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PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: Bill Grubbs


as told to Bill Grubbs, in his own words


Cartecay Vineyard in North GA

What is your name/username?
Bill Grubbs/Bill Grubbs

How old are you?
The body is 66, the mind is 26. It's a bad combination.

Are you married, single?
Never married

How about Kids, Grandkids ?
None that I am aware of.

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?
I love animals and especially dogs. I own a 15 year old cat. I hate cats.

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?
I am a retired steam boiler plant operator for Atlanta Water Works. 28 years service. I could start the plant up from a cold start and shut it down completely without assistance.

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery
I am a native of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It is a rather crowded place but there is lots to do in and around the area.

I tend to stay on the fringes of it. The suburbs are wooded with pines, oaks, dogwoods, maples and so on. It is lovely here in the fall. We have four distinct seasons. Winters are tolerable and generally there are only a few episodes of snow. Spring is lovely with lots of things blooming. Expect summer highs to be around 95F during the day, with 80 at night. For the last few summers we have had lots and lots of rain. My lawn has never looked so good.

Urban scenery is minutes away. Mountains are an hour or so to the North. The coastal plain is a few hours to the East. Florida's sandy beaches are a day's drive away. We have our own river, the Chattahoochee. And our own big lake, Lake Lanier, that provides water sports of all kinds.

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?
I attended Reinhardt University and Georgia State University. I have a BBA degree. My roommate at Rinehardt had a '68 Road Runner 383 that provided a lot of fun. This was in '68-'70. I met my Ellijay friend at Rinehart and we rode all over creation in his Olds 442. Those were good days.

What kind of things you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?
Currently, I travel to Ellijay, GA about once a month where an old college buddy has a band named Downtown Roy. Ellijay is also the heart of Georgia apple country and you can buy all kinds of good things to eat at the apple houses. I like cars and planes. There is a good USAF museum in Warner Robins, GA and I visit it when I can.

I love to type and honed my typing skills in chat rooms back during the BBS days. In the late 90's I was big into IRC chat. I started and ran a successful group on Facebook that is still going strong today, although I finally lost interest and left it. Then the PCLinuxOS Fan Club group sort of fell in my lap, and I was administrat"ing that until I had to go to dial up.

From the mid 80's to the early 90's, I was a part of the Chattahoochee river rafting scene. I went every available weekend during the warm season, and spent many enjoyable hours floating along as traffic raced across the bridges that crossed the river. It was the in thing to do back then, and the river could be very crowded with rafts on the weekends. On Fridays, I would take the raft to work, and would be on the river watching rush hour traffic go by.

Why and when did you start using Linux?
I probably got my first computer in 1984, an 8088 machine. It was really slow, but subsequent machines got faster and faster. DOS was the operating system I used, and I was able to do pretty well with it. I eventually got online with it, which opened up a new world. Windows followed, and I went with the flow but realized their business practices did not conform to what I thought was ethical. I finally got fed up. I had heard of Linux and it seemed like the only viable alternative. I don't recall the exact year, maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I quickly found Ubuntu, and about as quickly found I didn't like it. I tried a few others. When I got to PCLinuxOS, I found what I wanted, and have been with it pretty much ever since.


PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by youcantoo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum members. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.

If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.



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