Twenty some years ago, (early 1980's), I bought a used Commodor Vic 20.  Packet radio was growing strong in the Ham Radio ranks.  Being a ham, I wanted to give packet a try and I needed a computer with which to interface my radio.  That started a long and exciting adventure!

My wife and I spent hours and hours typing in pages of programing code from Compute Magazine.  (Remember Compute!)  We loaded all kinds of programs to and from cassette tapes.  Yes, cassette tapes.  Then we purchased a used C-64.  My sister loaned me a second floppy disk drive (DOS was built into the disk drive.), my wife bought me GEOS, (Graphic Environment Operating System), for the C-64 and I was set.  GUI, drag and drop, programable databases.  Who could hope for more. 

 I remember, and used, MS/PC-DOS 2.0, and really revelled when 2.11 came out.  Wow!  Three and a half inch floppies. And they would hold 720K of data.  Again, WOW!  Twenty MEG hardrives, then thirty, then fouty meg hard drives.  When would it stop?  8086, 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486, SX, DX. Yes, there have been a lot of changes.  And they all came so quickly!  Remember the V20 processor?

CP/M, PC-DOS, MS-DOS, DR-DOS, Novel DOS.  Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 3.12, WFW, Win95, Win98, WinME; NT 3.0, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0; Win2K, Win2K3, XP.  Whew!  What a ride.  That About covers it, right?  Uh, no.  What about Unix?  Who can name all the flavors of Unix?  And now everyone who is in the know is buzzing about Linux.  

I used to work in the MIS department of a manufacturing company in SW Missouri.  A college student showed up to work summers and semester breaks.  Must have been around 1995, or so.  He talked about this thing called Linux, a Unix clone.  He started showing me a few things about Linux after work, and, well I was hooked.  I started with Debian, and it is still my favorite distribution.  Mandrake and Ubuntu have a lot going for them on the desktop.  

Yes, I think Linux is the BEST solution for many, many situations.  I have used it for many different types of servers and on the consumer and business desktop.  Do I still uses Windows?  Yes.  Am I moving toward Linux exclusively?  Well, I think Microsoft will be around for a little while longer, so I still buy and use some Microsoft products so I can stay fluent.

I do programming, networking, hardware repair and upgrade.  I do web hosting and web site development.  I do systems setup and layout, and much more.

Well, now you know a little bit of my background.  I have spent 20+ years learning this computer stuff.  I have worked in different job markets.  What does this mean for you?  My broad range of experience will help me to relate to you and your specific needs and requirements.  So when you computer systems don't compute or network doesn't network, don't get all in a fuss.  Just ask us, at ASK US PC.  We can help!

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dpatillo@backyardcomputers.com