I was upper level officer in provisional Govt. Initially Windows was used in all computers in the office. Later Govt. switched to open wares. Even though I was aware of Linux, happened to get acquaintance with it when Ubuntu was installed in office computer. Experience in the advantages over Windows compelled me to use Ubuntu in home pc from 2006.

My wife was using a very old computer of mine and it would barely run. In researching how to "fix" it I kept seeing posts about Linux. I mentioned it to a co-worker and he said he'd tried Ubuntu and thought it ran well. So I backed up everything on the old PC and installed Ubuntu. It was amazing, ran like a new computer. In that time I was growing more and more frustrated with all the mandatory updates from MS and decided to stick a toe in the water and dual boot. I was terrified that I would lose all my work and wouldn't be able to access any of my clients systems on Linux. I was wrong. It only took a few months for me to make the switch entirely. Today I only use Linux and actually my laptop is from System 76. I hope to never have windoze in my computer array ever again.

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In 2005 a friend referred me to Mandrake Linux and provided info from one of his colleagues. I bought the Mandrake Linux CD , installed the distro and used it on a Pentium 3 laptop ,still using WinXP on a desktop PC ,but 2007 I dumped Win XP and has used Linux only ever since . By that time I had moved on to Ubuntu and other Debian affiliated distros

Frank , in the north of Scotland

I recently came across this interesting page: http://www.comparebusinessproducts.c...ght-not-expect

I hardly remember now, but I think I by accident came across some of the original postings by Linus on UseNet, and was immediadely hooked! I loved Unix

This answer may seem odd to many members of this community, but it reflects something of what's going on in the sphere of technology.

My first contacts with a computer happened around 2000-2001, in the form of an already old IBM running only MS-Dos, system I still do appreciate in spite, and sometimes because, of its limitations. Some years later a friend introduced me into the world of Mac OS 8.6 and 9.0, system I also still do appreciate because of its elegance and some irreplaceable programs, and this in spite of Apple discarding the classic in favour of X.

As most people on this planet I've conflictual relations with most Windows versions, and one day, having found on eBay a PCLinuxOS 2007 CD, I decided to give it a go, and yes..., this was it ! The CD was damaged, but the live running of Linux gave me the taste for more, and after downloading and burning on CD an ISO of the same version, at last, I had an up to date Linux system on an old computer, and I now use Linux on a daily basis. I'm still grateful to that eBay member selling a damaged PCLinuxOS CD ;o)

I first discovered linux on web in order to re-vitalize an old laptop running W98 originally. When MS stopped supporting Windows XP, I started converting my other machines to linux.

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Mid to late 80s, Amiga User International (I think, may have been Amiga Format) gave Debian 2.2 away on a coverdisk, so installed. Overnight downloading (56k modem) and installing in (80 Mb HD installed, M68060 processor, so kick ass at the time) and had to rinse an repeat 6 - 7 times before I got a working system. Honestly, it was horrible. DE was practically non-existent just X. But I persevered.

Now I'm exclusively Linux (Arch) on a beautiful XFCE4 desktop that will emulate my former kick ass system far, far faster that the original ran natively.

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Read about it whilst on a computer course learning MSDOS in 1994, found a copy of Zipslack on a magazine cover disk, couldn't really run it until I got a better computer in 1999, when I waved goodbye to Microsoft & started trialling distros, RedHat 4.2 & Debian 2.1 were the first real distros that I ran.

(I also use BSD.)

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I don't remember.

My university gave a crash course using RedHat 6.1 back in 1999. I took a course, but did not install it until 4 years later, when a guy I knew from university offered to help me with the installation process. What he gave me was Slackware, though, which was a headache whenever I wanted to install anything, so it didn't take long before I switched to Debian (Sarge, which was the stable version at the time) following a friend's recommendation. That was the first distro I downloaded and installed by myself, and I've been using Debian ever since.

Since the late 1980's I was using Unix workstation at work. So I naturally switched to Linux for my home computer to get similar experience.

i was a TeamOS2 member and active in a local Users group that met monthly. In or around 1998 when IBM announced a 10 year support till EOL many of the members began experimenting with Linux and at the same time EMX runtimes made Linux apps, as well as DE/WMs, available on OS/2. I ran Enlightenment for awhile on WSeB OS/2 and liked it so when a Linux magazine sported a Mandrake install CD I tried it out. I had a hard time with Mandrake but saw the potential and began habituating Linux IRC channels and through those members i respected most found Slackware, installed v7 (almost immediately followed by v9 due to timing) and loved it right away and the affair only grew deeper with time.

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I discovered a floppy disk based package for RedHat at my local thrift shop in the early 1990s. I took it home and stumbled through the installation. After a few days I had a working system that did not fail like the microsoft os I had been using. I was impressed and started learning more. I have used redhat, deb-iane, suse, slacker, and mandrake based systems. I started a local group in Wichita Falls Texas at Midwestern University. We met weekly for installs and sharing information. Today Linux and android are the only systems which I trust.

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Wow, I'm old, so I could really talk ya'll to death here, but that just isn't necessary. I discovered Linux during 1994 when a friend of mine introduced me to it as I was learning about computers. I spent approximately 10 years ripping the &*$# out of Slackware when it first came out on CDs. Yea ... So holds the story - love Linux to death because I turned my computer into a fax machine / answering machine using mgetty, it was just really kewl because you didn't have to spend ars loads of money just to do the basic things. It was weird because in 4 weeks I could make a Linux box do more as a server than I could get windows to do as a client given twice that amount of time - go figure huh? Either way - forum is good, so I never closed the account. Thanks to all of you for keeping this forum / blog (does anyone still use that term) / message board (I know they don't use that) alive. Go Lilo and Long Live the zsh!

MB.