Strange Linux conversation

17 Oct 2004

I was hanging around the entrance to the Bandwidth Barn, taking a few photos, when I hear someone ask me if Linux is this new software he's heard about that's better than Windows. I turn around, and it's the security guard!

(This is a surprise, since being a security guard in South Africa unfortunately usually means being unable to find a better job, usually because of a lack of education.)

Anyway, surrealness over, we chatted for a while - he has a computer and a dial-up at home, and he'd heard some things about it. I guess this shows South Africa is definitely coming on. And Linux's non-geek reputation too.

1 Responses

  1. greenman — October 18, 2004 at 12:38 AM.

    Not too rare. Working at Union Castle Building in St Georges Mall, a security guard used to come upstairs to learn web design/HTML. Last I heard a colleague was offering him a job in Pretoria. At the same time,another security guard was studying at the Cape Tech. The security work was just a job that was easier than most to get.

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Hi, I'm Neil Blakey-Milner, a technology generalist most interested by open source, security, and building scalable systems (especially if I get to use the Python programming language).

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