Free Sotfware baptism of fire
Recent Ubuntu user, new Debian one and, contrary to what I have always thought, totally computer illiterate. This is how I should define myself in Identi.ca or in the Free Software community.
As I am trying to change the former description and I was not proud of having a laptop that came with GNU+linux under the strains of property software, I decided that first of all, I had to “liberate” my laptop. Despite my willingness to learn, I asked for help as I also wanted to have some parts of my hard disk encrypted. And, no sooner said than done, I managed to have not only a free laptop but also a few good lessons.
The first one is that, if you write a password and then, the keyboard layout changes… you might have a problem (that can be even worse if one of the characters you put in your password is not on the new keyboard layout). But, this is Free Software! So, you will be able to fix it thanks to (and here comes the other important lesson) the TERMINAL. The terminal is your main basic tool as everything you have to do goes through it. Of course, you can do it with the graphical screen but, it is faster, and easier, if you know know how to talk to the terminal (to write the commands). And if you do not know it… just find your answer online. So let’s use the Terminal! Or at least, that is going to be my goal.
So, to sum up. My computer is working better and I am starting to understand Software a bit better. But, among all, I am starting to realize that not only my colleagues will need a lot of patience with me but also I have to be patience with my poor mother who is trying to understand what her daughter is doing.