Long time reader, first time poster. :-)

I have been using Linux since the mid-90s (my college days), when I had to download Slackware from some FTP site over a slow modem connection and put it on many floppy disks to install.

I use Linux at work and at home now. I've got a dual-boot setup on an HP laptop (dv5000z) with Windows XP. I'm running CentOS 5 (but it has, by now, been customized). I am currently trying to compile my own xorg X117.2 so that I can see if I can get dual-head working with my stupid Radeon Xpress 200M. Don't get a computer that has one of these! From what I've heard, Nvidia will be easier with Linux. But I don't have any direct experience with Nvidia. Check around.

I'm addicted to compiling my own stuff, even though it usually causes trouble. :-) It's OK, because it's not that critical that my Linux work perfectly.

Next challenge after X is virtualization. I want to install my old Windows 95 under Linux so that my little boys can run some of their old games.

Anyway, glad to be a member of the community! This is a great site.

Marc

Welcome to LQ!

I guess a lot of people here likes to customize their systems, I have only been playing with the vanilla kernels lately. I guess the ultimate customization is the Linux from Scratch, essentially making your own distribution

With the latest advances in CPUs and virtualisation I think dual booting will soon be history. I have seen Windows 2003 server virtualised under Suse on a laptop not long ago...

Thanks!

I hope dual-boot will go away. For now, it's fine. But it will be much cooler to just start another OS as a program. So much old software written based on quirks or bugs in particular OS versions. Some of it is still fun to play with and even useful, but you have to have the exact OS version.

Not quite ready to roll my own distro yet , but I will probably get that idea in my head someday, maybe when my kids go to college.

Marc