I've been using Unix since 1988 (plus or minus a year). I used to know quite a lot about it; from 1990 through 1994 I worked part time on a multiuser Unix setup, doing stuff like installing software, helping users, and doing more and more sysadmin-style tasks.
But, alas, since then I haven't had the time to keep up to date with how Unix has been changing. And, frankly, I miss that; one of my goals in buying this laptop was to get back up to speed with Unix these days.
So, as a result, I was fairly knowledgeable about core Unix stuff, but quite ignorant about many fairly basic issues around Linux (and the specific version of Linux that I'm using here, namely Red Hat 7.3). If you're in a similar situation, maybe you'll find some of this interesting; if you're newer to Unix than I am and want me to explain more of the core Unix stuff, e-mail me and I'll be happy to do so.
This was the first computer that I've bought (for home use, at any rate) since 1996 or thenabouts. That computer was a 486DX2/66 running Windows 3.1; I've skipped several generations. I've never really used Windows much at all: that was the only computer I owned that ran Windows, and I pretty much only used it to play games on and to use a terminal emulator on. (My wife used it to write papers and such.) I've used Macintoshes (and an Apple II+) more, but not as much as Unix; I also went through a VMS phase in high school.
Last modified: Sun Jul 7 10:53:47 PDT 2002