Chris "Warbo" Warburton

Hi I'm Chris and I'm an 18 year old student at the University of Sheffield in the UK. If you feel you would like to contact me then I can be reached here:

Email: MailTo(niceandrandom AT SPAMFREE yahoo DOT co DOT uk) (NOTE: This address gets a lot of spam, so your message may get lost. However, I do use Fetch Yahoo to keep me up to date in Evolution)

IRC: I usually go by the name of Warbo on Freenode. Any other online chatting I usually only do with people I know

Background

I have been using computers since my Dad bought an Amiga 1200 when I was 4. I now have countless machines (many in pieces), both PCs and Amigas. I don't let (Microsoft's) Windows into my house.

I first tried GNU/Linux in summer 2004. I got RedHat 9 (yes, I had heard of RedHat and tried to get the latest version. I had no idea that Fedora had been out for a while ) I used Fedora 3 and then 4 as my main distro, until converting to the Debian side of things. I finally switched to Ubuntu after seeing KDE 3.5's use of Composite in Breezy previews (although I have been using E16 in GNOME ever since RH9). I went back to E-GNOME after I realised that xcompmgr works in anything, but stayed with Ubuntu since I like the community, and the more rapid release cycle.

I have also tried, as minor systems to satisfy my curiosity: Mandrake/Mandriva (I hate it. Probably since it is too KDE), KNOPPIX (useful for resizing partitions), DSL (useful for writing boot CDs [2.4 kernel]), Foresight (didn't like it, GNOME seemed to break after applying any of the little reconfiguration it supports), Gentoo (very briefly, just to test the hype. I couldn't get it to boot. I had to constantly chroot from the install CD), Slackware (the package management is a joke. The whole system seems disconnected with itself), SymphonyOS (I like the idea, but I think it has currently been badly executed. I hate FVWM, despise anything using a web browser for something other than web browsing and some bits like the clock didn't work), Suse (I don't like it, but I respect a lot of the thinking behind it's interface. This was 9.x by the way), FreeSBIE (quite nice actually), GNU HURD (I had to test it, at least), OpenSolaris (I don't get very good vibes from it for some reason), Syllable (lacking too many features for me to use as a primary system), AROS (nostalgic, but pretty useless at the moment. My keyboard isn't detected by the liveCD so I can't "Press Y to continue" on LBreakout2)

Since coming to University and attending the "activities fair", where all of the student societies had stands, I was eagerly waiting to join some Free Software or Open Source society, but there wasn't one! Because of that I have now started up the Free Software Society, you can check out it's homepage [http://fss.union.shef.ac.uk here].

Skills

None. Well... I have good A levels in Fine Art, I have been animating since I was 6 and 3D modelling since I was 8. If you want to commission me for some Ubuntu-related image or animation then I'll do it for free (don't ask for 3D stuff yet, since I am converting from Imagine and 3D Studio Max to Blender and the transition is a little difficult). I do everything on my main Ubuntu computer (except for physical drawing, watercolours and stuff obviously) and I like to use Inkscape, the GIMP, Moho and Blender.

I am always messing around with my systems, and whenever I find something useful I try and make a Wiki or help.ubuntu.com page for it. I also hang around checking the RecentChanges to add comments, suggestions and improvements to the things I find.

I have been trying to get into programming for years, and I'm finally making some progress. Obviously, like any self-respecting GNU/Linux user, I know Bash, but I tried to get into Python and failed. I then tried to get into C# but went back to Python. My first program (a grid-based game) is almost finished, and it has only taken a couple of days. I hope to upload it somewhere and give you a link when it's done.

Until then, you might find some stuff which I needed to post online for some reason on [http://geocities.com/niceandrandom my GeoCities site] and [http://www.freewebs.com/chriswarbo my FreeWebs site].

(I used to keep a list of Wiki pages I have contributed to, but I was losing track of them all. As a rule of thumb, just look at the whole magnificence of the Ubuntu Wikis and remember that I play a not-insignificant part in that!)

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