Why did you start using Linux?

[Sef]

This is why I started using Linux:

I put out my money and started on the ME version of the Microsoft brick road got so frustrated with it and felt like I had been through a tornado and didn't know where I was. All I knew was that the wicked wizard of the east was dead, and two red shoes ended up on my feet. One had the words open source on it, and the other had the words no cost on it. I didn't know how to get home or where to go. But I heard about Tux City, where there was a Wizard or two (but one getting more credit than than the other.) Gingerly, I started out ignorant, fearful and curious about what I was getting into. What would I do if I got lost or captured again by the wicked wizard of the west. Anyway, I started on this free brick road, and soon met a scarecrow, who gave me some intelligence, a tinman, who gave faith in myself, and a lion, who gave me courage to stick and learn. After a series of adventures, including being captured by the wicked wizard of the west, who I escaped from because he melted when he saw my penguin necklace. Eventually, I made it to Tux city where I met the wizard(s), who showed me that the way back was to click my heels three times, and follow the Linux/GNU road. The journey continues.

[Norberg]

I started to use Ubuntu since everything that I used in Windows (PHP, MySQL, Apache, OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird) existed for Linux, and didn't had worry about spyware, virus and Sonys famous root-kit and Linux had some good thing that windows didn't eg. apt-get, Virtual desktop, Bash, Umbrello and stability.

[magnusbb]

I started using Linux just to be different. That was in 1998, and my computer knowledge was limited to the DOS/Windows plattform. Over the last eight years I've learned a lot about a great OS that is my primary plattform today. I will never go back.

Today I use Linux because it is free, fast and developing in a speed that's just impressive!

[meborc]

i just opened my eyes one day, looked at my comp which was sooooooo slow... got angry... and installed ubuntu as primary os... now my baby is running fine... :D

[kenweill]

I started to use Linux because I've heared stories about it. Especially in chatting(mIRC).

My friends used fake IP address, created their own host name(of their liking) which they use while chatting. Til now, i still dont know how they do it.

Some say its all terminal, no GUI. Some say its like DOS. Typing commands.

But when I have tried it, COOL. Never seen like this in Windows.

Sometimes its weird. I don't know what to do. Ask for help. And it works. Some works. Some don't.

Linux is great. But still some part of it still needs further development. But it works anyway. And most of all, its free.

Thats why I start using Linux.

[Suger]

I started using Linux because neither FreeBSD nor OpenBSD were able to take in charge the sound and wireless cards on my new laptop.

I started using *nix somewhere around 2000, with Apple's OS X. As soon as I understood what ssh -Y made possible, I ditched Aqua, and a little later, Darwin.

[JamesNorris]

In all honesty, I started using Linux back in 1997/8 just to be cool, which really didn't work out... Odd... lol. I started with Definite Linux, which was a pain in the ass and quickly moved to Mandrake, back when it was nothing more than Red Hat with KDE. Between then and 2003 I dual-booted Mdk and Windows trying other flavours of linux, like SuSe and Yoper, but always came back to Mandrake. Around 2001/2002 I got into the politics of FOSS and tried my best to rid myself of Windows. Eventually, I found Horay Hedgehog and everything was rosey from then. While I do miss MCC sometimes, I've learned alot more in the last year than I ever did with Mandrake. I've not been about 6 months without Windows, aside from to use my scanner... :(

[ned.b]

I wanted a free OS for home use, a contrast to the Microsoft-centric environment I work in. I dabbled with SUSE a few years ago but I reallly like the ethos of Ubuntu, it is the thinking behind this particular distro that converted me to linux.

[darth_vector]

i started using it as a software development platform at uni. everntually i started using it at home, and now it is my primary os. i only boot the computer into windows when i want to play games.

[MichaëlVD]

After using Windows 3.11, 95, 98 and XP, there was not much left to discover in the Windows world... I guess I needed a challenge and try something new. I don't think Windows XP is that bad if you know how to use it, it's much better than the previous Windows versions. But I still wanted something new.

And a challenge it was... at first. I dual booted Mandrake with XP in the last few months of 2004.

It was only when I found out about Ubuntu, in may 2005, that I completely switched to linux. Ubuntu is a pleasure to use. I recently switched to Kubuntu. Maybe I'll go back to Gnome after the Dapper release.

In any event, I'll stick with linux!

[Suger]

Try xubuntu, it's even more lovable.

[mcduck]

As long as I've used windows I've disliked it's UI. I don't like the way it looks, and I don't like the way it works. Most of all, I don't like the way it tries to tell me how I should work. With win3.11 I replaced it's shell with Clysbar, with win98 and win2k I used Litestep. At some point I realised that it would be nice to also get rid of the rest of windows too. I have also missed using CLI since win98, as it came with a crippled CLI instead of real DOS.

So I started filling my bookshelf with live-cd's, most of them were nice, but none of them did everything I want my computer to do, and none of them did everything out-of-the-box. Most of them I have only booted once. Then I tried Ubuntu and when I realised that it not only does pretty everything I want, it also does it without any tweaking. At that point I installed linux on my main computer.

[Galoot]

Because I'm a control freak. I like ease of use, but I hate having my hand held or being told what I can't do.

[ysse]

As a lifelong programmer (since 1986 at least ;) ) focusing on Oracle, and recently Java, I have learned to appreciate interoperability and "biodiversity". Unixes always had been good server platforms, but X-windows looked ugly and austere. And MS Windows had a good desktop, but server-wise... No. But then again, no single OS can be perfect for every situation. What finally made me switch was the increasingly aggressive monopolistic tendencies of Micro$oft.

In 2004 I began looking for alternatives, and was prepared to accept a somewhat inferior desktop experience, but what a pleasant surprise I was in for! Sun Java Desktop System was my first Linux (basically a Suse with a spiffed up Gnome desktop). For a convertite from Windows it was next to perfect, even the Launch menu was in its accustomed lower left position.

However, as the 2.6 kernel became more mainstream, Sun Java Desktop System did not evolve from 2.4. Sun (understandably when they charge $100/year for support) focused more on stability and development work for Solaris. And when I got a new Intel Centrino-based laptop that just wasn't fully supported, I had to move on.

Ergo Ubuntu.

[Selmi]

i didn't had pc at home only at school and i was extremely happy when i saw brand new windows 95 on brand new computers. so when i bought my own computer i got (pirate) copy of win95 and happily installed it.... unfortunately its first crash was almost immediately after installation... after few days i had it somehow stable but with many problems (i still used msdos most of the time so i got usedto it).later i got to cd with redhat linux (5.0) and i found that on same hw it runs without any problems... so i started to slowly migrate to linux. started with redhat, then switched to mandrake but i was very dissapointed with 10.1 which needed 1gb of updates to work (now it works well but it took a lot of time to tune it) so now i try ubuntu 5.10 and so far i am quite satisfied

so to be honest, if Bill would make win95 stable i most probably wouldn' be here now.... i shoud thank him for this ;-)

[matiastepli]

Just curiosity, I think, and willing to learn also. On the secondary school, a friend of mine talked to me a bit about GNU/Linux, so I just felt intrigued. In addition, my first GNU/Linux distribution was Mandrake 8.1 (not Mandriva at that time).

Regards!.

[omegamike]

Well, I dabbled in Linux a few years ago just for fun (Red Hat 9 and later Mandrake 10), and although fun, it seemed rather foreign to me. As a windows power user, I found that the ability to customize the interface was very limited without installing a host of third party programs. Frankly, I wanted something that I could mold to make my own. Windows just couldn't do that for me. Eventually, I was living in Germany away from my system restore CDs and my computer with Windows and Fedora became unusable. I burned a Ubuntu CD, installed it, and have been Windows free ever since.

[cjazz]

It was about 1994 or '95 when I first heard about Linux. My curiosity was peaked by the opportunity to learn -- about the OS and the guts of my computer. I also loved the idea of software created and maintained by community.

I made a few limited installation attempts (Slackware, I believe) but never got very far. Finally in '97, I installed it on my computer, got X up and running and made it online. Since then, through a number of different computers, I've continued to use Linux and never looked back.

I used Red Hat, then Mandrake. For years, my favorite was Debian (and in many ways still is). I moved to Ubuntu in August, and I'm enjoying it, but that doesn't mean I might not revert to Debian some time in the future.

[PriceChild]

I've just been curious, i'm still a student and therefore most of my computer's used for games and music ;)

Doom 3 was never really very impressive on Windows XP, imagine the last boss at about 2 fps and you'll understand what i mean! And that was on low graphics. I tended to mess around all the time on the pc, seeing what i could and couldn't do with it, which resulted in a complete wipe of it every couple of months as the OS seemed to degrade, system restores not working etc.

I remember when my friend first got an XP laptop, i'd never seen xp before and he boasted about it being "uncrashable" i gaev it about 30 seconds of non strenuous activity, and finally made it blue screen on the Task Manager!

I've never been impressed by XP, only by the programs that run on it.

I booted Red Hat out of curiosity, but wasn't impressed by the way it started out of the box. Now i realise that it's a lot better to have mostly everything in the back ground disabled to start off with, so you can choose what you want to slow your pc down, instead of silly MS services like "remote registry editor". Come on... who in the right minds would want a service running on their XP home edition pc so that they could edit their registry from a different pc?

Ubuntu was my next choice, after a reccomendation by one of techs at college. And WOW! Doom 3 runs perfectly smooth on medium graphics, Quake4 *drools*, Diablo 2's perfect under Wine (minus LAN) and i've been impressed the entire time!

The only quibble i have, is one time i changed my password, and was completely locked out! Neither my old or new password being any use. However i was about to start again for various reasons and i'm loving linux!

Pricey

[anil_robo]

I started using Linux because:
1. I hate reinstalling OS every 3 months because it's become too slow.
2. I dread viruses, spyware, worms, identity thefts.
3. I like to have options - I cant' stand being not given a choice.
4. I like doing things different way than the rest of the world.
5. I like productivity rather than spending hours on maintaining the computer.
6. It's open source - it means I get the most fresh programs
7. I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for software which I'll use only 5% of the time and curse 95% of the times.

[tappad]

I installed linux because:
1. Got new broadband connection, 2 hours after plugging in a whole bunch of spywares were installed (and i didnt do anything suspicious)
2. Stopped playing games ;)

[Tipo]

I have been Using Macs since I was like two years old, which was like circa 1989-1990. As I grew up with the Mac OS, I swore I would never, ever try anything else, because I liked it so much. Then OS X comes out, and it's based on this strange 'Unix' thing. I didn't really care about it for a while, and then around the time 10.4 came out, I started wondering what Unix was. I learned how to use the terminal, and learned that Linux was based off of Unix, as well as OS X. So I said... Oh. That's what Linux is. I think I'll give it a try. All is good now. I am still however using Mac OS X on all my Apple machines, and am about to make an install on an old PC, because I can't bear the thought of having a Winblows machine in my house :smile:

[Omnios]

The truth of the matter is I always wanted to try Linux even back in 1998 but was warned off by people saying it was difficult ( they can eat there words you dont have to be a programmer to uxe Linux).

Anyways I read a online magazine and they have inside sources in microsoft and when I read that the home verion of longhorn was planned on being $600 that gave me a shiver as I was not all that impressed with XP. Then there are the commercials here in Canada about think off all the things that run on windows, well I whent one step further and thought about how much these things cost and that again gave me shivers. The last straw was when they changed messenger smileys from free to about $3 for a couple of smileys and that is when I realized the true nature of microsoft.

Even If Ubuntu charged money for there os I would buy it as long as it was not $600

[Virak]

Learned about it a couple years, ago, seemed interesting, so I tried it, and I've been using it since. (Mostly on and off at first, but a lot more often since I found Ubuntu. In fact, I haven't even touched Windows in a few months.)

[wilshire]

i forget why i first wanted to try it. curiosity i guess. part of it was that i had been using open source software like firefox and gaim on windows, saw some advantages of non-commercial software, and decided to give using an entire open-source system a shot.

i first decided to install gentoo. i scrapped that idea before finishing reading the install guide and went with debian. as a newbie, i had trouble getting it working right, but i installed knoppix without a hitch and used it for a few months. then i decided i wanted a "pure" debian system and got a debian system up and running properly on my machine. i used that for quite a while, occasionally playing with different systems on a spare partition, mostly BSD variants. until i tried ubuntu, i was always back to debian as my main OS. i got rid of my debian partition only a month or so ago and now this machine is mostly ubuntu with a small freebsd partition. i was pretty enthusiastic about debian, but i found that ubuntu was debian... but better.

i will never switch back to windows. i didn't realize just how awful it was until seeing what was possible with linux. it works the way an operating system should. windows does not.

i switched to linux because i was curious. i kept it because it is better.

[Iandefor]

My computer was in need of an operating system and I didn't want to pay for Windows. I was reluctant to try Linux, but did anyways.

Now that I've told the cover story, I can give you the real story.

I fought in the Linux-Microsoft Wars. I fought for the Microsoft side, and was wounded in combat. I was captured by Linux forces, who treated my wound and began to fill my head with pro-Linux propaganda. Microsoft forces began to use a bombing campaign codenamed "Get The Facts" which was quite frightening until we realized the Microsoft bombshells were empty. Microsoft used many various frightening and tempting techniques to try and get me back on their side, but the Linux propaganda had sunken in and I was impervious to their campaigns. I exited the war, which still rages today, and now live happily in Linuxland, where, occasionally, Microsoft agents will venture and try to instigate revolution against the Benevolent Dictator Linus Torvalds by claiming things like "Linux isn't ready for the desktop!", but we know better than to pay attention to them.

Vive La Resistance!

[rejser]

When I started to realise more and more that windows could not meet my demands of what I was looking for in an OS

[socrazy143]

MODULARITY

Linux can be so much more than Windows if you are willing to learn and have the patience to research.

Right now I mainly run Debian or Debian based servers and my laptop (which came with Window$ XP Pro) runs Ubuntu.

With Linux you get stability a worldwide support team, oh and it doesn't cost a dime.

;)

[gatorbrit]

I do a lot of number crunching at work. Got a new PC (with XP) with 4GB of ram, and tried to allocate that ram to my statistical software (stata) and got an error. Turns out that even with all that ram, ******* will only allocate 2GB to any app. Then of that 2GB only about 1.4gb is a continuous block. This means I only get 1.4GB of the 4GB. This is frankly ridiculous.

Looked into XP 64bit - but that was released in 2005 - too scary.

Then linux. Recommended ubuntu. Been happy since.

[ren wins]

my friend had an extra copy of SuSe 9 laying around, and i had a brand new200gb HD. i started using ubuntu b/c i couldnt get wireless internet set up in suse
now i use it b/c i did some dumb stuff to windows, and linux works better (sometimes)...
but i'm getting used to it and it's starting to work alright, it's great to have such an active support community, and i like the idea of free software (and the new version of windows that's coming out sounds really scary)
huzzah

[grte]

Mostly...Just because I could. Windows was serving my purposes just fine, but I just felt like trying Linux.

[dgbauer]

Well, I was told that Linux was too hard and that I would never be able to use it... So I took that as a challenge and switched from Windows over to Linux and haven't looked back since! Plus, I really like not having to pay for almost anything with having Linux, and the fact that I can bring my laptop to work, or my friends houses, and not have to worry about anyone screwing with anything because of the security linux offers as well as the fact that no one I know really knows how to use Linux despite my many attempts to take them away from the dark side...

They'll come around...

[handy]

I was looking around in 1987 for something new to learn/do. I was tired of working on machinery, & wanted something that was not hard on my body, & which I could go on learning forever. I decided to try computers, researched, nearly bought a Mac, got into Amiga's instead.

I loved the Amiga :KS

Over the years, I learned enough about Amiga OS to end up writing reviews & tutorials for MegaDisc, an Australian Amiga specific magazine distributed on floppy disks.

The Amiga community was very active, MegaDisc was a wonderful focal point in Oz, & internationaly. Remarkable considering that the internet really didn't come into the equation in those days.

Commodore slowly & painfully killed itself & most especially the Amiga. That was a VERY sad experience.

I turned to ******* 3.11 in the beginning of 1995, it was souless & so ugly in every way after the Amiga. I adopted win95 after it was released; a giant of a nightmare. I worked at learning it & the hardware, starting a computer technical service in 1995, which I still run today.

Because M$ generally make such horrible software, (I think VB has got a lot to answer for too) & especially such poorly thought out operating systems, (I'm sure there is still code from 3.11 in xp!!) It has given me the oportunity to sort out many of these problems for people & get payed for it. (No smiley these days)

So, 10 years of working mostly on *******, (people get less for murder).

(The hardware is much more fun.)

You can imagine the general lack of enthusiasm for computing that particular environment can create...

The lack of soul, in the M$ world has been truly disheartening. I was going to use more words here, but CORPORATE GREED really does rap it up.

I have been looking at various Linux distributions over the years, waiting for it to develop to a comfortably easy level of use.

I chose to get serious about Linux about 7 weeks ago, with the attitude that if I don't do it now, I probably never will. I started with Debian, for a few weeks, then found the Ubuntu forum, used the forum to solve some Debian problems, whilst preparing for my Ubuntu installation.

Printing & sound issues certainly need addressing, as does 64bit. Solutions to these problems are enevitable & are in the works right NOW. :KS

:KS The Ubuntu community, as demonstrated in this forum has given me back the enthusiasm of my Amiga days. :KS

The internet has certainly made our lives so much better.

I say thankyou to the Ubuntu community, you have improved my outlook on life. To see so many people demonstrating good will is so refreshing.

If nothing else ever improved in Ubuntu (impossible I know), so long a the community survives, I will always be a part of it.

People are so much more important than computers or money :confused: Bill :confused:

handy

[zambizzi]

Because I'm one of those people who just have to know how things work...how the cogs turn...how the wires go together...how to blow it up!

I have nothing against Microsoft and they've played a huge part in turning the internet into what it is today...they created a product people wanted to buy...and while they've tripped up along the way...they're seeing the light and Linux is bringing some serious competition to a marketplace that has long been dominated by a single product.

Anyhow...I started using Linux in 1997 out of pure curiosity. I purchased a boxed Redhat 5.2 and was impressed at how complicated it was compared to Windows! ;) I grew annoyed w/ it and didn't try it again for another 2 years...and have been using it ever since.

I was a big Gentoo-head until Ubuntu came along...now I'm not sure there's any going back! :razz:

[dtfinch]

I had previously used Linux off and on, mostly Slackware, mostly on very old computers, and mostly because I figured it'd be a valuable learning experience, and the open source aspect was interesting. I didn't put a whole lot of time into it. My primary desktop unexpectedly developed some weird hardware problem, which prevented running graphical (vesa) dos programs outside of Windows or running a graphical Linux desktop, and I didn't have a lot of money (student), so I just went on using Windows almost entirely.

Here's the sequence of events leading to my switch to Linux as my primary desktop:
* 2003 - Microsoft paid SCO $16.6 million directly and lead BayStar to invest another $50 million, and otherwise talks a lot of trash against open source. Conveniently this adds up to $66.6 million, which I hadn't noticed until now.
* January 2004 - Microsoft begins its "Get the Facts" campaign. More trash talking. When you go out of your way to control, mislead, and deeply offend your own customers, you can't expect them to keep buying your products.
* Later that month - I bought a no-OS system to run Linux as my primary desktop. My other reason for the switch besides Microsoft's hateful attacks on freedom, truth, and charity was that I wanted to be fairly competent at administration and programming on Linux.

Within weeks, I had almost completely stopped using my home Windows PC. I still access it once or twice a month via remote desktop. It's headless now. My capstone that year was written in Java (UI) and C++ (backend), used OpenGL, and compiled and ran on both Windows and Linux.

On my Windows PC I had XP Pro, VB3, VB6, Visual C++ 6, Visual Studio.NET 2002, Office XP, Delphi, lots of windows specific freeware, and lots of games. Most of the code I've written in the past is pretty locked into Windows and Microsoft development tools. It was hard to let go. All that Microsoft software wasn't cheap either.

Probably half of the Windows games I had ran well on Wine, sometimes better than before. DOSemu w/ FreeDOS makes a better dos environment than Windows ever had, for playing those old favorites like Duke Nukem 3D at native speed in a window with near perfect compatibility. There's one game I really miss, a programming game called Robot Battle. My robots were some of the best. I think I can run matches from the command line using Wine, but the GUI is strongly dependent on Windows.

At my job, I still use Windows (as does everyone else in the company), but most of our servers now run Linux (CentOS). The file serving performance improvement over Windows Server was rather impressive. Every crash so far has been the result of hardware failure. And they're flexible and easy to manage. We still have a couple Windows servers for running Windows-only server apps, and they're not going away anytime soon.

Since switching to Linux, I've bought two more non-MS desktops, for $269 (for my dad) and $179 (for fun and testing) from TigerDirect. The sum of their prices is less than I've ever spent on a desktop before. One is running Kubuntu (though Linspire was preinstalled) and the other is running FreeBSD, which I've been wanting to become familiar with. My primary desktop is running CentOS at the moment, but I switch distros about 3-4 times a year. I should be back to running Dapper once it's final.

[salem7]

My road to Linux started as an exploration to the world of Open Source OS. I've tried Red hat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo, DSL, Puppy and lately Ubuntu. I think i'll stick to Ubuntu because it has all the basic programs that i need and the possibilities of customization are limitless. The activity within the Ubuntu community is high and that assures some stability for years to come.

[StefanoCole]

I started using Linux/Ubuntu about one year ago. Before I was a Windows user but I wanted to try Linux. Then, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Ubuntu Warty (a copy received with the "Shipit programme"). I first tried the live version and then, after a few weeks I installed it (in dual boot with Windows). From then I have installed Hoary and, from last October, I am using Breezy. I am very happy with Ubuntu and I only seldom use Windows now. So I just started using Ubuntu because of the availability of it via the Shipit programme. Also, what allowed me to go on with Ubuntu was all the documentation available (the wiki, howto, etc.) and, of course, this wonderful Ubuntu forum!

Bye Stefano

[th3james]

Simply, i was bored of windows. I had been messing around with windows, trying new things, and i ran out of avenues to explore. My computer science teacher at the time brought in the new version of suse 9.2 that the school had just brought, and i decided id have to give it a try in an attempt to satisfy my technocuriosity, despite having heard many stories about linux being really difficult. Even though loads of things i regularly used my computer for dident work when i installed linux, i couldent help but keep playing around with it, i loved how much power i had. Not only that, but, as a BIG computer science geek, it taught me so much. When suse 9.3 came out, i made the big switch, i stopped using windows. recently suse was starting to annoy me on my new laptop, so, i ditched it, tried ubuntu, and fell in love.

[sbasak]

I just started Ubuntu 1 month back. I am quite happy with Microsoft products so far (they were borrowed from friends ;) ). My hard disk space is at premium. So, couldn't install Ubuntu into hard disk. Just sometimes run it from LiveCD. Mainly do scripting tasks in terminal. Also enjoy the flavor of Linux :p

Frankly speaking I don't intend to completely wipe of Windows from my computer. If I can manage buying another hard disk, I shall install Linux into hard disk. But for day to day work I still prefer to use Windows.

[cvcaelen]

I was realy fed-up scanning for viruses-adware-spyware, defragmenting ,rebooting, bluescreens and what not in Windows
so , allmost 2 months ago I started looking for another OS
By that time I heard about dual-booting
at distro-watch I saw Ubuntu being the most popular distro

so

when putting all of this together, here I am
95% Ubuntu and when needed Win(mostly geocaching stuff)

Sure, it took learning , reading and searching
but it keeps me awake:p and sharp :rolleyes:

no regrets so far

Christiaan

[lgmdaniel]

Let me see.. I've now used DOS from version 2 to 6... Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP. While I've also used UNIX versions of Dynx/ptx, AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris. Now... all those where far more stable then Windows.. even DOS (which is still about and used in other flavours) with I think 98SE being the most happy release of windows I've ever used.
Now as I don't really have the time to play games, my main reason for the home PC at its original purchase time. Or the spare cash to upgrade to the latest and best bits, and with my Windows XP partition becoming more and more unstable (CD writer no longer works, but its fine in Ubuntu). The choice was a refresh or maybe try something different and being more UNIX in my job Linux seemed a good choice. So now I've tried SUSE, Mandriva (both had problems) and last Ubuntu, which I think I'll stick with. Even the support forum seems better put together, but we will see as time is tight. And hopefully I'll be able to shrink the XP partition to a point where I only need it to support the PC's I fix.

[AndyCooll]

I started using Linux based on the "free" idea. I had a few pc's, but all except for one were running hookie software. Initially I started off with OpenOffice for Windows and things developed from there. When I realised that you could run a whole OS that was as good as, and as I've since found out better than ******* I was hooked. :cool:

[madsalty]

I Started using ubuntu, because of the free idea. I am starting a computer business and with microsoft being so expensive, we have decided to supply them with linux. So i am the one testing it first. PLus i got sick and tired of re-formating my hard disk when xp went wrong (surprised aren't you) and having to install all of the updates from a pre-service pack one edition.

[Pawel Stolowski]

I started with Linux ~1996; had tried a few distros. Each time I was giving it a try I installed it, played with it a bit and then removed - I still preferred Windows95 back then mainly because Linux was lacking good desktop software and I was too impatient to learn it. But then it happened: I bought a new 17GB hdd which was not supported by my PC' BIOS. Win95 could only see 8GB and was crashing like crazy with this hdd. I installed Linux and suprise - it's stable and I can use the whole 17GB! I was converted! I've been using only Linux since then (~8 years) and can't imagine going back to Windows :cool:

[ibook-linux]

My first computer is a huge desktop clone from compUSA. A present from my mother my second year of college. I had never had a computer before and I LOVED it. It ran windows 98 and I loved messing around with it and being able to email friends and go on the internet.

But over time I noticed it became slower and slower and slower for no reason I could see. I would defrag the hard drive and do all the things suggested to help it but it really didn't work for more than a day. Also it soon began to lock up for no reason all the time. It got so bad that noone else other than me could use the thing because only I knew the secret combination of things how to exit out of certain screens first before doing X,Y, or Z to keep it from locking up.

So I decided to take things into my own hands. Reinstall and fix. That was a nightmare. It didn't even have an option to REMOVE windows and it was no where in the instruction book. Then reinstalling it by myself was horrible. I still get a cold sweat thinking about how many conflicts and wrong drivers etc I tried and failed to fix. It took a few months but I got it working right again. But sure enough in time the same problems from before came creeping back again. AGGGGHHH

I decided I hated windows and at the time I had never heard of linux before, also the apple ads were running pretty heavy on the TV at the time so I decided I was gonna "Think Different". I managed to scrape together enough money to buy a apple iBook 700 Mhz. Top of the line at the time although I wish I had the money to add more RAM than the out of the box 128MB it had. The guy at the store kept trying to convince me to look at all these other windows boxes that were cheaper but I wouldn't have it.

I only had the box for about a year. OS X was beautiful and stylish but I didn't have the control I was expecting. I could "go crazy" and change the screen background inside the windows but not much else. Also it was slow slow slow. I didn't have any lock ups or freezes but I still found myself missing windows. Apple OS was just not what I wanted or thought it would be. Nothing I wanted to run would work on apple and the nearist store that sold apple software was over an hour away.

Around this time I was given a dell laptop running windows XP pro at my work place. My mother needed a computer so I gave her my iBook. I loved windows XP but it still didn't fit what I wanted but it ran the programs I wanted so I didn't complain. I have begun to see the slow down and a few random lockups on XP that I saw before but nothing like the old 98.

Plus after I installed the "suggested" updates from the windows auto bubble that pops up it locked down all my office and excel files until I would insert the orginal CD the computer came with. It LOCKED me out of all my work files on purpose to make sure I wasn't running an illegal copy. I have had the computer for two years and moved two times since I had gotten it. I tore the house apart trying to find the disk. The windows help department told me if I couldn't find the orginal disk I would have to buy a new $300 copy and reinstall it. I finally found the disk and fixed it but I was really really pissed. I was not an illegal customer. You should not treat paying customers that way.

My mother eneded up buying herself a new dell laptop so she gave me back my old mac. I was excited to play with it again but I soon remembered my earlier disappointment with OS X. I was planning to sell it but ran across an article on linux so I figured I would give it a shot.

I tried installing debian but had all sorts of problems due to being a newbi, although it did give me a crash course in command line commands. lol Then a friend suggested ubuntu.

I LOVE it! It is what I have been looking for all this time. I finally have the control I always wanted. I have the best of both worlds. A good looking desktop that I can do ANYTHING with and make look ANYWAY I want plus a terminal button that allows me to do anything in the world with MY computer. I can even completely destroy it if I want to. It is MINE. Windows wouldn't let me trash it or uninstall it if I wanted to. It would not do things the way I wanted, only the way they had it set up. OS X claimed to be free but I never felt like I had control. A little more leeway but not true freedom.

I have only been using linux for a week now and I am not going back. I am still trying to figure out a way to get my work computer a linux machine and not run into problems at work.

[anil_robo]

I managed to scrape together enough money to buy a apple iBook 700 Mhz. Top of the line at the time although I wish I had the money to add more RAM than the out of the box 128MB it had. The guy at the store kept trying to convince me to look at all these other windows boxes that were cheaper but I wouldn't have it.

I always thought of Linux as an option of running *nix because I couldnt' afford to buy apple! Strange, but I'm much too happy with a cheaper Dell machine running Ubuntu than buying an apple iBook and then trying to run linux on it.


I only had the box for about a year. OS X was beautiful and stylish but I didn't have the control I was expecting. I could "go crazy" and change the screen background inside the windows but not much else. Also it was slow slow slow. I didn't have any lock ups or freezes but I still found myself missing windows. Apple OS was just not what I wanted or thought it would be. Nothing I wanted to run would work on apple and the nearist store that sold apple software was over an hour away.


I am hearing for the first time - a customer dissatisfied with apple! Strange! ;) But I'm glad we're with Ubuntu! :)

[ibook-linux]

I am hearing for the first time - a customer dissatisfied with apple! Strange! ;) But I'm glad we're with Ubuntu! :)

The apple OS wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Buyers remorse maybe? Apple desktop defently made things easy. It often confused me because I would have to change things in three screens in windows for an effects while in apple a single click would change everything in all the screens. These are good points but the bottom line was I felt constricted by apple. Just felt like I couldn't do what I wanted to do.

I tried to give my old ibook to my wife but she refused to play with it. Was scared she wouldn't be able to work it even though she never gave it a chance. I loaded linux on it because it was a spare old computer and I had nothing to lose. Although my spare toy has quickly become my main box of choice. Ubuntu has done a great job with their ppc version, making things simple and I am loving it.

[ivan cherevko]

well, I needed some challenge for myself, some problems that I will be puzzling about. And I got that challenge today with Ubuntu. And, unlike some other distros, I know that I can solve all that problems and will get it working someday.

Until then, I fight.

[JeffAxe]

I got on the Internet around the age of 12 and learned about warez and phreaking. Conversations about UNIX and C on IRC sparked my interest. I downloaded TXT's about hacking and phreaking and one of them mentioned Linux. I went to the library to find that, unfortunately, there were no books on it and really no mention of it anywhere else. So I gave up on linux and got a random shell account somewhere.

A couple years later, the explosion happened and people were constantly talking about Linux. I found that there was tons of documentation on it and decided to try and do an install.

I started with Red Hat 5 on my parent's computer (with the help of Linux for Dummies by Maddog Hall).

A few years later I built my own box and moved onto Mandrake 7.

...Jumped into Slackware

...Matured into Gentoo

...And now have calmed down with Ubuntu.

[Efwis]

I spend a lot of time working in the spyware forums. you see all these poor mislead people coming on with problems, this trojan, that spyware, this adware, this hijacking etc...

finally I said the hell with it, I was tired of being one of the statistics fo windows OS. back in June I downloaded and installed Suse 9.1 was happy with it until my computer started acting weird, it would open the cd drives, didn't matter which one it was sometimes it was both at the same time. Had a friend of mine from a forum mention ubuntu.

I have now installed ubuntu on my laptop as the only OS, i dual boot with windows on my desktop PC, only because my wife likes to play slingo which relies on shockwave player, hopefully Macromedia will figure a way for it to work on *nix, and every chance I get I try to convert someone else to ubuntu/Linux. as a matter of fact I just took my dads old Gateway pc removed Windows from it and installed Ubuntu on it. just need to finish adding some minor programs and it's ready to go to the house that will be using it. they are in for a wonderful treat when they get it back :)

[tmeier]

In Fall of 1999 got interested in trying linux. Found a book in a book store that said Learn Linux in 24hours. 24 1 hour lessons. It came with a distribution of Caldera Linux. I thought this would be a good way to learn something new. I, at the time, only had dial-up internet connection and since my computer had a softmodem I could not connect to the internet with it. I guess I wasn't too interested at the time, because I didn't work too hard to get it to work.

In late october 2005 a friend told me about Ubuntu and I tried it first on my Apple Powerbook 15" Titanium and worked great and I liked it. Got a cheap 10Gb hard drive in my home computer to try it there and are down to only Microsoft Money keeping us from totally switching to Ubuntu for our home OS. It has been great and look forward to not needing Windows.

[bogoliubov]

I started using Linux in the fall of 2004. I had started doing my diploma work at my university and there everyone used Solaris or Linux. So I wanted to try Linux. I bought a book that came with Fedora 2. This was upgraded to Fedora 3 and finally 4. But when I was asked by a friend to set up a cheap and old computer for him I tested several distros on this machine. I ended up choosing Ubuntu for him and I liked it so much that I changed on my machine as well. I've also tested Ubuntu on my iBook G4, but only the LiveCD.

For me the reasons to change was to try something new, something that made me learn a bit more about computers. Also Linux is very convenient for me when I want to work from home. And I also like the philosophy behind GNU/Linux!
Another thing that really impress me is the support I get from all the people on the Ubuntu forum!
I miss the games, but I'm never going to switch back!

[Amon_Re]

Hmmm... This'll require some digging into memory lane...
I know it was back in the Windows 3.1 days, and it was mostly curiousity that pushed me into experimenting with linux.

Back in those days i was an amiga user, and i really didn't like this windows thing, never thinking it'd actually amount to anything, i mean, how could people use such a thing when there were alternatives like Amiga's & Mac's? *ahem*

After those initial experiments (and being exposed to the most ugly UI i ever saw) i continued on my merry way, using my amiga, it was untill late in the 90's when my Amiga was sorely needing a replacement that i finally have in & got me a PC.

That machine (P100 or somethingl like that) was mostly dual booting between linux & windows, and over time i kept hating windows more & more, untill they released XP... that was the last drop :razz:

I've been linux only for awhile now, my servers run linux, my desktop runs linux, and so does my laptop.

[starNIX]

I saw a screenshot of Enlightenment back when E12 or E13 was out. It was beautiful. I needed to have it. That and OS/2 was falling behind.

[madjo]

Why did I start using Linux?
Well I had tried Linux on and off for a few years (slackware, red hat, suse, mandrake, even tried my hand at gentoo, though without much success with X), just out of curiousity, so I knew it was out there :) but I couldn't really switch because of my school which sadly relies on MS products.

After my graduation, I worked with Windows for a few months, grudgingly.
At the time I was looking at Ubuntu, hearing lots of great stories about them.

Then one night right in the middle of grabbing my email, Windows froze and I lost a few messages.
That was the last straw for me. And I began to make work for my switch to Linux. At first I worked with the live cd of Hoary to get the hang of Linux again, just tinkering around (the best thing about live cds is that you can't mess up the operating system itself).
After a few days of tinkering, and playing, I took the plunge, and never looked back. I have only booted to Windows 3 times, and all of three times were to check the condition of some hardware. For instance my network card, which sometimes didn't seem to work, I feared it might have been Linux, turns out it wasn't, because Windows showed me the exact same problems with that thing.
And also to check my card reader, I had a SD card, which I suspected was faulty, but I hadn't actually tried the card reader yet. So to double check that it was the card that was faulty, I booted up Windows, only to confirm that suspicion.

I really like Linux, and I hope it gets bigger, especially in the gaming market, though there are already many great games out there available for Linux.

Oh, and I <3 Ubuntu. :)

[signifer123]

Changed to linux first as a venture into other OS's, so started with a dual boot, but that faield since i couldn't find any distro that worked well with my network card (SUSE worked but i spent 15 minutes getting it working) then i tried ubuntu as a last resort i told myself if this doesn't work i'm back to windows. Well luckily it worked so i whiped my harddrive and put ubuntu on it, and now i am hooked, plus the live cd allows me ot use linux at school, though i do wish it would boot faster so i could use it all the time

but yeah great distro adn the ubuntu community i've found to be quite a bit better than most large distros

[Zwack]

Let's see...

Back in the days when Dinosaurs roamed the lands and... Well, maybe not that long ago...

Back in 1987 I went off to University and started using "real" computers. 1987 - 1989 I was using Digital Equipment Corporation machines, mostly a Vax Cluster running VMS, but with access to another DEC running TOPS, in 1989 I spent a year working in Industry in a Nuclear Physics Lab where I was introduced to the Convex C220 Super-mini Computer. It ran ConvexOs which is a System V variant if I remember correctly. I loved it. One of my colleagues worked on some Silicon Graphics machines and even had access to the first Intel Cube in the UK at the time.

I went back to University for 1990-1991 and had no access to Unix again until I got a copy of Slackware in 1993. Given that the realistic choices were DOS, Minix, Linux or BSD, I was using DOS and Linux dual boot on a 40 megabyte IDE drive...

I've been using Linux ever since... Initially Slackware, I tried RedHat, flirted with IBM OS/2 WARP for a bit, switched to Suse for a while, tried Debian, used Linux From Scratch, and I'm currently on Ubuntu.

I'm a Systems Administrator with IBM AIX, Sun SunOS and Solaris, HP HP-UX (including CMW), and Linux experience... And I still run Linux at home and work.

Z.

[beerorkid]

Failed my unix class, passed it the second time :)

tried red hat back in school. even stumped the teacher by setting up a dual boot on seperate drives. played with it a little and forgot about it.

Got a good IT job working in a MS environment, played with suse cuz all the peeps in my area used it. Now I spend much of my time figuring out how to intergrate linux into our environment. samba, debian/ubuntu mirror, DFS, network shares, and many other servers.

I spent a weekend trying 8 different distro's a spin. Ubuntu was second and I knew I would be back. that was warty.

community makes the difference though. Questions get answered. This is what I love about linux in general. thanks to all of you.

[Zwack]

community makes the difference though. Questions get answered. This is what I love about linux in general. thanks to all of you.

That's one of the big Differences... That and Cost...
I've used Commercial distributions before and I rarely need support. When I do I can usually figure it out myself, either by searching, or reading source code...

But, if I've paid for support I'm less likely to go and hang around on User forums answering other peoples questions...

Here I don't mind answering when I'm on here (and I'm not always around) as I feel it counts towards paying back for the distribution...

Z.

[beerorkid]

nice. that is why we have a debian/ubuntu mirror that should go live here soon. We are trying to see what we can do about bandwidth issues (we are on the state network)

[earobinson]

Im a geek

NOTE: this is not a support question and should be moved to the community chat
EDIT: thanks

[chimera]

A friend of mine was telling me about how Linux>Windows in every aspect, so I decided to give it a try.

[noob_Lance]

i started using it because i had to for co-op at town hall in gr12... ever since then... i was on and off linux.. but not even a year later... ive switched to linux (ubuntu) for sure now and i have no regrets about it at all :)

~Lance

[akurashy]

Lets see....

I started using Linux because I got bored of Windows... and well for some other reasons of course.. but mostly because windows bores me already. With Linux I can customize it to my like.

Of course you can customize windows... but how long you can go? till you have to modify the files.. then get a blue screen then bleh bleh..

Not mentioning the part that linux have a supporting community, where everyone contribute. and a lot of updates. seeing it, windows rarely updates

i stick with linux... because its challenging, because you can compile a program and modify it to your like. its open to all possibilities ;D

[bored2k]

I constantly want to learn new things.

[bored2k]

Not mentioning the part that linux have a supporting community, where everyone contribute. and a lot of updates. seeing it, windows rarely updatesYou do know Windows has communities which have hundreds of thousands of users right?

[dosed150]

i wanted a change im glad i did

[jannol]

free, innovative

[Wallakoala]

Someone I know told me about ubuntu. Since then, I've been anti-microsoft.

[ossi]

For me the most important reaseon for change was the philosophy of the system and the possibility to use Software, which doesn't hide from you. I want to know what I do - I like to learn and I just think this is the right way to develop something - that's why I use and support it.

[poofyhairguy]

Lets see....

I started using Linux because I got bored of Windows... and well for some other reasons of course.. but mostly because windows bores me already. With Linux I can customize it to my like.


Me too.

[Omnios]

poofyhairguy
Quote:
{Originally Posted by akurashy
Lets see....

I started using Linux because I got bored of Windows... and well for some other reasons of course.. but mostly because windows bores me already. With Linux I can customize it to my like.

Me too.

That is the one thing that got to me my xp would just sit there if I wan't playing games or serfing now computers are fun again thanks to Ubuntu

[niobe_logos]

Three words: Service Pack 2.

After weeks of nursing everyone else's computer back to health, I pretty much decided I'd had it with Windows. SP2 was the non-consensual upgrade with a double-digit failure rate. Other upgrades didn't bluescreen, but broke every other app that was installed. My computer survived the debacle because it was running Win98. Another reason was the sheer expense of licenses for Microsoft software--not that big a deal to me personally, but M$ software rates really look whack when you're working for a non-profit org.

Ubuntu wasn't actually my first choice of distro. I started off with Fedora, and ended up hating it after a couple of months. I also test-drove Knoppix, Feather, and Damn Small Linux, before deciding on Ubuntu. A coworker passed a LiveCD to me, and that was that.

[akurashy]

You do know Windows has communities which have hundreds of thousands of users right?

Yes I do, but I never really bothered joining them. Because most of those communities are with biased people.

[LightShear]

I first tried Mandrake ::looks through cds:: version 7.2 (LOL...that's about 6 years old now?) Dual boot between that and Windows. Kinda lost interest in it and computers in general.
Then, my laptop's hd took a crap last year and I couldn't find my recovery cd (perfect excuse for a different OS, riiiiight??) So that has RedHat on it now, but will soon to have ubuntu, kubuntu, or both? Haven't decided.
I just recently put a bunch of really OLD scrap parts together (133Mhz Pentium w/ MMX, 4 sticks of EDO ram, a 17gig hd, and a modem with DIP switches!!!! w00t!!) and loaded ubuntu server on it. It's so sad looking...
I plan on using that just to get my bearings for now and make this into a hobby (rather than a lifestyle like it used to be...but I'm not holding my breath)

[Koobi]

Windows has the whole virus problem so i thought i'd give linux a try and i've never gone back ever since.

also, Linux seems to functions a lot faster on my slow PC.

add to that, it's free.

[donjuan]

Two years ago when I was staying in the dorms I would often help people fix their Windows installs. One night I cleaned 3 computers of viruses, adware, spyware, and malware. While I was glad I was able to help those people, I was furious with Windows afterwards. The very sight of it made me sick.

One of my roommates happened to be running Linux, so I decide to try it. I tried Mandrake but it wouldn't recognize my RAID array (turns out I needed a 2.4 kernel). Somebody else in my hall suggested I try Gentoo because of its flexibility, so I did. I've been using it ever since.

The reason I'm browsing here is because while I love Gentoo, it's obviously not for everyone. I'm switching my dad's computers to Linux and since I've read great things about Ubuntu on the Gentoo forums I decided it would be a good choice for him. It even detected all the hardware on his laptop and configured it correctly! Well, I'm not sure about the modem, but I don't care about that.

[davebgimp]

On recommendation from a friend and out of boredom, I tried Ubuntu, never having used a Linux-based OS. That was about maybe a year and a half ago, I think. Now, aside from games, I use Ubuntu exclusively at home, got my boss into it and spend a good chunk of energy trying (for the most part unsuccessfully) to get my MS using friends to at least try it. I couldn't be happier with it right now.

[mntbighker]

Let's see... I started with Linux kernel 0.98 something or other when I needed a learning platform. I also bought Coherent which was a pretty kewl UNIX learning tool. It was a handful to get a working X desktop back then.

I use Linux now because...

-Bill Gates and company are the evil empire
-Windows is so painful to use safely there is no way it's worth it
-Every way you turn with ******* someone has their hand in your pocket (and not in a good way)
-It supplements my capabilities supporting Macs at work (NASA sysadmin)
-It is a perfect platform for running my IMAP server on with no associated costs involved

[Worm_in_a_Box]

Those were dark times for the republic...the Mother Gates Empire never was so powerfull....I lived in the small planet of Kalarba, and they threw stones each day at me, and my home used to explode 9 times a day. And it was full of alien virus. And bad bad people could enter there anytime, because it was made of holes. And, I knew that the house was illegal, I paid nothing for it, but still, even my friends of Kalarba that paid the big-big-big-not-small-really-giant fee for the Gates Empire had the same problems.
So one night, I heard some rumors about the Linux Alliance, then, I left my old house behind and got a M.A.N.D.R.A.K E7 Corvette, and started to discover the life as a member of the Alliance. With the time, I saw that my Corvette was nice, but not fast enought, so I traded it in Tatooine for a Kurumin 32 Fighter, a modified version of the famous Knoppix XX Fighter. After many adventures, like, the Debian Cruiser, and the Slackware Frigate, I am trying my luck with the Ubuntu Frigate.

[Azriphale]

There are a few reasons that I switched from windows.
I found the open, free aspects of Linux enticing, became interested in it and began reading more about it.
I have always had little problems with windows. And big problems. Hanging apps, whatever. I'm on a win98 machine at work, and since I started back here on Monday, I have alerady lost count of how many freezing apps have brought down the system. Or maybe its windows freezing thats bringing down the apps :)

Well, in 2001, I had my first proper encounter with Linux. I finally managed to get hold of a distro. It was the Mandrake 8.2 download edition. I started using it a little, became comfortable, got mdk 9.0, and later 9.2. I kept hearing things about this wonderful distro called SuSE, and eventually got SuSE 9.1, continued to 9.2 and also 9.3.
The computer science faculty at the university I am now at is running Ubuntu on all of their machines. There is an official Ubuntu rep at my university, so I acquired a Hoary disc from her. And I have not looked at SuSE since :)
I am now on Breezy, and will switch to Dapper as it is released. As of yet, I can not see any distribution, other than Ubuntu, on the horizon.

I find that Ubuntu is far more pleasurable to use than windows, and a whole lot easier (Except when you're playing with bleeding edge software. It requires effort to make it work and run. But it is worth it).

So far, I find the Ubuntu community is the best I have been a part of.

I'm looking forward to see how well VMWare player performs later. If it supports hardware video rendering, I will be happy. I will be able to remove Windows from my machine (aside from in the VM). That thought makes me happy.

[gabhla]

I was perfectly happy, living in a Windows "Fools Paradise". Had heard of Linux, but that's it. Didn't realize there was an alternative until I started having major operating system issues with Windows XP and made the effort to investigate alternatives. My initial forays into the world of Linux were complete flops - that was about six years ago. So, I patched up Windows and carried on. Six months ago I tested the Linux waters again, this time trying out Ubuntu - how I stumbled into Ubuntu I honestly don't know - just Googling. And here I am today.

What makes me somewhat unique is that I'm older, (I suppose). I'm near 60, and my career is not in the computer world (in other words, I'm NOT a geek - just a plain user). I'm the only one using Linux among my peer group - family, friends and associates - I know of no one else (personally) using Linux. In fact, they thought I was nuts, but now think I'm an expert because Linux is supposed to be so hard to configure and run. Well, it's not - at least Ubuntu isn't.

Oh, I love it. I've been using Ubuntu for over six months and installed Kubuntu on my other PC. I saved my Windows partition, but never use it. I do everything now in Ubuntu. I enjoy the stability and the ability to customize my system. It's cool. Sure, I've had some problems, but nothing major and nothing I haven't been able to fix by taking the time to read the forums.

Sorry for being so long-winded.

[Stormy Eyes]

I decided, after installing Windows 98SE in 1999 and having the registry corrupt itself right away (before I had even installed any apps!), that I had suffered enough.

[beercz]

Simple one really.

Fed up with ******* taking for ever to load, constant updates and patches, occasional freezing, slow and unresponsive, occasional crashing, continually having to restart after updating or installing software, security issues, reliability issues, having to run as admin to do anything productive or useful, wireless network loosing connections and reestablishing itself again, poor device drivers and memory managment, taking ages to shut down and those BLOODY ANNOYING SPEECH BUBBLES!!!!!!!

Also wanted to play, experiment and learn, have a chance to contribute, believe in the open source movement, to have a more secure, reliable and stable system.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

[Mr_Grieves]

I've been using Linux and Unix since aprox 1999.

I started with MS DOS 1.0 and have gone thru all the Windows versions upto date, I ran with Amiga's Workbench til the C-people ran away with all the money.. Workbench gave me the important insight that Micrsoft is not the world. At that time nothing could beat Amigas superior data processing and Workbench with it's true multi-taskning.. I guess I migrated to Windows because of the games. Where the games are the masses will also be.

I still use Windows some, but I'm now trying to do a 100% Linux migration of my home desktop. It's the games.. the games.. :)

I use Linux at home..
..because I learn very interesting things from regular daily usage.
..because most programs including the OS is open source and GPL.
..because of the higher amount of controll over the hardware and software.

[blackbeastofaarrgh]

I currently dual-boot with XP, and I'm not planning on totally ditching Windows any time soon.
But, the reason I started using Linux was because it was something new that I had never tried before. I heard great things about it, and since I'm kind of a Microsoft/Bill Gates fan, I always assumed it was crap. But then I thought to myself, "How do I know? I've never used it, well, besides that time at Fry's Electronics [an electronics store], and I couldn't even log in... so I might as well confirm that Linux is indeed, crap." I tried it out and was amazed. I liked it. I liked it a lot. My first distro was Ubuntu. I saw the "free" part and was like "Well, this is the one I get!" At first I was clueless as to how to do... well, anything. I use a USB Wireless adapter, so I popped in the driver CD and, not knowing the major differences between Windows executables and Linux executables, double-clicked the driver setup .exe, and waited. I tried screwing around in the networking, blah blah blah. I had no clue what Synaptic was, and barely knew what ndiswrapper was. Then, in a Slashdot email, I saw something about Xandros mastering NTFS reading or something, all I know is that it has Xandros and NTFS in the title. So I decided to check that out. So I got the Open Circulation Edition (which is free) and installed it. Xandros is very Windowsy, but also very user-friendly. And somehow, I managed to set up my wireless card. Fortunately there was a GUI for all of this, so it wasn't that difficult. I was thrilled, and started to totally dig Linux. I used Xandros for awhile, it was nice, relatively stable, and had a 30 (or 20) day trial of CrossOver Office, which I didn't really use... but it was fun to screw around with. So I was pretty much pleased with Xandros, though sometimes my wireless adapter sometimes "fell asleep" on me (which I'm pretty sure is actually a KDE thing). But I just thought "eh" and got on with life. And then came the release of Ubuntu 5.10. I downloaded the image as fast as I could, burned it, and popped it in. But, unfortunately, it screamed at me with an error. It wasn't Ubuntu's fault, my CD burner was dying. After I got a new one, I reburned the CD, and everything installed great! Then I did my research and thought I'd give the command line a go. I installed ndiswrapper via Synaptic, configured everything, and much to my surprise, it worked. And the funny thing is, my Internet runs much faster on Linux than it does on Windows.
And then it happened: my knowledge of Linux expanded like you wouldn't believe. I was now starting to understand how everything worked. And now, with my new 200 gig hard drive (I like to mention it as much as I can. I LOVE IT!), I'm totally digging Ubuntu. I think that it's one of the best distros out there. I'm still learning, so I'm not saying I'm a genius or anything, but the best part is that learning about Linux is actually fun. Sometimes (like now) I "test" myself to see how long I can stay off of Windows. 2 days so far.
So here I am. I'm also attempting to learn C++ (it's hard... but I'm starting to get it), which is fun. I use Linux to compile everything, of course (much faster than on Windows!).
Heh, sorry, I didn't realize how much I typed. Oh well.
And one more thing, are theere any other people out there like me? I'm only a kid... I'll be turning 14 on Friday... and I'm also a girl. Anyone else close to my age? Or at least any other females out there?
OKAY. I think I'll entertain myself some other way. :-P

[bloodborne]

I first tried Linux about 6 months ago when I was following the steps to install the leaked image of OSX for x86. I had to use a live cd to dd the image to my drive, and I followed the link to Ubuntu's website. I was impressed, as I always figured Linux to be some kind of cryptic, command-line only OS. I've since installed it on a family laptop riddled with viruses from Win XP and I'm planning on dual booting it with Win XP on my own box, keeping XP just for the games I can't run under Linux.

I'm also a huge advocate of FOSS, and I always am trying to get people to use it. I use Gaim, Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice.org under windows, so linux seems like the next natural step.

[Christos]

For simply peronal reasons. All my work at the University demands a good knowledge of Windows and it's software packages (Office / Visual Studio etc) but i wanted to squeeze into my schedule Linux as well. After all i'm studying IS and i want to be familiar with anything that people use all the time. I'm pretty excited with Linux, and hopefully i'll stay with it. Pretty sophisticated engine! I think anything that carries a Debian philosophy ROCKS the world as far as organization goes! :cool:

[Alpha_toxic]

One of my classmates was warkong as an admin for a local internet provider (he was about 16y old!!), maintaining the servers (including game servers :)). And it was all linux there, so I got the bug from him. Few years ago I started with some RedHat (not sure wich exactly). Back then I didn't have a network, so figuring out how it works (by my self) was very hard. But there is nothing like the feeling when you discover the syntax in a conf file or sth ;).
Next one was Fedora 3. I thought this is the future of linux. Back then all I knew about Debian was that it is sth only a pro should work with...
Meantime I looked at other distros - Knoppix, SE (RedHat like), Puppy (!!!).
And here came Ubuntu (Kubuntu actually, I've allwas been a KDE fan). And wow it was all I've dreemed of! All hardware worked out of the box, including my sound wich was a pain in the ass with Fedora. And now that I have a fast Internet Synaptic really ROCKS! IT'S ALIVE :)
Unfortunately I still have to use the "blue-screen"OS, cause I've to be comaptible with the sost at my university :(

[pspotts]

I started using Linux (Red Hat) in 1999 on a dual-boot Compaq laptop. At the time, I ran SETI@Home. Folks at UC Berkeley were divvying up the SETI data from the Arecibo radio telescope into standard-sized data buckets, which I downloaded for processing. So, same hardware on my end for both Windows 98 and Linux. Same-size batch of data to be processed. Linux processed the data in half the time it took Windows 98, even using minimal graphics on the processing software for Windows. That told me Linux was making better use of the guts of my machine. I did waffle back and forth for a time between Windows and Linux, but went cold turkey around 2002. I've never looked back (OK, once or twice, to gloat). The rest, as they say, is history...

Pete

[Kvark]

A few people I met in real life and many on various irc chatrooms claimed that they where using Linux on the desktop. I wiped out Windows and installed Ubuntu to prove that Linux sucks on the desktop and should be kept locked away in server halls where it belongs and does a good job. I was confident that I'd find nearly no good desktop apps at all since it's a server OS. And I counted on that after a day or two I would to be so frustrated with that Linux isn't cut out to be a desktop OS that I'd install Windows again. After that I would be able to tell those who claimed to use Linux on the deskop how stupid they where to use a server OS. Since my purpose was to prove that Linux sucks on the desktop my expectations where as low as they could possibly be.

The contrast between my expectations and the reality I encountered was blinding. Ubuntu only needed 1 hardware driver while Windows used to need a whole bunch after a reinstall. Ubuntu had apps for all the common tasks pre-installed while you had to spend an afternoon installing stuff after a Windows reinstall. Finding additional programs for Ubuntu with Synaptic was a whole lot easier then searching for downloads of Windows programs or getting CDs and then going through a long install wizard. And thats just the installation part, almost everything else about Ubuntu also felt like it was years ahead of Windows. It was a chocking experience. I felt like I had been living happily in a cave all my life firmly believing that the fire was the most modern technology ever and then suddenly got beamed up to a spaceship with holodeck, replicator, captain Kirk and all.

[IYY]

I have this laptop that my dad bought in 1998. It originally had Windows 98 on it, but after that installation became corrupt, I couldn't install Windows on it. I tried 95, 98, SE, ME, 2000, NT... None worked. I figured I had only two choices: throw it out, or install something else. So I installed FreeBSD and have been addicted to *nix ever since.

[djsroknrol]

I just got so tired of chasing after my machines, wondering if they were all functioning correctly, wondering when the cash flow to a company that really didn't care about their customers would end.

Then I discovered Ubuntu about a year ago, and have strived to break free of the mighty MS...so far, it's working...

[zubrug]

I was doing construction work at UBC Vancouver and noticed some proff. types using mandrake 8.1. I was told it was not for running on a home pc.
Ran out to staples and bought a box set of 8 cd's Man 8.1 for $69. I have moved a couple of times since, but, still have those cd's in my desk draw.
Tried many others, even payed for a couple.
Its all xubuntu now, WOW:D

[Cochise]

I like to try different things so i got a copy of the then brand new Mandrake Linux 6.2, great OS. Upgraded to 7.1, then switched Red hat for about a year. More recently ive been running SuSE, but thought i'd try Ubuntu breezy, best OS ever

[ComplexNumber]

i started using linux around 1997 because i was doing a 2 year course at the time, and the uni used linux. i remember vi(absolutely hated it then and now), some editor that i used to escape from vi called something like Coral, the command line, and not much else. my first experiences with desktop linux was using mandrake with early kde and gnome. in those days, kde was better than gnome.....so i used kde. i started using linux because i wanted something different, i liked the unix way of doing things from my experiences above, and because i was tired of windows.

[dirtaholman]

Because it's alot less hassle...no $ required (great for us poor folks), does almost everything i need out of the box (and things i need to learn), and installing new things is a snap (other than my winmodem :-&)

I still have alot to learn, but it's definately something I'd be willing to spend time contributing too :D

[henriquemaia]

Licensing costs. I knew Linux was free (as in beer), so I didn't look back.

[RAV TUX]

I started using linux, specifically Ubuntu because my pet bunny ate through my mouse cord.

[ctgray]

I bought a PCUser about 2 years ago, and it had an OS call RedHat that, wait for it, was FREE. Since I was (and still am) a cheapskate, I decided to give it a go.
I accidentally fscked up the installation and lost my Windows, but it was probably the best thing that happened to my PC. Shortly after, I found out about Ubuntu and have been hooked ever since.

[DigitalDuality]

#1. I like to tinker, even if i'm amatuer
#2. I'm bored with the Windows world
#3. My moral and political beliefs and my idea about business ethics aren't supported in Redmond (or by apple)
#4. I'm looking to get out of the "windows systems admin" world.

[commodore]

I'm interested in computers and Linux sounded very, very interesting. It's actualy a lot more interesting than I thought. Especially the whole free software thing.

[papangul]

I tried to "start using linux" in 2001, to avoid using pirated software. But I couldn't really use it till 2005 due to various reasons, the main reason being that I had dial up modem. In 2005 cheap DSL was introduced in my country and I immediately switched to linux(gentoo) 100%. A hard disk crash ensured that I didn't even have to wipe out windows. Got a new hard disk and installed hoary from the cd's shipped by Canonical just a few days before the crash.:)

[pitkali]

It was in 1998 or so. I bought a magazine and there was that weird Linux OS with free c compiler. I wanted to develop software but could not afford MS or Borland tools (those being the two companies I knew). So I did it. Though it was veery difficult and required me to learn lots of things. And now I'm happy :)

The distro was SuSe 6.0 AFAIR.

[Randomskk]

My server at home, a Dell Dimension running XP Home, was working fine. However, in the end I just got somewhat fed up with VNCing to it to control it, and with all the apps being somewhat.. crap.

So, basically, I built a new server, installed EnGuard SELinux as a server, and got puTTY on my XP Pro machine.
After some playing around, I soon had a nice fast server that I liked. Still, I was using windows up until christmas, at which point I got a new flat screen and a second hard disk. I knew exactly what to do with the hard disk, and some minutes later was running Ubuntu 5.10 :D

So I guess I really started using linux because I was using that on my server, and I decided to use it on my server because I wanted to experiment :D (oh, and I wanted people to stop laughing when I told them the IRC server they were on ran Windows XP home :P)

[Kernel Sanders]

I love computers and I love learning about them.

I found Linux (which in turn led me to Ubuntu) because I didnt like the way propriatory software was heading.

I am a Windows XP fanboy tbh. I love it. It does exactly what I want it to do, and I have no problem with Virus's or Adware/Spyware.

However, Vista just leaves me cold..... all that DRM, horrible interface, even more intrusive activation/WGA measures..... *shudders*

The worst thing of all is that most of the other propriatory software vendors seem to be following their lead in this privacy destroying method of software verification.

So after learning about ubuntu, and the FOSS movement i'm hooked. :p

I still love my Windows XP Pro, and will probably use it until it becomes useless/too outdated. But until then, I will also be learning as much as I can about Linux, and particularly Ubuntu, so that when the day comes that my Windows XP Pro installation can no longer fullfill its day to day tasks, I wont care, because i'll have my Ubuntu! (And hopefully i'll know how to use it by then! :p )

[Rackerz]

I started using Linux because I was interested in learning, Linux has become easier so I could finally try it out and have a mess around.

[Lopsicle]

I was bored with windows and wanted to learn something new, and apart from all the security issues with windos I find Linux to be a far better OS (imo)

Plus Tux is soooooooo kewl :mrgreen:

[Rhapsody]

Well, I have listed to final steps that took me up to using Linux elsewhere, so here I shall list the underlying reasons that set me up for it and kept me going when things got sticky.

Earlier this year, I realized that the base of my computing knowledge had been gathered in one big learning drive from 1996-1998 (which would make me between 10 and 12 at the time) after which nothing much of substance had really been learned. Now some of that stuff is still relevant, but overall, I found that absolutely apalling. I wouldn't tolerate it in someone else, so I certainly shouldn't tolerate it in me.

So I decided to take me usual approach, and set a project to complete. But no ordinary project. I was more than two generations out of touch with mainstream computing, so this was going to be the big one. I was going to install and configure a Linux distro, from nothing, with absolutely zero experience with operating systems outside of Windows and DOS.

My main problem was the one I was trying to solve. My big learning drive happened when Red Hat was the distro to beat, and GNOME was still in its infancy compared to KDE (which probably influenced my later decision to use Kubuntu). So I asked around on one of my main forums, and got a load of recommendations. Slackware, Elive, Fedora, Gentoo, even just junking the PC and going to the Mac side (not for me, too pricey and I always hated Macs anyway). But Ubuntu got the most votes from the forum goers, and Kubuntu was suggested over Ubuntu, so I went for it.

I'm glad I did really. Ubuntu is hard enough to be challenging (so better than MEPIS, Xandros, or Linspire) but not so hard as to be insurmountable for me (like I suspect Gentoo, Debian, or Slackware may have been). I'm still working at it, but I do think that I'm slowly getting to grips with it all. I'm hoping 2006-2008 will end up as a repeat of 1996-1998, only better.

[SeanTater]

My windows box crashed - I reinstalled it, it lasted 3 months before crashing again
*repeat 3 times*

My windows box crashed - I reinstalled it, it lasted 2 days before crashing again
*repeat 2 times*

I had had it.
I was not going to watch it crash *ONE SINGLE MORE TIME*, that was it!

So I looked into buying a Mac. /What do you mean I can't install it on an x86 processor?!/

A relative had heard of this thing called Linux.. When she tried it, it was just a terminal -- but /maybe/ it had gotten /a little/ better.

Then I read all over the place -- and saw that linux has these things called "distributions" -- neat!

I chose linspire (I was unaware you could download a type of linux for free)
In installed it -- so on --
then tyhe desktop and panel started crashing
I later realized that Linux/KDE/Linspire was not made for 266 mhz
Then -- the hard drive broke. No boot -- no nothing

So -- I got a computer formerly used elsewhere -- 4 times faster.
I realized that with 400mhz, (I never got around to smp for the other processor), Linux rocks!
*Never turned back*

So, I tried it on the laptop (the one that was crashing) -- no linux compatibility.
But it did not matter -- linux was on every other computer in our house.. and we loved it!

[cvmostert]

I was very much into windows from 3.11 in university, and enjoyed the ride,

after xp, i really knew what i was doing in win.

I did not and still dont like all the piracy in the windows world.

starded using knoppix live cd and while browsing around ... saw ubuntu, being south african... ubuntu was familiar even before mark started the project. That drew me at first... and now i have been using ubuntu since may 2005.

I am still using it and looking forward to the Dapper release.

I Learn alot here! Challenging with every new ubuntu installation i do.

And of course, i am allowed to get all the programs i need... free...

:-)

[Mau]

I installed Linux for the software support (no joke). I had used Windows, and it worked fine for me, but I wanted a UML modeller (for free). When I found out that it ran off KDE, I decided to make the switch. I love it now, but I need to do a complete re-install (for Dapper), as I've compiled so much junk now that it's just easier to do a clean install and keep what I want.