About
Matt Hartley was a co-founder of the ever popular and once iTunes front page featured podcast, Weezy and The Swish. These days, Matt works diligently as a consultant for WeatherBug, proprietor of the largest privately owned weather station network on the planet. In between his duties at WeatherBug, Matt writes on Linux and Open Source projects for QuinStreet. For those looking to connect with Matt, he can be found on Twitter, YouTube and Friendfeed.
In addition to everything above, Matt works on a joint project with his wife called The Home Makeover Diva and provides volunteer services as an assisting project coordinator for the WebcamStudio project. Matt also maintains this Website and everything that goes with it.
Previous to his online career, Matt maintained a successful computer repair business. Most of his clients were high-end, big spending home users that were tired of half-baked solutions from his competition. Matt retired from his computer repair business a few years ago as to pursue new interests on the Web.
Ubuntu/Linux
My experience with various desktop Linux distributions dates back to early releases of Red Hat, but really took off with early versions of Knoppix. From there, I traveled to Linspire 4.0-5.0, SimplyMepis 3.1, Debian and then finally settled on Ubuntu. Most recently I made the permanent switch to Linux Mint. My reasons for switching are varied, but suffice it to say that Linux Mint has vastly better quality control over its use of the Ubuntu code base.
My problem solving and troubleshooting dates back to solving a Flash/Audio issue on Linspire 4.5 with a minor piece of code. Since then, I’ve offered up scripts, work-a-rounds and other ways to make the Linux experience as painless for new users as possible.
These days, I spend my time answering questions, writing articles and providing commonsense solutions to problems that crop up for the casual Linux enthusiast. I’ve shared tips on selecting software, peripherals among other items of interest to ease the transition for newer Linux users.
