Whatever gave me the idea that when I checked back on this thread, we'd be talking about trucks?
I'm almost afraid to talk on about the 'OS issue'; it is such a religious issue; and I'm afraid I come across as such a unix bigot (the fact that we spell unix in lowercase tends to give us away 8). I embraced Microsoft at a time before they had command line editing, and I remember as far back as when their idea of a filesystem was a floppy with all your files on it, no directories! I stayed with it off and on up through windows 3. 1. Does anyone recall what a total failure windows1. 0 was? How anyone could even try to sell it is beyond me. BTW, I had to give up the aforementioned command line editing/history when I switched to DOS--the Amiga had it!
Anyway, I discovered unix about the time we were waiting for an overdue NT to come out. My university hired two new profs to expand the Math/CS department, and they were very pro unix. They got us several Sun Sparc stations on an educational program that Sun was pushing and we all saw X-windows for the first time! What a revelation that was!! Just about everything about it seemed to make sense once you got the trend on how things worked. And the manual was online--documentation is considered part of the development process--if it isn't documented, it isn't complete. I can go on and on about this, suffice to say, I was hooked!
Today, I work mostly on AIX systems, but also spend significant time on HPUX, Solaris, and the ever ubiquitous Linux. I have worked on DEC unix and ultrix, now Compaq. Also IRIX, SunOS, and some other, less well known flavors.
I'm very, very pleased that we have Linux out there; it stands as proof that there are good people out there that still care about doing the Right Thing. But my favorite is AIX, largely because it really excels in two areas, 1) file management, and 2) software management. There are times when it seems more complex than it needs to be, but when you understand what it gets you, it is way worth it. I understand that it is also pretty expensive, I don't know, I have never had to pay for it or the hardware.
(I told you I could run on about this)
To change the subject, I drove about 90 miles last night, and I somehow put on close to another 200?! today and tonight showing my new baby to folks that rate. The standing joke has been that I've been like an expectant father for two months now, so when asked how the delivery went, I've been able to respond, "6900lbs, 11oz".
To help the initial breakin, I've been coasting down the hills and accelerating up them. My old Toyota had a reliable and to be fair, adequate four cylinder, but there were hills that I definitely had to downshift on if I wanted to accelerate. To be sure, even down a gear, it inspired patience. You know the rest, same hill, 3500lb more truck and putting the pedal down will send me well into the big ticket zone of the speedometer without half trying. What a joy it was to _safely_ pass a whole raft of cars poking away on up the hill, hogging the left lane at 45mph, with a slow vehicle lane going largely unused--LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT!!
Glad to hear so many of us computer geeks are smart enough to go diesel. It's great to meet you all, Thank you!, and Safe Driving!!
Matt
(Buttercup thanks you too!)
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Matthew Wheaton
Danbury, CT
'01 2500 Black Quad Cab SLT LB ETH DEE 4x4 3. 54LSD, Tow, Camper, & Snow Plow Packages
--not even a pine scented deodorizer hanging from the mirror
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
