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BeShare/Net Handle: ZoontF or Zoont Foomby
Real Name: Nick Floersch
Approx. Age: Quarter Centuryish
Home Page: http://zoontf.stone-env.com
Purpose Of This Page: To let other Be users and developers know how I might be useful to them in their projects, should they need help of any kind
Why am I useful to you?
- I am an avid BeOS user in central Vermont and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.
- I am able to program in C/C++
- I am not bad at doing digital image processing, illustration, 3D-modelling, and general computer graphics. I won't toot my own horn, but I am better, in my opinion, than most if not all of my local friends. I know plenty of people that are my superior however.
- I am capable as a web programmer using C, Perl, PHP, Bash Scripts, and of course HTML. I know some basics of SVG and XML, and if needed, could work up my skills on those two technologies as well.
- I am an FSF advocate with strong beliefs in the socio-political foundation that the FSF is based upon.
- I have strong writing skills and have plenty of training at clear articulation, although I only know the English language. However, I would probably be useful as a documentation writer.
- I am a computer science major, and philosophy minor. Perhaps my knowledge in either of those areas could prove useful.
- I am not motivated by cash-flow at this point in my life.
My history with BeOS
I first heard of the BeBox when speaking to my Uncle, an avid Mac user, who saw an add for a BeBox in some Mac magazine. I did not really think much of it until a year or two later when I went to university, in the fall of 1998. For some reason, I was blessed to make the aquaintance of Kenny Carruthers - then in his final year at my school. Kenny, for whatever reason, was a BeOS nut, and aspiring Be developer. So he showed me Be, lent me his discs, and I installed it and played with it. I had built my x86 PC from the ground up to be incredibly, boringly, very generic and compatable with many OSs since I was going through a phase of trying to install as many as possible at once. So Be ran with no real problem. But, I only noted it as mildly interesting, and that it could play movies real smoothly (and other usual first observations). I sort of set it aside, and kept playing with my other favorite OSs, Linux and OpenStep. When Kenny graduated he was immediately hired by Be Inc. and shipped out to California. We kept in touch, and I, out of sheer curiosity, checked into Be's website just to see what was up every now and then. Well, when r4.5 showed up, I decided to set down the measly $50 bucks (or whatever pittance they asked for it) and get my own copy - and support my friend's work. Every since getting it, I have continued to grow my appreciation of this fine OS. I recently purchased and dedicated a new computer in my collection specifically for running BeOS. This is now my most used computer and thus most used OS.
Why I Keep Using Be
I think my heart broke a little when Be announced the buyout, but that is the way the industry goes, and that is why open source systems are superior in a lot of (not all) ways. I have great hopes for OpenBeos. A lot of people say, "you use Beos? Isn't that dead?" I used to use OS/2 a lot. If there was one thing I really learned from that community it is that an OS is not dead until the last person using it dies. Thus few operating systems will ever die. Be always had a strong community, and now, after the death of the parent company, the community is still strong and kicking. The ideals of BeOS inspire me now just as much as before.
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