I bought a computer that had Windows 95 as its "then ... (actually, it's true) ... state-of-the-art operating system." The computer performed like "nothing to look at," but it was frankly the best that I could afford at the time.

Eventually, that machine got replaced by a slightly-faster desktop, and the laptop languished in a closet for a little while.

Nevertheless, "I was already thinking." I happen to have a ilot of experience in "operating systems" and "virtualization," using IBM's VM, VM/SP, and VM/XA operating systems on "big-iron," so I was ready to take a chance. To experiment, because I could already sense that Linux was very likely to be "a 'next big thing.'"

(Mind you, at this time, Macintoshes were still stuck with MacOS ... "System 9" and other technological dead-ends ...)

So, I grabbed this "old" machine and started to experiment with it. First, with a then-free release of Red Hat. But, when that support-subscription ran out, I decided to plunge into Linux From Scratch (LFS), which rather-natcherly lead to Gentoo, a completely source-code based, "compile everything yourself," distribution.

And, all of the sudden, this "poky 'old' machine" was positively running "like a bat out of hell!!"

"And, indeed, my intuitions have proven to be prescient," and my prior experience with operating-systems (albeit for "big iron") served me quite well. The many hours that I invested "poring over the source code to a great many things" resulted in a fairly-deep understanding of the overall Linux system. (Umm... "to the paltry extent that any such thing might be comprehended by 'mere mortals' like myself ...")

Anyway ... ... "it has been, and it continues to be, 'one helluva ride!"

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Well, I was so disgusted with using Microsoft with it's crashes, updates in the middle of what I was doing, I guess I started to think there just had to be a better way, a better operating system, so I started to think about all the department stores, and what they used, and I read that they use a more stable OS, and that system is Unix. So I read more and found out that Unix OS and Linux OS are related, so I searched and read more, I read that Ubuntu was stable and free to try, so I started with ( my 1st mistake) Ubuntu 15.04 which was beta, but I used it for a while and realized it needed more work, I was not willing to figure the solutions, so I went down to Ubuntu 14.04, that was better but still buggy, so I read more and found Linux Mint which works fine for me.

However there has been one problem which I can't seem to solve, it's printers, HP seems to work with a driver I found (what a job to get it to work through the Terminal though) Linux servers like mine, but when you read these printer manufacturers are not interested in getting their printers to be compatible with Linux, it's like they have all the business they need with MS users, and they don't care much about Linux users.

Anyway that's what I have found out about Dell and Epson (they will tell you they have software for Linux, but it's only for the printer, multifuntion machines will not scan, copy, or fax from the computer) I'm still searching for a solution to this problem.

So the bottom line is Linux can be a work in progress, but I like it much better than Microsoft, there is so much you can do on Linux that any other OS and it's 100% more stable than Microsoft OS.

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Hi all,

I was introduced to Linux at University back in 2007. I was doing a BSc in Physics and we had a module in year 1 where we would learn about the LaTeX typesetting software and at the same time, since the lecturer is a die hard Linux user, we learnt how to use the system. Finally we learnt about the versatility of Linux distros and how widespread it is in the scientific world. We often use supercomputers and we do all sorts of software development, so a Linux distro like Slackware is a great tool to have thanks to its large collection of libraries and development packages.

Finally, over time, I completely switched to Linux. I was tired of Windoze and its everlasting problems, viruses and the over-usage of hardware resources. Linux is just better at keeping your machine young, clean and smooth.

Long live Linux.
Long live Slackware Linux.

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Exactly, precisely? Honestly, I don't remember the very first time I saw the word Linux. It may have been in Computer Shopper in the early 1990s because I do remember seeing a Linux magazine in a Seattle bookstore in 1995, and recognizing Linux in the title. That was well before I bought a new Micron Pentium tower to run the then newly-released Windows 95. I was aware of Red Hat then, but I was not a full-time user because my focus was elsewhere, despite a co-worker with a Tux model on his tech support cubicle's top bookshelf.

My 586 tower was converted, not much later, to a Windows NT 4.0 machine, and in the process of adding drivers for a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! the entire machine froze solid, requiring rebuild from clean platters. I was furious! The result was I created my first dual-boot machine with Mandrake 7.1, chosen after reading a magazine review about the graphical installer. Sometimes the pressure of crisis is the necessary catalyst for beneficial change. Would that it were not so, and logic could prevail more often, but that's life!

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I found Linux through a friend, a computer programmer who works with Llinux, travelling the world, setting up Linux networks. That is several years ago, maybe 10, and I love it. thanks

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I'm not entirely sure HOW I got started. I started fiddling with various distros from around 2001 / 2002, but only got sort of serious in 2006 when the wife got a job at a small firm providing Linux solutions to schools and small businesses.

The owner of the company, at that time, was punting an accounting package he'd helped develop for Linux. It was through one of his associates that I received a free (obviously) copy of Ubuntu 6.06, KDE edition.

I only went full time Linux after my WinXP crashed. I thought at that time that the hard drive had crashed, but it was WinXP that was crashing.

Played with Fedora Core (as it was then known), Mandrake, Arch, Solaris (they sent me a CD in the mail), Ultimate, Red Hat, Slackware, numerous others I can't remember. I eventually settled on Ubuntu and remained a fanboi until it started shipping Unity as the default DE and advertising. Now I use Debian (I switch between Cinnamon and Gnome because I like both desktop environments) on my production computer and Mint (Cinnamon)on my play computer.

Just a side note: I'm not a techie, I'm more of a user. But during my journey with Linux, I have learned so much.

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Had to use it at work. We suddenly changed from X.25 to IP and were using IPSec, Gre and BGP on linux.
Someone had to learn how to do it.

First time i encountered linux was when i discovered that I could support science with BOINC in a virtualbox guest OS wich happened to be linux.

That lead me to buy a real computer to install linux as a dual boot with windows to get more processing power than when emulating it.

Later it showed that android basically was linux so in a way I had used linux 2 years earlier than I knew myself. But I'm not sure that counts.

Best regards,
Darkyere

In August of '93 I tripped over Slackware 1.0, on Usenet, looking for some way to learn Unix while being a VM/SP Systems Programmer for a group of universities. We were shifting from NOS on a CDC Cyber to SunOS on Sparc servers. I learned disk partitioning, dual booting, and eventually was able to completely replace all the Windows 3.11 software I was using with Linux, which gave me even better access to the VM system I was maintaining. I learned enough on my own, building packages without a package manager, that I was able to switch over to being a SunOS (5.5/5.6) Systems Administrator. I've run numerous Linux distributions over the years, and been a Sys Admin for other flavors (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, ...) but I always come back to Slackware.

It somehow came to me, I used many Unattended versions of Windows, including one, Windows trust, who came with Linux distribution themes, Fedora and Ubuntu, I later interested myself in what it was and I discovered Linux, I first tried Slackware, and after Debian Jessie Testing, but I returned at Slackware 14.1, which was my first Linux system.

Compaq 1540DM laptop> Dialup (later on upgraded connection after linux install) > Ebay > Motorcycle and Motorcycle parts. In that reasoning and order.

My Sharing. To pay to forward.

Full time Linux user now a days.

How did I discover Linux??
I had been working with and on computers since about 1975 or earlier. I cut my teeth as a computer programmer hand coding in machine language. MSDOS became popular and all the rage but since it followed the developments in DRDOS I suspected foul play. Progressed painfully into MSWindows 3.0/3.11 with little or no joy and I had a brief flirt with IBM OS/2 where I discovered GNU software. Whilst browsing a bookshop one day I picked up the books on Slackware Linux and I have never looked back. I was FREE FREE FREE of closed source proprietary software with very restrictive licences and I could do my own thing. I occasionally run MSWindows in a virtual machine to download DRM'd ebooks that I have purchased before transferring them to my home drive.

in '78 I read a book about 6502 Microprocessor and learned assembly language. 4 years later I implemented an independent kernel, OS and GUI on commodore 64. In 87 I was given a xenix based development system for cross assembly, cross C compilation and cross HW debugging of microprocessors. I found simply natural to use scripts for every single action that I had to repeat more than twice.
Then I stumbled in Windows because of business requirements and lived a few years of frustration because of the abominable limitedness of the pseudo OS and its shell. In 96 I was again enjoying the power of shell and scripting, not to mention the newly acquired freedom with linux. Since then it has been a hard coexistence with Windows until 2008 when my deal was over with UGS when Siemens acquire it and I could finally get read of the crappy C:\>cmd.com thing to give full space to THE OS, Linux obviously.
Since then I keep a vacuum preserved vm with Windows XP when I need to revive some zombie.

A friend told me about its reliability and stability. I've tried it and thinks its great

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away in small village with no internet access Linux discovered me.