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The content of this article has been contributed by Liam Proven, Technical Writer at the SUSE Documentation Team. It is part of a series of articles focusing on SUSE Documentation and the great minds that create the manuals, guides, quick starts, and many more helpful documents.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Wanderer<\/h2>\n
I am a wanderer. My name is Liam Proven. I\u2019m an Englishman with an Irish citizenship, living in the Czech Republic, working for a German company \u2013 that pretty much says it all, doesn\u2019t it? But there\u2019s more\u2026<\/p>\n
I was born in the North-West of England, just outside Liverpool. But my family moved to Nigeria when I was small, and stayed for nearly 10 years. Thus many of my early memories are from there. When we came back to England, or rather Liverpool, my parents couldn\u2019t find a place they liked. And if that weren\u2019t enough, unfortunately one day I got shot in the back riding my bicycle after school. So my parents decided to move somewhere quieter \u2013 and safer \u2013 than Liverpool. They picked the Isle of Man<\/a>, a little independent island nation with the world\u2019s oldest continuous government. That\u2019s where I spent my teens.<\/p>\n I went to lots of different kinds of schools, in England, West Africa, and finally the Isle of Man. Most subjects I was good at \u2013 except mathematics, history, and French. Somehow I even passed French. But only because I was pig-headed: The teacher asked me to drop out as I was bottom of the class. Of course, that made me determined to prove him wrong! In addition, I thought French would be more use than, for example, Religious Studies. To paraphrase Terry Pratchett<\/a>, at least there was empirical evidence that France was real \u2013 I\u2019d been there.<\/p>\n My mum wanted me to be a doctor, and my dad wanted me to take over running the \u201cfamily business\u201d \u2013 running an old people\u2019s home. I wasn\u2019t interested, I\u2019m afraid. My heroes predominantly were several leading scientists. Botanist David Bellamy<\/a>, who later became a climate-change sceptic and so fell off my list. James Lovelock<\/a>, who formulated the Gaia hypothesis. Richard Feynman<\/a>, not merely for his giant intellect but his wit and humor, ability to explain things, and his curiosity. Richard Dawkins<\/a>, who I\u2019ve seen speak once . My plan was to be a biologist, possibly a marine microbiologist. So I started to study biology.<\/p>\n Things turned out differently. Unfortunately I crashed my bicycle at the end of the first year, smashing my right forearm. It needed three surgeries: First they implanted screws and metal plates, and when those snapped, I got a bone graft from my right hip. I couldn\u2019t use my arm for roughly a year, but being 18 years old and cocky, I didn\u2019t listen to the advice of my parents, my doctors and my tutors. I went back to university and did my second year with one hand. (I\u2019m left handed. I thought I could cope. I was wrong.) That was my first big life mistake. In just one year, I went from winning the department prize for best student to being at the bottom and threatened with expulsion. No wonder I nearly failed and messed up my degree. But even more important, I discovered that there were no jobs in biology without a doctorate!<\/p>\n So I went off to do stuff with computers instead. They were only my hobby so far. But people would pay me money to make them work. My first real job was a \u201cjunior software support\u201d position. I had applied for a junior hardware engineer job, but they quickly worked out I knew little about hardware. I taught myself the PC and Mac by porting my home-grown suite of fractal-graphics generators to DOS and System 6<\/a>. Since then I had a dozen different jobs or so. My most stressful job by far was running a stockbrokers\u2019 dealing room in the City of London. That\u2019s the equivalent of a heart-surgeon in IT. My systems were extremely reliable, but when both the uplinks to HQ failed, we lost hundreds of millions of dollars per hour, and there was nothing I could do about it.<\/p>\n And I spent a long time freelancing, doing IT consultancy and technical journalism<\/a>. I\u2019ve been published around the world, on at least 4 continents, in multiple languages. I have two tiny specialist books on Amazon for download<\/a>. That does feel good. There were some British IT journalists I hugely admired, and who had some influence on my career. The late Guy Kewney<\/a> sticks out, and Dick Pountain<\/a>. I was lucky enough to work with, and become friends with, both. But regrettably, in my view, the tech journalism market is dying.<\/p>\n Even if I was an early adopter of Windows \u2013 I used Windows 2.01<\/a> \u2013 these days I strongly prefer working with Linux. I first tried Linux in 1996, with Lasermoon Linux-FT \u2013 the first ever live CD distro. I installed it but wasn\u2019t brave enough to change my bootloader. I thought that Linux was going to be the next big thing. That was a good call. The first distro I used as my main desktop for a while was Caldera OpenLinux<\/a>, with KDE 1.0. It was interesting but a lot of stuff didn\u2019t work back then in the late 1990s. By 2001, I was using SUSE Linux Professional<\/a> full-time. I had a multiprocessor PC at home and I didn\u2019t like Windows XP much. At that time I had also already started to install and write about SUSE and Red Hat server stuff. Computers and building up technical knowledge were my hobby for a long time. I played around and learned. Now, to be honest, I use a Mac at home. I got tired of fixing my own computers. My laptops are second-hand ThinkPads with Linux, though \u2013 as I like 1980s and 1990s mechanical \u201cclicky\u201d keyboards.<\/p>\n About a decade ago, I decided to switch from tech journalism to documentation. SUSE is my third such role. As mentioned, I used to be a SUSE user in my early days with desktop Linux. Thus I was delighted to be offered a role with a FOSS company again, and it feels good to be back. What I like most about my job as a Technical Writer is that I get to use two of my skills at once \u2013 technical knowledge and being able to write. SUSE somehow feels \u201cpleasantly anarchic\u201d. My colleagues are all absolutely wonderful. And the products work extremely well.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, sometimes I\u2019m generally tempted to \u2018start again\u2019. I\u2019m always keen on learning. Languages are a major interest (Czech is proving an exceptionally tough one, though). In all likelihood, I would study linguistics, or computer science. Contrary to popular belief, I think modern computers and software are terrible and we\u2019ve lost a huge amount in the last few decades<\/a>. We\u2019re also approaching the next big paradigm shift in computing, after the minicomputer to microcomputer shift \u2013 and I\u2019d like to help prepare for that.<\/p>\n Until Brexit, I was never engaged with politics at all. However, in the current worldwide political mood where freedom of expression can turn into a real risk, and where human rights are spurned, one cannot look away anymore. If I could have three wishes, my first wish would be a sudden end of the current mass dullness that paves the way for despotism. Secondly, I would ask for extra lifespan and perfect health. And my third wish would be to get more wishes! Then I\u2019d ask for super-human power, which would let me add a few dozen extra Earth-like planets to the solar system and seed them with life. Perhaps something smarter than us can evolve before the Sun explodes.<\/p>\n If I won $1 million today, I would buy a Harley Davidson with a sidecar, and ride it round the world, while listening to \u201cChasing Rainbows<\/a>\u201d by Shed Seven. And of course with a copy of \u201cThe Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/a>\u201d in my pocket.<\/p>\n Share with friends and colleagues on social media<\/p>\nThings Never Happen as Planned<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nTech Times<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nStarting Again \u2026<\/h2>\n