User: Pegzmasta

This user supports the Free Software Foundation's actions all around the world and on the world wide web.

FSS	This user is subscribed to the Free Software Supporter newsletter.

This user knows that GNU's Not Unix.

This user is using Trisquel.

Not Facebook'd ! You won't find me on Facebook

This user is interested in contributing to End Software Patents.

This user is interested in contributing to Defective by Design.

Hello World!

Hi! My name is Michael Pagan (feel free to drop a line). I am not a GNU maintainer (yet), or a GNU contributor (yet); however, I AM a user!

Check out my profile.

Why Free Software?

I initially chose free software, because it was a fail-safe after one of my failed... proprietary expenditures. Essentially, I was a Microsoft Windows user. I had Windows 7 starter/home edition, and as I was browsing my local exchange one day, I encountered: Windows Ultimate Edition (an edition above starter/home, business, and professional-- hence the term "Ultimate"). How foolish was I to spend $300 on a CD that I was only allowed to install up to 3 times!? How foolish was I to believe that I was upgrading my computer, when in reality I was actually downgrading it!? What do I mean by downgrading? Microshaft is the expert at giving its users the shaft!

How did I get shafted?

The downgrade consisted of deleting my network drivers so that I could not connect to the internet anymore. Next, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tried to authenticate my licensed copy of Windows on my computer; however, because the installation accidentally (or purposefully... you be the judge!) deleted my network drivers, WGA could not verify my install and hence: My desktop background was replaced with an "Unathorized Windows" background, and Winblows itself became unusable. This was before I learned about software freedom and the effects of DRM, which is malware, and in my case: There were several types of malware that made up the core of that particular version of the Windows Malware Operating system; I do not lie, this has been verified!

How did I recover?

Luckily, my brother told me about GNU/Linux. Before I inserted the Windows Corrupt Disk, I made a copy of Ubuntu's installation images onto a Compact Disk (which I replaced with Trisquel a year later). After I got shafted, I immediately commenced the GNU/Linux installation... and I never looked back. Being a fond user of the command-line, I started noticing that many of the commands begin with g for some reason? gthis and gthat? Eventually, I pulled the manpage and started seeing the word GNU a lot. I did some research and encountered the GNU Website, which was also the same time that I decided to take the plunge and install Trisquel. The whole time I thought I was using the Linux Operating system, silly user... its called GNU!

Software Freedom Acceptance: Take it or leave it

I learn more about free software everyday. My first challenge began after I purchased my first [www.fsf.org/ryf RYF] laptop right before LibrePlanet 2015, and realized that video sites that required Flash no longer worked for me anymore. I had 3 options at that point: 1. Back to Windows; 2. Continue life without online videos; 3. Engineer a solution and make the videos work without Flash. So... what did I choose? I chose freedom and I dived head first straight into source code. I studied HTML, GNU Bash, GNU Awk, and GNU Sed; wrote a few scripts; wrote a few functions; tested them; published them; and finally, viola... I could now see certain videos again. Shortly thereafter, I discovered more free software like Linterna Magica and youtube-dl, and the rest was history.

It used to be that whenever I had a problem I would call tech "support," but now I could just solve computer problems myself or see if other free software users have solved it for me. What a lovely community the free software movement has created!

Free Software Advocacy

Now that I've accepted free software... what next? Well, since there are no LibrePlanet teams in my area, I would like to create one. This will happen soon, but due to personal circumstances and work, I will not be able to set up a team in New Jersey at this time (maybe sometime next year in 2017). Until I've got my feet back on the ground again and leading a stable life, which is hard to do in this hectic world, I shall be studying more about GNU and free software in general. For those of you who are interested in setting up a LibrePlanet team in New Jersey before 2017, please let me know in advance (contact information is in my profile).

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Long live GNU! --Pegzmasta (talk) 21:44, 25 September 2016 (EDT)