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prayag_pjs 09-21-2010 06:59 AM

How you first started using Linux?
 
Hi,

Lets discuss how you first started using Linux?

How you came across Linux?

What makes you like Linux?

MTK358 09-21-2010 07:30 AM

I tried it three times before and hated it, because I assumed it would be like Windows and every detail that was different was just confusing and frustrating. Also the first thing I did there was scramble to get anti-virus as soon as possible, which I now know wasn't needed.

Then I came across VirtualBox, and thought I might give Linux a chance, this time without risking Windows with dual-booting. I chose Fedora and read all I can about Linux and the command line while it downloaded for a few hours. I tried and and LOVED it, now that I understand it! I also finally saw that it was a serious OS, not a useless toy that an insignificant, misguided few people use. In fact I did all my work in the tiny VM window until I decided to install it, and not as a dual boot but use the whole drive and wipe Windows!

Alexvader 09-21-2010 08:20 AM

I started using Linux because at University there were two Teachers, one from Flow Mechanics, and the other from Materials Selection, the first used and advised the students to use a package which only runs in Linux, in fact it is distributed as source... http://www.openfoam.com/,

The other would simply refuse to accept any report, or simulation work in any proprietary format, no xls, xslx, doc, docx, dwg, etc...

So this made me get to know better alternatives...

dugan 09-21-2010 08:24 AM

I was curious about it, so I ordered several distributions and a book from Walnut CDRom back in 1998.

linus72 09-21-2010 08:24 AM

I started by trying to install ubuntu se 8.04 with Unetbootin usb installer
for some reason I told Unetbootin to install the bootloader syslinux to MBR of my hdd
instead of the usb MBR
I had Windows XP as only OS, and barely knew how to use that

anyway, I rebooted to a black screen with blinking cursor and...my heart dropped
as I thought I had destroyed the PC (lol)
I rebooted like 3 more times before I got off that river Dnile

in desperation I booted off the Ubuntu livecd, grabbed all my files off hdd
and moved them to usb's

then I said screw windows 'cause I didnt know how to get it back
and installed Ubuntu SE 8.04 to hdd!
Obviously I could have easily fixed the Windows booter, but I was impatient
and now here I am?!

hughetorrance 09-21-2010 11:04 AM

Typically I was on windoze 98se and all the blue screens made me think... there must be alternatives and that led to a Linux magazine with Fedora core 1 on it,I was so chuffed to have installed it but it kept crashing as well,eventually I sent off to good old Ubuntu and I got Ubuntu 5,they sent me 10 discs and I handed them out to uninterested people,they paid for the postage,the reason for this was, I had dial up.
After Ubuntu I became a distro hopper and I still am but have settled with Slackware,Debian,Mepis,Sabayon(all 64 bit) and good ol XP.

ps there is nothing wrong with XP its just senior management and their unethical practices that I don,t like.

ordinary 09-21-2010 11:20 AM

I was a long time Unix user (SVR3 and 4.2BSD) looking for a similar environment at home. SVR4 on a 486 was clunky and painful, but a better development environment (for my type of work, anyway) than MS stuff. RedHat was a major revelation to me in about 1995. I ain't looked back, and I don't miss Unix. Windows always feels kind of alien to me.

SaintDanBert 09-21-2010 12:39 PM

During 1993-1995 I got the task to build industrial instruments. The software would be better using some sort of real-time operating system. Commercial offerings were very expensive.

One of my team members (a college student) found a copy of Yggdrasil Linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil_Linux/GNU/X. After some study,
we decided that linux offered much of what we needed ... and we could always build
the rest given open source and all.

We eventually went to work using what I think was RedHat v2x or v3x ( I really should remember, but ... sigh. ) We built drivers for I-squared-C devices and a ram-disk among others. We made measurements and controlled stepper-motors and solenoids from bash shell scripts. Our instruments were web servers we could inspect and control from a browser. Ethernet let a desktop computer access the data and configuration by shared files and folders and RPC.

Other than the politics, this was the best technical work -- AND TEAM
-- I experienced in 30 years.

Thanks, guys,
~~~ 0;-Dan

TobiSGD 09-21-2010 12:51 PM

My first Linux was SuSE Linux 7.3, I got the first CD from a magazin. I installed it and didn't know what to do next. Lacking a Internet-connection I got angry and discarded it. Much later, now with Internet, I heard about Ubuntu and gave it a try. I learned a bit about it tried to make it fit my needs, but couldn't achieve this aim. Distro-hopped some time and came across Debian, and fell in love with it. All my systems run now with Debian, installed as minimal install and tailored to my needs. Sadly, I can not discard Windows, because I am a gamer.

H_TeXMeX_H 09-21-2010 03:49 PM

Well, I was in college (5-6 years ago) and was using Window$ XP on my laptop at the time. I had joined a software forum, just to find some better software to try to keep Window$ from degrading so quickly. Someone on there posted about a free trial of Linspire a version of Linux. I had never heard of Linux before (yes, I suppose I was living under a rock), and so I researched it.

At the time I remember cursing Bill Gates almost constantly for making Window$, and I wanted to make or find something better, or something even decent at doing what it's supposed to. Well, here was my chance to try something else, so I burned some disks, mostly Linspire and Fedora Core 4. My XP install was getting worse with each passing day, more viruses every day, something breaking every day ... I cursed it to hell, every day (I'm not exaggerating that much, it was pretty much every day that it pissed me off with something new).

I dual booted Linspire, but the internet wouldn't work. I posted on their support forums, and they had no clue how to fix it. But, I didn't give up. Soon, my XP install was no longer usable, I had to reinstall, and it was near exam time ... curse it to hell ! So, I decided to install Fedora Core 4, and ... everything worked, and I never looked back :) I have never installed Window$ on any computer since then, and I never will. All my computers will run only Linux or BSD, and I will not compromise in this.

EDIT:

I'd just like to mention that I have changed a lot since then, not with respect to Window$, but just with respect to how I was and how I am. I think GNU/Linux has changed me, quite a bit, other things have changed me too. I remember I was so ignorant back then, so angry ... maybe I still am to some extent. I think I will continue to change.

weirdwolf 09-30-2010 08:33 PM

Was still using Win98(gold) about 2005 and knew it wasn't going to last much longer, was fed up with M$ and the "critical vulnerability" of the day, and decided there was no way I was going to buy the bug fest that was XP. Started looking for something better, and found Linux, Knoppix 3.7 to be exact, and that was that. Haven't used M$ since. Used knoppix then DSL (starting with 2.2) for about 6-8 months as a "live" cd only. Bought a new box with Linux pre-installed from Outpost.com and switched to PCLinuxOS in 2007 and have used it since.

Kenny_Strawn 09-30-2010 09:36 PM

I actually heard about Linux via a multi-page PCMag cover story on it, and at the time, I was seeking for an alternative to WinBloze Vista (it was 2007). So, I looked for documentation. Turns out, my aunt had a (very old) Linux admin book that she gave me, so I read it and learned about desktop environments and the CLI. What's ironic about the book is that it was her ex-boyfriend's book, and that ex-boyfriend worked for M$! (I believe he still does, but I'm not sure; his name's Keith). I still have this book.

As you can see in my blog description, I had a very hard time with Linux/FOSS at first. I began with gOS 2, and it didn't recognize my then-Linksys WUSB54GSC wireless network adapter. Same with Ubuntu 8.04. Since the networking in my home was nothing but Wi-Fi, I had to revert to WinBloze until Linux supported my network adapter, and, that said, in December 2008, when Linux netbooks started coming out, my family got me this very netbook I'm typing on: an Acer Aspire One AOA110-1545. It had the obscure Linpus Lite on it, which in some ways was considered crippleware, so I eventually installed Ubuntu 9.04 on it in April 2009. Everything worked! That being with the exception of Network Manager which was a little buggy and wouldn't connect at some times, forcing me to run "sudo iwconfig wlan0 txpower on" to correct it.

In June 2009, I lost the Linksys WUSB54GSC adapter and couldn't find it. So I got a new adapter; the WMP600N, a dual-band PCI Wireless N adapter. I booted the Mint 7 Live CD when the adapter was installed. Network Manager picked up wireless networks, including mine! The network adapter worked, and since then I have NEVER gone back to WinBloze, even though I aborted testing 7 RC at the time.

pr_deltoid 09-30-2010 11:16 PM

I knew Linux existed (and was a good "hacker" operating system) when I was about 17. I didn't learn too much about it and thought it might be very limited or low-quality in a lot of ways, but good for hacking. I didn't care too much for Windows, exactly, but it was all I knew much about so it wasn't too bad. I finally got so sick of using Windows not long ago and learned more about Linux/Unix and saw more pictures of it and what it has, that I tried Wubi (the Ubuntu installer for Windows) and it was so nice and full-featured that I installed it right afterwards with Windows on my recovery partition. Then not too long ago I deleted my Windows recovery partition.
When I learned about Linux (when I was about 17) I had just started learning about computers and wanted Windows on my computer, definitely. I tried something then, it was an "install Linux from Windows" deal, I forget the name, and I think it's completely gone now, because I've never come across it recently, but it didn't work right and I got a kernel panic and I didn't want to not have an operating system or have to go buy Windows again, since I didn't have it on disc, only pre-installed. So I just forgot about it and learned what I could using Windows, until I learned enough to want to use a Unix.

brianL 10-01-2010 04:47 AM

See the first entry of my LQ blog: Me and IT.

fatra2 10-01-2010 05:35 AM

Hi there,

Reading the posts here, I see that many people came to Linux from the Windows world. For me it seems to be the other way around.

I started using a computer, when I started my bachelor (many years back). The physics department, then, was only running Linux machines. I sat in front of one, with a screw driver, a got to know a little bit about it. It went on for almost 20 years now, where I had the luck of working in a Linux environment.

Recently (about two years ago), I started a new job, where Windows was the OS of the firm. To my surprise, everything was different. All the software that I knew, where missing, the access to the different company servers was different. But the biggest shock for me was to find out that Windows has "no" CLI. At first, I felt completely lost without my CLI.

OK, since then, I complained so often, that the IT agreed for me to run Linux virtually. Since then, I am happy again.

Cheers


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