Randy Bush

In the 1980s, there was a strong "home Unix" movement in the Beaverton area, mostly because of an abandoned workstation project at Tektronix, which seeded the area with hundreds of Unix workstations. Keith Packard was part of this movement - he used to do code for me while I did hardware for him.

Another important fellow, worth meeting, is Randy Bush, who now lives in the San Juan island area of the Puget Sound in Washington. Randy wangled himself a job as security manager for a Swiss bank; he maintained their systems over a T1 that connected him to Switzerland from his home office north of Beaverton. He used this link to create Rain Net, which began as about two dozen of us connecting to the forming Internet, and providing us with an excuse to be connected to this "Research and Academic only" network.

Later, we got our own connection, partly subsidized by universities in South Africa, prevented by boycotts from connecting directly to the Internet. So at one point, perhaps, your packets were connecting from South Africa, through Randy's house, to the Internet.

Randy was also active in the internationalization of the Internet. His hobby was travelling to third world countries and providing them with access, by whatever means necessary. He battled entrenched telephone monopolies, antiquated hardware, and distance. One time he helped jury rig a microwave link through the jungles of New Guinea. Randy is Ubuntu before Ubuntu was born, and might have some great experiences to share.