Kevin Cole

547 points
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Washington DC

By day, a consultant for NOVA Web Development. By evening and weekend, he dons his costume (which looks remarkably like the jeans and T-shirts he normally wears), and goes out doing battle against the forces of proprietary software. He was the team contact for the Ubuntu DC "LoCo" and one of the hosts of the former OLPC Learning Club/Sugar Labs DC. (He has also served as a Red Hat Ambassador.)

Authored Comments

I wish I'd been able to wait for the Galago Pro, but my laptop was dying before it was released. I ended up getting the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. While it seems to be a nice enough machine, I wish I was dealing with a company that actually understood what Linux is. Their Dell Driver Installer takes me to a page full of Microsoft Windows drivers, I decided to get the Bose headset, as they were advertised with the machine. Using the headset with Windows and Mac, it detects the microphone. Linux does not. Customer service agents appeared to have no clue as to why, but where happy to chat about the weather, their families, etc. The touchpad is mighty jumpy, and the suggestion was to reformat and install a non-OEM Linux. Finally, when I sent e-mail asking which lock cables were compatible with the beastie, I was told that I would need to get into some long chat / phone call. "REALLY??? You cannot tell me what friggin' LOCK CABLE your laptop works with??? Dude, I'm NOT getting a Dell again."

I've shared this with all the folks at HacDC [http://hacdc.org/] -- "The Capital's Hackerspace". We shall see if anything comes of it.