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PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: aguila
as told in their own words
What is your name/username?
My name is Andreas Birkel. My username is 'aguila', which is Spanish for "eagle." I've been air travelling world wide a lot in the past, plus I like the concept of eagles -- freedom over comfort.
How old are you?
I'm 45 years.
Are you married, single?
I've been married for ten years this May.
How about Kids, Grandkids ?
We have two kids, a boy of eight, and a girl of nine.
aguila and family
Do you have pets, what is your favorite?
No pets. When I was a kid, we had a dog.
Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?
Since my education as an industrial management assistant, I've been working in sales. I've been working in a couple of industries - import and wholesale fruit, then import of diamond tools for construction, export sales for one of the world's biggest hardwood sawmills, then marketing and worldwide sales of decorative glass coatings for a coatings factory. Today I'm a travelling salesman in chemical raw materials (mainly for detergents), working for a wholesale company.
All along the way, I've been holding on to some principles (only consumable material, medium-sized companies, stay in the area). Who knows what lies ahead?
Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery
We live right in the center of Germany, in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse. Lots of green (forest and agriculture), small towns (10,000 to 80,000 inhabitants) and lots of villages. It's a very nice area with a temperate climate, up to 30º C (86º F) in the summer, and rarely 20º C (68º F) or below in the winter.
Where did you go to school and what is your education level?
I got a university-entrance diploma, but decided to take an apprenticeship first, and maybe get a university degree afterwards, which for various reasons I didn't. But I took evening courses and learned Spanish and Portuguese, and I have really enjoyed working in export for 10+ years now.
What kind of things you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?
I really like to ride a road bike. This year I joined the local bicycle club and took part in a couple of everyman races. I hope to do some more next season.
Apart from that, I like working out, photography, and computers (I'm not a geek though). Well, and spend time with my wife and kids, of course.
Why and when did you start using Linux?
I've always been interested in computers since I got my Commodore C64 back in the 80s, but never got to a deeper level of hardware tinkering or programming. In 2005, when we had a reasonably fast internet connection, I got interested in Linux after reading about it in magazines. So I fired up some Live CDs. On starting a Knoppix Live CD, the main board of my desktop died. After that, I didn't look at Linux for about a year or two.
When I got my first laptop in 2007, it had Windows Vista installed. That crap died on me twice during system updates, so I started to look at Linux again.
First, I installed OpenSuSE and dual booted, but I wasn't convinced yet. I then switched to Fedora, which seemed better, but lacked all of the non-free drivers and software. When I searched some more, I found PCLinuxOS. I installed it on my second laptop and was really hooked.
Today, all the computers under my control (three in our home, one at my mother-in-law's, and two at my parents) exclusively run PCLinuxOS.
PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by youcantoo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum members. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.
If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.
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