From Rags to Riches .. A Story of Success with Linux By Christopher J. Fearnley Granted, the title is an exaggeration. I'm still not rich, but at least I don't have to shop around for the cheapest toothbrush anymore! My income did, however, finally go above the poverty line. All thanks to Linux, a gem of an OS! And a lot of hard work (this isn't a tale of "make money fast" --- for that you should search USENET News, but beware of losing your pants!). Anyway here's how it happened. I graduated from Binghamton University with a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy in 1989. Then I spent 4 years below the poverty line. I finally scraped enough together to buy a cheap 486-33 and had Linux installed on it by the end of September 1993 (even though I had never used Unix or any Unix-like system before --- but I did get a book on Linux out of the Library before beginning this adventure). By January 1994 I was on my way to my first year _above_ the poverty line! All thanks to Linux. Well, not exactly. Although Linux did help me to get that job (it gave me understanding and confidence in how computers work), the job was in fact Windoze-based (thankfully, that was --- and will be --- the last job I've ever had to use Windoze every day). Nonetheless, I did find a way to bring awk into that Windoze world and thread where no Excel could go before! Still it's only the past two months where 100% of my income is from work on Linux systems (last year I did maintain a Linux system in a commercial environment, but primarily my responsibilities involved general Unix and Internet skills). But I have reached the promised land at last: a work situation where all my efforts (I did mention that it took a lot of hard work to get here, didn't I?) are focused on Linux-based systems and supporting Linux in commercial environments! I think there are several reasons why Linux has become so successful for me and others. First, Linux is fun. In fact, this is one of Linus Torvalds' primary design criteria for the Linux kernel. If it wasn't so fun, I would never have put in all that hard work learning the system! Secondly, Linux hides no secrets. Although, like any powerful computing system, Linux is complex. There is a lot of documentation available, a strong user community that is almost always willing to help (unless you ask before reading the basic docs), and if worse comes to worse you can always read and become intimate with the source code. Finally, I think the cooperative and accommodative approach taken by Linus and the vast majority of the Linux development teams (all volunteers!) and users give the movement the perspective needed to keep on top of our rapidly changing worlds. UNIX SIG We will have a general Unix/Linux Question and Answer period (11-1pm). As always we meet in room 242.