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theif519 05-12-2011 07:21 PM

How did you get into Linux/UNIX and what made you stay with it?
 
Also, a question to other Newbies like me, what made you guys switch from Mac OS X or Windows to a Linux Distro or a UNIX "Flavor" or variant of BSD? Which distro is your favorite, why and why not? Do you think Linux is better than Windows and Mac OS X, if so, why? How did you familiarize yourself with the Linux distro of your choice? Are you more of a GUI-user or a Command-Line-User? This is just an honest question I'm asking people. Is it for Desktop purposes, programming purposes, experimental purposes, etc.?

pljvaldez 05-12-2011 07:34 PM

I'm no longer a new user, but I got started when I was trying to squeeze some life out some old hardware. Installed several distros and finally settled on Debian (Woody at the time). Then I just like playing, recompiling the kernel, fiddling with stuff. I've stuck with Debian and upgraded straight through Squeeze, even using dd to move it from one drive to another and up through several different machines (both purchased and built). I actually haven't installed fresh since Woody. At some point I should install a 64-bit version, but since everything is setup the way I want, I've been too lazy to reinstall.

I think linux and Windows are just different. I use each for different things. Win7 at work for CAD and whatnot. Debian at home for most things there, including desktop use, an internal file server, Mythtv backend, media server, etc. I like Win7 enough, but occasionally wish I had Squeeze at work for scripting stuff. I'm pretty well split between gui and cli at home. Having gone from Woody on up, there's still things that are easier for me to do via the cli, because that's how it was done when I started.

j1alu 05-12-2011 09:12 PM

per chance.
I have bought a PC with WinXP.
To learn a bit about it i borrowed magazines from the library.
At that time they came with CDs with Linux (ubuntu-wubi and suse).
I bought a few Linux-magazines with more distros... borrowed some books about Unix or Linux...
And that was that for my WinXP (3 months, and it was gone).
I had the luck that i did not need to relearn things as i didn't know anything (besides writing texts).

I don't know much, but do most of the things (say burning audio-cds) from the cli. But the cli is huge... very huge...

For me the best way to familiarize are forums. For others its man-pages, docus or other resources.

sundialsvcs 05-12-2011 09:15 PM

Well, as for this almost-fiftysomething old-phart ... :) ... I never "switched," and I have absolutely no intention of doing so now.

If you wander through my "circuit cellar" (and if you don't know what that means... Google (poor thing...) "BYTE Magazine"), you will find ... a Windows box, several Macintoshes, and Linux (which, these days, happens to be running in a virtual machine until the "real" Linux machine can be repaired).

Many years ago, I recognized that "Linux and Unix" were destined to become the predominant systems-of-use in the areas that most interested me (financially speaking and otherwise), and so I made it my business to learn all that I could about them. I took a "then cast-off" machine that wasn't doing anything useful, wiped it clean, and then spent :eek: many :banghead: productive :confused: hours/days/weeks/months "self-educating myself" :rolleyes: about it.

"Go, and do likewise."

Learn about what makes a (OS/X-based...) Macintosh tick. Learn about what makes Linux tick. Heck... learn about what makes Microsoft Windows tick! :cool:

(Believe it or not, those folks in Redmond really do know what they are doing!)

Fair Warning: You will feel like you are "taking a sip from a firehose!" Deal with it.

I happen to do this sort of thing because I (still...!) genuinely enjoy it. I guess that, when it comes to computer software, I actually am one of those folks who likes to stand around at a car-show, lift the hood, and talk about the (software...) engine. (And it just so happens that I've made a ... well ... "much better than 'okay'" ... living at it.)

jefro 05-12-2011 09:26 PM

I called a bulletin board in CA. to get BSD. Took me a few weeks at night rate. That was just the source. Seems it may have took me another two weeks to compile it just to get to a shell prompt.

I think it was general computer interest not really any anti-MS or other reasons.

I have used many OS's on many different hardware over the years. From a Sperry Rand to PDP-11 to Alpha's and DEC's and many more. I always got a big kick out of HP BASIC being used for something I can't say. Who knew that something so simple would be used for that?

At one time I was a BeOS user and thought it should have had a chance.

frankbell 05-12-2011 10:36 PM

I had heard about this Linux thing and decided that, if I ever had a spare computer, I would give it a whirl (at the time there was the family desktop and my laptop and that was it).

Then a co-worker, who had had a side business buying up surplus computers from his wife's employer (Princeton University, NJ, USA) and turning them into what he called "Granny machines" (basic Windows with web browsing and email capabilities) wound up his side business and gave me three computers: Two IBM PC300s and an HP. The HP was a carcase, but I got the PC300s working, slapped Slackware 10.0 on them, and haven't looked back.

I shipped one of them, along with one page of instructions about how to log in and start X, to second daughter, who used it for years and never called me for support (so much for the "Slackware is hard" thing).

About the same time I met a guy in a class I was teaching who told me about running a website out of his home with Linux. That sounded like fun. So I set the other box up as a LAMPP server, brought my existing website in from members.aol.com, and started a blog, because I could.

That was six years, three home servers, and 9,000 blog posts ago. I no longer self-host, because my database outgrew self-hosting.

I learned this along the way:

Linux is not Windows. Don't expect it to act like Windows. It's different.

Once you know how to use it, Linux is easier than Windows.

arashi256 05-13-2011 04:14 AM

Mostly I stuck Linux on an old machine because it was either that or throw the machine away :) It certainly didn't have enough grunt for Windows 7 and I always hated XP. Once I'd done that, I just found extra uses for it like self-hosting a website, writing scripts for backup, using Samba for a file server for my Windows laptop and so on...when I found myself actually spending more money and time upgrading that server than I did for my Windows machines, I simply switched :) Never looked back.

Samael 05-13-2011 04:48 AM

I came across Linux and other systems like Solaris and BSD in 2004 while I was discovering the joys of creating static HTML webpages. It wasn't until the following year that I tried it out. At the time though it seemed like too much effort to make the switch from Windows so I left it. A few years later I started a computing degree which had a module about Linux so I started dual booting on my laptop. What's helped the most is that during my final year I started working for a hosting company that used Ubuntu and FreeBSD on their servers so I was in a situation that forced me to use cli on a daily basis. I've tried various distros but have found Fedora and Ubuntu to be my preferred choice. I now work for a software company that are completely Mac based and have to say that during the time I've done this role I've swayed towards OSX a lot. I do still use Fedora often though.

SL00b 05-13-2011 08:45 AM

I started working with Linux by the expedient of having it hurled at me at work. I'd been a mainframe sysprog for several years, and it has a Unix Systems Services subsystem that I'd always tinkered with more than most. Plus, once in my dark past, I'd been assigned to a project for HP Openview on HP-UX that never really got off the ground due to contract squabbles, but we at least got things installed, and I picked up some training.

Some genius decided our mainframe was going away (it's not anymore) and threw a Power6 platform at the mainframe team, to stand up some i5/OS and Linux partitions. Based on the fact that I was the only one with any real experience in *nix environments, I became the full-time Linux guy, and the baptism by fire began. I've only been working with it for a couple years, so I'm no expert by any means, but I know what I know, and I try to help out here where I can, and learn from others where I can.

I've got a home PC I'm looking to retire as soon as I buy its replacement. When that's done, I intend to wipe that PC and install Linux. I'm currently using that PC as a file and print server, and we've identified a future use for a web server. Whenever the word "server" comes up, I shudder when it's combined with the word "Windows."

I'll go with openSuSE because I'm already working with SLES, so it's what I know. But if I have issues with it, I'll start looking at other distros.

MTK358 05-13-2011 09:28 AM

I unsuccessfully tried Linux a few times before, and I expected it to be similar to Windows. The method of installing software was very confusing for me, and I rushed to install antivirus (even though I knew nothing about what I was doing) because I thought it was necessary, like in Widnows. Finally, I felt like why have a computer when you can't use most software on it? I gave up, thinking Linux was a useless toy and wondering why people with so much knowledge would waste their time developing it.

Then I found out about VirtualBox, and decided to try Linux again, and really learn about it this time, from a "I want to learn Linux to find out what it is", instead of a "I want to get away from Windows" standpoint. I spent all day reading online documentation and tutorials, installed Fedora in VirtualBox, and fell in love with it. Soon, I wiped Windows off my drive and installed Linux.

szboardstretcher 05-13-2011 09:30 AM

I saw a screenshot of a linux desktop using Enlightenment 0.x years ago, and it was skinned with some kind of Geiger-esque pics.

I immediately wanted my computer to look like that, so I ended up downloading it and installing it. Got a few books, been using it ever since.

Now days, I use it because I administer mainly linux servers, and I like the underlying bash shell for that.

DavidMcCann 05-13-2011 11:24 AM

I too never switched from Windows. I had MSDOS at work, then Linux. At home, I had a rare beast, the Q60, which came with both SMSQ and Linux installed. When I switched from that to a home-built PC, carrying on with Linux seemed the obvious thing to do. I bought a secondhand laptop last year, and the vendor had already replaced Windows with Linux. It seems I'm destined never to have a Windows computer: I think I can live with that!

MrCode 05-13-2011 07:13 PM

I don't quite remember how it all started for me, but I will admit that I was drawn into Linux by the looks of a certain OpenGL-based compositing window manager…:rolleyes:

I started with this little old LiveCD-based thing (based on a 2.4 kernel) called "Cool Linux CD". Mostly I loaded it up because I liked to watch the screensavers, LOL.

Then I found Ubuntu (mostly due to that certain window manager; I'd seen screenshots/screencasts on the 'net of people's tricked-out customizations). I initially installed it in a virtual machine under Windows XP…I had experimented with MS Virtual PC (with that Cool Linux CD thing), then VirtualBox, because I thought it would be neat to be able to run old versions of Windows or something in an "emulated" environment. Such was not the case; old Windows versions ain't free. I think this is part of how I discovered Linux actually: I was looking for something to run in VirtualBox! :p I think I discovered VB before the company that originally developed it (innoTek GmbH IIRC) was bought out by Sun, and long before Sun was taken over by Oracle, LOL.

Moving on…

My first "native" install was with Ubuntu's "Wubi" installer, wherein it boots the OS from a disk image file located in your existing Windows filesystem (so it makes disk access a little slower). I was having serious wireless issues with it, and so I was asking around different places (family, LQ, Ubuntu forums, etc.…in fact, that's how I ended up joining LQ), and I got a recommendation from my uncle to maybe add another HDD and install Ubuntu to that…so I did. Of course, that didn't really solve the wireless issue, but it did allow me to have a "fully native" install of Ubuntu.

I just loved messing around with all the Compiz/Emerald/GTK visual themes on it, and I even thought I was gonna start writing Compiz animation plugins at one point (yeah right :rolleyes:). Needless to say I was very graphically oriented at the time.

However, and again, don't ask me how :p, I started gaining more interest in the CLI. I found myself in that wobbly, shiny, bright orange terminal window with alpha-blurring enabled (:rolleyes:) more and more often.

I'll go ahead and skip the long interim between then and when I got a new machine (a second-hand one; a friend of my mom's was more than happy to let me have it), and start with how I found out about Arch, and why I still use it today.

I think I discovered Arch mainly because I was looking for something in between Ubuntu and Slackware (I wanted automatic dependency management, but not the bloat of Ubuntu). So I grabbed an i686 ISO of the Arch "core" installer, and I threw it on the old second-hand machine. My first steps weren't perfect, but after actually *reading* the Arch wiki documentation (which IMO is still an awesome Linux wiki, not just for Arch) on how to set up Xorg, a DE, etc., I was more than happy with it.

At some point down the road, my mom got me this laptop as a sort of "graduation present" for completing my GED, and I was like, "oh boy modern hardware! 64-bit dual-core with HT FTW!", and since I already liked Arch on the old desktop machine, I was glad to be able to finally download an x86_64 Arch ISO and give the whole 64-bit thing a try. :D

At another point I decided I wanted Arch on my main desktop, too (was getting bored with/tired of Ubuntu 9.04; things were getting dated compared to Arch's bleeding edge stuff, which I liked), and it's pretty much been that way ever since.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what I did with the second-hand "frankencomputer", I recently put FreeBSD on it…LOL?

Okay, (computing) life story post complete. Must…stop…typing…

sycamorex 05-13-2011 07:22 PM

I heard that using Linux prevents hair loss - that's how I decided to use linux. The thing about the hair turned out to be a lie. I am almost bald, but I got to like linux.

hilyard 05-14-2011 02:10 AM

DOS on an old i386 with WordPerfect 5.1 was how I started into the PC world, so command line was not intimidating. Eventually, I got into raster-based GIS apps and burnt out on Windows NT & W2K in a GIS shop after five years tweaking the OS registry to make it perform as desired. Originally, I wanted to get into UNIX but Sun sold out, so I went with Linux, instead.

Starting with Ubuntu Jaunty, I went to PCLinuxOS, then distro-hopped using mostly Ubuntu-based, Debian-based and Slackware-based distros: Sabayon (the only Gentoo-based distro tried); openSUSE; Unity (Mandriva-based); Fedora and Xange; Zenwalk, Vector SOHO, Absolute and Salix; MEPIS, antiX, Debian net-install; Mint; Element, Pinguy, SuperOS, Lubuntu and peppermint; Puppy, Sli-taz, U-lite and ULTILEX (which includes Slax, TinyCore, Puppy).

Of all of them, I like peppermint, antiX and Salix, in that order. Why?
a) I dislike KDE immensely (except for K3b)
b) Performance is a top priority, so LXDE and lite WMs attract me
c) Older machines like P4s are a necessity for those who cannot afford new (as with many friends)
d) Customizability and non-conformity make Slackware-based distros an appealing challenge
e) Debian affords itself to time-saving scripts like smxi and has huge repos

Out of necessity (mainly due to wireless issues), I recently went with my first dual-boot using Win7 and peppermint on a new laptop. If it were not for mobiles and wireless, I would not have gone back to even my currently limited use of Windows.

manu-tm 05-14-2011 11:36 AM

First computer I bought was a ZX-81. Extremely limited in all senses (prehistoric) until I found out how to code in assembly :study: (I ended up with a small, almost quick, game.) Then I purchased a PC with MS-DOS and I stuck with assembly. At the time, the only way of doing decent graphical things was to hack the video card. And assembly just meant speed. So I ended up with some 3D stuff that was really fast. Then I got a dev job and learned C. There were PC and Mac. I remember the Mac has GUI and was running perfectly. When the first versions of Windows arrived, it was, hmmm... crap (taking ages to try to open a single window.) Later, when I felt I had to learn the win32 API and C++ :banghead: which I utterly disliked (still do ;)), I started to lost interest in coding. Until a few years later when I heard about Linux :cool:. After a few unsuccessful tries with Debian (because I only had the cli and didn't know how to set it up), I got Ubuntu installed. It was just much easier to mess with my new system so I stuck with it. And I found out that it was still ok to dislike C++ crap (no offense intended, only my personnal opinion ), use the cli, and hack your os as much as you wish. Since then, I've been using Linux almost full time (I still have a win xp install somewhere because I maintain a few cross-platform apps with MinGW.) I do think that if Windows is still around, it's mainly because of Microsoft financial power and still dominant position in the desktop market. But I have nothing against them, I just prefer Linux for it's openness :D, freedom, quality, community :hattip:, and many, many other reasons...

DavidMcCann 05-14-2011 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sycamorex (Post 4355824)
I heard that using Linux prevents hair loss - that's how I decided to use linux. The thing about the hair turned out to be a lie. I am almost bald, but I got to like linux.

You must have the wrong distro: I have masses of hair in my seventh decade. Are you sure you weren't driven to tear it out? :D

rediflex 05-14-2011 10:08 PM

Like many others here, I got my start with Linux by way of wanting to tinker, and keep around older hardware. I think my first experience with Linux was probably Fedora Core 5. More recently I've used Ubuntu, Mint, Peppermint, AntiX, and Crunchbang. I still have a WinXp install on my oldest running PC, but it doesn't see much use. Now I sort of collect other people's old unwanted machines and have my way with them. I'm supposed to be getting a couple of really old laptops, (P2, 128MB ram) so I am going to delve into building up something super-lightweight from a starting point of something like AntiX-core or Debian net-install. I can easily spend an entire evening messing around with a single conky configuration and not feel like my evening was wasted. But I love learning new things!

John VV 05-15-2011 03:15 AM

back in `04 i found that 95%+ of the programs i was using everyday on XP I had built in Mingw or was running in kde2 in cygwin
and the 5% i did not build were ports TO windows .

after 3+ years building Linux code on XP using MinGW
fedora 4 was a VERY easy OS to use and to fix


but this all started with two programs back in 2001 to 2
Gimp
Celestia

gimp built in Mingw ( i did once build gtk and gimp on Visual Studio 7 - never again!!! ) but the mingw build was way easier

Celestia -- built in both vs7 and Mingw

choogendyk 05-15-2011 12:37 PM

In the mid to late 1990's, Mac jobs were becoming more scarce. During a period of unemployment, I focused my energies on studying networking and working together between Macs, Windows and Linux. I installed Virtual PC on my Mac and dual booted it with Linux and Windows. I ended up getting a job in a Windows environment as a network specialist. When it turned out they had Unix servers, and no one else wanted to focus on Unix, I volunteered and was sent to training. I've been doing Solaris Systems Administration ever since. My desktops have always been Mac (even when everyone else had Windows PCs and I was responsible for maintaining a Novell server). I've done some OpenBSD and am now getting more into Ubuntu Linux, although my main responsibility is still Solaris 10 servers.

In my own personal opinion, anything is better than Windows. I have to know a bit of Windows, because I have to support a mixed environment. But there are dedicated Windows support people who are constantly handling all the problems Windows users are having. Even in a NATted private network environment, there are frequent infections because of Windows users who click on links they shouldn't -- "Oh, man, I'm really sorry. I thought that was our own network people telling me I was over quota." The Linux and Mac users require much less support.

RedNeck-LQ 05-15-2011 05:06 PM

I stopped using windows in the late ninety's and went full time with linux and freebsd. I also use android about 50% of the time.

I've stayed with linux and the BSDs because I love the power of shell scripting, commandline stuff and various programming tools like python and others.

PhoenixAndThor 05-15-2011 08:19 PM

I first started using free/libre software when I was in high school and didn't have enough money for M$ Office. I heard about OpenOffice(now I use LibreOffice) and decided to give it a try. Well, it obviously worked, and it turned out to be the first of many apps, including Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, Inkscape, VLC, gxine, etc. Soon, I got to a point where the only things that remained a thorn in my side were the adware, viruses, and other cyber filth that plagued millions of machines like mine. After griping about yet another virus, and yet another round of hoop jumping in a chatroom, someone suggested I download and try GNU/Linux. The first distribution I ever tried was Debian. I was far from an expert, but it didn't take me long to find my way around. The difference was huge however, it was like moving from a 1 bedroom apartment into a giant 32 room mansion:cool:

Even today, I stick with GNU/Linux because I find it to be much more open, flexible, and powerful than anything else on the market. I also haven't spent a single dime on software:D Now, I'm in college taking a web design course. The main thing that bothers my instructors is the fact that, even though I'm sitting in front of this 20-ish inch iMac, I still insist on using my 10 inch Hp Mini:confused: Seriously though, with the virtual screens, it doesn't feel that small to me.

Well, that's my story, and I enjoyed reading yours:)

corp769 05-15-2011 08:52 PM

I was a programmer and a "security guy" on windows platforms ever since I was very young, but I discovered the power of linux when I was, umm, 16 I believe? Something like that... I will be 25 in June, and I will NEVER go back. Linux is f*ck*ng dominant, period. :)

corp769 05-16-2011 05:27 AM

To add to my previous post, I am a quick learner; I went from knowing nothing to full out programming and networking with linux in about a year. Compiled my own kernel within the first week of using linux..... Microsoft don't have sh*t on this! :p

melbob 05-18-2011 06:29 AM

Back in 2002 I was given a old computer but it didn't have an operating system on it. Then I found a boxed copy of Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 in a bookshop. It came with a bonus book "Linux Desk Reference". I managed to install it and it's been Linux ever since.

MBybee 05-18-2011 10:05 AM

I came in from commercial Unix and VMS environments. Hardcore BSD person for the longest time...

Linux is what I run the most of these days, because BSD seems to take more and more to get working and Linux seems to just work. OpenBSD finally added NTFS support by default (this month!), but since I still have to run a VM on a daily basis, well, Linux works.

Not really a GPL fan.

soplin 05-18-2011 11:51 AM

I got into GNU/Linux because of curiosity, and a BSD CD. Went from BSD to Gentoo to Mandrake to Fedora to Slackware to Debian to Ubuntu to Puppy and now am happy with Debian.


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