So today something very awesome happened, I was told that I lost my ‘Windows pass’ For the Linux nerds out there, then you know how I’m feeling. Here are the events that took place.

I was down stairs on the kitchen computer (basic Dell running Windows XP: 6 users, 1 administrator). Next to the computer is an all-in-one fax/scanner/copier. I  had a check I wanted to scan in, so I plugged in the scanner and pressed ’scan’. At first nothing happened and I thought nothing of it. I couldn’t get it to scan (which was weird because my sister uses it all the time – same computer, same scanner). I checked all the connections (it was USB) and made sure everything was ready. I just couldn’t get it to scan. It should have just been a matter of pressing a button and having Windows pop a window up asking what actions to take, but this didn’t happen. So my Dad sat down and he got it to work. Yep, just like that. Now, he was logged-in on his admin account, which is what I thought solved it, but then he said something very interesting:

Dad: It  probably doesn’t recognize you any more, I guess you have lost you Windows pass.

Me: That’s fine, Linux is better.

Dad: *Laughs* It’s probably saying, ‘Ha, try doing that in Linux’*

Now, I was fine with losing my ‘Windows pass’ (I have not had a Windows machine for almost a year) but the last part was just a mockery. So I added my two cents:

Me: You mean hooking up to a scanner, like what I’m currently doing right now, on my Crunchbang Linux machine upstairs?

Me *a thought*: Because if that’s what you meant, then just let it be known, Linux can do anything Windows can do! (if not better!)*

So I guess it’s official, I’m a Linux Man

* Why wouldn’t any Linux distribution be able to handle a simple scanner?!

** For those of you who don’t believe that statement, let me just leave you with this comment: Windows users, is there any command (or free, built-in program) that allows you to back-up (*.iso) your harddrive (or any drive) from command-line, in  2 character or less? (Linux users you already know what I’m talking about.) I’ve been in the Windows world long enough to know that no such built-in command or program exist. So ha!

My name is Stephen and *sigh* unfortunately … I think I’m a PC.

But it just doesn’t feel right …

“The usual …”

Computers have been around in my life, ” … since before I can remember.” (The earliest memory I have of any computer interaction (nothing deep, just Solitaire *ha*) would date back to … *thinking*, around ‘97-’98. That equates to about 60% ‘Lifetime Computer Saturation’) Back then, the only thing surrounding me was ‘boxes’ called screens brightly glowing with a well known user interface called Windows. At the time, the Windows versions I became familiar with were Windows ‘95 (at home) and maybe whatever the latest and ‘greatest’ was on the elementary school computers. From the prospect of a Linux or Mac user, my future, at this point, might seem to have been doomed from the start. At the end of my 5th grade year, I was home-schooled up through middle school (More Windows). My very first laptop (I think it was a Gateway) was a Windows machine. With this first computer, I developed a liking to computer programming, this is how I found myself growing ever closer to the one they call ‘Microsoft’. As I began to write more than, ‘Hello World’ programs, my computer began to thank me by tremendously slowing down. Then one day, I had my very first ‘Windows error’ (first of many). Not only did it sporadicly refuse to boot, but upon a ’success’ boot, Windows would either: 1)  die and restart 2) die with no GUI (wt*mess*?! no mouse?! what is this … foreign *command* prompt?!)* or 3) die and leave me a non-GUI sub-Windows *something*. It was a very messy and tragic ordeal.

My second machine (a Toshiba laptop) introduced me to the popular Windows term: BSOD or, Bluescreen of Death. This is quite simply an error page displayed when you make your Windows machine do something it can’t do, something it didn’t want to do, or just did something you shouldn’t do. However, BSODs are not always because of user error (MANY of them are not): my third and final Windows machine introduced me to this concept.

And then it happened. My Dad (being the computer Guru he is) at any given point in time had volumes of Cds and Dvds all filled with lots of backups, random data, and lots of programs. One day while casually browsing through a crate of Cds, I found something that only caught my attention because of its name: The Cd was labeled – Knoppix 3.6 and then the caption ‘Linux’. Google search or ask Dad? … Dad is closer. Upon further inquisition, Dad revealed to me, that this Cd was just another operating system. Analogy: Window is just a big program that contains smaller programs, Knoppix (Linux) is/does pretty much the same thing, “… but different. Go look it up. Linux is big.” At this point, my mind was buzzing with more questions than it had answers: how do you fit a whole OS on a Cd? What is Knoppix? What is Linux? If it is this small (< 701mb) could I make/program my own OS???