Hello,

My name is Jon Dowd and I live in Ashland Oregon (USA). I am married to a woman who is a life-long peace activist (Linda Richards) we each have one child. My job in 1982 introduced me to computers as we used Osborns to transfer sales data to the home office. It had a tiny screen, but demonstrated word processing - What a miracle! Many years later (1997) We bought a PC-XT and I was hooked! Read every DOS book in our town's little public library soon had a P90. Once heard Torvalds and Stallman being interviewd on the radio and promptly ordered RedHat 5.1 from CheapBytes. Many computers and Linux distros later I listened to what others said and did a test install of Ubuntu. Um... good.

My DAY JOB is managing the support department of a small Southern Oregon ISP (http://www.mind.net) which brings me in contact with many computer users and the problems they encounter. We also provide computer repair and most procedures are prompted from the affects of spyware and viruses. Those of us in the know, know these problems do not arise in a GNU / Linux box. Converting customers to Ubuntu is a source of joy and satisfaction. Sometimes when a customer's computer is in the shop we send them home with a Ubuntu 'loaner' and the conversion sells itself...

My LIFE is refurbishing donated computers with Ubuntu and preparing them for delivery to hurricane ravaged New Orleans. After a 5000 mile trip to deliver computers this February I opened a Saturdays only, noon~4 'drop off' Recycling Center in a storage unit.

The Computer Drop Off (http://www.computerdropoff.org) has been quite successful - We've taken in 82 computers to date, 36 of which have had Ubuntu installed (now 48 computers have Ubuntu as of 7 July '06), thoroughly tested and ready to ship. This exciting and wonderful endeavor fills 10~20 of my 'not at work' hours. My wife and I plan a trip to NOLA in August (2006) delivering 50~60 computers to schools in the city. I have experimented with many Linux and BSD distros since 1998 - Ubuntu offers the best desktop possible to replace school's damaged computers and by far is the easiest to deploy and support.

Plans and Goals

Although my goal is modest, it is my goal, and this goal is to replace every public school computer's operating system with one that's open source and Ubuntu will make the transition very easy. Thanks Ubuntu !