My Beta Operating System

[Deepthinker]

Some of you may not know this, but I have a new operating system that I’ve been developing. A few years ago, it was in the alpha phase. Actually, it is not a completely new system; it is a modification of an existing operating system I’ve used for a long time.

It’s been a very difficult process. I don’t know much about programming or how to reprogram an existing operating system. I took a few programming classes in college and understand basic programming logic. The rest of it I’ve had to learn as I go and seek a great deal of help on online forums.

It’s taken a significant amount of time to get it to where it is today. I feel like there is so much more time I need to put into it before it will work well for me.

I now think I have reached the beta phase of development. Many of the bugs are being worked out, although every now and then I still have a system crash.

Now I’m having to port specific software I use so that it will run on the new OS. That’s been difficult too, and having to create the drivers so the system will boot correctly and the hardware works correctly has also been a major undertaking.

There have been so many crashes over the last few years. So many times I’ve had to reboot. So often that the system would freeze up, or in some other way be unable to function the way I want it to.

I do feel like I’m getting there, though.

Just in case you haven’t figured this out already, this is an analogy of my faith transition. It has been a long process for me. Over three years and I’m still working through things with a TBM wife. None of my kids know. Nobody in the ward knows. The only other family members who know is my wonderful gay brother.

Through this process, I realized how many bugs the existing church programming that was so burned into my hardware really had. There’s been so much firmware from the church over the years that I’ve had to remove.

I realized that the deprogramming and removing the existing bugs from my existing system has been one of the more difficult tasks.

I’ve had to listen to how many other people have had to deprogram themselves in order for me to get past certain parts of the process.

I can now see the benefits of my efforts. Life is starting to be less burdened and easier. I don’t have to follow certain subroutines anymore.

The biggest problem I have right now is that I can tell that those I love don’t see the benefits of my new system.

They don’t want to install it.

When they scan it on their church security software, it comes up as a virus. That is how the church program sees me: as a virus.

By trying to get them to use my new operating system, I’m trying to get them to crash how they are operating their life.

That’s essentially true. No longer running certain subroutines I had been trained to follow and believe my entire life was the start of my need to reprogram.

The deprogramming process is going to cause the existing operating system to fail. You have to reprogram to some extent after deprogramming and for those of us who go through this, we should recognize that not everyone wants to have their own custom program, or that maybe they are just not ready for one yet.

In many ways I’m not able to give them my new operating system anyway. It is still at a beta level. Loved ones I’ve tried to share it with can see the bugs, and they’re more wary of it.

For now, I’m going to keep developing it. I know I will eventually reach that point where everything works well enough to get through life and I’m really looking forward to that.

[notaNOM]

Dang!!

I'm currently playing with a couple of linux distros, and was going to volunteer to do some testing for you! I used to manage a small software test group, so I thought I might be able to help.

[Deepthinker]

Dang!!

I'm currently playing with a couple of linux distros, and was going to volunteer to do some testing for you! I used to manage a small software test group, so I thought I might be able to help.

I wondered if anyone wouldn't catch on right away.

If I do ever need some programming help, I'll be sure to let you know.

[Corsair]

If I do ever need some programming help, I'll be sure to let you know.

Your main problem is that the LDS church does not want you to modify their source code. Joseph Smith did that job long ago and you are not recommended to examine the code, let alone commit changes, or heaven forbid, fork the source. The twice yearly patch release schedule in April and October conference are all you should be following.

Did you really think you found an error in the authorized programming? The problems you think you found will claimed as features, not bugs. For example, polygamy simply shows Joseph struggling with a challenging commandment and also shows how he elevated the divine role of women and always respected their spiritual power. The Book of Abraham shows how God inspired Joseph to produce a precious book of scripture from the catalyst of common funerary scrolls. Book of Mormon anachronisms will all be vindicated one day or are based on a flawed understanding of the text.

[LostMormon]

My first question would be, can I still play Portal 2 on your operating system

The whole time I was reading the first part of your message, I was thinking, "why the heck are you trying to develop your own operating system, what good will it do you, you won't be able to run anything on it, and it's way more work than it's worth." then I realized it was an analogy

Somehow that didn't give me much comfort.

No one will want it, or support it, why not keep using the existing system? yes it may have bugs, but at least it's supported, and you can surf for funny little cat videos.

It may not be ideal, but most people are happy with it. Is it really worth the work?

[Deepthinker]

If I do ever need some programming help, I'll be sure to let you know.

Your main problem is that the LDS church does not want you to modify their source code. Joseph Smith did that job long ago and you are not recommended to examine the code, let alone commit changes, or heaven forbid, fork the source. The twice yearly patch release schedule in April and October conference are all you should be following.

Did you really think you found an error in the authorized programming? The problems you think you found will claimed as features, not bugs. For example, polygamy simply shows Joseph struggling with a challenging commandment and also shows how he elevated the divine role of women and always respected their spiritual power. The Book of Abraham shows how God inspired Joseph to produce a precious book of scripture from the catalyst of common funerary scrolls. Book of Mormon anachronisms will all be vindicated one day or are based on a flawed understanding of the text.

I like that continuation of the analogy, from the church's perspective. It’s helped me think more about why I’ve had to go through these hard things. They shouldn’t be that hard.

I’d say the church program modified Christ’s original program. I’m just going back to the original version. Like downgrading to XP from Windows 8, which was actually an upgrade.

[Deepthinker]

My first question would be, can I still play Portal 2 on your operating system

The whole time I was reading the first part of your message, I was thinking, "why the heck are you trying to develop your own operating system, what good will it do you, you won't be able to run anything on it, and it's way more work than it's worth." then I realized it was an analogy

Somehow that didn't give me much comfort.

No one will want it, or support it, why not keep using the existing system? yes it may have bugs, but at least it's supported, and you can surf for funny little cat videos.

It may not be ideal, but most people are happy with it. Is it really worth the work?

Of course you can play Portal 2 on it. For a fee.

It’s not the best analogy, for sure. It just helps me process my transition. If I wasn't an engineer, I would definitely be a software programmer.

Perhaps it is better to see the church program as a very limited operating system, that only 0.2% of the population uses.

Maybe I have a different processor now that no longer works with the church operating system. Maybe it never worked well with it before, but I limped along.

For sure, my automatic church program updates are turned off.