I'm not a computer whiz, but I did start in computers in 1971. By 1976 I was programming more because I had to than because I wanted to, mostly because programs were simply not available for what I wanted to do. So I pulled apart a blackjack game on a TRS-80 and wrote a finance and leasing program in 1976 for a company I worked for. It would provide quotes and print our hire purchase and leasing documents, although it was illegal to sign them back then so we copied the info onto official forms.

I enjoyed BASIC and Unix and cp/m before Microsoft entered the scene. I'm not anti Microsoft, but I was quite happy with cp/m and when Microsoft Dos was a problem I moved to the new product from Digital Research (who wrote cp/m). It was called DRDOS and had features like graphical file managers before Microsoft got them working. DR DOS also was a true multi tasking operating system, something Microsoft has never quite mastered.

By 1997 or 1998 I had moved all my business computers to Linux.

I prefer KDE because I use a very low powered computer and like to render video and work with graphics. My main work machine is a little Compaq CQ1040AN with an AMD E-350.

Runs Mint 17 KDE with two large monitors and lots of stuff on each of them, A mono laser printer, colour Laser printer and two A3 inkjets..

I run several other computers around the place as media stations and control boxes for stuff.

Sometimes I am lucky enough to have the answers to Linux problems. Other times you will find me begging for help.