Might be busy

So I just wanted to let you guys know that in the times ahead I can't promise weekly guides. If you don't want to read the too long post, the tl;dr is that I'll be taking an online course which will take some of my free time, meaning I might have to skip doing a guide some weeks.

I have decided to something as outrageous as getting an education. Oh yes, I am but a lowly, unwashed peasant operating a forklift in a fairly large warehouse. Well actually, I have had main responsibility for receiving in my department for over a year now. Even though the pay is actually very good, and I love the hours (06.00 - 14.00) not to mention great coworkers, I have started to grow weary of this job.

Ever since I started learning programming as a hobby, I quickly discovered that I pretty much love it as much as I love math and physics. I was actually thinking about studying theoretical physics at one point, but life can take unexpected turns. In any case, I recently applied to a private school that specialize in online studies, and was admitted. It starts up the last week of February, it is a two year education called: Web Developer with specialization in programming, and I can optionally build on it later if I want to.

I will of course still work full time while I do this since I continue saving up as much as I can. I am also the kind of person that can't settle for anything less than top results when I first decide to do something like this, so I will be spending as much time as needed on this.

So as I said, this means I might not get around to doing weekly guides. However, I will still write guides, and I will still be an active participant on these forums.

Oh and I had to get myself another laptop since the study will require Windows, since it will rely on a lot of windows only software, and Visual Studio is the IDE we have to use. I refuse to defile my precious Arch by *shudder* dual booting with windows. My new laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad Flex15. Nothing special, but well suited for the tasks I will be using it for. The only problem is that it runs Windows 8, and in the short time I've been prodding at it, I have learned that I understand nothing about the interface. I can't seem to find much so far and struggle with understanding if an application has closed or if it was just minized. Thankfully there is also the more traditional desktop available, but it still feels like something I'd rather just prod with a very long stick without having to get any closer to.

Good luck with your online course man, although I have no doubt about the eventual successful outcome.
Great that you will still be able to stick around this forum!
Just a curiosity: couldn't have been possible to put Windows on a virtual machine?

Using a virtual machine was always an option, but to ensure that things work properly I decided to just go for an actual laptop. Performance is a lot better than in a virtual machine, even put it to run with settings as high as it can, there are still limits. Besides, I also saw this as a good opportunity to try setting up samba share (as with everything on Arch, I need to manually configure it from scratch) and see if I can get it working and accessible from windows.

Besides, I always thought of having a second laptop for running Slackware. Although I'm not sure when I'll get around to setting up dual booting on that laptop.

I remember reading a few times on various sites that, if you use (put the name of a distro), you learn (the same distro), if you use Slackware, you learn Linux.
I guess Arch must be not challenging enough for you anymore.
Good luck with that as well.

Thanks for the tip booman, I'll be sure to ask if I get stuck on something. I've been feeling full of energy lately, which is why I've been doing 2 guides some weeks, besides, some of the games are easy to set up so writing a guide becomes equally easy. I imagine the worst case scenario is 2 guides per month from me, but I doubt it will be that little.

Kladiator, I've read that too about Slackware. However, I tried Slackware in vbox without issues. The installation process is very easy for Slackware, you just have to make sure to read everything. Arch does not even have a setup program. You need to follow the instructions on the Arch wiki for installing, and usually there are links to other pages explaining other concepts, so I think I am learning well enough from Arch. My main reason for wanting to try out Slackware was curiosity, and the fact that is is very stable. Slackware is ideally suited for a laptop that is not regularly used. Once everything is set it is quite easy to maintain Slackware.

A little update on my online studies:

As it is now, I'll finish at the end of 2015. However, recently I have more and more been thinking about taking it a little further than just basic web development. The online school have a further offer after finishing this course, which is a 2 year course in .net development. This is very windows specific, but it would certainly open a lot more doors if I take it as well.

Besides, having an education that includes C# would probably make it a lot easier to supplement with self-taught programming languages and also building experience in programming on Linux in my free time. If only I had free time, haha. Currently my days seem to be consist of: work - eat - study - sleep

Although I should not complain, I did complete the K&R C programming book and have just barely started on a GTK development book. Once I can do programs with GUI I might actually try to make something useful. I could also use Python, but I have to admit that I really enjoy C.

So, it is beginning to look like I might be part time student while working full time the next 3.5 years. But no worries, I'll keep doing guides when I have the time.