How'd you find out about Ubuntu?

[afroman10496]

Share your stories here, and please include your version number and distro (K, X, or whatever Ubuntu)

[kholdstare]

A friend told me About 3 years ago.

[Maheriano]

Heard about Linux by using it in university when I needed a C compiler. Then I wanted an alternative to Windows in 2006 so I asked for more information about Linux and people pointed me to Gentoo as the best distribution. I used that for a while but posted so many questions on their forums that they suggested I try Ubuntu since it's more plug and play. I asked anyone if they had a copy of it not knowing you can download it for free and some guy gave me a 6.04 disc. Tried that, didn't keep it, and tried it again at 8.04. Been hooked ever since.

[oldsoundguy]

Was running Fedora core 6 on a back up computer and was fed up to the eyeballs with the total lack of support offered by the supposed forums (where the common answer to a question was "you're a dummy and shouldn't be playing in OUR sandbox!")

A friend of mine (actually two of them) on a computer help board I belong to. Both (almost within the same DAY) said try Ubuntu.

7.04 was the current at the time .. I installed it and found that my computer WORKED using Linux for the FIRST TIME without spending hours in terminal trying to fix this bug or that bug.

Reliability set in and two years ago I moved the Windows machine(s) to supporting roles .. run Adobe and sync the PDA .. that kind of stuff. And SELDOM take them on line anymore.. but have 4 Ubuntu based machines on line 24/4.

[diesch]

I read about Ubuntu (Warty Warthog) somewhere when I was waiting for Debian sarge to get released finally. After some testing I switched.

[tc3000]

In 2007 I was looking at buying a computer for dummies, it talked about linux, I found a book at the library from 2005 about Fedora (Core), and then found the current version (2007) of it about ubuntu, I googled it, and presto!

[drawkcab]

Early 2005--had an old pIII with Win98me and it was picking up a virus every 40 seconds. One of my online friends was a big FOSS advocate and he convinced me to try Linux.

At any rate, I did a little research and decided to try Warty. I loved it even though it didnt work with my sound card/modem. As soon as I found out about Xubuntu, I made the switch (before it was an official branch).

I still have a winxp partition on my laptop and I've run other Linuxes from time to time, but I usually end up coming around to some Ubuntu-based distro because of the overall convenience.

[frenzyface]

I think I saw it on the LiveJournal Knoppix community.
5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) but took a long break since then due to technical difficulties
today i'm thinking it's getting so popular that it will be the next virus target

[Regenweald]

Blue screens in Vista drove me to look for an alternative in 2008. Remembered back in 2001 or '02, one of the programmers in the office was trying to set up Red Hat 3.1 (I think) as a print server ( I thought at the time that he was an IT god :)). Only thing I remembered was 'no viruses', I started researching and came across Linux for Human Beings.

First version was 8.04 Hardy Heron.

[themusicalduck]

First one I used was 8.04 UbuntuStudio just as it was released. I can't remember why I was looking at linux particularly, but I'm into sound production so it looked pretty interesting to me. UbuntuStudio didn't work with my graphics card. So I tried plain Ubuntu and it worked... reasonably well.

I did know what linux was then, because a friend a few years before lent me opensuse (on about 6 discs or something). That didn't work with my graphics card and just gave me a terminal leaving me pretty confused. After finding it wasn't supported, I used Windows again until 8.04.

[Teber]

discussed linux with a friend in 2007. last quarter of 2007 i tried opensuse and fedora respectively. in february 2008 i tried ubuntu 7.10 and since than i thought: that's it - ubuntu is ON! upgraded to 8.04 and later jaunty 32 bits, which was less satisfactory. installed jaunty 64 bits and woot! now i'm in love with the cute koala.

[witeshark17]

Having the usual problems with winXP was the start. Friends upgraded to winvista and the trouble continued, imagine that. :lolflag: So we got a couple of Macs and wow what a relief! But my bro and myself wanted to keep using PC. I had always said that security doesn't come from getting OS X; it comes from not getting win anything! So one PC got Red Hat on it and another was running Debian I think. Then came a time that I wanted a laptop. I wanted something a little less expensive than Macs are. And the only laptops with Linux preinstalled were a couple of Dells with Ubuntu. And there you have it! ):P

[kyuubi777]

about half a year ago i got fed up with xp screwing my life up all the time, so i torrented rose linux 2009 and installed it, was blown away w/ the live cd deal, and the compatibility.. however, it was a bit unstable at times and while using it, i read somewhere on here i believe (accidentally got linked over) someone raving about ubuntu, so i downloaded 9.04 and burned it just in case i ever needed a back up.. well, eventually i figured my iphone was becoming too unstable w/ some of the tweaks i had done to it and needed itunes to restore if necessary.. so i tried dual booting xp and rose linux, but i failed at life back then. and ended up booting ubuntu... was a bit thrown off by the brownish wallpaper, but no matter, i stuck with it, and i thank god and Linus and Michael Jackson i did because nothing microcrap has ever made, is making, or will ever make compares to it!... I am an Ubuntist for ever

it forced me to start learning about computers because i had to figure out how to partition which led to learning a bit about file systems.. and i needed to learn about .iso burning .. etc.. and i love having this info. and building on it every day.. Linux is responsible for changing my life!

[afroman10496]

I just found a magazine 3 years ago about Linux. Then, 2 years later, I got my own laptop and downloaded Ubuntu Linux 8.04. I wanted to dual boot it with Windows, but I sorta messed it up and made it take up my whole HD. I actually feel good doing that now;)

[j7%<RmUg]

I noticed it posted on a few forums i was looking at while fixing one of those many windows problems, about 12 months ago. So i googled "linux" and read about it for 3 days straight, i then went on to find distrowatch and saw ubuntu was number one, got to the site, thought it was freakin awesome. So i downloaded the liveCD of ubuntu 8.10.

[HappyFeet]

Distrowatch.com when 4.10 came out.

[wulfgang]

Back in 08' I had 50 bucks to burn, So I decided to try out linux. I bought an old refurbished xbox at gamestop, and installed Debian on it. Because I liked linux so much, on my xbox, I decided to install it on my pc.
So then I googled "What is the best Linux distribution?"
Ubuntu was number 1. :)

[autonomy]

This was my original account from that year. I think I'll go back to using it.
--frnzyface

[phrostbyte]

I've been following Linux and the greater free culture movement since God knows when. There is this utopian quality to it all that really captivates me.

But that doesn't answer the question, does it?

I think I found out about it on OSNews. :-k

[Frak]

No joke, a friend said to me one day "Some African guy sold out, went to space, came back to Earth and made a Linux distribution." After hearing that, I was said "This is better than being drunk, bring your CD over."

It sounded so off the wall, I had to try it.

[murderslastcrow]

When my family bought a new computer, I wanted something to replace Windows 98 on our old PC so it would still have a use. It had 112 MB of RAM, but I tried using the regular Ubuntu LiveCD anyway, and met with confusion, thinking that it was meant to run on older systems from what I'd heard (used ShipIt). This was version 6.06, when Edubuntu and Kubuntu I believe came with the normal disc.

Later on, I found the E17 ran very well on that old hardware, and that's what it's using now, but when I bought my first Vista laptop, I was underwhelmed, and back then antiviruses still mainly targeted XP, so I got a lot of problems even with good protection, including losing a lot of money. So that's when I really DISCOVERED Ubuntu, on an HP Tablet PC. It was a great introduction, and it's unbelievable how much Linux has improved since then. And I thought it was better than anything I'd ever seen WAY BACK. Now it's like nothing can really compare.

[squilookle]

I was using Suse and got hooked to it, and had started getting Linux magazine.
I got a copies of Hoary Hedgehog and Breezy Badger attached to Linux magazine. I was tempted to try it as the reviews were good, but I chickened out of installing them both as Suse was working well for me - but I did give in and install Dapper Drake when that came out, as I'd managed to break my Suse at the time anyway and had nothing to lose. I remember being really impressed with it, and I've been using various versions on and off since then.

[xpod]

I eventually stopped being a "stubborn auld git"(not my words) in the Spring of 2006 and began using computers... and of course Windows.
A couple of months later i stumbled across Firefox then soon after that i stumbled across the Stumble Upon FF extension......very very soon after that i Stumbled Across the Ubuntu site and i`ve been stumbling my way round with *buntu & Co ever since.


Happy Ubuntuing.:p

[Windows Nerd]

My neighbor, who is a complete whiz with Linux, showed me his computer a couple months ago. I don't know which distro he ran, but it was obviously heavily modded to his preferences because the only thing on his desktop was a embedded transparent terminal on the left-hand side. Additionally, all his windows on his desktop were transparent, too. I, being fed-up with Windows at the time (blue screens when I inserted a certain "Windows Guaranteed" USB device) as well as the insecurity after the same neighbor hacked it remotely within a couple minutes to prove its insecurity. Another factor I like was that it was free...and no MS to ask for a whole privacy invasion to run thier OS. So after a couple weeks of Googling and research, I settled with Ubuntu. Loved it ever since.

Scott

[ZankerH]

I heard about this new distro about to be released, that is being based off Debian unstable, but focusing on a regular release schedule and "user-friendliness", or, as the Debian community referred to it at the time, semi-instant familiarity to new GNU/Linux users - as opposed to Debian, which mainly focuses on stability and software Freedom. I thought it would be interesting enough to try out, and a few days later ubuntu-4.10-desktop-i386.iso finished downloading on my 56k connection.

[Tmi]

When I started using Linux I used Gentoo but got pretty bored with all the compiling and once complained a bit about it to a friend. He then mentioned a few other distros, including Ubuntu. That, I think, was the first time I heard about it. I then started playing games a bit more and thus had a small windows period until I finally caught that blaster worm.
That same night Swedens first astronaut was scheduled for launch in the wee hours swedish time so I was up waiting for the nasaTV to begin and decided to kill some time by looking at Linux distros to replace my windows install with. Remembering the conversation with my friend I then looked closer at Ubuntu and then also decided to try an install. I've been happy ever after :)

TL;DR version: Astronauts, linux, happy.

[nothingspecial]

I used to hate computers, the internet, everything about them. I even failed my Performing Arts (since passed) degree because I refused to do the IT module ......"When I see a computer science student in drama class, I`ll learn about computers" .... was my attitude.

Music is my thing.

Then I saw an ipod ??????? what?, all my music???!!! all of it?! on that little thing? The whole lot, in my pocket, where ever I go?

Of course, you need a computer to use an mp3 player and my brother-in-law gave me his old one. It had Feisty on it. And here I am.

[kio_http]

On the net. I knew about Linux and wanted to try it out.

[Naiki Muliaina]

An old Mandriva resurrected a an XP laptop (never had the XP disc). Got into Linux. Heard of Warty Warthog, thought oh what a cool name! Downloaded it. It re killed my laptop. Stuck with Mandriva havin odd excursions into Ubuntu. Gave laptop and PC full purging during the hardy betas and put Ubuntu on everything. Hardy Ubuntu or Xubuntu as main system scince with lotsa journeys to other distros.

[Kantis]

I read about Ubuntu in a small newspaper. It advertised a course aimed at people who were beginners with computers. The goal was to install Ubuntu and learn to use it. I was about to buy a new computer anyway and knew next to nothing about them, so this free Linux thing with free installation help and free advice sounded ideal. I bought a used ThinkPad because Google said they went well with Linux.

I ended up not going to the course, but the online instructions were so simple that even a TOTAL beginner like myself felt I could follow them. Wireless didn't work in XP because "some of the driverslt were missing," said the fellow who sold me the ThinkPad. I didn't know what drivers were, but apparently Ubuntu's live CD had them because wireless worked, and that settled it. I installed, all on my own.

It's funny how I used Windows for years and years and never learned to tell a motherboard from a hard disc. That little advertisement convinced me that maybe even I could learn to understand computers. I've tried many distros since on several computers with varying success, but I always end up coming back to Ubuntu, it's like returning home. (Except on that damn ppc iMac G5, Debian is best for that.)

[The Funkbomb]

Wanted to expand my computer education. Tried Suse and it bombed things out. Swore off linux.

A few years later, some guys in IRC were talking about Ubuntu and I asked about it. I needed to reinstall XP anyway so I did fresh dual boot for both OSes. Ubuntu, for the most part worked out fine. XP wouldn't install a bunch of stuff. Moved to a fresh full install of 8.10 two days later.

With this machine, I built it right when Win7 RC 7100 got released so I set up a dual boot between 9.04 and Win7. Played a few games in Win7 but haven't been back in a bit. I mostly run 9.10 full time.

My netbook came with XP but I put Masonux on it the other day and so far, so good.

[beercz]

I've been using debian for about 7 years (still do in fact) and a friend introduced me to ubuntu when warty was first released - been using ubuntu (and debian) ever since.

[Seishuku]

In the beginning of this year, I was talking to a friend of mine from school about how I had customized my WindowsXP and went on to tell me about Ubuntu and how much more customizable it was. After a few weeks or so of looking at him use his computer, I installed Ubuntu 9.04 (which had just come out) on mine, and have dual-booted ever since. I only really use Window$ for games now.

[andymorton]

I discovered Ubuntu during the summer of 2008. I'd finally had enough of dealing with viruses, freezes etc whilst using Windows Vista. If I remember rightly I typed ''Linux'' in to Google and came across the Ubuntu website.

After I shaky start, trying to work out what the hell was going on, I became hooked. My only regret is that I didn't start using it sooner.


andy :D

[Small_Nuke]

I found out about Ubuntu when my high school computer science teacher finally told me about Distrowatch. He made us use no X Knoppix live cd's to code c++ using vim and ssh to a server in class. Let's just say that Ubuntu was much better =P. I think it was Ubuntu 8.04, and Ubutnu was #1 and has been #1 since then on Distrowatch.

[MasterNetra]

I actually originally stumbled upon Ubuntu back when feisty was the current. I was at the time exploring free alternatives to Windows. And knowing little to nothing about Linux at all it felt like I was looking into a world not seen by many. Unfortunately feisty didn't even boot for me so i moved on. Knoppix seemed promising but for some reason or another it didn't work out for me. I eventually just went back to windows. Then in my first semester at ITT-Tech I was re-enlightened to Ubuntu by a classmate and went back to check it out, having forgotten the previous failure with feisty I tried again this time with Hardy and it worked! ...Only if I knew about Distrowatch back then too...

[chris200x9]

the wine project actually and frozentech, I had a windows game it played horribly so I read about wine. Somehow I was like "maybe that will play it better" so I sent away to frozentech for an xubuntu cd (I liked the name, only reason i chose that one) couldn't get my winmodem working so I bought SUSE pro (I thought because I paid for it it would magically work). Then I got curious so I've been tinkering with linux ever since. I'm actually all *nix now (freebsd and linux) :p

[kungfu_action_jesus]

It was in popular science about a year ago i think... anyway 9.01 i use gnome but im trying out xfce

[BuffaloX]

My wife wanted to try Linux for her music productions, she had some problems with it in Windows, like annoying latencies, and recordings not synching up properly.
She tried lots of distros, and sometimes I looked to see how it went, some were pretty good, but she always ended up hitting some snag she couldn't fix...

Until she tried Ubuntu.

This one caught my attention because of her constant ooh and aah.
After seeing how well Ubuntu worked I decided to try it out too.

I was very pleased to experience how well it worked, and how much it was improved compared to my experiences with Suse a couple of years earlier.

Suse has also improved I tried that too, but I liked Ubuntu more, I really like the Ubuntu philosophy, and the Ubuntu forum is the best in the world IMO.

I did burn a fuse a couple of times, I have been an IT consultant once, so I didn't expect to actually have to read or learn anything.
Turned out it was time well spend. :D

PS:
For my wife, she got lattencies about 1/3 of Windows XP, and recordings synch perfectly every time, on the same hardware!

[mamamia88]

was researching whether or not to put linux on my ps3. someone said probably not worth it but definitely worth having it on your computer. so i gave it a shot since it was the most popular distro and here i am

[dearingj]

It was in 2006 that I first heard about Ubuntu, though I had tried one or two other Linux distros before. I had two computers at the time, one running Windows 98 and the other dual-booting Windows XP and SuSE. I was fed up with Windows and its constant BSOD (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blue_screen_of_death)s, and didn't particularly like SuSE's package manager. So I headed to DistroWatch (http://www.distrowatch.com) to see which other distros were popular.

I later found out that the day I downloaded Ubuntu was the exact day that 6.06 was released, and that 6.06 was the first version of Ubuntu which I would have considered useful as my main OS. (I think it was a matter of hardware support, but I don't remember for certain now).

[LookTJ]

A World of Warcraft/Runescape dude told me about it i3 years ago

[stinger30au]

a few guys at Aussie Arcade were talking about it

www.aussiearcade.com.au

Aussie Arcade is Australia's largest Arcade community run by collectors and enthusiasts we are dedicated to the preservation and restoration of everything Arcade and Pinball. Join hundreds of collectors, enthusiasts and people involved in the Arcade and Pinball industry in day to day discussion of everything Arcade including Pinball, Video Arcade and MAME.

[mztriz]

It was about 4 years ago when I had just found out about linux. I had tried a few distributions and I was googling for more when I came across Ubuntu. The website looked really nice and I viewed some screenshots, overall it looked more polished than any other distro I had seen at the time. I gave it a try, and I'm still using it today. :D

[t.rei]

Back in the days I had a powerbook G4. Ubuntu had a well stocked ppc version.

[Praxicoide]

After a nasty virus attack, I reinstalled XP and added AVG Free, VLC, Gimp and a lot of other free tools, and a friend said to me "You might as well use Linux" and I thought it was a great idea, since it would also mean learning about a new OS.

I did some searching and found about Dapper Drake, almost by chance. I don't remember exactly what made me choose Ubuntu, but I'm glad I did.

[othiena]

In the Popular Science how 2.0 section of the March 07 issue and then later in the December 07 issue. I did not try it until December 08 when I got the Official Ubuntu Book 3rd edition. Which has the 8.04 release.

[Uncle Spellbinder]

2004, a friend at work gave me a CD. Said to give it a try. I've been dual-booting ever since.

[Enlightened Shadow]

I found out about Ubuntu out of necessity. I was always intrigued by computers and an avid learner. About 3 months ago, I had installed yet another virus on my parents desktop with Winblows XP. This particular virus had corrupted several system files and wasn't allowing me to do anything. I needed to format the hdd.

The problem was that I didn't have a backup CD for Winblows. So I began looking for an alternative. I had read several articles on Linux but I never had enough courage to venture out in the Linux wonderland.

Left with no choice, I got out my laptop and Googled: Most User friendly Linux OS. The top result was Ubuntu. I proceeded to read about and download a live CD. I then burned it to a blank DVD, popped it into the desktop and the rest was history.

Since then I have tested other OS' but always came back to Ubuntu. I now run 9.10 (9.04 at first) and have completely decked it out. I will never go back to Winblows (except for a few games).

Thanks for reading.
Cheers.:KS

[BrokenKingpin]

Distro Watch.

[scouser73]

A mate told me about it back in 2007, I didn't think anymore about it til March 2008 and have been using Ubuntu since then.

[glnerd]

Xubuntu 9.10 karmic. started working at a computer shop with my friend during college, he told me about ubuntu...altho I had heard of linux and its many distros. I'd never used it. My buddy gave me the ubuntu cd. I dual booted and have been using linux(xubuntu) ever since

[diablo75]

I found out about Ubuntu right around the release of version 7.04 after watching a demonstration video of the Compiz Cube on Youtube. My mind was instantly blown away when I saw Quake 3 running in a Window while wrapped around the corner of the cube, and to think the OS itself was free to boot. At that time, there was also Beryl, which outdid compiz on special effects by a long shot and that's what I was interested in at the time, and somehow or another I had discovered Ubuntu "Ultimate Edition", which came with Beryl (and a bunch of other useless junk) preloaded.

Sometime after 7.10 came out, I removed Ultimate, installed 7.10 strait up, and used Automatix to install most of those special extras I was looking for, like Beryl, Google Earth, multimedia codecs, etc. Eventually Automatix dropped out of the game and Ubuntu itself came with Compiz Fusion, ubuntu-restricted-extras, and software like Google Earth and Skype are now very easy to install (more software continues to be distributed via Synaptic, Medibuntu and deb files).

As a kicker, I wear an Ubuntu hoodie I purchased from Ubuntu.com and get a kick out of the occasional random person saying, "I like your hoodie; I have Ubuntu on my computer too!" It's like being a part of a super cool underground club.

:guitar:

[jsmanian]

Hi,

This is my first post and new to Linux world. Actually I want to use openfoam cfd software. For this, I searched many OS for compatibility in net. Finally I chose UBUNTU 9.1.

Now I think that I chose correct one:P. It boots faster and and works smartly. Now a days I am not using windows at all.

Hope I will enjoy with Ubuntu:guitar: