About

I’m Charles Hawley, and I’m a computer geek. I work as a system engineer and my passion is Linux.

My first exposure to Linux was in 1998 when I got a Debian 1.3.1 (Bo) CD and tried for an entire summer to get it online with my Packard Bell, and it’s 56K modem and Permedia video card. Never got it online or got X configured. But it was a start.

I was on and off from there, finally getting Debian 3.0 (Woody) online with my modem (but still no X11) and exploring newsgroups and the command-line world just as the web was coming online.

Years later I refused to upgrade our home computer to Windows Vista because my current machine couldn’t run it. I was determined to not let Microsoft dictate when I needed to buy another computer. I installed Ubuntu (Breezy Badger) and never looked back.

By then I was able to get a working system up and online pretty quickly. I spent the next few years tweaking, breaking and fixing several versions of Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandrake and Debian.

As of 2007 I had no Microsoft Windows machines in the house.

Today, I remain proudly Microsoft-free at home, but diplomatically Microsoft-friendly in the office.

I’m a big horror fanatic. I love horror movies, haunted houses and ghost stories (check out my other site: Creepy Cleveland). I’m a sucker for 80s heavy metal and computer folklore. My fabulous wife, Carrie, and I recently celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.