Who Am I?

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ben.

My name is Ben. Also known by some as Angel. Long story short, I was adopted, Ben was my name before I was adopted. Angel is the name they changed it to. Legally my name is Angel Perez. But I go with Ben as it feels more like who I am.

Here I will give a quick biography about my life and how I got into tech and Linux and the things I have mentioned here as well, Christianity, history, etc.

How I Got Into Tech and Eventually Linux

So enough about that. Lets talk about how I got into tech, and then into Linux of all things. When it comes to computers, I was a bit of a late bloomer. I had taken some mandatory classes in high school, but was never able to see the value in it until I had gotten one of my own. I started playing with it and found that many things just came naturally to me. it was a Gateway whose model I have long since forgotten. It was running Windows 7. It eventually broke down. It was under a warranty, and I wasnt as tech savy as I am today, so I took it to Geek Squad. And it turned out the hard drive was busted. They offered to replace it for free, YAY. Right? WRONG!

Beginnings with Linux

So began my woes. Tuns out they replaced the hard drive, but never reinstalled Windows 7. So I had a piece of hardware, a laptop with no operating system on it. I had already bought another laptop with Windows 7 on it, and bought a Macbook Pro as well and was loving that. So now I had another laptop that was just a paperweight. No matter what I did, I could not get passed Windows 7 30 day trial. My machine was useless. Now, I had remember hearing of a free alternative to Windows and Mac called Linux in passing by. So I said what the heck, I Googled Linux... and the rest was history.

I remembered hearing about Linux as being a free alternative in passing in a few classes here and there. So I looked it up. The distrubition that I found was Ubuntu 10.04. I made a bootable DVD, and the rest was history. I installed it on the laptop that did not have a system on it, and that began my journey. I started playing with it, breaking it. Fixing it. Back then, Linux was not what it is today. But I still enjoyed it. Eventually I ran out of money, and began using Linux full time. And distro hopped to my hearts content. Went down every rabbit hole. Fedora, to openSUSE, to Ubuntu, and Debian. You name it I tried it. I even ran Arch Linux, btw.

After many years of hopping, eventually my Arch system broke, and I began seeking something more stable to land on. And what I decided on was Linux Mint. It is what I use now, and what I swear by. Debian is stable, and Ubuntu adds a lot to the table too. But I think there is something about Mint that just brings it home. If that makes any sense. At least for the desktop, I will use mostly Mint. Not that I wont take a look at other distributions from time to time.

Why Mint?

The reasons for me chosing Linux Mint are pretty simple. While I appreciate Red Hat, and openSUSE, and the families of distros based on them, I have never had an openSUSE machine last me more than a month or 2 before breaking beyond repair. In my opinion, it simply does not receive the TLC it needs to be a viable option for the kind of user I wish to reach. As far as Red Hat goes, Fedora would be the go to for a desktop set up. And while Fedora is great for most people, I find that there is simply more software available for the deb (Debian) packaging format than the rpm(Red Hat) packaging format. So for most users, they will find most of their software available in the deb format. So why Mint, and not plain Debian or Ubuntu? Well, Debian is amazing and is a great choice. I use it for most of my server purposes. However, for the desktop, I believe that most people are looking for just a tad more. So why not Ubuntu? Ubuntu is based on Debian, and is compatible with the deb format. And is a great option as well. However, I would recommend Ubuntu more for the enterprise part of things. They make a lot of money, and build a strong foundation and they have a great community and everything. However, I believe that the Linux Mint community is more focused on the desktop user and their wants and needs. Not that there is anything wrong with what Ubuntu does things. They need to focus on making the money they need to build the stable foundation that Linux Mint bases their system on.