OS was) that an OS should just be a tool for the most part, to help you get stuff done, and nothing to get fanatical or absolutely crazy about. And it’s also about preference. I just know so far that for me and some people in my household that Ubuntu Mate fits that role. And admittedly, aside from all the negative and such hype about later versions of Windows, and seeing what other people I know experience with it and such, I decided it wasn’t for me after all and wanted to try something different.
I’ve come to realize recently that I don’t mind, and actually enjoy learning stuff too, as long as it’s at my own pace. This holds true with what I’ve been learning to do in Linux so far, and what I’ve learned from using PCs in general, from how to handle a windows OS, to unlearning those practices that are not good to do in Linux, to how to even build my own PCs, and sort of trouble shoot them. I’d figure most of my computer knowledge is a sum of google, reading a bit, and making a fair amount of mistakes in the past and trying to correct them, while also learning from the more experienced. Hopefully less mistakes will be made in the future, and wisdom instead will be gained from the experienced and more reading!
Well, I’ll stop rambling now. I’ll say now I’m normally a shy, somewhat anxious person for various reasons, but I do look forward to getting to know some people here!