Non Nerds who use Linux - Vote Here!

[The-Wizard]

I too remember the days of dos and unix, punch cards and air conditioned computer rooms as big as a house full of wondrous electronic gizmo's Which had less power and memory than a mobile phone ,

having succumbed to the Dozz of the win in the early 90's with all its inherent problems I SAW THE LIGHT and the light was mint green..... Hallelujah.... I'm a born again fun loving GEEK [so the old witch tells me]

although i still maintain a little bit of dozz on my laptop so i can speak to my granddaughter every night [they wont use skype] but now i am free, free of daily crashes,free of virus attacks, AN free to be my own man [or geek] WHO CARES

yasus
wizard

[DrHu]

I too remember the days of dos and unix, punch cards and air conditioned computer rooms as big as a house full of wondrous electronic gizmo's Which had less power and memory than a mobile phone ..

...punch cards and air conditioned computer rooms as big as a house full of wondrous electronic gizmo's ..less power and memory than a mobile phone
And amazingly they worked well, being attended to by the high tech priesthood..
--maybe they had better programmers in those far-off days.

• So much so, that I haven't seen anything on the microcomputer front that hadn't been already realized within that mainframe, minicomputer world
  --even if not quite the same as today's standards..

I certainly remember CICS and TSO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CICS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Sharing_Option
--and the micro version I think SAP be thy name..
http://www.sap.com/canada/index.epx

Linux as it exists at this point in its history is not an OS for nerds, just as Windows isn't an OS for everybody, nor Apple's OS-X an OS for the rest of us (their old slogan)

Example, short comparisons..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... ng_systems
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/classi ... r-used/107
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Compar ... ng_systems
Systems do evolve..

[monkeyboy]

Being a geek, nerd or what have you is not always an either or situation. For example I use Linux so if I subscribed to an all or nothing approach I would be a geek however put me in the woods behind a team of horses and geek is probably not the category most people would use. Labels are often too limited to use effectively. IMHO

[dawgdoc]

Some would call me a nerd/geek and others would not. Those I worked with would, but then they routinely try to open jpg files attached to emails with the Open Dialog box In MS Word.

Used a PDP11 in the '70s in High School. Played Pong on the original Atari. Only computer course ever was in college and it was an introductory course to programming in Basic. Not QBasic, nor Visual Basic, just Basic. Never owned a computer until '93. Have built a few desktops since. Have replaced components with laptops (hdd, ram, keyboards, etc.) Still am not a programmer, at least I assume not since I know no programming languages.

Call me what you will.

.... 'til it kinda got in the way of other things, and my grades started to fall.

Hi Robin, it's good to see you still peek in on the forums. I had realized I wasn't seeing your posts. Your post explains why. (Unless for a while your avatar was you wearing a Robin (as in Batman) costume.)

[Habitual]

I just love this place!!!!!!!!!!!! You people are more fun than anyone I know away from my computer.

If it were any more "fun" this place would be illegal!
Dorks are people too.

[rdonnelly]

I do Refrigeration & HVAC and I use Linux, I have also used OS2 2.1, Warp 3, and Warp 4 in the past, tried eCs and it did not run very well on modern hardware. Had to stick it out in the world of WinDohs for a while, then I found my true love, Linux.

Nope, I am not considered to be a nerd.

[timmer1240]

Im not a nerd Im a heating and air conditioning Technician Love my Wife and 2 dogs I love rock and roll music country music going to concerts havin a few brews bbq in the back yard with neighbors and friends.I switched to Ubuntu a bout a year ago I just got tired of all the games with it anti virus spyware rogueware ect. ect.I got to be pretty good at fixing windows I started out with win 98 then xp win7 for a little while then I found Ubuntu did that for a bout a year loved it now Im using LMDE for about a month now Love it!My friends and wife think Im a computer wizard thats not true just very interested in being able to solve my own problems although with linux theres very few Ive ever had!

[dawgdoc]

If a title must be applied I hereby request that I be known as a nerd and not a geek.

From wikipedia

In 19th century, in North-America, the term geek referred to a freak in circus side-shows. In some cases, its performance included biting the head off a live chicken.

similar definitions can be found in multiple online dictionaries.

[jesica]

I don't seen anything wrong, people these days is so afraid to say what they want

speak up people

[timmer1240]

Its ok to use Linux although a lot of people are stuck looking through their windows instead of breaking free and enjoying open source!

[Nick_Djinn]

Im not really a nerd or a geek. My teenage years were all about the rockstar lifestyle, industrial music and electronica, psychedelic drugs, promisculous sex, summer and full moon festivals, protests, traveling.....I really cant relate very well to the nerd/geek lifestyle. However, Ive always enjoyed using the computer as a social networking tool, not that Im antisocial in real life but you can find and talk about exactly what you want to talk about online, and Ive always been pretty philosophically minded and activist oriented so the computer has been a good tool.

Martial arts, radical politics/activism, music and computers are my hobbies. Despite listing computers as a hobby, I dont feel like a geek or a nerd.

[Mander]

Is this the place where they're handing out Nerd Badges?

I'm still struggling with the definition of "nerd". In some ways I fit, and in others, I don't. I enjoy hanging out with nerds and listening, even if I don't have much to contribute. I'm not one who enjoys cracking open the case to do anything beyond changing a battery or installing some memory (with guidance/supervision). What I do love is
1-setting up fresh installs (well, who doesn't right?)
2-adminning those installs for my family and students
3-researching a problem/issue on Google and such in order to figure out how to make the problem go away. I may not always understand 100% of what I just did, but I do recognize the fact that I solved the problem myself, without bothering anyone.

[I was going to include a laundry list of my computer experiences stretching back to 1983, but I figured that would just be tl;dr and boring for anyone Not Me]

I use computers as a tool but also as a means to an end. One of the best experiences of my life was shepherding a computer lab installation in my adult GED learners classroom: 16 XP and three outdated computers on which I installed Ubuntu.

Thanks for letting me sound off. Fun poll!

[dawgdoc]

1-setting up fresh installs (well, who doesn't right?)

3-researching a problem/issue on Google and such in order to figure out how to make the problem go away. I may not always understand 100% of what I just did, but I do recognize the fact that I solved the problem myself, without bothering anyone.

Welcome Mander

It sounds like you are talking about configuring the software, but if you also have an interest in customizing the look of the desktop check out this thread
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... start=5420 (That is starting on the current page.)

Having that kind of GoogleFu, you sound like a good person to have in the forums.

[Nick_Djinn]

"Long Term Stable" doesnt mean anything to Ubuntu anymore. Its not like they are actually more stable. They include just as many unstable innovations in the LTS as in the middle year releases. The only difference is that they are supported for longer without having to upgrade.

I guess its a few fewer upgrade though.

[Morgan Krieg]

I'm a metalhead. I haven't even heard about nerds until about 2 years ago.

I can't say I love Linux, any more than I love my bookshelf or my chair. It's just a thing that I use.

[Forthright]

Due to a microcosm of the anthropic principle, I believe all posters here would be considered nerds by the larger demographic

If you don't believe me, strike up a conversation with a few people at the local bar then say: "I went online to post on a forum thread entitled 'Non Nerds who use Linux' today; does that make me a nerd?"

If the vast majority don't say yes, I won't believe you! ( either that or the bar is hosting the local lug )

But in all seriousness... people base their perception of you largely on what you tell them. I don't get called a nerd because I don't talk about technical stuff which goes over the heads of current company. I suspect the same is true of a lot of people here.

I can understand why someone might say 'I don't want to hang around with nerds' since 'nerd' has negative connotations often implying a lack of social skills, and if those implications are lived up to, you are less likely to want to hang around with them. This is the same reason I don't mind people calling me an intellectual. If someone is the type who doesn't want to hang around with intellectuals; the feeling's mutual.

No nerd is an island. Well, some have no friends which is pretty close.

Your nerd-dom is defined by the social context you find yourself in, and as we in this forum are already interested in the very fundamentals of our topic we can't out-nerd each other...

But we can damn well try! [/Treaties-on-Nerdism]

[Nick_Djinn]

I could be sitting at a cafe typiung on my laptop while wearing a monty python and the holy grail t-shirt, which I am, and I would still look like a rock star with my gaotee and septum ring and tattoos. Im about as geeky as Danzig with a laptop.

[mzsade]

I try so hard to be one (nerd)..i have cultivated the looks, the lack of social skills, the personality..all i need now is the computer skills and programming knowledge.

[lmintnewb]

Yeah ... guess I belong in this thread. Though am very thankful to all the geeks who created such a fantastic thing as gnu/linux and this distro. To think of all they've sacrificed so that I can have an awesome OS and a Windows free life. Never leaving their mothers basements, never seeing a naked woman ( that wasn't online ) You guys are awesome, geekdom ... don't ever change !

Well except for the seeing a naked woman part. They're a lot more fun in person, lol.


Messing round, for real ... am blown away by the people who started ( and continue ) the opensource software movement. It's amazing to see people so generous and unselfish. That put something like freedom of information and freedom of computing for the masses above financial gain. Incredible people and loving Mint.

[Nick_Djinn]

Often the developers do benefit from their work. Its very generous for them to SHARE their innovations when they could just as easily hoard or sell it, but the developments themselves are often created FOR the developers needs. They subscribe to the idea of 'share and share alike'. When everyone shares things that are easily copied and transferred, everyone gains a lot more than they give, and its a massive win for everyone involved.

Linux is actually a fairly radical/progressive ideology at its core.