Hello! This is my second post here on LQ. The first was moments ago in the Slackware subforum.

I've been "using" computers for ages. I was born in '91 (I know, just a youngin') so I can only vaguely remember Windows 3.1 which was on the family computer. Used Win95, then Win98, then XP, then Vista, then free upgrade promo to Win7Ultimate. I would say from the average Window's user point of view, I am Intermediate to Advanced. My dad once bought me a Red Hat Linux Bible that came with a full installation. I never got that successfully setup, hardware compatibility issues. I think I was 8 or 9 at the time.

Then sometime in 2012/2013, I decided to load up Linux on several old Laptops I had lying around. They had XP and could barely boot, let alone do anything useful. I went with Ubuntu. I hate Ubuntu. Then I tried Fedora. that was slower than Ubuntu, which was slower than XP. Then I stumbled upon Puppy Linux. Played around. Compiled some packages from source code (most of which were unsuccessful). BarryK has a neat brain. Puppy and Quirky have some interesting ways of doing things. But, I had begun to feel the Linux Lust growing, so I began to distro hop. SliTAZ, antiX, MX, LinuxBBQ, Manjaro, Void, to name a few. Void, Puppy, and antiX/MX remain some of my favorites. I even attempted an install of NetBSD. that didn't really work out. Also attempted a Slackware install, which also didn't work out.

Ultimately, I just couldn't seem to settle on any one distro. But, I did pick up a lot of knowledge/information/skills from each distro.

More recently (within the last few weeks) I began revisiting Slackware. it has always called to me, but I simply lacked the knowledge to use it. I decided to try a few of the derivatives, which claimed to be more accessible much like Debian derivatives. Slackel, Absolute, Salix, and Porteus. They are all neat distributions, but, running Slackware proper just seemed so appealling.

I just recently (like 2 days ago) installed, configured, and am writing this post from, Slackware64. I feel like I just got a Merit Badge for Linux Scouts hahaha. I am 100% hooked. Slackware is what I was always looking for, I just didn't know it.

I will certainly continue playing with other distributions of course (Bedrock Linux is just way too interesting of a concept to not follow), but, I have definitely joined the Cult of Slack.

Anywho, just thought I'd drop a little Intro here. I hope to be a productive member in the LQ community. My GNU/Linux skillset is still quite limited, but if I can help other memebers out, I will.

Greetings rainydayshirt.

Hi rainydayshirt and welcome to LQ!

interestingly, the timeline you describe is very similar to my own, because i only started getting into computers (not linux) much later in my life, and used old and used computers.
so, in 1993: win95, then later win 2000 and XP, ...... linux since 2011.

I've noticed this pattern as well. Seems like Windows 7/8 and OS/X pushed a handful of users into the *nix realm. That, and so many FOSS projects have matured to the point that they rival paid software options. (LibreOffice, Calligra, Audacity, LMMS, Mixxx, GIMP, Scribus, etc.)

Just out of curiosity, what is your current Distribution of Choice?

^ not software versions i'm talking about, but years in the actual real world.

because i was a late bloomer, as far as computers are concerned (not otherwise ), and because i almost always up to this day used hand-me-down hardware (and consequently also (out)dated software), it went sth like this:

• 1993-1997 - first computer: used, with dos 6.x and win 3.1
• ...long break... no computers!
• 2007-2010 - several hand-me-down laptops that needed a fresh install of windows (2000, then XP)
• 2011 - switch to Linux

...i was untouched by Vista and win7!

But yes, I agree: Linux (Ubuntu in my case) had to reach a certain maturity for it to become an easy choice.
That was 10.04 LTS.