About « Michael Doornbos

About

I'm a technologist and futurist. I like big thinkers and big ideas.

I'm the founder of Evadot.com and SpaceUP DC and can often be found building electronics, writing code, fishing, ruffling feathers, and cooking.

I'm often asked about my Linux experience and I wish there was some great story to go along with my long love of Linux. In Jan of 1997 I had major surgery to repair my spine (major as in 16 hours major). I spent the next 18 months recovering. Needless to say, I had a lot of free time. I stumbled on Linux via a magazine article and had a spare 386 25Mhz monochrome laptop with 4MB of ram(8MB was the recommended minimum for Linux at the time). 25 floppies later, I had a working RedHat 4.1 installation, no GUI, but I saw the possibilities immediately. I wrote some code in C and played endlessly. Joining Linux User Groups(LUGS) and mailing lists.

I started using Linux professionally later in 1997 when I created a file server at work (I was in the Navy at the time) with a 486 that was laying around in need of repair. I didn't actually have authorization for this, and about a month later I was asked how we were the only shop to have a file server that was always up. I admitted to using Linux for the project, was actually commended for being resourceful (phew), and thus began my long tradition of doing things the way I think they should be done and asking forgiveness later.

Lately I've been obsessed with Robotics and Spaceflight which often cross paths in my life in unexpected ways.