linux red hit

My Encounter with Linux:

I never wanted to make a career in Computers and never thought would ever teach Linux. But Linux helped me in making a bright career in Linux. I have enjoyed teaching Linux to Linux Enthusiast,Students and Professionals.

Being Electronics and Telecom Engineer, in 2003, I was having an apprenticeship training in one of Government Organisation in India. I was having a general conversation with one of my friend. I asked him if Windows was the only which exist in market or in any Research organisation? I used to think that only Microsoft Windows existed in the market. He explained to me, as he was more aware of computers than me, that there are so many OS that exist and he named few.
One of those was Linux(other names I still don't remember).

Few days passed and I asked him,as I always wanted to know, how google.com and rediff.com work. I asked him if we will ever get to work on such websites or servers. I asked him what we should learn to know how ".com" business runs and he said learn Linux. He said 10 days ago, there was an advertisement in news paper where some body is teaching Linux Course.I said lets join it.

So we went to the Linux Class with so much of enthusiasm that we will get to learn Linux, something different.But our enthusiasm lasted only for two days as the trainer left the training institute.
Trainer used to very proud of himself, as if he is the only superior person who knows Linux and used to make look Linux very difficult.

Now there was no one to teach us Linux.The trainer taught us only Linux installation and few basic commands. We wanted to learn more. It took several weeks for the Course conductor to get another Linux Trainer. Meanwhile I bought one second hand Celeron PC with just 333Mz CPU and 64MB RAM. I was having apprenticeship training in Telecom domain which I didn't enjoy.I started learning Linux on my own.Installed PC Linux which was based on RedHat 7 with only CLI as my PC didn't support GUI and was not aware as to how to trouble shoot GUI problems.I bought book "Linux Complete" and first server which i configured was DNS. Later on after so much of effort installed Apache with virtual host.After installing Apache sever I started gaining confidence and then decide to make career Linux.

Thus I started learning Linux on my own and in that Institute started teaching whatever I learned on my own.

In this way I started learning about Linux. This was my first encounter with Linux. Now I started enjoying working on Linux,especially on CLI mode. Still love CLI of Linux most rather than GUI part.I really have zest for Linux and it fascinates me.Now I know how the ".com" business runs and how servers and clusters are configured and feel so proud that because of Linux I learned all this.

After working on Linux on my own and with some workshops on Linux in Hyderabad,India I decide to go for RHCE.After gaining RHCE got a job as Linux System Administrator in Mumbai,India and my professional journey of Linux got a new turn.

I would like to urge all the Linux enthusiast and students to go for Linux and promote Linux.I would also like to tell the new-bies,professionals and students that if you know computers and doesn't know Linux,then you are missing so much.

I always say(though people may not like as it being universal truth,also I am not saying its universal truth but my personal opinion), that:

"Who will be called Computer Literate if they don't know anything about GNU Linux?"

A good friend of mine told me about Linux around a year ago. (I think I started with Linux in May 2013, so that is about a year ago.)
I never stood still about the fact that there is something out there that is safer, prettier, more customizable, cooler, more fun, faster, more geeky, with a penguin as mascot instead of an apple or a flag that has changed a little bit back to the look of the beginning of the Windows area (Check it out! The Windows 8 logo looks quite to the logo of 1 to me.)

I have an affection for penguins. + I used to play this game called Club Penguin when I was younger, it is part of my childhood.

, ...

At first I looked at Linux as another 'OS option', now I know better (like the fact that Linux is a (mono)kernel) and I learned a lot since then.
Starting I did with 'wubi' the Ubuntu installer for Windows, soon after I dished my full Windows 7 install and went fully Linux.
Not such a long time after that I started using Debian instead and that is what I'm still using today.

I'm not into all the 'Ubuntu' stuff (I was a little.) because Ubuntu has non-free repositories and stuff that you have to pay for, use proprietary drivers -I use one to though for my WIFI.- so they don't fully get my understanding of an OS that is totally 'free'.

I'm willing to pay for some software (because almost everybody needs to eat) but I'm for the fact that my OS should be fully mine and open.
Debian comes a lot closer to that point.

All because of one computer savvy friend.
Thank you.

Linux (and any other UNIX + UNIX-like system I believe - except for Mac OS X - has some learning.) has a more steep learning curve but when it comes down to BASH(CLI), software packages, drivers, compiling, ... I'm not no longer like: What is this stuff?! , what I would still be if I kept using the unsafe, proprietary, expensive, to me ugly, closed system that is Windows.

Sorry,
this is a Linux forum so I hope people understand that Microsoft has some nice office software but that is all, their OS doesn't come even close to my heart.
I like to understand my OS to some degree, be able to customize to my style and needs and not click my mouse on some icons and hope it does what I want without getting any viruses.

Linux has a lot of future,
it is already the top for servers -Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube ... , embedded devices, mainframes, ATM's, routers, some degree in the enterprise, ... - or just supercomputers in general.
Steam OS is build on Debian LINUX and the game Watch Dogs may get a place on the Linux platform!

I'm not that of a gamer (only some minecraft because it is a game where you can be really creative and also because I can play it with friends) and more of a musician/sound engineer - which I do on Linux- + I go to school
but if gaming on Linux could ever be taken serious people who use Linux/UNIX no longer have the excuse: I use Windows because it is the PC gaming-platform.



That is my story.

I hate Windows 8, so I researched alternatives. I've done away with all Windows versions and run 3 Ubuntu machines (two 12.04 since Dec '13, and this 14.04 laptop) and not had any problems even though one of the PCs is a dinosaur! All peripherals function flawlessly and file/resource sharing is a breeze.
It really was opportune that Win8 was forced down consumer's throats: I'm making converts of my family & friends, easily!

In 1999 I started travelling for work. On one trip I was looking for something to read and bought a Linux magazine (which is now out of print). After working with mainframes, DOS, Netware and Windows for years the articles in this magazine got me interested. I started using Linux at home and asked at work if there was any chance of Linux projects showing up. I was basically laughed at.

But by 2001 a project came along in a subsidiary in a foreign country. They wanted the country office to stick to the rules as far as export restriction were concerned and decided to switch their systems to Linux. I helped design and did most of the installation of hardware and software that would minimize violation of export restrictions. This included Linux servers and about 20 Linux desktops and all the support systems like backup and recovery. There were issues but we managed to solve them.

After that project I've used Linux at work as a utility and trouble shooting platform. As well I've supported other UNIX systems like Solaris and HP-UX over the years. I’ve used Linux at home since about 2000 with the occasional boot into Windows to access programs, mostly for work, that would not work on Linux. I’ve retired recently and continue to use Linux at home.

Leon Mitchell

About two years ago, when lost all my data. I was using windows 7.

Boot Magazine (now called "Maximum PC") interviewed Linus and included Debian on the disc that came with the magazine. I used Partition Magic (back then it was the only real choice) to partition my HD and installed Linux. There wasn't much I could do at the time, but it was cool to see what was out there.

I had heard about linux in the early 1990's and was eager to try an alternative to the microsoft of the day.
In 1995, Border's books sold a boxed set of the disk and a paperback book describing installation and use.
I was excited by the idea of free software, not dependent on its automatic inclusion with the sale of a computer
with the extra cost embeddeed in the sale price. Ever since, I have put one or another linux version in any desktop
or laptop I have ever had.

John

I just answered this at length on Hacker Public Radio. Set aside 50 minutes and bring your popcorn. Or keep your finger on the stop button.

http://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=1499

Charles in NJ

linux - open source ...

i needed an better alternate to borland c when we do our first makefiles on the campus terminal server with plain unix c - so our prof told us : " u can get a free *nix from finland" - yea i started by ftping it than ...

we have to watch on his finger tips - where he get his - than we do the same ... starting with linux 0.6.xx - i don't know ...

but it worked - we can do our makefiles at home and use them at university ... so i started to become a linuxer ...

later than - when win*** came up i do them in parralel boot till win 98 - that have been the last one ...

so - you can see - i never have had an other good os - other then linux !!!

I had taken a course in Unix & C at University of North Florida, I had managed to install MWC's Coherent Unix clone on 386 based laptop, when Linux took the world by storm. I switched over to Slackware's version of Linux and I have never looked back.

Jeff

I went to work for AT&T (Actually TeleType) back in 1986 and was trained extensively in AT&TSvR3.

While there I wanted a Unix Compter to work on and all the hardware I could find at the time was prihibitively expensive.

Then in 1992, I found an add for LSL (Linux System Laboratories) in a Walnut Creek catalogue.

I really did not know exactly what I was ordering but for $50 I recieved 52 disks in the mail assembled by some guy named Patrick Volkerding.

It was a Super intensive course making it all work. Back then you had to edit everything manually, right down to the xConfig.

At first everything was a real struggle, but well worth the education.

Now I guess I should through out a like something like, "You young whipper-snappers have it too easy! You don't now how to compile a kernel or find the scan of a video card!"

I am still a Slacker! Go Patrick!

willy

I first found out about GNUnix by reading about it, in references to the Linux phenomenon in Windoze-based computer magazines of yore.

Back around 2003, a fellow at work and I were talking about computers. I aired my grief with Windows 98, and he tried to explain a new system that was free. Not being very computer literate himself, all he could say was that it was what his wife put on her home PC, and it was based on the system she used at work. As lame as Windows had become, I refused to believe that anything free could be better, especially as a spin-off from something with a name like Red Hat.

In 2005, I started seeing articles about Linux in my Yahoo news feed. I began researching and studying, trying to decide if I wanted to bother with it. Had to chuckle when the name Red Hat popped up again. Although I did see some good reviews on Ubuntu, I still wasn't ready to pull the trigger.

I was furious when Microsoft ended support without fixing known issues with 98 like they had promised. I had made up my mind that I would never upgrade to XP. Having seen one fiasco and delay after another with the development of Vista, when AVG ended support for 98, I replaced Windows with Ubuntu 6.06 on my old P3. I must say I was actually appalled with the appearance, but was equally impressed with how easy it was to change. I've always stayed with the LTS versions and have never had any issues. I've recently replaced Win8 with 14.04 on a brand-new PC I received last Christmas.

LOL

Reminds me of the good ol' days with MS-DOS and early versions of Windows.

Win4 (95) was the first with automated hardware detection and installation, and the last good OS released by Microsoft. Everything since has been an unstable resource hog. IMHO, users should be getting paid as beta-testers because every version of Windows still has known issues when they reach their EOL.