Been a Windows user for years, was nerver particularly happy with it however. So at some point back in the late 90's, I decided to see if there was anything else available. Bought a few CD's (back when you could still get linux CD's at Staples and Office Depot) since I had dial-up, and started trying everything I could with highly limited success (never did find a distro that I was able to get my modem to work in). Eventually when I moved to where I could broadband, I started downloading distro's, and of course had much better success. Shortly thereafter, I found Libranet, which was the first distro that I was able to get pretty much EVERTYTHING to work perfectly on. I was hooked, and began to actually use Libranet more often than Windows. Libranet passed into history like so many others, and I distro-hopped most of the "easy" distro's for a while. Eventually, because I at the time supported linux servers at work, I was sent to class to get my RHCT. With the learning from that, I made the switch to Debian proper as my primary OS, although I still distro hop on some other hardware I have.

In 2000 I became involved with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Specifically, use of the raster-based geospatial analysis software, ERDAS Imagine. Training included delving into the OS which, at the time, was Solaris on Sun workstations. Macro language and Vi along with Spatial modeling and 3-D fly-by over Landsat5 scenes I mosaicked after selecting three-band combos for best display of data and then making one-band 256 color images to be underlain by Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) were but a part of my job.

After five years of doing this, I burnt out on making NT4 and W2K perform on modest workstations via registry tweaks primarily. Following a six-year hiatus, I got back into using PCs and swore to myself I would not use Windows ever again. But Solaris was in limbo at the time, so my next choice was GNU/Linux. I have been using Linux ever since.

Through my mother. She's been in the IT sector since the late 70s, so at one point, when she got fed up with Windows, she decided to go back to Linux, and I kinda followed suit (I was about 6 at the time)

Getting involved like contributing or getting involved as using it?
If latter methinks it was RH 5.1 given to me by a friend of mine. Year was 1997 I believe. It was extremely steep learning curve. I remember to get Gravis Ultrasound working I had to patch the kernel. Kernel source download took 14 hours with analog modem. All documentation was in English and I knew less than 10 words in English when I started. So I was learning a new OS and a new language same time ... Compiling a new kernel on a 40 MHz 486 took another 12 hours.

I was kidnapped by an Alien Bobcat and when I woke up next day I was using Slackware 13.37. I can't lie.

Regards.

I tried Linux in 2003 after hearing of it, but wasn't interested enough then to put in the necessary time and effort to figure it out. I got involved more seriously in 2005. I accidentally locked up my hard drive, and a Linux user showed me how to make a Knoppix liveCD and at least rescue the files. I abandoned Windows permanently in 2008.

yes, my first contact with linux was when i was trying to rescue a virus-damaged windows laptop, maybe 2007.
but it took me another 4 years to change to linux - the catalyst was "customisation", i blushingly admit, but seeing my non-nerd girlfriend writing her thesis on a ubuntu laptop that looks so cool by default, and has a torrent client installed and integrated into the system, is what made me change. i never looked back. it's good to be in control of what's happening on my computers.

I started with Mandrake 5.1; soon after, I tried Slackware 7 and I've been using Slackware ever since.

Got a second habit computer - came with win98 preinsralled. One of my friends wanted to give me win XP CD's but then for some reasons he did just forgot. Then another one of my friends gave me knoppix CD. Worked like a charm. Needed 2weeks to figure out the monitor resolution though. The monitor only supported 800x600 resolution. Realised right away the importance of reading man pages and boot instructions. Wanted a -real-time is though. Installed Ubuntu - that was a lot of work - then stuck with debian for about 6 months.
Eventually found slackware. Found home.

I was using a Sinclair QL and needed more software, but wanted to keep my custom programs. The answer was a Q60, which double booted the QDOS OS and a port of Red Hat to the Motorola 68060. When I switched to a PC, I naturally installed Fedora 1.

Just the instinct.

i had the same problem with windows.
people always forget that installing windows from scratch is a much bigger pita than installing linux.

@rigor wrote:
I sure do! Great little compiler. Bought it and their database program. Used both for several years. I'd first gotten the Borland C compiler, version 1 for U.S. $99.00. I couldn't believe I could get one so cheap. Then I found the Mix C! Both were very good products. In a way, I kinda miss the old 'shareware' days.

enorbet wrote:
I also used OS/2. Bought all the reference manuals. Was the first GUI programming I ever did. Still like that OS. I went up through 'Warp' even. Kept it until I gave the machine away.

First found out about BSD and Linux from the old Walnut Creek CD's. Had a subscription so I could get the OS/2 stuff. When I first read about these, I had no idea what they were. Being completely ignorant, I decided to buy the Slackware set they had. I've had some flavor of Slack ever since. Even used FreeBSD and NetBSD on a different machine for awhile. Bought the first Slack set in '95.

I first became aware of Open Source software in 1992-1993, while working for a small commercial BBS called DSC (an acronym for "The Datamax/Satalink Connection") as a programmer. I developed an interface between the NCSA Telnet & FTP clients and the PCBoard BBS system. The DSC BBS became a small ISP called Voicenet. They decided to run Solaris, and I became the SysAdmin of it because I was not a Windows person. The First Open Source OS that Voicenet used was OpenBSD, which ran well on old Sparc2 and Sparc1 machines, (better than the early Solaris 2.x versions, in fact). We experimented with Linux/Intel to run mail (Qmail) and Usenet (INN) servers, and we sold webhosting with Apache on Solaris/OpenBSD/Linux, as well as IIS on Windows. I was trying to develop a TIVO-Like appliance based on Linux, ALSA and the Happauge Card when I was laid off in 2003.

I had forgotten all about Mix-C! What a great value it was, I wonder what ever became of it? I used Mix-C to teach an Intro to 'C' course at a High School Adult Ed Night Class in the 1990s, it was perfect. I think it was called 'Mix/Power-C' when I got it, I may still have the manual & floppy someplace.

At high school (The Bronx H.S. of Science, started in 1993), we used X stations to access the internet. The backbone of the system was an IBM server running AIX, and that was my first encounter with UNIX in general. I actually enjoyed using it, and got to know it. When I went to college, I learned about this thing called Linux, a dude on IRC from Canada explained to me how to install Red Hat Linux (ummm... in the 4.x or 5.x series at the time), compile the kernel for use with my sound card and compile BitchX (of course, needed an IRC client). All this on a 486. It took forever.

I was hooked. Never looked back.