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Dale E. Edmons

Homepage: n/a

IRC nick(s): linuxfan

Role in SMGL: New grimoire guru/mage. Others as I'm able to get my fingers into them and as time permits.

Age/Birthdate: You'll have to wait `til they cut me in half and count the rings.

Location/Country: The pwetty blue planet.

Common

When did you first start using Linux and why?

IIRC kernel-1.2.3 was my first kernel build. It was the transition kernel from a.out to elf–whenever that occurred. It was after 1992, but before 1996. Why? I don't understand this part of the question.

How long have you been using the SMGL distribution?

Since Nov 2007. Yep, I'm an SMGL newbie guru.

What piqued your interest in SMGL initially?

My first and favored distro was Slackware, but I mostly recompiled it. I just recently found out about source-based distros. I tried SMGL about a year ago, but had poor success installing the ISO. While hunting for a distro to replace my current Debian, I tried out IRC, as asking questions via e-mail had become cumbersome. ruskie was on the channel and was very helpful with SMGL. Having a good first IRC experience on SMGL I ventured to gentoo and LFS. These were less than helpful and seemed at times to actually be rude. Not the type of people I wanted to give (indirect) root access to! I kept coming back to #sourcemage, then I finally just stayed. Now you're stuck with me.

What future do you personally see for SMGL?

It sways between bleak and very good. Bleak due to the fact that most users aren't geeks and willing to do what we do to install SMGL–we think it's fun! Very good because the developers are geeks and SMGL is simply one of the geekiest distos with the most helpful group I've seen. SMGL will die a few years after the sun goes nova. (novaburst: no insinuations intended)

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Education/Career/Skills?

Mostly self-educated as I wasn't born into a education-friendly environment. Currently work as a Simulator Engineer (on aircraft simulators–imagine that!) and do both hardware and software. I'm an unpublished science fiction author.

Any personal messages for the Source Mage users out there?

Run and never look back or you'll become hopelessly addicted! If you aren't very 'geeky' you may be safe, but I'll be working hard to change that.

What other OS programs/software have you worked on?

I've written a filesystem driver using FUSE. It is for the VXworks version of RT-11. The driver is mostly functional.

Flamewars

vi or emacs?

gvim all the way. Every *nix I use has vi. I consider it a required tool for any *nix user. (After a round of attempting to upgrade to the newest vim, I'm pretty sure that I'd like to find a replacement. Maybe I'll do a vim-debian spell so that bugfixes and patches don't give me nightmares.)

tabs or spaces?

tabs

KDE or GNOME?

I beg your pardon? Enlightenment of course! (e16 only.)

BSD or GPL?

GPL, but mostly because I know little about BSD. I've run Berkely Unix and it's like a shot: only if you really need it.

Strictly personal

Do you have any family?

Homo sapiens and a few cousins depending upon who tells the story.

What other hobbies?

There are other hobbies? Well, I do a little wood-working and I'm a licensed Amateur Radio operator (like IRC with voice). And there's that unpublished author thing I mentioned earlier.

What kind of car do you drive? Or what is your dream car?

One that runs. Dream car? I own two classic Mustangs and a pickup that's a little older than me. But I'd have to say my dream car would be an Aptera if they ever fullfil their design goal of exceeding 100mpg. (I currently have them blocked from e-mail as they pulled a nasty one.)

Please attach a recent photograph of yourself – if you're brave enough ;=)

I'm brave enough but don't have a digital camera and fear you might turn to stone if you looked.