[LBo] Introducing myself...

[Karin Westerbeek]

Hi all,

I'm Karin, I'm 25.  I've been using computers since I was about 4
years old, we had an MSX and I loved to play games on it. Along the
line my parents bought a PC and a newer one etc... And when I was 13,
I bought my very own first PC, a 486. My dad forced me to install it
all by myself, he was very emancipated about those things, I can fix
my bike, change a tire, and replace the radiator of my car. Anyway, I
started of with Win95, when diskspace became an issue, we bought a new
HD (4.5 Gb!) and of course I had to install it myself.
We where one of the first in the neighborhood to have internet, and we
even had our very own Novell network running! I liked fiddling with my
computer, getting the most out of my office programs, and tweaking
Windows the way I like it. So when I dropped out of college, I applied
for some tech support functions. One year later I was on my 3rd tech
job, and I was an assistent sys admin by then.

In my private life I still had the same old 486 running, with a few
upgrades though, since money was an issue. When it became totally
unuasable I configured a brand new PC, AMD Athlon XP2000, Asus
Motherboard etc.. I installed Windows XP and tuned it to my needs.

A lot of computer techies I know are constantly working on their PC,
tuning it, screwing it up, fixing it or whatever. But at home I just
want my PC to work, I don't want to fiddle around with alternatives, I
just wanna install WinXP, make a ghost copy and use it. I know the
dangers of using windows, but we have a very reliable Firewall running
(PII with Ubuntu).
My bf has been pestering me for years now to switch to Linux, but I
never wanted to try it, because I know some things will not work, or
at least not immediately and I can afford little or no downtime
because of my studies (yes, going to college again...).
So I will keep Windows running, and I will use an old PIII laptop with
Ubuntu 6.06 for this course. What a girl has to do to keep her bf
happy ;-)

Btw, I've never ever in my life learned anything about computers from
a book, so this will be my first time.

Ciao,

Karin