Tony Yarusso

About Me

I am a second year undergraduate student majoring in Physics at Trent University and in the Concurrent Education program with Queen's University, both in Ontario, Canada. During breaks I live in Minnesota, USA.

Contact Info

E-Mail: tonyyarusso@earthlink.net

AIM: tonyyarusso

MSN: Same as my e-mail

IRC: tonyyarusso on freenode, also in ##tonyyarusso

PGP Key ID: 2C32D771

Other Web Presences (aka My Links)

[https://launchpad.net/people/tonyyarusso Me on Launchpad]

[http://www.xanga.com/tonyyarusso/ Blog]

[http://home.earthlink.net/~tonyyarusso/ Main Web Page]

[http://www.tonyyarusso.is-a-geek.com/ Personal server] BR Currently hosting live logs of Ubuntu Open Week sessions, at http://www.tonyyarusso.is-a-geek.com/irclogs/openweek/

Contributions

I can be regularly found in ##tonyyarusso, #ubuntu, #ubuntu-offtopic, #ubuntu+1, #ubuntu-ca, #ubuntu-marketing, #ubuntu-doc, #ubuntu-classroom, and #ubuntu-meeting, both asking questions and answering others', with varying activity levels (some I mostly watch, others I'm active in). I also keep summarized logs of answers to many of my questions, for ready retrieval when someone else has the same one (and my own use!).

I have made some posts on the forums, as well as answered some support requests on Launchpad.

I also frequently use the Wiki, and make contributions where I see fit, as well as occasional additions to Linux/Ubuntu related pages on Wikipedia to keep the general public up to speed.

I wrote the second page of [http://doc.ubuntu.com/~marketing/DIY%20Material/DIY-at-home/Posters,%20Filip%20Dominec%20&%20Jenda%20Van%c4%8dura/ubuntu-letter-dev.pdf ubuntu-letter-dev.pdf], which was designed as a letter for inclusion with ShipIt CDs being handed out to people with no prior knowledge of Ubuntu or Linux.

I am a member of the NewUserNetwork - a list of members is available both [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewUserMentors on the wiki] and [https://launchpad.ubuntu.com/people/unp on Launchpad], and the CanadianTeam - members listed [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CanadianTeam on the wiki] and [https://launchpad.net/people/ubuntu-ca on Launchpad].

I hand out as many CDs from ShipIt as I can, my most recent unexpected opportunity being half a dozen 6th graders from my last Con-Ed placement who became interested after seeing my laptop running something they didn't recognize. Given changes in ShipIt policy, I am considering mass-producing disks to hand out myself, so feel free to comment on giveaway and/or low-profit-margin sale venues.

I recently did a series on my blog relating to open source software alternatives, as a lead-up to Dapper release. My main target audience is Windows users who have never used anything else, and I hope to raise general awareness, and ideally get a few to try at least cross-platform FOSS apps, or hopefully even Ubuntu Linux itself. On that note, I do take the stance that it's okay to dual-boot, and stress that possible new users do not have to leave their Windows comfort zone unless they decide later that they want to. My primary goal is to make people aware and get them to try things; I am confident that they will make the decision to switch later largely on their own accord as I work with them to point out the numerous advantages and they become reassured that this is a usable alternative for them.

Things I'd like to look into

Feel free to encourage me to keep thinking about, working on, and/or trying the following: Translations, as I'm starting to learn Anishinaabe/Ojibway/Odawa/Oji-Cree and there seem to be no current efforts in this language Larger disk distribution Writing up my specifications more formally Bug triaging Packaging (perhaps adopt some and/or backport) And much more long-term, FLOSS in education is of interest to me (see current enrollment at top)

Linux and Me

I have come to Linux relatively recently from a long background of other OSs, including a Commodore 64 (from back when 64 didn't refer to the new 64-bit systems!), DOS, Old World Macintosh, and every MS Windows from 3.1 through XP. After getting frustrated with Windows, and with the new concept of buying my own computer, which I would then have full control over rather than it being a shared family one, I starting thinking about other options. I had heard of Linux, but honestly had never seen it in use. So I hit up Google. I was tentative about the concept, so not looking for anything with significant investment, which ruled out all "Enterprise" editions. When I found out that Ubuntu was free, and would even ship to me for free, I figured I'd hit gold, and would try it out. I had. ShipIt came through and I installed Ubuntu Linux for the first time in August 2005. I started with Hoary (5.04), currently run Breezy (5.10), and will be installing Dapper (6.06) when the final is released on June 1. Post-Dapper, I intend to run both stable and development versions, and at that time will join testing teams.

My System

I run an IBM/Lenovo T43, model 2668-49U (laptop), and just got an IBM Netvista M42 desktop (server, likely)

Specs for T43: Pentium M 750 1.86 GHz processor (686 architecture) 512 MB RAM 40GB 5200rpm hard drive 64MB ATI Radeon X300 video card CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive Intel Pro Wireless 2915 a/b/g Conexant chipset built-in winmodem Gigabit ethernet card Came with MS Windows XP Pro - I dual-booted in the past, but now am all-Ubuntu. Meaning, I have it on the system, and can support dual-booting and Windows questions, but don't actually use it for my own use anymore.

Follow-up

If you'd like to know more, have a question about Ubuntu or an app, or whatever, contact me by any of the means listed above, and I'll see you in #ubuntu!

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