[23-05-2022] -- phlog entry imported from retired g.nixers.net gopherhole
OK the phlog starts here!
Well, if you read the other entries before this one then you probably
didn't make it this far. The phlog starts here.
I have come a long way and I am quietly proud of myself. I'm talking about
my UNIX journey. It all began in 2009 when I starting playing around with
linux (Ubuntu) after I becacame sick of windows and needed a new
distraction from my studies. I was keen on customising the look and feel
of my operating system long before finding linux. I dabbled with Blackbox
and a few other windows shell replacements. I had a DeviantArt account and
I'd share my screenshots and take inspiration from others doing the same
tthing. Linux opened up a whole new world of customisation potential, albeit
with a steep learning curve.
It didn't take long before I thought I was a command line ninja. Apt-get
install this, a apt-get install that! Wow I thought, this is COOOOL! I
still think it is cool that I can add and remove programs on my laptop
without leaving the terminal. I started to look at other distros and
wondered if I should hop. And of course I did, straight over to, you
guessed it, Arch btw. Back then Arch wasn't such a meme, it was just
considered to be a blazingly fast and minimal distrobution. I learned a lot
about linux during my Arch days. I remember fondly a guy who went by the
name `crshd` (holla at me if you're out there still). He kind of took me
under his wing and taught me the ways of linux and customising every aspect
of it. He was a real master of his craft and I sometimes wondered why he
was so nice to me, taking the time to teach me things. That was rare back
in those days, esspecially in the Arch (RTFM) community.
Fast forward 10 years. I'd pretty much stopped using linux after graduating
in 2011. I'd found other hobbies to occupy my time and also no longer had
a personal laptop to mess around with. However, in 2019 I decided to
purchase a refurbished ThinkPad X230. I was keen to get back into it but I
wanted a challange so this time I decided to try out BSD. I'd always had a
facination with NetBSD. I didn't really know why, maybe it was just because
it was the least popular (or at least the least represented of the BSD's).
I had no idea what I was doing so I did the sensible thing and joined a
forum. Two actually, nixers.net & UnitedBSD. The latter being the most
helpful in terms of getting a working NetBSD system installed. I found a
noob friendly install guide written by a user by the name Pin. It was most
helpful, and I managed to get somthing running, but I had questions. I
decided to message him directly, and after many messages back and forth
(currently an ongoing threat with over 1000 messages) I was up an running
and, best of all, I was enjoying it. In a way, Pin took me under his wing,
much like crshd did all those years ago. If you find yourself reading
this, Pin, cheers mate.
Pin and I bonded initially over our love for the Spectrwm window manager.
I had used it back in 2010-2011 on my Arch Linux machine. Back then it was
called ScrotWM. I suppose they changed the name because it was too close to
scrotum. Fair enough. We also bonded over our appreciation for minimal and
clean systems and aesthetics. It wasn't long before I had my X230 set up
with NetBSD and customised to the way I liked it. There were times when I'd
bork the whole system and I'd imediately message Pin and ask for help.
Without a single complaint, he'd message me back and walk me through the
solution. What a bloddy ledgend! I even insisted on buying him a beer to
thank him for his selfless work in helping me. That is the other thing we
shared in common, a love for craft beer.
I could go on for longer and go into much more depth about my *nix journey.
And perhaps I will update this entry later and expand on it. But for now,
I'm just chuffed that I am writing this phlog entry, from xterm, using
heirloom-mailx to send an email to z3bra's nixers gopher server which,
though the use of scribo and some other wizardry that I am yet to
undersatnd, this will end up in my phlog where likely no one will read it
lol.
I may never be a unix wizard myself, but I have come a long way for
someone who just tinkers with nix in their spare time. Oh, and I forgot to
mention, I started my NetBSD journey specifically, right after my first
child was born. So it was only rarely that I had time to sit down and
really learn anything. I will continue to learn new things though, and I
will try to update this phlog again soon. Even if no one reads it.
bye
pfr