About Ashton Mills
We all know that one day Linux will rule the world, and the icon of Tux will be emblazoned across monuments, flags, and cereal boxes -- but we have a lot of work to do to make it happen, comrade.
So join me as I explore the depths of Linux and its arcane inner workings and, at the very least, how to initiate world domination from the command line.
About me
I'm a journalist of thirteen years experience in IT media, and the culprit responsible for introducing the first coverage of Linux in mainstream media titles in Australia. This eventually led to the 'Linux Pocketbooks', a series of handbooks that made it easy for people to learn Linux, the descendants of which are still available today from various publishers.
Since then I have worked for and edited various publications, and now currently freelance for a variety of titles. I also do a lot of 'modding', coding and adding extensions to games.
But about Linux -- Linux for me is a hobby, a passion, a philosophy and even a lifestyle. I've been using it for over ten years, and loved every minute of it. It runs my gateway and my dekstop, when I'm not playing games. I'm also a 'ricer', which means I run Gentoo and try to break it at every conceivable opportunity. Usually, this is fun.
On my PC
Gentoo and Ubuntu are my playthings at the moment, though I've used everything in between. I cut my teeth on Linux with Slackware, back when it came as floppy images, and was in awe at how well it could multitask where Windows failed miserably. This proceeded to Red Hat and its infamous Redhat Redneck install, and I haven't looked back since.
As the former Editor of Atomic, I also have a passion for hardware which is as strong as my passion for Linux. My machine is hand-built and sports an overclocked dual-core Athlon64 4400+ (2MB L2 cache, good for compiling), 2GB of RAM, two 7900GTX cards in SLI, and 500GB of storage in a dual-boot, dual-software RAID configuration between Linux and Windows.
And a 24in LCD monitor. How on earth did I ever live with 17in and 19in in the past?
In my pocket
Oh geez, you don't want to know. Tissues, fluff, scraps of paper and USB keys. I'm not a PDA, Smartphone, BlackBerry gadget-a-holic. Much like Linux commands are dedicated to a single task, I keep a mobile that does nothing but be a mobile phone, a camera that is nothing but a camera, an MP3 player that is... you get the idea. Convergence? Pfft. Show me when a converged device manages to merge the capabilities of all of its counterparts, and do it *well*, intuitively and easily, and I *might* look at one in the shops. If I'm extremely bored. And happen to be outside. Which is rare.
My wishlist
A global understanding that profit should never come at the expense of people. Oh, *computer wise*. Mmmm... Quad SLI, purely for boast-factor, and a gigantic wall sized TV to watch Babylon 5 and all my other sci-fi shows on. What, isn't this everybody?
Personal interests
Anything that shows off the intellectual prowess of humankind -- advances in technology, society, culture, and even entertainment. This is why Linux is such a passion, as it crosses most of these and is freely open at the same time. Its accomplishments aren't being hoarded for the profit of a few, it's for all to enjoy.
And animals. Dogs and cats own me.
Contact me at amills@acpmagazines.com.au