Testimonial: A Technophobe On Linux!

by Robin

My home planet was first colonized by people who had rejected technology because it had been used to almost destroy our entire race! So my parents colonized a new world where we wouldn't be bothered by outsiders with technology to threaten us again. In the middle of a techno-hostile spot called "the briar patch," our new planet offers us a simple life. Unfortunately it offers something more, that some outsiders conspired to steal. If not for the efforts of the Federation starship Enterprise, all the Baku would have perished.

But in order to foil the plot against us, we had to allow some of their technology. The most amazing and frightening was an artificial life form named Data. I was scared to death of Data, but after a time I actually made friends with him.

If all this sounds too weird, read about the movie, Star Trek: Insurrection.

Anyway, the same kind of thing applies for me when it came to computers. At first a necessary evil, then a useful tool, and then a maddening, expensive appliance that required more from the user than it could offer in return (Windows). I thought about a Mac, but the price tag! So a little more fact-finding and there's this thing called Linux for desktop computers that costs nothing!

Okay, long story shortened: A "distro chooser" article led me to my first Linux, and from there to a few others. I was content on a favorite until this whole systemd thing started. It hadn't really been a problem for me in my limited use of Linux (and my lingering technophobia), but the more I read the more I got a little scared of the whole idea of some "supervisory" software controlling and keeping a record of every single process on the computer! Not the Linux/Unix way. At all. It's intrusive and too far-reaching. Tentacles everywhere!

At first I experimented with a wonderful little Slackware-based distro to escape the tentacled monster. It was great! But it's really not for newbies, nor technophobes like we Baku from the briar patch. It's still awesome and very different from the Ubuntu-based (and systemd-encumbered) distros I had always used. Back to the web searching, and consulting my friend Commander Data, I found PCLinuxOS! All I can say is wwowwww. Super-duper-ultra-mega fast and simple enough for a technophobic Baku. I'm using the Xfce flavor on an older hand-me-down computer and it races along at something approaching Warp speed! Easy on the hardware, easy on the eyes, easy on the learning curve too.

I have "lurked" in the forums for weeks getting a few questions answered just by reading what others have dealt with. But yesterday I decided to join this wonderful community and maybe learn enough to contribute more than just gratitude and financial help (next payday).

Thanks to Texstar and Company for an awesome distro and a vibrant community that I look forward to getting to know.