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Woo (success story of from windows to slackware :D)
So there I was on windows 2000 after yet ANOTHER reboot. I was idly sitting around on IRC, looking for something to do. Talk of the source code leak was all over. Then, a friendly announcement on the IRC server about a new windows security hole.. yay. Not wanting to have my computer stop working I check it out. Finding it to be a critical update, I download the patch. I run the program.. and am told to back up my harddrive before continuing?
I saw that as the last straw. I should NOT have to back up my harddrive just to fix microsoft's mistakes. Thinking about all the good things I had heard about linux, I emailed my brother and began to back my harddrive up. He thought I would like mandrake.
The first few weeks were pretty nice, I had more problems than I would've liked. But I was determined to stay away from windows. I couldn't do ANYTHING without kde and my rpms, whenever I tried to compile from source I left it alone. I was having to restart about once a week but thought nothing of it.
After a few hectic experiences with upgrading kernels and using console (only able to ssh to another computer to log onto a MUD to get some help from a friend), I developed a huge problem: I broke X. Every 1-10 minutes I had to reboot. Frustrated, I logged onto console and began working with it. I became more comfortable with compiling and using the console, missing only the graphics. But after so many friends saying "hey look at this" and my helping friend's frustration over mandrake, I decided to move on.
Red Hat was recommended to me, so I downloaded the ISOs and burned them. I popped in the first disc.. and got an error. Ah, the oh so wonderful "can't find a RH9 install CD." After looking for help all over, I gave up. RH9 was not working and I didn't want to use more CDRs. So I got a crazy idea: move on from mandrake to slackware.
Deciding not to cut any corners as usual, I downloaded everything and made my own ISO. I burned it and went to install.. after struggling a few hours I sat down and read everything I could about it (I'm a very impatient person, with mandrake I just had to follow the menu). Unfortantly, I was not able to fit KDE on it.
I worked on tweaking my console a little then headed to KDE's website with links. The .tgz packages that came with the slackware files didn't seem to work, so I downloaded the source. While compiling I read everything I could find about installation. I was able to install it pretty much without difficulty.. and ran into an error. The permissions on my ICEauthority file were messed up. Normally I would've given up, but I wanted to be able to do something on my own. So I searched with the error and learned what I could about it. I deleted the file and started up the x server.. and it worked!
Although many people told me I shouldn't have gone to linux, then to slackware, I'm glad I did. I am learning so much more using slack, and with linux I seem to be more in control. Although I wish I could find out how to change a few more things, I'm working on making my harddrive a lot more linux-friendly. In console I learned why capitalization/spaces are annoyances. :P
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