Great to see some activity on this list after several months of none. A quick bit about me. I am Nick Fox. I own Fox Media Systems, LLC ( <a href="http://www.foxmediasystems.com">www.foxmediasystems.com</a> ) based in Des Moines. Currently the business venture is in the startup phase. The Business is Focused in Linux products. I have been involved with some form of Linux or another for over 5 years now. For the last 2 or so, I have become a core developer on the Mythbuntu Project ( <a href="http://www.mythbuntu.org">www.mythbuntu.org</a> ). If you have not heard of the project yet please feel free to check out the site, and even download a copy,. or if you are running Ubuntu already, you can install directly from our website. I have a great intrest in getting a LoCo for Iowa. I have some pretty strong business contacts in the Des Moines area including a local ISP. I cannot make any hard commitments at this time but if some more people come forward and would like to help get things going I can look into further investing time and resources towards things the LoCo might need. Great to hear from everyone, hope there are more out there yet! -Nick <div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 8:53 PM, Jared Brees <<a href="mailto:j8t8b@yahoo.com">j8t8b@yahoo.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hello, all. My name is Jared Brees, and I've been using Linux since early January of 2007. It started when a relative's desktop computer acquired a massive malware infection. (It was running XP Home.) I had already been on the lookout for a free (of charge) operating system for my laptop, which had a similar experience, and I had already formatted the hard drive several times. (The tech support for the manufacturer had led me to believe that the XP boot disks were the same thing as the XP install disc, which was obviously not the case.) I was (sort of) running MINIX 3 on the laptop at that time, and later I managed to burn a Kubuntu Live! CD, which I used almost daily on the desktop. In March of 2008, just after I moved to my current place of residence, I installed Ubuntu or Kubuntu on a Pentium III, 750MHz/256MB RAM system that I had acquired. I say "Ubuntu or Kubuntu" because I can't remember which I installed first. Over the course of the next month, I switched back and forth between Ubuntu and Kubuntu several times. Finally, I settled on Ubuntu. Eventually, I upgraded to my current system, which is rather powerful, even considering what is commonly available in stores today. (If you want to see the specifications, go to: "<a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/3159826896_be1693e9fb_o.jpg" target="_blank">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/3159826896_be1693e9fb_o.jpg</a>".) I now have it setup as a multi-boot, with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Debian, Back Track 3 Beta, Slackware, and Ubuntu Studio. Ubuntu is my primary; I rarely use any of the others, and when I do, it is almost always Kubuntu, usually for troubleshooting/as an alternative operating system. All that said, I must admit, I used to be a huge Windows fan. Of course, I didn't know that Linux (or anything other than Windows and Macintosh) existed, much less anything else about it. I grew up on Windows 98 Second Edition, and loved it. I couldn't stand Windows XP when it first came out, and I never really became very fond of it; I just sort of "got used to" it. I would probably feel comfortable saying that the thing I value most about Linux is its (somewhat relative) stability. Security makes a close second, though; the price is a nearby third. Oh, and if we revamp the Iowa LoCo team, I'd be interested in joining, though I can't commit to anything as of right now. </div> </div> -- Ubuntu-US-IA mailing list <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-US-IA@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-US-IA@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ia" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ia</a> </blockquote></div>