It was back in the 90's and this Linux thing was catching on. I downloaded and created 17 (I think) disks to run Slackware on a spare 386 or 486 system that was not being used. I kept it updated until Red Hat started putting together a decent system sometime in the late 90's. I now run RHEL for work and Fedora for home.

Just like a good drug, I was hooked the first time
 

My first experience with Linux was in 2001, I was 48 years old. I worked for a major telecom company and I wanted to compete with the SUN/Unix people, the Windows people were looked down upon as second class citizens. My very first attempt at Linux on a desktop was with a Red Hat CD given to me by a server guy, it didn't work. I looked around and found Mandrake, I loaded it, it worked ! Everything worked, I had OpenOffice and Gnome as a desktop. I learned and tuned it up and I became the desktop hero, especially when I loaded up Opera from a 1.4 MB floppy. I wrote white papers for our management why I thought Linux would work in our company. I still run Linux (Salix) everyday now that I'm retired.

If memory serves correct, i first used red hat 4. Was 16 at the time and for some reason my dad bought the cds from best buy. Never used them, so one day picked them up and tried it. Never thought much of it until 2 years after that when i ran suse as the main system. Then over to debian then centos and debian.

Start with Linux
 

I was introduced the Linux through experimenting with K12LTSP. It was an interesting approach to using a low-cost approach to introducing computer technology and skills in an educational environment utilizing older, re-purposed PC's unable to keep up with the ever increasing hardware requirements for the Windows OS.

I was intrigued by an article in a computing magazine, which had an installation disc for an early Red Hat version at the back. I managed to install it and used several subsequent Red Hat versions until I tried Debian, which I have used thankfully ever since. I have kept Windows 7 on a small partition on my Notebook 'because I had paid for it' but only use it when I can't find a suitable Open Source application. I am so grateful to Linus T. and all the Gnu/Linux developers. I am not an expert but I have come much further in computing using Linux than ever I did with various Windows iterations. John.

Absolute first was Open BSD on the Bourne Again shell (love that name) in an online course from the local university. First downloaded and installed was Debian Lenny. Beginner's mistake, I didn't need that much control, and it was on an older machine. Current distro is Linux Mint Cinnamon, if u read my profile it does say "Lazy" in there somewhere...

onward and upward
gh

Windows kept screwing up and I didn't have the money do buy a Mac. A friend told me about Ubuntu, which he uses, and here I am.

After having had an Amiga from 1986 to 1996 (I was one of the first people in my county to have an Amiga, and one of the last to continue using one), went to Windows 95 (having used a kludge to have the system recognize my gargantuan 2 GB drive) and discovered the wild wooly world of malware. I stayed with M$ until 2008, being an old gamer, until XP got ridiculously attacked and I asked my nephew to burn me a CD. I booted and was unexpectedly pleased to see that my wired internet worked, and my 2004 printer printed directly via USB. That was it for me. I wiped the disc and it became sda, and I started using, liking, and learning. In fact, for the first time since using the Amiga, I was having fun using my computer again.

I had, since at least 2002, used open source programs available for Windows (Audacity, OpenOffice, and, yes, the GIMP) in preference to their expensive alternatives, so it wasn't a big philosophical leap for me to embrace an open source OS. I am, at 65, what I'd call experienced, but hardly an expert. On ubuntuforums.org, I've gotten, and given assistance, and the community I found (and still find) has been the best part about using and open source OS.

I dared to buy my first computer 10 years ago from a neighbor who ran a computer shop, because he convinced me I could learn to use it (even at age 70) and promised he would fix it for me if anything went wrong. Four years later he announced he was moving away. I had read about Linux, knew it was something you were meant to be able to manage on your own, and succeeded in installing Ubuntu 8.10 on a hand-me down eMachine in 2009. Never looked back since.

I started using UNIX in 1991 at my one and only programming internship -- working on a visual data analysis software tool -- and thought it was really powerful and useful. Could never get a copy for my wimpy PC and just accepted that my fate was with Windows. Years later I picked up hacking again (I needed some tools at work that I couldn't afford to buy, but thought I could make myself), re-read K&R 2nd Ed. and was reminded of my interest in UNIX. I started looking into Linux and studied a bunch of distros. I made my first bootable USB using Fedora and was immediately enamored of Linux. I've tried a number of distros now, and am looking forward to installing Linux from scratch. There is so much I love about Linux, chief among them is how supportive the linux using/developing/sys-admining (if there is such a word!) communities are. I prize the fact that I can know absolutely as much about the system as I want. And as a father, I can't wait to use it as a tool to teach my sons all about computers, systems, and programming. I can't say enough about how amazed I am every time I boot up Fedora (on my laptop) or Debian (the server on my home network). Simply put, I just really enjoy using it. Thank your Fedora for starting me on this journey!

I had some exposure to IBM DOS/360 systems in the late '60s (I was a young kid) and early '70s (Junior High, High School), KIM1 microprocessors and DEC PDP 9 through 11 minicomputer (remember that term?) systems in the mid to late '70s when I was at University. A friend of mine built an Altair 8800 from a kit.

In the late '70s I learned how to program in FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, and IBM 370 architecture assembly language. I played around a bit with 6502 and 6800 architectures (Apple). But Apple didn't really strike a chord with me. I bought my first 256K RAM IBM PC in 1984. I stuck with IBM compatible systems from that day on. I explored every flavor of IBM and MS and DR DOS, and CP/M and MP/M through the '80s and '90s, and all the MS Windows and IBM OS/2 variants through the late '80s / '90s, and the Windows Millennium, 2000, and XP versions through 2005. I still have Windows 2.1 and OS/2 1.2 Beta diskettes in a box somewhere.

I bought a retail box version of Red Hat Linux in the mid '90s. I didn't know that much about it, except that I knew it was another OS, and I wanted to know more about it. I think it was Red Hat 5.6 or something around there. I didn't really care that it was free. Actually, I don't think I knew that it was free at that time. I paid something like $60 or $70 for the retail box and diskettes, so it didn't seem free. I didn't even know what FOSS was. What fascinated me was that it was another OS, and that's all I really cared about. I was running the current flavors of DOS, Windows, OS/2, and Linux at the time, but my primary system was Windows, as it was vastly more functional than any of the others.

I continued my dedication to Windows until about 2004, when I began to actively try to convert to Linux. I set up a dual boot system running various flavors of Linux, mainly Fedora, Debian, and finally Slackware (THE BEST), and in 2006, I weaned myself completely off of Windows and ran Linux exclusively on all of my home systems.

That's it, really. Now, what was the question?

I started with windows 3.x got to windows 95 then 98 I was playing alot of online games at the time and got interested in networking I started my linux adventure with RedHat which I bought on cd at bestbuy with manuals later I got slackware as I found other distro's redhat and debian were based on slackware. slackware was nice and simple just plain worked was not bloated or as confusing as redhat. I was still into games so dual booted for couple years then stayed in linux most of the time as kde rolled out and was nice desktop environment I have mainly used linux since though still have windows around to do things linux does not do well yet but times are always changing linux is getting better and better I love linux <3.

Free BSD, :)

Somewhere in 80's I was working in the university and got a computer with 386 chip on it, but running DOS. On the other hand, we had some SUN UNIX workstations and with them I got used to Unix and X Windows. Idea then rose to be able to convert my 386 to a Unix workstation and run my "huge" Fortran programs on Sun using X Windoewing. The project ended up with a network of Redhat and Slackware Linux PCs with my 386 running as a disk server for the rest...

But I still miss the OpenWindows of SUN. That I liked with its pinned menus etc.

I knew Linux and open source from newspapers at first when in the college, and then read the book of Just For Fun. I love it. It's Suse of the first distribution I installed, when in a small german company.

have you tried PC-BSD?

I was given a Dos 3 PC and can remember sitting in carparks, waiting for the wife to finish shopping, reading PCDos and MSDos books.
Was interested in why things did what they did and fixed a couple of problems at work on the PC's. from there stayed with Microsoft, that was where I was making money, threw up when looking at Windows 2, then when Windows 3 came out work changed to that. I wish I would have tinkered with Linux earlier but now putting mint on end users PC's and trying to re program my brain.

Using ProxMox (Runs on Debian) to Virtualise Linux and MS.
Tom

Got into Unix real early
 

I joined Bell Labs in Naperville, IL in 1968. In the early 1970's I heard about this little operating system called UNIX and got access to it. Later worked on programming electronic telephone switching systems (ESS) which used operating systems based on UNIX. While working on a unique UNIX based AT&T computer called the 3B4000 I had a "Unix PC" (misnamed the AT&T 3B1) on my desk. Later worked in software development on Solaris work stations. Before I retired I ran Windoze PCs at home for a while, then discovered Linix, starting with an early Red Hat distro. Now run a Penguin machine on CentOS 5.10.

Got my first home PC in 2000 ... installed Win 98 SE and promptly got infected. After increasing insecurity through several installs of 98 and XP, I finally found a Linux distro that was user-friendly, Xandros. Three years later they stopped developing the desktop ... but I knew enough to switch distros. Every machine I have run since runs Ubuntu or Xubuntu.

I was trying to teach myself computer programming, and stumbled upon
"C++ For Dummies" in my school's library. While reading through it, I
encountered some references to "UNIX"; before reading that book, the
only time I'd ever heard the term "UNIX" was in "Jurassic Park" ("It's
a UNIX system! I *know* this!"). I didn't think much more of it for
awhile, though.
Fast forward a couple years, and my mom - as punishment for me not
doing my homework - sets a password on my (Windows XP) desktop.
Unbenownst to her, I was able to bypass it by using the computer's
Administrator account, but I started to realize the need for an
environment that my mom wouldn't be able to see - something that I
could boot into *instead* of Windows, so that if she came home, I
could hit the reset button and get back into Windows.
I vaguely remembered that "UNIX" that I had read about, and started
Googling for info on it. Turns out, there was a free version called
Linux, and if I downloaded an install disk, I can have a
fully-functional "LiveCD" that I could at *least* surf the web with.

So, a few hours of downloading .iso images over a DSL connection and
one blank CD-R later, I had myself three of these "LiveCD"s - one
called "Damn Small Linux", one called "Musix", and one called
"Ubuntu". I tried them one-by-one, and was immediately blown away by
the fact that Damn Small Linux - despite weighing in at a mere 50MB -
had a (more-or-less) full assortment of programs. It didn't like my
computer's ethernet chip, though, so I went to Musix next. Much
bigger, but the wide assortment of music programs (I did - and still
do - enjoy writing electronic music) was a big plus. However, there
was still no internet connection.
Enter Ubuntu. I hadn't the slightest idea what the hell a "Gutsy
Gibbon" was, but I figured it was high time to find out. I popped the
CD in, waited a few minutes for it to boot, and was rather suddenly
greeted with the jubilant sounds of African drums and singers. Nice,
straightforward interface back then; it was easy to figure out that
"Applications" had all the programs, "Places" had all the computer's
disk drives, and "System" had system stuff. Plus, not only did it
support my computer's NIC, but I also discovered that it supported
NTFS, allowing me to access my files without trouble.
I eventually got a second computer from my uncle (who got me into
computers in the first place) for me to "tinker with". Old Athlon XP
system. Had a Windows 2000 installation on it already; I promptly set
up a Windows/Ubuntu dual-boot, just to see if it could be done.
Started with a WUBI installation, then - when the loopback image
eventually got corrupted to hell by a Windows defrag - went with a
proper dual-boot install, which - to my surprise - went without a
hitch. At this point, I started to branch out to other "open-source"
operating systems - FreeDOS, ReactOS, MINIX, FreeBSD, whatever I could
possibly download and (try to) get running on some machine.

Now I'm my town's very own "Unix guy" (though I lack the wizardly
beard that normally accompanies such a designation). Moved on from
Ubuntu; when I got tired of Unity and Ubuntu in general and didn't
find Mint to my liking, I started distro-hopping like crazy until I
eventually settled with Slackware and openSUSE. Still exploring,
though; the laptop I'm typing this response with is running a week-old
installation of OpenBSD, which I'm very much enjoying, and I've taken
quite a liking to Plan 9, even if I can't seem to get it to work right
with real hardware.
And all because my mom tried to keep me off the computer 7 years ago
;)

We decided to implement Ubuntu Server a couple of years back while working for an ISP. We ran our DNS & Mail Servers on this platform. Best move we ever made...

How I got introduced to Linux
 

I was taking classes towards a degree in Computer Networking. We had two classes covering Linux server management, so to satisfy the appetite that was acquired from class, I searched and found the site and has gleaned much from it.

---------- Post added 02-18-14 at 02:50 AM ----------

I was taking classes towards a degree in Computer Networking. We had two classes covering Linux server management, so to satisfy the appetite that was acquired from class, I searched and found the site and has gleaned much from it.

I got involve in linux, because when I saw the KDE desktop I was shock, them I started looking info about linux operating systems and trying to use, until 2009 when I began working as a Network manager and the admins that where there had debian lenny in the mail relay. since them i've being learning to use debian as my all around operating system.

I was using OS/2 and found some Unix-like tools; I thought, why not go all the way and get a Unix system? The only one I found was Slackware Linux. This was 1993. After a while, I found Debian (version 1.2) and I've been with Debian ever since.

I am a developer: for the last 18 years, used Algol 68, but I have now switched to Common Lisp.

From Burroughs Mainframes to SCO Xenix then SCO Unix and not long after picked up a customer with RH 5. The rest as they say is history!
When SCO went the linux route I had already used Caldera to run Appgen on. After that mess and reading the Caldera support list it seemed that quite a few Caldera user opted to move to Gentoo! I just followed them and have not looked back! Gentoo certainly gives me control of what gets installed and how it gets compiled. After all they are my customers systems and most preform the way I expect them to!

The first 'laptop' I actually owned was an Asus Eee PC 701 with Windows XP - and I kept getting it messed up until I learned a bit about operating systems, memory, storage space and not deleting Windows folders! I can't remember how I found out about it, but I bought a usb stick on ebay which said it had ubuntu for eee pc's on. I used the usb ubuntu stick live whenever Windows wasn't working. Then last year I bought another Eee pc, after my old one died which had puppy linux on it (XP now being too big for them). I didn't understand how to use it so started reading up about other linux distros, burning iso's and trying them out and settled on joli os for the eee pc - now changed it to Bodhi linux which I love, and works on 4gb! I also now have a used Windows 7 laptop, which I use for burning linux iso discs lol.

Little by little
 

I'd had some basic experience with various distros in the past (Mandriva One, Knoppix, CentOS, RHEL, AIX...) and when I mean basic I mean I could find the command line, cd and ls directories, start processes and run some Java. That was about it.

But I nevertheless put "Linux" on my CV. When a recruiter asked me to demonstrate my Linux knowledge by installing Apache from source on a Lubuntu in VirtualBox, it became immensely clear that I didn't know what on earth I was talking about. The shame. I think I didn't even know to use apt-get...

For the next interview however I was determined to make darn sure I knew what I was talking about. I installed Lubuntu... eh. Bodhi... Wtf is up with that desktop? elementary OS - sweet, going to be my favorite! (decided it was too simplistic, and the default apps are... early-bird-stage) CentOS minimal. WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO NETWORK? [Read forums, read forums, post to... no just keep to reading forums] OpenSUSE. I even tried installing Arch (failed). Slitaz, TinyCore... Spare Me.

It's funny how much you can pick up with just Google and forums these days. The beauty of FOSS.

Oh and the interview? There were 6 interviews. And none of them asked me about Linux. But I still consider it to have been a fantastic use of my time :-)

How I got into Debian
 

I was looking if it is possible to replace Windows with something free (that was when I had zero knowledge about computer science) and came across this. My experience with Linux actually led to majoring computer science.

As a "User" only, I had been using Windows since "95". These days I have been looking for another system I am comfortable with and have found it in "Mint". I just installed it last week. I do not see myself looking elsewhere. It's so easy to use even I could install it and use it easily.

In the late 90`s, I worked as a techie in a shop that sold hardware, pre-built PC`s etc, all of them running Windows 95/98/NT which were the OS flavours at that time.

Some guy, long hair, beard, barefoot, walks in and dumps his PC on the table saying he thinks his hard drive has crashed. I get him to fill in all the forms and tell him I`ll get back to him during the day.
Later that day I fire up his PC and see this weird boot thing happening, black screen just scrolling endless lines of white text, finally ending in "Kernel panic"

I`d never heard of Kernel Panic before, only General Failure, so I phone the guy up and we start chatting about what OS he is running. After a while he says he`ll bring a disk in for me with this Linux OS on it. Mandrake 6, I think IIRC, was my first install, it took me two weeks to finally figure out how it installs, but I learned the hard way, we had no Google in those days.

Years later, I`ll never look back...M$ can suck it.

Was working with Sperry/Unisys Unix boxes in the 80s so started using MS Xenix at home. Moved to SCO Xenix when MS sold it then went with SCO Unix.

Somewhere along the line I started playing with Linux (Redhat 4.2 was my first IIRC) and when SCO Openserver moved from free unlimited users to "pay per seat" I actively started developing/implementing on Redhat. Never looked back, now a committed fan of Fedora/CentOS.

Working with HP-UX at University and needing something non Windows based for home use; a friend gave me SuSE 5.3 back in 1998. I installed it and have never looked back since.

Mine started back when Windows 95 was introduced and hardware started to become reasonably affordable. I was using OS/2 (Win3.1 / DOS) and loved it but got tired of messing with drivers while paying a premium for the OS. I figured, why dish out the bread for an OS that gave me headaches when I could get one for free and have less problems. Thus started the journey that I still travel today. Thanks to Open Source, I enjoy the better hardware compatibility, applications, and security then MS can offer. The only Windows box I use is at work (W7)and it works. I guess if it were not for MS Office and Quickbooks, most people would be using Linux.

And games :)

First used Ubuntu
 

I was looking for a way to save my data before re-installing Windows,
When I came accross Ubuntu live disk.
I then decided why not use Ubuntu insted of Windows.

I wanted to, but did not dare take the step. But after a long time in MS Windows, and after a long time when my son (free BSD) tried to convince me about the advantage of a transfer to free software and also a long time of hesitation (should I manage to bring all I was used to, to the new world?), I finally made the conversion in the mid 90's, to SUSE, which was what my son thought was a reasonably short step for a European.

It was inevitable
 

Though exposed to Commodores and Atari's at a young age, it was about 1980 I moved away from DOS and GW Basic and started using a VAX system (assuming UNIX counts as LINUX I don't know if there even was a distro) because of a genomics software toolset called GCG (it could use X-windows). Fast-forward 30 years and the best genomics software is still LINUX, still command-line. One deciding factor was the <4GB memory limit imposed by M$. And backwards compatibility. It's still a struggle to get students onto the command line, but also a struggle to get some supercomputing centers (not here) to understand visualization of data is important.

My introduction to IT was around the age of 16 when I visited a state of the art computer room circa 1974 (punch cards and all) where my brother worked - it was awesome. Later I bought a TI99/4A home computer and was hooked - started writing some basiccode. Later again I ended up working in an IT environment (no qualifications :-( except the university of life) for many years with Dos/Novell/Windowsxx/VMS(VAX/Alpha) and as an enduser on some Unix systems but never got my hands on a Linux one. (Anybody remember DataEase dbase?)

More recently, semi-retired and with time on my hands, I decided to find out more about the this elusive Linux. I now have a headless Ubuntu Server with NFS file shares and web hosting and as a remote tv server via TVHeadend, Ubuntu (dual boot) HTPC for multimedia, XBMC as optional TV frontend, optical feed to surround sound amplifier and large flat screen tv + Ubuntu (dual boot) Laptop (the dual boot options are the original windows installs but they rarely if ever get a look in these days - am considering wiping them totally as I can do almost everything I want in Linux). All the kit is in excess of 7 years old and works brilliantly. Recently started looking at Python - maybe I can be a programmer after all!

Ubuntu has served me well but am considering a move to Cent or other Linux distro.

Using Solaris at work for astronomical instrumentation projects. Needed to continue Tcl/Tk interface and C development at home. Installed Redhat in 1996 and the transition was seamless.

My first distro was Slackware for MC68020, and I mounted it on an Amiga 2000 in late 1993. I was loyal to Slackware thru 1996, when I switched to Debian. I adopted Ubuntu in 2002.

I saw Slackware somewhere, and I said "Wow!". It was ca 20 years ago, but I am still saying "Wow!" to the Linux World :-)

I wanted to use latex and the best possible way was Linux.

I had heard about Linux from our downstairs neighbor when it was still in the 1.x kernel days. I was only about ten at that time, but I was fascinated with the idea. I tried getting my hands on it, but I wasn't quite up to the task at that time. Later, when Red Hat 5.2 was the big deal (before RH split into different distros), I checked out one of those Linux for Dummies books from our local library. It had a CD with RH 5.2 on it. I installed it (well, tried--it took me probably half a dozen attempts) and when I first booted into working installation I was hooked. I was probably around 14. From there I jumped around, installing Red Hat 6, then 7, then OpenLinux, Caldera, Mandrake, NetBSD, back to Red Hat 10, and finally settled on Debian (I'm sure there were multiple others I tried, but I can't remember now). Debian is still my favorite, but I still enjoy trying out different ones. I've probably tried every major distro at one time or another.

I think for me the thing that drew me in was the idea that something so complex and important as an operating system could be free (freedom), that information could and should be shared freely, without restriction. The idea of copyleft and free sharing is fantastic. Admittedly I take a more pragmatic approach, as I mainly use MacOS.

Wow... been a while, but my first Linux distro was Red Hat 3. Came with the book Red Hat Linux Bible... I think it was.

I started out with Hardy Heron. For me, it was about returning to my virtual roots. I grew up on Commodore, but got disillusioned with PCs because of the extreme restrictions on Windows machines. I'm not sure why it took me so long to find the Open Source world, but now that I'm here I have no plans to leave. I currently use a variety of systems. My personal desktop computer is Mint Petra with Cinnamon. I've got two Raspbian systems for projects and fun. I'm working on reviving a Sun server with either Gentoo or OpenIndiana, and I have a couple of old towers that I use for installing whatever flavor I feel like.

My Intro to Linux world: IT freelancer/friend=>web politics=>try Mint 13 KDE 1st step
 

My Intro to Linux world: IT freelancer/friend=>web politics=>try Mint 13 KDE 1st step

** How I Got Into Linux and Open Source **
 

Hi,
I actually got involved with Open Source software before getting involved with Linux. I first got involved with Open Source when I became interested in desktop publishing apps. I was helping someone produce a newsletter and other documents for a ministry and realized that I needed something that offered better control over text and graphics than MS Word did. I could not afford to buy any of the Adobe Creative Suite series, especially InDesign. After doing some research, I discovered that there was a free alternative--Scribus. Although not as feature-rich as Indesign, Scribus appeared to be a viable alternative and an excellent choice on this retiree's modest budget. I especially liked having access to the source code and being allowed to customize it to my specific needs, if I so desired. After downloading and installing Scribus, I decided to join their newsletter forum. Although this forum exists primarily to answer questions and get assistance with using Scribus, I noticed that there were numerous auxiliary discussions and threads (unfortunately, some of which lead to flame wars) regarding other topics, such as operating systems and sometimes even coding.

One of these discussions concerned Linux. I soon discovered that Scribus originally was coded for Linux, and that the majority of its users who were posting to this forum were using it in Linux environments. I also discovered that Scribus later was ported to Windows, as well.

I became interested in Linux because it also is Open Source (for the most part, anyway) and in many ways seemed a lot more powerful than the MS-DOS prompt that I started with on my first IBM PC back in the 80's. (Like many others, I started with a Commodore 64 and Commodore BASIC, graduating to GWBASIC, which I still enjoy playing with occasionally.) The people posting to this forum (including the moderator) were extremely patient with this "newbie's" off-topic questions concerning which Linux flavor to try, and I eventually decided to download an OpenSUSE 11.3 ISO including the Gnome GUI. I burned a live CD to see what it looked like. Later I fully committed myself and installed it on a rather elderly Compaq laptop that previously ran MS Windows XP Home Edition.

I have not done much with Linux to date because I'm concentrating on trying to learn Ruby. However, after I've mastered--or at least become somewhat comfortable--with Ruby, I think I'll get back into the Linux kernel and maybe networking and servers.

I enjoy reading the posts and useful advice in this forum. Keep up the great work.

--Bob

At work I got transferred from a department in which I had to use Windows to one where they mostly used Unix. When I realized I could take that home, I never looked back.

I didn't even know there existed an operational system when I came about a Casio FX9000P, which prompted direct to a basic interpreter. Then I learned fortran in a time when cards were punched (yes, I'm that old). The cards were sent to a city 100 km away, the print out arrived one week later. In 1987 I was using linux but I did not know that, because I only compiled my codes and tested the results. I went to windows from DOS because of facilities in typing long texts. After several years, I realized I did not learned anything with that OS. Further I experienced difficulties in syncing data as I had to use more than one machine. I had enough and installed an Opensuse. Ssh and rsync solved my initial problems. It was a breeze. I had a second box, then I put Debian in it. My next move will be gentoo, I want to build all from source, even it takes long to get it ready. As suse dist always says, don't forget to have fun.

Magazine article
 

I have been using windows for past 10 years or so (right now win 7 HB) but now I am kindda bored with it. I wanted to try something new. Recently I bought a tech magazine which contained an article stating the scope and features of linux. The magazine had two live DVDs free, one containing UBUNTU and the other one containing LINUX MINT. I tried both and was amazed by the features these offer even though they are free. So I did a little research on my part and found this website. I became a member and asked two questions which were answered within two hours. After getting my answers I have decided to go with LINUX MINT on my laptop and revive my old win xp pc with either antix or Damn Small Linux.