PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: plankton172

As told to YouCanToo

What is your name/username?
My real name is Rodel. My username is plankton172.

How old are you?
45 years old.

Are you married, single?
Married to the same woman since 1998.

How about Kids, Grandkids (names and ages)?
Just one son - Ken, who is now 18 years old. No grandchildren yet.

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?
No pets that we "own" but we have lots of cats (at least 10 of them!) who seem to make their home in our garage and backyard. My favorite cats from the pack are named Sandbag and Tyron.

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?
Still working. Currently employed as an administrative assistant by very friendly and super nice foreigners who are in my country for a diplomatic mission. My work is basically overseeing day to day activities in the office, with focus on statistical analysis, business solutions and technical support.

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery
Home is in one among the > 7,100 islands of the Philippines! We live in the biggest island (Luzon) where the capital city of Manila is located.


Rice cultivation in the Luzon


Manila Bay

The Philippines has tropical/temperate weather, which means it is either hot and humid, or rainy. Since we are right on the Pacific coast, we are always in the path of the strongest typhoons that the world has ever seen. I reside well outside the densely populated city -- in a fairly large town called Montalban. Where we live is near the mountain ranges -- which means plenty of trees, rivers, wide open spaces and fresh air.

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?
Elementary and high school I went to a parochial (i.e., Roman Catholic) institution in my home town of Pateros -- which is famous for being the source of the best "balut" in the country. After that, I attended college at the Philippine Christian University in Manila where I got my undergraduate bachelor's degree in computer science (surprise, surprise!).


Philippine Christian University

What kind of things you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?
I am totally into cycling. I do around 300 kilometers a week from biking to and from work and then some. Great way to beat the horrendous Manila traffic and keeps me in decent shape as a bonus. I am also into home theater and have a very modest LG plasma display + Onkyo-powered 5.1 system using locally manufactured speakers (assembled by a company founded and owned by a Filipino inventor). I've travelled to other countries as well and the last place I went to was Lebanon (such a beautiful place) in the spring of last year.

Why and when did you start using Linux?
In the late 90's, I was writing middleware using C++ and Python that ran in RedHat and Fedora. At that time, I was a senior software developer for a private company that sold and maintained office automation and retail management systems. I was only using Linux at work, and it wasn't until was January 2011 that I actually installed PCLinuxOS for our home computer – and it wasn't even the disto that I wanted to try at that time. One of my biking friends suggested Puppy or CrunchBang, but somehow I managed to get a live CD of PCLinuxOS. I tried it, I liked it, and the rest is history.

What specific equipment do you currently use with PCLinuxOS?
Two desktops (both custom builds) and one laptop (MSI GE402OL). I also installed on an Asus netbook but that poor unit is now very close to dying.

What would you like to see happen within PCLinuxOS that would make it a better place. What are your feelings?
Support for the new Ryzen processor, as well as Intel's expected counter for it. PCLinuxOS is really super great even though it took a while for me to install on UEFI/GPT systems (had to wait until the release was stable enough). I wish I can seriously code again so that I can contribute to this uber-wonderful distro any way I can, but I feel my coding mojo is so weak now after using VBA exclusively in the last few years.