All text written by Jon Buys.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” -Robert A. Heinlein

First of all, welcome to the new rendition of my blog. I’ve been obsessed with the function and performance of my computer since I’ve owned one, and there are a few things that I’ve learned in the past several years that I hope to discuss here. Concepts of computer usability, interface design, relative and actual speed, tradeoffs, and freedom.

This blog is, in many ways, a reflection of my experience with computers. My first memories of a computer were actually in my uncle’s basement with his Commodore 64C¹. The first computer I bought myself was an IBM Aptiva running Windows 98. I had a gigantic 64 megabytes of RAM, and an even more astounding eight gig hard drive. It was not long after I first brought the box home that I started finding ways to tweak it just to my liking. I tried alternative Windows shells, registry hacks, and started buying hardware to expand it’s capabilities. It was in 1999 I first loaded Linux on the box. A friend had given me an install disk, and helped me get it set up. I don’t remember which flavor it was, but I do remember that almost nothing worked. The computer booted, and I was able to log into it, but getting online or playing any games was out of the question, so back to Windows I went. This was when winmodems ruled the Internet, before broadband became the standard, and before Linux had worked out a way to use the modem. It was within mere months of first working with Windows that I was looking for an alternative, something better. I’ve been looking ever since.

In 2000 I was introduced to HP-UX and Solaris), and started exploring a completely different philosophy of computer operation. I bought SuSE Linux in 2002, and worked with that for a few months. I spent days downloading Mandrake, and started loading OpenBSD web servers and firewalls at work. OpenBSD was my first real love for an operating system. Simple, powerful, and free, we were limited only by our imagination and the limits of our knowledge. The hardware requirements were so low that we were able to use older recycled PCs for most functions. Around 2003 I started using VMWare Workstation on my PC, and loading virtual machines with every type of Linux and BSD that I could get my hands on… and since my workplace had just been hooked up to broadband and Linux was really starting to take off, I got my hands on quite a lot of them.

Also around this time I discovered that Apple had released an operating system based on BSD UNIX (late, I know). I was starting to wonder about the capabilities of the X graphical system, and after looking up Apple’s Mac OS X on the Internet, I was sold. I bought my first Mac, an iBook G4, in 2004. For the past four years I’ve been working on Mac OS X. I’ve suffered through two upgrades (never buy a .0 release, wait till .2 at least), but have been generally happy with the Mac and its UNIX underpinnings. OS X is not open, but it’s core is, the Apple apps are not open, but there are open source alternatives that are just as nice². Through all this, I’ve studied UNIX in college, worked with BSD for a job, ran Windows for a workstation, and eventually created a career for myself as a Linux systems administrator.

That’s a short history of the past ten years. I still have much to learn, and spend a lot of time exploring the possibilities of the three main systems that I use. Each have their similarities, their differences, their pros and cons. Each have points that are worth exploring, and there are parts where the all converge and there are points worth discussing by everyone concerned. One of the best discussions that turn out to be more of an introduction to the topic is the interaction between Mark Pilgrim and John Gruber concerning Pilgrim’s choice of Linux over Mac OS X for his primary OS. The discussion, well worth the time to read it, can be seen here, here, and here.

I’m passionate about document standards and open data storage. No computer or system should be able to take my information hostage. So, I hope you’ll join me in exploring these topics, and maybe we can build a better system together. Thanks for tuning in, I’m looking forward to this.