Will no longer be able to contribute as much

[M0E-lnx]

A couple of you out there may already know, a lot of crazy things have been happening in my life lately. But before I bore you all to death with that kind of stuff, please allow me to summarize how I came to VL and what VL has done for me.

It was some time in May of 2006, when I was sitting in my old office in front of my workstation that ran... you guessed it... WinXP. I had been using Wind OS since the first Computer I ever saw... back in the early 90's when the boxes didn't have hard drives, you used to pop in a large floppy disc to boot into DOS and go from there... if you had Wind OS installed you had a GUI else you had the command prompt!

So there I was, trying to look for something different.... something out of the ordinary as I had gotten bored with the popular system.
I had tried RedHat around 2004... can't remember which version, because honestly, couldn't even boot the dang thing, so I gave up on it... (There goes $60.00 I'll never see again).

This time, I decided to look into Linux again, and decided to open the window, and look at a few of the many available flavors. And so it began.

I began running CoLinux inside windows. CoLinux works like a virtual machine type of deal, you feed it distro images. They have Debian and Gentoo images. I used Debian inside CoLinux for a while, but running that and a full blown windows XP install simultaneously on the old P4 with 512MB RAM is not a pretty picture. So I went back distro hunting.

I remember coming across http://www.linux.org. I used that to search for a "minimalistic" distro. Vl popped right up. Read a bit about it, and saw a couple of screenies (5.1 At the time), and went for the ISO.

So there I was, a complete Linux n00b with an ISO that I didn't even know how to burn. And so, I turned to the VL community in the old forums. I was greeted nicely, and offered help with the usual n00b questions I had. From burning the iso to installing to configuring.

After that, I just kinda stuck to VL... Totally loved the dang thing... About 6 months after my initial install, that I started looking at the Dynamite releases, and helping the vectelopers test stuff, build stuff for the new releases, and also decided to concentrate my efforts on bringing Beryl and compiz to VL.

The experience and skills I have achieved are absolutely priceless. A lot of it gained through trial-and-error hits, and b0rking a few perfectly working installs, but it is what it is... you gotta learn somehow!

WHAT HAPPENS NOW
As I mentioned in the tittle for this thread, it is with great remorse that I'm having to step back a bit from what I love to do so much.
How did this happen? Why the change? you might ask.

I recently lost my job that allowed me lots and lots of time to spare for the VL development and my personal sessions of fun with the greatest distro I've seen.
I have a new job, but my new responsibilities are much more time consuming (at least for the time being), and I no longer have that much time anymore.

What about vpackager?
vpackager will still be developed. I plan to keep coding gambas, and implementing new ideas and features into vpackager. I believe it makes a great application, and a really good addition to VL (some may disagree, but please do not start a flame war here ).
However, in order to accomplish this, I need to depend a lot more on you (the VL community) for testing and filing bug reports in an orderly manner. You can do this at http://vpackager.googlecode.com . Click on the "issues" tab and you'll open bug reports (if any) or you file a new one. If we can get that organized enough, I'll be able to use my precious very few spare moments to concentrate my efforts on squashing bugs. I'm also confident that others *agem* easuter & joe1962 *agem* can also adjust the vpackager code a bit if needed.

So, as you can see, I'm not completely going away from the VL community. I'll be here every now and then, just not as much.
I'd like to say that VL has a great user community, and I'd like to stick some more, and maybe 2 years from now, the only thing I'd like changed is the VL version number (of course new releases) and the number of users.

Hope that was not too much reading for ya'll.

See you all around

[kidd]

I wish you the best in your new job!

People come and go, that's always been this way, but well, you've been a really active member here in VL lands.

It has been a pleasure,  and the few talks we had in IRC showed you are a person actively willing to help others.... blablabla

Hope to see you around again 

[GrannyGeek]

We'll miss your frequent presence and all the work you've put in to make VectorLinux such a great distro.

Sorry you lost your job, but glad you found a new one. I hope that as you settle in, you'll find more time to do what you want.

I had been using Wind OS since the first Computer I ever saw... back in the early 90's when the boxes didn't have hard drives, you used to pop in a large floppy disc to boot into DOS and go from there... if you had Wind OS installed you had a GUI  else you had the command prompt!

Are you sure you have the time frame right? I got my first computer in 1987 and back then we really did put in a floppy disk to boot to DOS. To run a program you'd put in a floppy disk in the other floppy drive. These were 360K 5-1/4" disks. People who were more cutting-edge had 720K floppy drives that used the 3-1/2" disks. There were hard drives back then, of course, but they were very expensive compared with today's prices. I got my first hard drive in 1989 or so--a whopping 20 megs that cost $300+.

In the early '90s that you mention, hard drives were very common. Just about any computer you'd buy had a hard drive and most of them came with Windows 3.0 (until 1992) and 3.1 after 1992. I got a new computer in 1991 and it came with Windows 3.0 and a 200-meg hard drive, which was enormous compared with the 20-meg hard drive on my old computer.

Thanks for sharing your story. It's always very interesting to find out how people came to Linux.

When time allows, don't be a stanger!
--GrannyGeek

[M0E-lnx]

Are you sure you have the time frame right?

No i'm not... I'm not sure what the heck I was looking at at the time, but I do remember that thing ran Windows 3.1, but you had to boot it with a floppy to get to DOS and type "win" at the prompt to get to the GUI (very slowly)

[MikeCindi]

I appreciate your time and efforts which very much exemplify the VL community. As you have said you'll be around (and you're not dead so I won't write as though you are gone) and in time perhaps as active as you've been over the past year-plus. Congrats on the new job I hope it is very fulfilling for you.
Mike

[M-ake]

Its a shame to hear that M0E-Inx. Me and my clones will miss you at #vectorlinux :-/. . .
Well anyways, stop by when you have the time ya!

[rbistolfi]

As a VectorLinux user, I really enjoyed your contributions to VL. Thank you very much for your work here. I am glad you will stay around.
Good luck at your new job, its always fun a new beginning, right?

[exeterdad]

Take care Moe.  And Thanks for all you've done.  Like mikecindi said:

(and you're not dead so I won't write as though you are gone)

So we'll just catch ya when we can 

[InTheWoods]

I've been using Vector about 4 or 5 months less than you. I am amazed. I thought you were a long time Linux user. I stand in awe of your achievements and knowledge.

I have a new job, but my new responsibilities are much more time consuming

Don't you just hate it when work gets in the way of your life. .....Of course it's much better than having no work if you like to eat and pay your bills.

Best of luck in your new job!

[Lyn]

I am just echoing what others have said, thank you for your contribution - it has helped make this my favorite linux distro.  Good luck with the new job and I hope we see you here frequently :-)

[nubcnubdo]

You'll be missed. Don't be a stranger. Good luck with new job.

[Joe1962]

You might have noticed I have also been in "lowered participation mode" for a while due to workload. So I know what you are going through M0E-lnx. Just do what you can, when you can...

Good luck on the new job.

[Freeman]

MOE-inx we wish you all the best in your new job. And we hope to see you here once in a while. It's like the others said: you were an active member of the VL-community and therefore you will nog be forgotten.
Take care!

[nightflier]

Thank you for your contributions, past and future.

[DrGrov]

Thanks for your contributions for VL, M0E-lnx. I follow a bit on what others already said, it's been fun having you around and great talking to you. Don't get too busy, you hear? Keep on coming around if you get the time. Take care and hope that you'll enjoy your job and I wish you all the best.

Regards;
DrGrov