New to Linux

I grew up in the 80s when home computers were very much a novelty. For years the only person I knew who owned a computer was my Uncle Jack, who had a majestic Apple II Plus that ran on 5" floppies. I learned Basic and how to play text-based adventure games.

When I was in high school my mom entered a Ph.D program and bought a MacIntosh, which I used and then inherited when my parents moved up to Windows 95. Most of my computer experience as an adult has been with Windows 9X and XP, both at work and at home.

Then I went to library school at Florida State University and concentrated in information architecture. In my program I came across exciting new programs like Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, and the concept of open source software.

My parents bought a Dell Dimension XPS T700r in 2000, and never updgraded to XP. They just bought a new Dell with Windows Vista, and let me have the older Dell so I could install Linux on it. I'm interested in using it as a web/file/email server. I'm less interested in the Linux desktop applications. While I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft, Windows/Office works well enough and it is what most businesses and schools use. My interest in Linux is not political, though, as a librarian, I believe in the core value of free information exchange, including software programs.

This blog will be where I detail what I've done to install Linux on this computer.