Old and New (Gnu?)

One thing I like about Linux is the ability to connect the old with the new.

As I indicated in my Bio, many of my early interests were of all things nautical and medical. When I was a young boy I taught myself how to tie many complex knots using the best "knot books" of the time (Ashley's Book of Knots and The Encyclopaedia of Knots and Fancy Ropework by Raoul Graumont and John Hensel). I also kept my mind busy by learning all I could about medicine and anatomy. Not bad for a kid in the sixth grade!

We didn't have computers when I was a kid. But I was never really good with mathematics, so I ended up struggling to teach myself whatever I could about math. That's how I learned the sliderule. And my interest in sailing ships had me reading about, and learning such oddball things as, celestial navigation, and marine architecture from a book. In my child's mind, I had no idea that spherical trigonometry was supposed to be "hard". Rather, I was facinated by these concepts and unusual solutions to problems. My uncle had a small sailboat and I helped him rig it, thus learning to apply my knowledge to real problems.

What does that have to do with "Old and New"? I was young, and the things I was learning were new to me; however, they were actually very old techniques and teachings. My grandfather was the production manager at a large newspaper. He often would take me there to spend the day and learn how a newspaper worked. I experienced first-hand how "old newspapers" were run. I saw how typewritten copy was given to a Linotype operator and converted to lead "slugs". I know how to run a Linotype! I learned that it takes a lot of people to run a successful operation. But one of the blessings of my life was being able to watch a newspaper "convert" from "hot type" to fully computerized "photo offset" operation. This took about ten years. I experienced the changes in equipment, processes, and personal training that must occur in a company. Yet the company was not completely destroyed by the changes. So I saw how old and new "merge".

When personal computers came along they were wonderful things. They are wonderful things. Nowdays, a "simple" wordprocessing program can do more than any Linotype machine ever could. It is easy for a new computer user to think that computers "could always do these things". Just like "we have always had cell phones" right? Computers do so many wonderful things, and how they do what they do is so much "magic". It is easy to ignore the huge advances that have been made by so many people in so little time!

But I believe that we have reached a point in computer technology that the advances move so quickly that we don't have time to appreciate those advances because we have not been able to appreciate the older technology. The "New and Improved" comes up so quickly that it becomes "Old and Obsolete" in days, it seems! I am not saying that "New and Improved" is bad. Nor am I saying that "Old and Obsolete" is true either. What I am saying is that just because something is old does not mean that it is automatically "obsolete". And just because something is new does not mean that it is automatically "improved" and "necessary".

Now, what does this have to do with Linux? Well, the early Linux programmers and hackers (and their *BSD peers) did not have unlimited equipment and budgets (do you?). They wrote code and fixed progams to work with whatever they had. Often times, this was some pretty old stuff with little or no documentation. They had to use their skills to "invent" new ways of solving problems: getting a modem, or printer, or monitor, to work with this new Linux thing. Through these means, they gave new usefulness and life to old(er) equipment.

Marketing forces are what cause "New and Improved" to force out "Old and Obsolete". But just because a computer or printer or some other peripheral is a couple of years old, is it really "obsolete"? I don't think so. By using Linux or *BSD you can get get new or extended use of that old computer. You have the opportunity and choice to keep your old computer because you want to rather than being "forced" to buy new equipment because you are "told" that it is "obsolete". Why is it obsolete? It worked just fine when you bought it, right?

What we have experienced is the result of countless older and younger developers using old and new (GNU?) techniques to allow older and newer hardware to do new things. And we, being part of this Mepis community, have the opportunity to extend this line a little further. When I was younger, I studied many "strange and wonderous" things and had no idea where any of it would lead. One place that it has lead is to this Mepis community. I now have the opportunity to add what I have learned to this group. I have been helped in many ways by the people on this forum, and I look forward to helping in turn.

I want to thank all of the men and women who are responsible for creating all of this code, and the philosophy of Free and Open Source Software. Through it we have all been enriched.

Jon

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