[Charlug] CharLUG Introductions

[Don Parris]

It's been a while since some of us have introduced ourselves.  With the
group having been in transition, as well as seeing newcomers, it's easy to
lose out on who's who.

I'm Don, the current acting LUG Chairman and candidate for chairman.  I've
been actively involved in the LUG since late 2004, early 2005-ish.  I am a
security officer, an ordained minister and Editor-in-Chief of LXer.com.  I
am also the author of "Penguin in the Pew", a book about deploying GNU/Linux
in religous/non-profit organizations.  As a LUG member, I'm pushing to get
us to run some actual classes and bring in some outside speakers to boot.  I
think that our LUG has a golden opportunity and that we need to take
advantage of it.  I also see the LUG members as the key to a successful LUG
- it really boils down to getting out of it what we put into it.  So, I
encourage everyone to put forth a little effort to help make the LUG work -
or it won't.  Just showing up at meetings is a big plus, but you should also
consider putting together a presentation on a topic that floats your boat
and let us hear it.

I have limited system admin skills, but am a long-time desktop/power user of
the penguin variety.  I started off with an old 486SLC running DOS 6.22/Win
3.11 and began migrating (in earnest) to GNU/Linux just as WinXP was taking
hold.  I have used Red Hat 5.1, 7.2, Mandrake 8.0, SUSE 8.0-10.1, Ubuntu
4.10-current, and most recently, Debian Etch.  I really started migrating
with SUSE 8.0, and went Windows-free in 2004 with SUSE 9.2.  My growing
confidence has led me to Debian, which is proving to be quite the joy ride,
but I still need to give PCLinuxOS a serious look.  I'm waiting for the
final release, due out very soon.

I'm a strong supporter of Free/Open Source Software, the OpenDocument Format
and other open standards and am unwilling to use non-libre software except
in rare circumstances, usually involving the lack of alternatives and/or
control over the computer involved.  I enjoy learning about businesses (even
really small ones) that provide services around FOSS.

Regards,
Don
-- =

D.C. Parris
Minister, Editor, Free Software Advocate
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcparris
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