Where did you hear about Linux first?

I heard about it from my dad a while back, then researched it.

EDIT: Could some mod remove multi-select? Sorry.

I don't remember anymore. LOL is probably a long time ago but I started this year april or something

MylesCLin: It looks I have no option to change the pool type. Probably needs to stay as it is. Also, multiselect may be applicable in certain cases.

I'm a big old "other." Way back in the day I was learning to program and got really sick and tired of downright ****y compilers for DOS/Windows. Somewhere... oh yeah... it was a printed edition of the Hacker's Dictionary I found the the library in town... I read about GNU and Unix. I read about C which was my language of choice and how the system (Unix) was written in it. Some further research -- this book was 1991 edition and Linux was not mentioned in it -- turned up reference to a free version for PCs call Linux.

A LOT of asking around and eventually I had a CD with Slackware 2.2.0 (yes, this was 1995) arrive in the mail from someone I didn't even know who heard my cry. Forgotten hacker... who mailed me that... your name was not on the envelope and I never was able to figure out who you were... but thank you... you changed my life. **

It was a regular system for me after that although not my daily system. It did not become my daily system until another couple of years... when I really started to get tired of Windows.

** Note: This was one of those, "I have a friend who can send you the CD..." kind of deals... friend, of a friend, of a friend I barely knew through a digital connection. EDIT: Also, I was a little more naive back then and actually gave out my mailing address to several people I met on BBS's. I have since realized how foolish that was... but it did get me introduced to Linux.

I heared about Linux from a tech guy in second hand copmuter shop. He was talking with a woman. The woman asked if he can give her a Linux CD. The guy asked what's this and she replied "It's an OS developed by its customers" It sounded strange to me and I decided that I'll try this one day.
My first try with Linux was in the middle of march this year with Slackware.

Ahh I remember it fairly well as it was only about 2 months ago. While trying to learn Python Unix kept cropping up which I didn't really understand although I guessed it was an OS. A while later a was reading "How To Become A Hacker" http://catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html from a link on the Python website http://www.python.org and saw that apparently the authors favourite Unix was Linux so I started looking into it. I first downloaded Barnix which was pretty crap as it's not finished so I tried DSL which I thought was very cool although it seemed quite restrictive due to the fact it was a Live CD version so I finally changed to SuSE 9.1 which is pretty cool if frustrating at times. I'm just glad it doesn't lock out all the time, I've been using it for about a month often with a hell of a lot running at the same time and I haven't had to reboot it once. Phew!

I don't remember when I first heard "Linux" and knew what it referred to, but the first time I heard the word in a context that made me start thinking about it was when I wrote a letter to a New York Times arts critic about some review he'd published, and got back a reply in which he jokingly said, "And I'll bet you use Linux, too."

That planted the seed but I was afraid to make the switch till necessity and anger against what I continued to learn, firsthand and through news items, about Microsoft made me decide it was that or no computer. That was January 2003 and I am glad I switched.

I first heard the term Linux back in 1997 or so, but didn't really know what it meant. It wasn't until August, 2000, when I began to seriously teach myself programming that I really got experience with it. The reason for that was the program I wanted to hack on only ran on Unix or Unix-like systems. I convinced someone with similar interests to set me up with an account on a Linux system he had, and i was off. I didn't install my own Linux system until nearly a year later -- late July or early August, 2001.

Since then I've branched out to the BSDs (Free and Net, at first, just installed OpenBSD for the first time yesterday ), Solaris (on an old Ultra5 procured off eBay), and Irix (at work). Slackware Linux is still my main Unix-like OS, though.

Back in about 1994 my uncle dropped off boxes and boxes of Slackware floppies after I inquired about a UNIX that runs on a PC. The install on the 386/33 DX took all damn night, but it was well worth it. The next day I had the kernel rebuilt ( took 4 hours on that PC ) and had X, SoundBlaster, printer all working... I remember hacking at the X monitor scan values for hours; produced real interesting sounds from the monitor. That version even had the Doom demo on it. Played very well.

Well, it was a freak accident when I discovered Linux really. I had just finished building my very first computer, and after trying for a while to get the Win 2k that came with my parents Dell to install (rookie mistake) I decided to search around on the net for a pirated version. I found a site that had a link to a download for what it claimed to be Windows 2000 professional. So I downloaded it, burnt the CD and popped it into my computer. Low and behold, after a few minutes I was greeted with a colourful menu and at the top it said Red Hat. After a bit of research, I installed Red Hat 7.3 and have been using linux ever since.

I attend a gathering in my university, and there were peple selling Linux magazines with Mandrake cd on it. I wondered what it was.
I bought it and installed it....................... that's it

I'm ashamed to say it ... but ... last year I bought a Mandrake CD set
at Wal-Mart for $25 US.

I think it was on the net somehow, but I really can't remember so I checked "other" too

mark

I got Red Hat 5 as a freebie from a PC mag years ago,
It installed flawlessly on my new pentium 200mmx system,

it was great but it didnt like my SupraExpress internal modem so I binned it & went back to win95 for a while longer....

Don't remember the year, but it was a long time ago . One of my friends was constantly talking about it and ended up giving me a stack of floppies with Slack 2.something on them. The install was painful, but I was persistant . It was a beutiful sight to get x up and running. I wish I could claim guru status after all this time, but alas, I am still a mere mortal user that has to constantly look up stuff hehe. I've used several different distros, the ones I used regularly were Caldera, Mandrake and currently Debian (you gotta love apt-get).