07/31/2026
History Is Written by the Victor –Patrick’s Version of the Fusix Story
Winston Churchill is (maybe incorrectly) credited with saying, “History is often told by the victor.”
Author Dan Brown says, “History is told by those who remain.”
Here is my version of how Fusix became what it is today.
Over the years, David and I were involved with a number of companies—some successful, some short-lived, and some simply stepping stones along the way.
The most important was Canada Computers. That is where David and I first met. As I get older, the dates become a little fuzzy, but I believe it was either 1993 or 1994. Had it not been for Canada Computers—and by extension Wes Garland—David and I likely never would have met, and I would probably be telling a very different story today.
Before Fusix
On David's side, the first notable company was Infinity Squared Designs. David started it while he was still in Kenya, and after meeting Wes, he brought him into the business. Following Infinity Squared and his time at Canada Computers, David went to work at Internet Kingston, where he discovered his passion for design and systems administration. It was during this period that he launched Rogue Design and Development.
My own first company wasn't in technology at all. It was a lawn care and yard maintenance business called Low Priced Lawn Care, Snow Shoveling and Odd Jobs, or LPLCSSOJ for short. The business operated for several years and was still running when I started my first technology company as a teenager.
When I decided to enter the tech world, I considered several names, including Pat's PC Shop and a number of other admittedly terrible ideas. In the end, I settled on The Silicon Syndicate. An old friend thought it was perfect—we could be the computer mafia.
During this time, between school and work, I eventually joined Internet Kingston, just before it was purchased. David and I became closer professionally and personally. One day, while doing administration work on a new Cobalt web server, we looked at each other and said, "There has to be a better way."
After many lunches—and probably a few drinks—we came up with the concept of a company called Comet Server. The idea was simple: my hardware background combined with David's software expertise seemed like a perfect match. Unfortunately, as anyone who has built a product knows, ideas alone aren't enough. We developed some crude prototypes, but with day jobs, other interests, and limited time, the project never fully got off the ground.
The Rogue Design Projects
During this same period, David was also working on several promising projects through Rogue Design and Development. The two most notable were:
• Image Guardian, a photo purchasing platform for professional photographers, created several years before iStock became popular.
• Sporting Canada, an online ranking system for university sports.
Both products remained active until roughly ten years ago. Image Guardian eventually closed when its user community decided it was no longer needed, while Sporting Canada gradually lost relevance as companies like Google began providing similar services.
The Beginning of Fusix
After Internet Kingston was purchased by WTC, David felt he was no longer being valued or heard, and decided it was time to move on.
He approached me about becoming involved in his next venture. At the time, however, I was a young guy with very little money. Beyond my technical skills, I didn't have much to contribute financially. Since Fusix was originally focused on web hosting, I felt I had even less to offer. Although I had attended college to become a COBOL programmer, I wasn't much of a web developer, and to be honest, I wasn't much of a server administrator either.
David explored several opportunities, including working with Wes at Pagemail, but as many will remember, David and John (Wes’ boss and eventual partner) didn't always see eye-to-eye.
While searching for alternatives, David connected with a common friend of Wes, myself, and Shaun Raymond, a local web designer, who had both resources and technical talent. Together, David, Oz, and this individual formed Fusix in the summer of 2001.
The original Fusix data centre was located in the old City Pro office. The plan was to share resources between businesses, but both companies were growing quickly and the arrangement never quite worked out.
The company then relocated to David's house on Willingdon. David wasn't exactly gifted when it came to construction projects, so he called me for help. I built the basement data centre, and Fusix started operating from the house while continuing to expand its services.
Things were going well, but the partners did not always share the same vision. Eventually, the partnership dissolved.
Around this same time, David became involved with the love of his life, Lorraine Row, and from that point forward David and Oz carried the company forward together.
Growing Pains and New Beginnings
When David sold his house and merged households with Lorraine (they got married in 2004), the data centre needed a new home. He partnered with Tom Copeland, co-locating the equipment within Tom's ISP data centre in Cobourg. For office space, David partnered with Shane Lakins, operating out of the back of the old Kingston Body Management location.
The arrangement worked well.
Fast forward to the summer of 2004. WTC was restructuring, and I was laid off. To say I felt lost would be an understatement.
At that point, I hadn't spoken to David in nearly two years – not for any real reason, just life marching forward. I found work at StarTek on the night shift and partnered with my friend Steve Gale to launch Kingston Tech. We were planning office space in the old Stacey building, but again, life got in the way, and the business never really gained momentum.
Then I ran into David.
"I heard you're no longer at WTC," he said. "Let's have a coffee."
During that meeting, David offered me a position.
"I could use a guy like you."
At the time I was working nights from 5:00 p.m. until 1:30 a.m., but I figured, "Why not?"
I joined Fusix.
For the first two years, my compensation amounted to little more than gas money and the occasional lunch. Together, we moved from the Kingston Body Management office into 1724 Bath Road. We also brought the data centre back from Cobourg to Kingston and operated both the office and the data centre ourselves.
Over time, however, our focus shifted. We found ourselves doing more IT services, networking, and installations than hosting.
The Computer Depot Years
As the years went on – Jessica and I got married in 2007 and had our first child in 2008, around the time David and I joined Computer Depot full time. We had been doing a significant amount of subcontracting work for them for some time already, but they asked us to come on board full time, and we knew where our bread was buttered.
Fusix took a back seat, becoming largely dormant, but continued supporting existing hosting and design clients.
In 2015, we made the decision to leave 1724 Bath Road and co-locate our servers with WTC. Anyone who knew David knows he was very particular about maintaining independence. While we used WTC's space and power, the hardware and internet connectivity remained entirely ours.
That arrangement continued until 2024.
Reinventing Fusix
In 2019, Kevin Sealy closed Computer Depot so he could focus on Creative Display.
That summer, we began transforming Fusix into a full-service IT company.
On Labour Day weekend in 2019, Fusix opened a small retail and service location at 1407 John Counter Boulevard. None of us knew exactly what would happen.
There were four of us at the beginning:
• Stuart
• Ryan
• David
• Myself
All former Computer Depot employees.
We quickly outgrew the space, but remained there for five years before relocating to our current home at 1064 Gardiners Road.
The team continued to evolve:
• Chris joined us in March 2021 (he was part of the Computer Depot family)
• Stuart sadly left us in the summer of 2021 due to health reasons
• Shelley joined in the summer of 2022
• Ryan departed in the fall of 2022 to work with another partner, but remains part of the family
• In early 2024 Peter and Mike, formerly of Dan Shea and associates joined the Fusix family.
• Nolan joined in the summer of 2024 and is now moving on to join his family's financial business.
• Bryant Tong has joined the team and has some very big shoes to fill. (No pressure!)
• Shane will be joining us in September to lead sales efforts.
After David
Everything changed in 2023 with David's passing.
One of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make was determining where to focus the company's energy. The server business had always been David's passion, while my strengths were in IT services, installations, and supporting clients directly.
To keep the company moving forward, I made the difficult but necessary decision to concentrate on the areas where we could continue to grow and succeed. That meant migrating clients serviced by the data centre to alternative products, whether supported by us or staying inside our extended family, including Eagle.ca and Zero Noise Marketing.
It wasn't easy, but it was the right decision, and our birthday party proves it.
Final Thoughts
As I said at the beginning, this is history as I remember it. It has been condensed (maybe not enough!), simplified, and undoubtedly influenced by my own perspective. Others may remember events differently, and that's okay.
I'll leave you with two final thoughts:
Fusix — the fusion of Windows and Linux.
For those of you that have been around for years this will make sense.
GOG!
