A small addition to last month’s article: Philippe (from the french translation team) was kind enough to point out a website he likes, called Top Coder (http://www.topcoder.com). There are previous challenges listed, and it seems to offer a variety of other challenges with prizes. From what I’ve seen, they also seem to have a convention once a year. For anyone looking for something a little more competitive, this might be for you! And now back to your regularly scheduled programming… Back in December of 2008 I offered myself up as a stand-in for Robert Clipsham (the original author and creator of Command & Conquer), and produced my first article that appeared back in issue FCM#21. As you may have guessed, this became a permanent column for me. This month, I’d like to take a look back at what’s changed for Linux and for C&C in particular, over the last 79 months (about 6 and a half years!). But first, a bit of backstory!

Un petit ajout à l'article du mois dernier : Philippe (de l'équipe de traduction française) a eu la gentillesse de me signaler un site Web qu'il aime, appelé Top Coder (http://www.topcoder.com). Il y a la liste des précédents défis, et il semble offrir une variété d'autres défis dotés de prix. De ce que j'ai vu, ils semblent également avoir une convention une fois par an. Pour ceux qui cherchent quelque chose d'un peu plus compétitif, ce pourrait être pour vous ! Et maintenant, retour à votre programme habituel…

En décembre 2008, je me suis offert comme remplaçant de Robert Clipsham (l'auteur original et créateur de Command & Conquer), et j'ai produit mon premier article paru dans FCM n°21. Comme vous l'aurez deviné, c'est devenu un article permanent pour moi. Ce mois-ci, je voudrais porter un regard rétrospectif sur ce qui a changé, pour Linux et pour C&C en particulier, au cours des 79 derniers mois (environ 6 ans et demi !). Mais d'abord, un peu d'histoire !

I was first introduced to Linux in the form of Ubuntu Warty Warthog (4.10) in 2004 by a tech-savvy friend of mine, who was running it on his laptop. After my interest in it, he set me up with an account, and from then on I was constantly borrowing his laptop… From there I moved on to live CDs on my own PC at home. It took me until 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) to finally take the plunge, as the PC at home was running a wireless card that was unsupported until then. What followed was a fairly frustrating experience of semi-working wireless. I went distro hunting for the first time, and tried everything from Enlightenment to Fedora to Debian. Eventually, I looped around to Ubuntu again. By now, it was 2006 or 2007, and I started being active on the Ubuntu Forums, using what I had learned to help out. Based on my account’s profile, I had posted 1500+ times between 2007 and 2012. Since then, I’ve switched to Arch Linux, and was active in that forum for a time. For the last two or so years, I’ve focused mainly on C&C, though that may change in the near future. Between issues 0 and 21, I was an avid reader of FCM, and learned quite a few things there too. So when I was given the chance to help out in 2008, I accepted.

J'ai été présenté à Linux sous la forme d'Ubuntu Warty Warthog (4.10) en 2004 par un de mes amis technophiles, qui l'utilisait courait sur son ordinateur portable. Après mon intérêt, il m'a mis en place avec un compte, et à partir de là je suis constamment emprunte son ordinateur portable … De là, je suis passé à vivre CD sur mon propre PC à la maison. Il m'a fallu jusqu'à 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) pour finalement franchir le pas, comme le PC à la maison a été exécuté d'une carte sans fil qui était jusque-là non pris en charge. Ce qui a suivi a été une expérience assez frustrante de fil semi-travail. Je suis allé la chasse de distribution pour la première fois, et tout essayé de Lumières à Fedora à Debian. Finalement, je boucle autour d'Ubuntu à nouveau. A présent, il était de 2006 ou 2007, et je commencé à être actif sur les forums Ubuntu, en utilisant ce que je l'avais appris à aider. Basé sur le profil de mon compte, je l'avais posté plus de 1500 fois entre 2007 et 2012. Depuis lors, je suis passé à Arch Linux, et a été actif dans ce forum pour un temps. Pour les deux dernières années ou, je me suis concentré principalement sur C & C, bien que cela puisse changer dans un avenir proche. Entre 0 et 21 questions, je suis un lecteur assidu de la FCM, et appris pas mal de choses là-bas aussi. Donc, quand on m'a donné la chance d'aider en 2008, je accepté.

My time with FCM As many of you may remember, Command & Conquer was very strongly focused on the command-line interface for the first 40 or so articles I wrote. From there, I moved on to configuration files, GUI applications, and eventually to programming aspects. This was for two main reasons - first of all, that Linux was enabling users to do more and more using GUI applications or settings, and second of all, that a lot of the articles I originally wrote, were still viable today. This means that I had to find new topics to write about, and found new issues that needed solutions. For a year or so, I was also trying to transpose solutions from Arch Linux to Ubuntu systems, since that was my distro of choice, and most issues present in one, were present in another. However, based off the difference in package managers, and desktop environments, it was sometimes challenging to get the solutions to work in Ubuntu. It was around this time that I started to get more emails from readers with suggestions, comments, or requests for articles. Often, they focused around programming (typically Bash), or issues with command-line tools. As anyone who has reached out to me may know, if the issue seems widespread enough, or the solution is worth noting, it will typically appear in C&C a month or two later.

As for how changes in Linux and Ubuntu have impacted Command & Conquer, it has done so in two ways. First, the decreased reliance upon the CLI for day-to-day tasks has forced me to change the focus of some articles (ushered in largely during the transition to Unity), and secondly by the expansion of the Linux kernel. Some of the tips and tricks I wrote about in the early days for drivers, or graphical issues, are much, much rarer. This is due to new drivers being developed, more being integrated into the Ubuntu kernel, or simply updates to the existing drivers or software (such as the Xserver no longer requiring an xorg.conf file). That being said, other aspects have stayed very much the same. My articles on Vim, for example, work just as well today as they did when I wrote them (issues 54 & 55). Going back even further, the articles on Bash functions, aliases, and history work the same way (Issues 21, 24, 25, 27, 35, 36, and a few more!). During my time with Linux, I’ve seen many things about the kernel and software improve, and hardware support improve in leaps and bounds. I recently installed Ubuntu 15.04 on an old HP dv6000 laptop with a Broadcom wireless chip that never seemed to work properly with Ubuntu pre 12.04. Between 12.04 and 14.04, there were some conflicts between wl and b43 drivers. This time around though, all I needed was an ethernet connection for about 15 minutes. After that, everything was working fine. This was a massive improvement over 4.10, where my old USB wireless dongle wasn’t even recognized. Not to mention the existence of Ubuntu Touch, new Ubuntu phones, and Android. If this is how much Linux can change and improve over the course of roughly 10 years through our community, then I’m excited to see what the next 10 bring!

How has FCM changed? Full Circle Magazine itself has changed a fair bit since then too - the design of the PDF, the usage of Google Drive for articles, as well as existing in certain online stores as digital downloads! One of the most recent changes is also one I was heavily involved in - the redesign and adjustment of the website. Feedback & Comments! As always, I would love to hear from my readers! How long have you been reading my articles? Which topics did you enjoy the most? Any old articles you wish I would update? Something completely new? Any forecasts for the future? Or even just reminiscing about the old FCM format. Any responses can be emailed to me at lswest34+fcm@gmail.com.