Success.....
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I was a Windows addict until six months back. I bought a new PC and decided that the time had come to try out Linux. Mandrake 8.2 was the OS, which my dad had bought at the IT.com fair, Bangalore. I also bought a book titled "Linux for Windows Addicts" by Michael Joseph Miller. I have not yet read it fully. But I understand linux much better thanks to this site and several others on the net. Also, at the time, I was connecting to the net through my parents' Win 98 Box using a proxy server solution. But my success was limited by my newbie inability to understand so many things.

Freedom....
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I read about Mandrake 9.1 and promptly went and bought the CDs at GT Enterprises, Bangalore. I began to then take Linux seriously and configured my mail and other stuff to work in linux. I also discovered a lot about the power of the Command Line. But at the time, I was still using Evolution as my Mail Client because it looks like M$ Outlook. I was beginning to move away from Linux. Most of my computer time at home was spent on Linux (The only have M$ at work). I began to get a taste of true freedom.

Peace...
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My peace of mind went off when my parents' Win 98 box caught SOBIG F and NIMDA. The download speed nosedived. It was at around this time that I discovered Coyote Linux. I made a floppy and booted my parents' system with it one night. That was it! I was my ticket to permanent freedom! The downloads were super-quick and every thing worked like a dream, including KSiRC, something that I could never use with the M$ and proxy server solution. I then began my quest to find a junk system to use as a router so that I could be totally free of M$. I set up a doorstop system last week and was amazed that Linux could do so much from just one floppy disk. My happiness knows no bounds and I feel peace of mind at last.

Disgust.....
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I feel disgusted now at work. I feel disgusted whenever I see M$ give me a BSOD. I feel disgusted whenever it hangs and cannot control processes running on it. Overall, I feel disgusted that I have to work on M$ at all. Why, I ask, cant people at my workplace see the light???


Linux is like an answer to a spiritual quest for freedom, as far as I am concerned. Maybe my feelings are a little extreme. But they are just that...!!!

Thanks a lot LQ

Hmm.... well.... uh... good?

A lot of people find linux great for many reasons... not just the community and the open-source, although that's a huge part

Linux is a virus.......spreading across the internet like wildfire!!!

And believe me......im happy to be sick!!!!

I LOVE MY LINUX!!!!!!

A story like this is just what I need to read when I feel discouraged with my own Linux quest (which is often). I'm 63 years old and don't feel I have enough time left to become expert, even if I could. But I do what I can. I started using Linux in January 2003 after buying Windows XP "upgrade" only to find that, $urpri$e, $urpri$e, you can't upgrade an OEM installation! (Which is what MOST people have.) (I wonder how many bucks MS makes suckering people this way--and you can't get your money back for the opened software.)

It thrills me to read recently how the governments of several countries are switching wholly or in part to Linux, just to get away from Microsoft. I hope it's a trend that continues and spreads.