My journey with the Linux Operating System

My journey with the Linux Operating System

It was my working colleague Lai Kun Keong who introduced me to UNIX/Unix Operating System for the first time at the PHILIPS Service Centre in Petaling Jaya. Lai Kun Keong was the Computer Engineer (Computer Hardware and Maintenance) who was involved in the installation, maintenance and trouble-shooting and pre-sale testing of SCO Unix Server for the Public Bank Project in Malaysia. If I am not mistaken, this happen sometime between 1989 to 1990. He  installed the SCO Unix Operating System on a DIGITAL DEC400xP computer hardware (Intel 80486-based server machine). This machine has a 3.5 inch floppy drive, a SCSI hard disk drive, a QIC-525 tape drive and Adaptec SCSI controller card (I could not remember what Model it was but I belief it was an Adaptec 2940 SCSI Controller Card).  The SCO Unix Operating System comes in with a QIC-525 format tape and it is installed on a DIGITAL DEC400xP (Intel 80486-based server) using a QIC-525 tape drive which is already preinstalled in the Server. In 1992 when DIGITAL/DEC/Digital Equipment Corporation bought over Philips Data Systems Division worldwide, majority of the Philips Data Systems staff in Malaysia were absorbed into DIGITAL(M) Sdn. Bhd. When I join DIGITAL from Philips Data Systems, it is sad that I do not have any Systems experience at the OS level (Operating System level) because the Philips Data Systems environment is purely a hardware environment (PHILIPS mini-computer hardware, PHILIPS printer hardware, PHILIPS Concentrator hardware, PHILPS/ControlData hard disk drive hardware, etc., etc., etc.), meaning , I do need any Operating Systems knowledge in oder to provide installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of Philips Data Systems products. When I was working with DIGITAL I found out that DIGITAL had many customers using various kinds of Operating Systems sitting on different kind of computer hardware. Among them are Windows 95 Operating System, Windows 98 Operating System, Windows NT4 Operating System, VMS Operating System, Ultrix Operating System, Digital Unix OperatingSystem. So, when I am working with DIGITAL, whenever I was assigned a service call in oder to provide installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of DIGITAL computer hardware, I can see that it is good to have a basic Systems experience at the OS level (Operating System level) in these Operating Systems like for example Windows 95 OS, Windows 98 OS, Windows NT4 OS, VMS OS, Ultrix OS, Digital Unix OS in order to troubleshoot and repair DIGITAL computer hardware, regardless whether it is a DIGITAL personal computer, DIGITAL Engineering Workstation, DIGITAL printers, or a DIGITAL minicomputer, etc., etc., etc. So, to get some basic Systems experience, I have to start somewhere. I found out about Linux Operating System when I was working with DIGITAL and since I have some basic UNIX experience while playing with SCO Unix in my house (I asked Lai Kun Keong to help me to install SCO Unix OS on my 80386 machine) so ,  switching to Linux Operating Systems and learning about Linux Operating Systems to get some basic Systems experience would make sense. The rest is history. Currently, the Linux Operating System distro that I used are
KNOPPIX 8.6   ,  Ubuntu 18.10  and  PCLinuxOS .