Hello, all

I hope that my posting here is not the death knell for Jim's venture.

So ofttimes it seems that whenever I toss in my 2 cents, the topic is quashed.

I first met Jim about 10 years ago, in early 1997. Jim didn't know how to pronounce "Liiiiii nooks" at the time. We met while my father and I were running an OSS booth at the old [now pulverized] downtown Raleigh Convention Center (...where outside the Acorn dropped each new years' eve for First Night Raleigh...) ...but I digress.

He's "The B-52's" of the Linux world here in the triangle. That's where it's at:- bring your jukebox money.

Jim is a truly mighty person. When he showed up at our "We are Linux Entreprenuers"

booth, my dad (a BSD dude) and I were running back in 1997, Jim was wearing a "Whirled Peas" custom silkscreened T-shirt.

(.... get it... "world peace" ... the [.*\@{,99}]#&% regex hippie)

Within a month after that, the RAT came to another dad and I ran, effervescing over about the fact that he had purchased an open-source (Beastie-ish) published CD-ROM for 0$0.98 less than we were selling.... when the other table was junk chattle, and we were

quite obviously open-source professionals. Oh, yeah, by the way, rat:

...xyz you and the

ninety-eight-cent horse you rode in on, cowboy. We !still! have no competition.

Over these past 10 years, each of us have gone our own direction. I have suffered as a classroom trainer in UNIX/Linux Systems, and Jim and suffered as a Systems Integrator for Unix/Windows connectivity.

(a noble tilting of windmills, Don Q. Jim!, showing bad boys how to play

nice)

But throughout it all, both he and I have perservered: doing, promoting, and singing praise.

From any perspective, these pat many years have have been a "long row to how."

Jim has gone begging for good beer (no aluminium, no screw-cap bottles) just as much as I.

For some people, Linux is an avocation; a hobby or sideline.

For others, such as Jim and I, it is a passion with real meaning, substance,and life experiences,

- Like saving a customer a bucket of money through innovative integration.

- Like fully indoctraiting/brainwashing a classroom student into the UNIX way.

- Like being inexplicably thrilled to meet Linus' wife and kid, baby stroller and all.

It's all about the liberalization of technology. So for those of you who truly care about a future for each and every one of us, I would wholeheartedly suggest that you move forward. Hitch your wagon with Jim. He will never be an uber-techno-geek (nor ever will I.) But he understands that 89 % of the iceburg is submerged; and that, my friends is where the Titanic dies, and the real wisdom lies.

My Best,

Marty