How did you hear about Ubuntu?

[mitchbones]

I was just wondering where some of you heard about Ubuntu. Was it a long time ago? Recently?

I myself, was browsing Digg.com a month or two ago and saw numerous topics under Linux/Unix category regarding something called "Ubuntu." I have always been slightly curious about Linux but never courageous enough to try it. A few of the stories were about how it was "User Friendly" and mainly just singing its praises so I decided to try it out.

[WalmartSniperLX]

One day I was at my friends and Linux became a topic of discussion. I suggested that he get it so he went to some linux website where it had all the distros and he went straight to Ubuntu, downloaded it, installed it, and gave me the liveCD. It was Dapper at the time.

So now Im still using ubuntu, and even removed windows :P

[steven8]

I have heard about linux for years, but it was an area I'd always been afraid of, thinking it was only for computer genius'. Notice I didn't say geeks. Most of my friends in school would have been called geeks, and I never like that term. I wouldn't have been called a geek. I was just a dweeb. Big difference. :-)

Anyway, one day, like 4 months ago, one of those old friends and I were having breakfast together. He is an IT supervisor for the Cleveland Clinic, and we were talking computers. I had finally found and create a successful disk image of PCDOS 3.1 for my old IBM PC 5150 and was quite stoked about it! He looked at me and said, "I think it's time you looked into Linux." We talked about it a bit, and he mentioned liveCD's. I did a google search that night and found an old distro (can't think of the name, doggone it!) and gave it a whirl. I was major excited and he and I wrote back and forth about it for a couple of days. Then I found Ubuntu in a search and was in awe of the community and the philosophy right fro mthe get-go!!

I have settled on Kubuntu, after trying about 25 other distros, and think I'll just stay here. . .

[kevinf311]

Ever since I went away to college (about 3.5 years ago now) I was interested in other operating systems. I had gone from Windows 3.1 (which I loved) to Windows 98 (wich I abhorred) to my college computer running Windows XP Home. After quickly changing to Windows XP Pro I started upgrading components and exploring other OSes. After building a computer from scratch, one of my roommates suggested putting Linux on it. I decided it couldn't hurt. I went from Lindows (Linspire now I think?) to Gentoo to Mandriva to a Xandros and finally settled on Ubuntu (Dapper). I kept a dual boot of XP Pro and Ubuntu 64bit. XP was my main OS at that point, and I tinkered with Ubuntu. After seeing the 32 bit version, and how much more I could customize it, I switched down to that (I had also had a massive loss of data in XP so it needed a fresh install, too). After a couple months of idle tweaking and a new video card I had my Ubuntu OS as my main and XP hanging around for... something, I'll think of it... um... Return to Castle Wolfenstein?

[BarfBag]

To be honest, I don't remember how I found out about Ubuntu. :confused: Old SUSE convert. I remember that much.

[zugu]

A friend of mine told me a year ago about a Linux distribution that delivers free CDs to one's door! He had like 20 Breezy CD's (actually 40, since each package had an install CD and a live CD).

Reluctantly, I grabbed one and let it dust on my desk.

One day, Windows refused to complete the installation process. In a rage, I installed Ubuntu. Now I'm on Dapper and I will never look back on Windows.

[nalmeth]

We've done this before, but I like seeing new posts.

I was struggling with debian problems (various debian-based distros), switched to Vector for a little while, came back to debian, struggled some more with a stupid libc6 dependency-pickle, then found Ubuntu!

So I am in the distro-convert category, it wasn't my first distro. Not terribly exiting, but there it is.

[aysiu]

Where haven't I heard about Ubuntu?

It's everywhere--technology news, lists of top software, blogs, DistroWatch...

My first gateways into Linux were Blag, Knoppix, and Mepis. I kept trying Ubuntu, though, because everyone kept talking about it. I wanted to see what the hype was about. I soon realized the software didn't live up to the hype, but the community and documentation did... so I stayed.

[nalmeth]

I soon realized the software didn't live up to the hype, but the community and documentation did... so I stayed.
Huh?

Somehow I've never heard you mention that, in what way did the hype misinform you about the software?

[aysiu]

Well, I heard a lot of this phrase "just works," which I still hear now today, and I don't see how Ubuntu "just works" any more than any other distro. In fact, a lot of other distros could detect my monitors' optimal screen resolutions, but Ubuntu (even as of Edgy) cannot unless I manually add lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Nor does Ubuntu "just work" with Flash videos or MP3s (yes, for ideological reasons, but to a new user just coming off Windows, why would I care about that?).

Ubuntu now (in late 2006) can't even match Mepis of 2005 with an easy point-and-click way to install Grub, Nvidia drivers, or reliable mounting of partitions with correct permissions.

So, that's how Ubuntu disappointed me on the software front.

But I ultimately left Mepis because of the community. I just didn't find them helpful. They were good about saying, "Hey, nice screenshot," but when it came to actually answering support questions, they either weren't there (certainly not as active as this community) or just weren't knowledgeable enough.

Ubuntu is in a unique position because it attracts friendly users and knowledgeable users. Mepis users are friendly enough but generally not that knowledgeable (with a few exceptions, of course). I have no personal experience using Gentoo, but I've consistently heard that its community is extremely knowledgeable... and not so friendly.

[nsleiman]

My Story,

my Fujitsu Siemens laptop got SATA harddisk. I used to play around with fedora but didnt install! i searched the internet and i found somewhere an article posted by an ubuntu user has the same laptop i do, so http ubuntu, download alternate iso image...now everything is working perfectly except the internal modem!@#@! i think there is no way to fix it :)

I'm in love with ubuntu!

[nalmeth]

Ok, I understand

It's funny, I was never exposed to the hype like many other people are. The only way I knew Ubuntu existed was that it was always on distrowatch, and having a sort-of-stable desktop already I wasn't looking for a replacement like Ubuntu/Suse/Mepis. It seemed like just another stable desktop distribution.

I may have read some reviews, but so many distributions are covered, and any rave reviews didn't really sink in. "just works" is a phrase that gets thrown around ALOT, and it loses the 'wow' effect fast.

It was just surprising to think that you thought Ubuntu was poor quality software (as in buggy, crash-prone), but now I see it was more an ease of use, desktop replacement issue.


Ubuntu is in a unique position because it attracts friendly users and knowledgeable users. Mepis users are friendly enough but generally not that knowledgeable (with a few exceptions, of course). I have no personal experience using Gentoo, but I've consistently heard that its community is extremely knowledgeable... and not so friendly.
I know a couple gentoo people, they are knowledgeable, and even friendly. The keyword is merciless. Somehow that attitude attracted me to linux from windows...

[Dainn]

I overheard a conversation when we were visiting one of my husbands freinds. Someone was talking to someone else about an old pc they had, and he was recommending they try something other windows on it. [he's a progammer, so by "default" he had become their IT]
When I asked what he would recommend he said ubuntu. Since I had wanted to try linux for a while anyway, I gave it a shot. Both my son and I like it. He has it as his only OS and I dual boot. The funny thing is, the guy that recommended ubuntu, has never used it. I think he only uses windows. Before about a month ago, I had never heard of it.

[kripkenstein]

I heard about Ubuntu for the first time on Slashdot (apparently a lot of comment-posters there like it...). Having been unhappy with Windows for a long time, and being a (former) computer programmer, I figured that if any alternative to Windows was going to make any headway, then people like me (meaning fairly computer-savvy people) will have to be the first ones to adopt it.

I wanted to install Ubuntu, but had some partitioning/GRUB issues that I couldn't figure out, and the text-mode installer wasn't much help (these days the installer is much better). Sadly I didn't know about these forums, where I probably could have gotten help. So I ended up installing a more install-friendly distro (I don't remember which), then I tried a few other distros, and eventually did install Ubuntu, which I've used ever since.

[beercz]

I had been running Debian for years (particularly for servers - still do in fact). So I have been familiar with linux for some time.

When Warty was released a Debian using friend emailed me the details and I gave it a try. Been using Ubuntu on my desktops (laptops really) ever since.

[ekuliak]

I wanted to see what the hype was about.

That's what got me to try Ubuntu. I had been using Mandriva before Ubuntu. I kept hearing about it on digg.com and finally decided to see for myself what was so great about this Ubuntu distro that's so popular.

As you can probaly guess, I like it, since I'm still using Ubuntu some 6 months later. :cool:

[Shay Stephens]

Last year about this time I had decided that windows time was up, I would never use vista. I had dabbled with linux (red hat) in the past, so I started there. I couldn't get my network card working. So I started searching for other distros. I tried a bunch. I kept running across people talking about ubuntu and it was great for beginners. That didn't appeal to me so much and I resisted looking into it. But I finally gave up, desperate to find a version of linux that would work with at least some usability. I was willing to make some sacrifices.

So I finally tried breezy badger. To my great pleasure, it just worked. My search ended right then and there. I have spent the last year getting acclimatized to linux, and I am happy to report that for the first time, I have not had to dual boot into windows for weeks now. The beginning of the year I am going to format the windows drive and turn it into an ext3 storage drive.

2007 begins my freedom from bondage :-) No more software activation, no more windows, no more Photoshop CS2. Thank you Ubuntu!!!

[steven8]

Okay, I'll fess up. I can't hide it anymore. :-( I heard about Linux and Ubuntu in my Russian Mafia monthly newsletter. Don't flame me too bad. We commies have to make a living to ya know, and we hate that Beel Gatus!

[mindtrick]

In March or April 2005, I read that they were sending free CDs to world. It was in a computer forum.
I always wanted to use Linux but I thought that it was hard to use/learn. With Ubuntu I can enjoy linux.

[insane_alien]

first heard about it not long after warty was released didn't bother with it till breezy now i'm hooked. wish i joined at warty. don't remember where i heard about it.

[[L2G] Slapshot]

Well, my first post and where better than here, to tell you how I got here.

I was ( like someone who posted before ) using Mepis and found everyone very friendly but only a couple of people very knowlegeable. One of these guys helped me a lot and he used a Linux version of Mepis called Frontier. This then changed to be called Pioneer or TaPioneer and had a freely downloaded version or a paid and get support version. Naturally I am trying the freely downloaded version to see how I get on. It is actually Kubuntu which is Ubuntu with the KDE desktop I think ( LOL ). All I can say at the moment is it's running, it's stable, it's got my Nvidia card working with my LCD Widescreen monitor, I am able to play ( see my avatar ) Unreal Tournament 2003 and also run Boinc for grid computing. Oh and I almost forgot, I can use my wireless Belkin usb stick to connect to the Internet using ndiswrapper and a really good howto off this forum ( thanks FrodoB ).

So all I can say till I've played with it a bit more is this now does all I could want it too and more. So hello guys and girls and thanks to everyone thats made these forums great and the OS also.

Cheers
Slapper

[EdThaSlayer]

First I heard about Linux and how different it was from Microsoft.
Being quite the anti-m$ guy, I searched for Linux on the internet and got a link to the Ubuntu Linux site. So I decided to download that and finally ended up being a Linux user.

[floke]

I came via a longish route. Having (finally) got broadband and wireless installed at home during the summer my XP box was hit by a virus - which led me to discover Firefox during the course of research into getting rid of it (the virus, I mean, not the XP box - that came later:-D ). Within a month I had also discovered OOo, and was on my way into the open source community. One afternoon at work, I realised I had left my USB disk at home with all my files on, so had nothing to do for 5 hours but surf the web (I have a great job!). From the back of my mind came a suggestion to do some research into this thing called 'Linux' that I had kept running into - and thus into the confusing world of exotic distro names. Downloaded Ubuntu (I liked the idea of the LiveCD and the user-friendly aspect) and my revolution by stages was complete.

BTW: The community's great.

Merry xmas

[xpod]

I came via the quick route...

Got our first old messed up pc(m.e)off a pal in march, followed soon by an even more messed up xp about the end of april mabey...:-k :confused: :-? ](*,) :shock: :confused: :evil:.....

Found ubuntu in july and all is well again:mrgreen:

[rubinstein]

I heard about Ubuntu I think in September 2004.

I did use Debian then but was not totally satisfied because of the longish release cycle - so Ubuntu was the right thing for me: 6 month release cycle with the newest GNOME desktop and the whole debian software universe - almost perfect.

[TooRight]

I've hated windows , Gates, the whole package for a long time and one night was bitching to my bf about the latest "big Brother" tactics that were in the works, when it hit that I was talking the talk, but not walking the walk. The idea of a terminal was a lil scary though, though as I started googling on linux distributions I would look for screenshots....there weren't a whole lot, i tell ya!! Then I got to the ubuntu site and saw the screenshots there and thought, "yeahhh, this I can do!!" I duel boot with xp, but rarelyyyy even use it. At first it was a few programs i used for work and photoshop that kept me returning to it, but I've since found linux programs that I prefer to use, and i'm even getting used to Gimp... if not for a few educational softwares that run only in windows I'd get rid of xp completely.

I think my subconcious mind is pushing me to do that anyways... the other day I accidently deleted my XP backup partition, hehehe :oops:

[jpoRS]

Before about a month ago, I was a pretty mindless XP user. Didn't really know much about computers (still don't know anything of worth about Windows) and the most cutting edge I was happened when I dropped AOL's software to use Trillian. I was having massive problems with my computer. It wouldn't make it through the night if I forgot to turn it off, I woke up to a BSOD far to many times. Eventually in frustration I decided to reinstall XP. While trying to install I discovered that I had only payed for one installation of Windows, and thus would have to buy the whole OS all over again. My roommate, a long time Linux user, told me that if I wanted, he could set me up with a free OS. With nothing to loose, we backed up all my files (music, videos, text docs) on his computer and installed straight Edgy, no dual boot.

Now I have no clue why I payed for XP, it didn't make as much sense (to me anyway) as Ubuntu, it cost $200, and seemed to be designed to encourage viruses. I don't think I will ever go back to windows, I just couldn't stand it after seeing that there is another way.

jim

[robconscient]

I played around with Red Hat a few years ago, but it never went anywhere.

Earlier this year, a guy who used to work for me told me about Ubuntu. He was all excited about the upcoming release of some 'dapper' thing. ;) He gave me a Live CD, but I never did anything with it.

Then a few months ago I needed to reinstall my XP laptop. I was a little bored with XP - it is a five year old OS after all - so I tried dual booting Ubuntu just for fun.

Now I'm hooked. Laptop is Ubuntu only, and the home PC's 160GB HD has been resized to allow a paltry 35GB for XP, the rest (and my default boot!) is Edgy.

Once I can ditch iTunes and get vmware running A-OK (for those few Windows critical apps), XP is gone for good.

[Mr Wrath]

My supervisor brought in an Ubuntu disc from the house to use as a server OS...I laughed because of the name (made fun of it for a while), watched him install, became intrigued and have been using for close to a year now...few probs with the earlier distros...hoary and breezy, but dapper is doing pretty good.

[dbbolton]

i took that quiz thing which told me to use fedora. ubuntu was second, and i went with that.

[gentlemanmasher]

I kept reading about Ubuntu on digg. I like to tinker with my computer at home anyway and thought I would try my hand at dual booting. So after pretty much screwing up everything I stared fresh. (good thing for backup) I installed xp first and then Ubuntu. After barely using Ubuntu my xbox 360 broke. I was furious and when I called they would do absolutely nothing for me except tell me how stupid I was for not buying a warrently. Anyway I swore I would not use microsoft stuff again. Then i learned how fun it was to try to learn things on Ubuntu and how fast people were to respond on the forums. The forums will work with you through just about anyting(give or take a few stupid questions). I no longer use windows for much of anything. Here is to the community who make ubuntu what it is.

[iPower]

i need a os to my 150kr pc and was told to try ubuntu

[Malta paul]

I purchased a copy of 'Linux Format' magazine with a Ubuntu 5.10 CD on the cover. Tried it and then I was Hooked! :D

[saxin]

I was attending The Gathering (http://gathering.org) and we got Ubuntu in our "goodie-bag" when we entered the party! I had been using Mandrake before, but when we got our "Ubuntu 4.10 (The Warty Warthog)"-CD, and I was looking down on three people standing in a ring smiling up to me, I just knew I _had_ to install it. Since that day I have been using Ubuntu, and I enjoy it more and more for every day :cool:

I took a picture of it :D
http://bildr.no/thumb/27304.jpeg (http://bildr.no/view/27304)

[bonzodog]

I had been using Slackware since version 7 in 1999, and went through the version numbers until we got to 10.2, which no longer had Gnome with it - They had opted for KDE as the default desk, and I have always hated the qt/KDE thing.
Also, I had not long before acquired an AMD 64 PC, that I had built myself. So, I decided that it was time to switch to a distro that did 64 bit out of the box, and had the Gnome desk as a base.

At the time, the hype was building around the Ubuntu distro, just before Breezy's release, so I decided to check it out, and installed a late devel version, which I was impressed with.

However, I got as far as dapper before I got tired of the Gnome desk, and switched to Xfce, and I had also noticed that even for an AMD 64 distro, Ubuntu was SLOW. So, I started to look around again, and decided that there must be better Slackware based distro's around. I found Slackware's answer to Ubuntu in Zenwalk Linux, which uses Xfce as it's main desk, and is very fast and light. I may have a lot of RAM and more disk space than I know what to do with, but I like my OS's light and fast.
I also had realised the bug bears that still existed with 64 bit, and was missing things like flash Just Working, and native Sun Java support.

[dutchmega]

After a long time reading/hearing about Linux I decided to try Linux. Thanks to vmware, I didn't need to create any new partitions or dual-boot. After some searching on the internet, I found out that Ubuntu was one of the most populair/active distributions.

So I installed it. After using it for a month in vmware, I found it working very well.
After that, I've installed Ubuntu normally and I'm using it now for 3/4 months. The only reason I have Windows are the games.

[neowolf]

We've done this before, but I like seeing new posts.

I was struggling with debian problems (various debian-based distros), switched to Vector for a little while, came back to debian, struggled some more with a stupid libc6 dependency-pickle, then found Ubuntu!

So I am in the distro-convert category, it wasn't my first distro. Not terribly exiting, but there it is.

I had that problem on debian, I would do apt-get upgrade, everything would download but when dpkg was processing the libc6 update the system would freeze completely solid and I would have to turn at the power-off button.
I think I switched to Ubuntu initially from SUSE 10.1. I haven't settled on it yet, though I think I will soon, after being irritated once more by openSUSE 10.2 and fustrated to death by Fedora Core 6. And I want one of those lovely 'Edgy+Beryl+ Cool GTK theme' desktops :)

[OldTimeTech]

I've worked in the IT area for over 20 years....most of "us" talk about other OS's, but do nothing, because where we work uses of course M$.

About 2 yrs. ago, I had some spare time and a older computer, so started looking around...I think Knoppix live is what I looked at first, then moved on to many many (in other words to many to remember) distros. All had problems with the older machine I was using and never could quite seem to get the setup right.

Finally, I found Ubuntu, downloaded the iso and immediately it found all the hardware in my old machine and it ran. Now, I spend time reading posts to learn what else I can do and what other applications I can try.

I've upgraded twice, with great success both times. So for me the hype was right, it worked and worked better than any other distro I had tried.

I'm here to stay ;)

[macogw]

I wanted to try something new on my laptop and thought maybe Linux. I tried DSL in Qemu to make sure that "it's all command line" thing wasn't true. Then I asked a guy who goes to my school that I found in a Linux group on Facebook if I should use Mandriva because I heard it was easy for beginners. He just said "Use Ubuntu" so I looked it up and tried it and my laptop only had Windows for the 4 hours or so that I attempted to dual boot before deciding to just ditch Windows completely. My mom uses it on her desktop now too.

[Interestedinthepenguin]

I don't remember how I found Ubuntu, but every time I looked for a suitable linux distro, Ubuntu was mentioned. I then checked it out at osdir.com.

I liked the GNOME interface, compared to KDE and Fluxbox. :)

[Tux Aubrey]

I came across Ubuntu totally by accident. True. In August I had a magazine cover DVD in my CD drive and when I booted, Ubuntu (dapper) came up. I had no idea what was happening but just started playing with it.

I had been researching Vista and hardware specs and getting pretty annoyed with the hype and pointless bloat and had recently had to reinstall Windows from my original XP CDs (and then go through the sequential upgrades to SP2, and the verification processes, and reinstall antivirus and mallware blockers, and reinstall office and my backups, etc. etc.) - it took me all day and I was hugely PO'ed.

Ubuntu was a revelation and I have since converted my wife and one of my kids (the one who doesn't spend 90% of his time playing Ultima Online). I haven't used windows since September.

[Seiti]

I've heard of it from a friend, that saw Ubuntu on distrowatch.

After using Debian for years on college, and a year on my old laptop, I switched to Ubuntu on my new laptop.

Being a former Sarge Debian user, all I can say is that Ubuntu just works :cool:

But, if you want some fun, try Debian/Gentoo/Slack ;)

[spockrock]

oh about two years ago, I wanted to give linux a try, did an online linux quiz got debian, ubuntu and kubuntu. Gave ubuntu a whirl, jumped in, did the windows thing, wasnt really using apt or synaptic properly, found myself installing debian packages, installed debian, took me a while to get it setup, found myself missing ubuntu, went back, figured out how apt, works, and how ubuntu works, stuck with it since. Tried, dabbled with other distros, but I myself prefer debian and ubuntu.

[kettal]

I came across Ubuntu totally by accident. True. In August I had a magazine cover DVD in my CD drive and when I booted, Ubuntu (dapper) came up. I had no idea what was happening but just started playing with it.

This is hilarious. You must have felt it was a sign from heaven?

[x1a4]

I've switched to Linux in early 2005. Since then I've gone through quite a few distributions like Fedora, Linspire,Slackware, XandrOS, Mandrake and finally, a few months ago, Mepis which is based in part on Ubuntu--that's when I first heard of it. While using Mepis I browsed the Ubuntu Website, learned about the philosophy of Ubuntu and even downloaded XUbuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) but didn't install or even boot to the CD.

At one point after screwing too much with Mepis I killed my GUI, the Mepis community was of no help in resolving my problem and eventually after failing to get Mepis up-and-running I gave up and switched to Debian. Initially I got Debian to work just fine, but later after running Synaptic to update some of my packages I pretty much killed my computer (software wise). After an unsuccessful reinstall I installed XUbuntu. So far I like it quite a bit and this forum is just great.

I hope to run XUbuntu for many years to come. As for windows, if I can figure out how to run my games on XUbuntu I'll never boot to it again, and when I run out of disk space on the drive I run Ubuntu on, windows is history.

[NeoLithium]

http://www.distrowatch.org

[oyvindaa]

I'd been on the lookout for an easy-to-use Linux distro in the last couple of years, and I'd been frequently on distrowatch.com to see what's happening. I first used other distro's, but last spring I downloaded Ubuntu (Breezy). I was using Mandrake at the time, so I didn't install Breezy until a mate told me he was using it and how good it was. So I installed it and I haven't looked at any other distro's since.

[djlyx]

A couple of years ago a friend of mine told me about linux and he said that linux was free. I didn't really put much thought into it until earlier this year.

While reading a random article about the GNU wikipedia, I remembered Linux. From there I found out distros and everything. Which led me to Ubuntu, seeing that it was supposed to be easy.

I tried it on PPC on my iBook but I couldn't get anything to work.
Recently I tried xubuntu on my x86 amd, and it worked flawlessly. From there, I was sold.
I even went and got the official book!

[anachreon_]

First heard about it from, of all people, my dad. We were talking on the phone about wanting to free ourselves from Micro$oft, and he mentioned how everybody was raving about the Ubuntu distro. So when I visited home over the holidays we installed Kubuntu together on his laptop. I've now installed it on two laptops and one desktop in the past two weeks.

Aside from the (extremely annoying) wireless difficulties and relative unfriendliness of video card setup (had to manually edit xorg.conf on two of the three computers to get higher than 1024x768) I'm loving it ... and don't plan on using my windows partition for anything other than the occasional DirectX game.

Also - I love the community. The people around here are so helpful and see themselves as part of something larger than themselves.

[Robert.Zapata]

Hello Team.!!

Being in and out of Linux since the early 90's with the old Slackware and Caldera Linux, never like them, too complicated to install/configure. I work in the IT field since the mid 80's and I believe any OS must be easy to install, like ******* that run out of the box.
For my daily job (IT Support) I need to deal with all versions of ******* and what really made me to switch (at least at home) was that crap of "******* Genuine Advantage" and how *******XP was so bloated and still unstable, but *******95/98/Me were the worst from all the ******* flavors with *******2000 Pro being the best in IMHO but very dull (no eye candy).

Then on Distrowatch.com saw Ubuntu, but I was still playing with Fedora Core 3 and RH SuSE 9.0, they both worked fine on my home-built desktops and I was a happy camper, then when trying to install RH SuSE 9.0 in my then new Toshiba notebook, the display (widescreen) never got the correct resolution (1400x900) and a lot of tweaking was required, no good....then OpenSuSE 10.1 came out and everything worked out of the box but the wireless card :(

I check back Distrowatch.com and saw that Ubuntu was at the top of the charts, so I decided to give it a try and download and install 6.06 around last September. Alas everything worked out of the box on my Toshiba notebook...!!! I was very impressed that no tweaking on the default configuration was required.

Then last November I got me the Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad computer but 6.06 never detected my wireless card :( So I downloaded 6.10 and presto..!!!everything worked out of the box...!!!!

In an old spare computer (Deskpro P3-600, 256MB RAM) at the office I installed 6.10 and is working like a charm..!!! much faster than *******XP and that's my main machine for browsing the Net and doing some personal stuff at the office.

[Gargamella]

firstly Mepis...too difficult for me...browsing the net:UBUNTU

[Mateo]

distrowatch. wanted a distro with a large user base because i figured i'd need a lot of help.

[Johnsie]

I was making fun of Linux on the Yahoo message boards.... Someone suggested a new type of Linux "for human beings" that I'd never heard of before and I decided to give it a shot. Afterwards I went on and apologized to the guy I'd been making fun of and have been using it since.

[Praxicoide]

Just browsing the web. I started at linux.org and stumbled here after visiting a few other sites.

[WiseElben]

We used Red Hat (yeah, a long time ago) in this comp sci class, and it seemed like fun. It was my first experience with Linux, and I didn't much except use a text editor (I don't remember which one) and a terminal to program Java apps. Anyway, my teacher recommended that I try out Linux, and I said I would but my old computer only had 10gigs of space, so there was no way I could do it.

Years later, a friend of mine asks me to beta test his software, which was based on Linux. He had Gentoo, so I tried Gentoo. Bad first distro, eh? I then tried VLOS, which is basically a Gentoo that's ready to go. I then went back to XP for a while because I lost interest. Then my friend switched to Ubuntu Warty, so I gave that a go. I switched to XP for a while AGAIN. My friend then, once again, switched to another distro, Xandros this time. Finally I decided to start beta testing hard core, so I went to Ubuntu again. Now here I am, ALMOST XP free (games, only games). I've won the battle, but I'm a merciful man, so I left an XP partition.

I want to start developing applications on Linux, but I have to finish all these college apps first. Well, I want to learn Ruby first. One battle won, many more to go. That is life, I suppose.

[haiku99]

Was vaguely aware of Linux for years, tried Suse a couple of years ago but gave up on it after a few major hassles. Soldiered along w/ Windows for awhile, but then ran into install limitations on a legal copy, WGA, ridiculous anti-virus software, etc. and got completely fed up. Briefly considered a Macbook but was totally turned off after reading of the major quality control problems. So...time to give Linux another try. Did some research on various distributions on the Web, really liked what I read about Ubuntu and the story behind it. Bought a cheap HP laptop, loaded Ubuntu and have been very happy with it....but hope the many kinks are ironed out soon, there is no way in hell most people I know (fooling with computers is not one of their hobbies) would go through what it took me to get Ubuntu working right. Well worth the effort, and not especially difficult, but it took a lot of time and research... (I have seen what is possible when all goes well, installed a copy on my GF's computer, no hassles at all, everything worked immediately, even wifi)

[chinocracy]

I interview celebrities in my country (Philippines) for a showbusinessness magazine. One of the celebrities was an Ubuntu user, and told me to get it. I did, and it stands as my preferred OS over my Windows installation (can't let go because other members of the family use my computer, the only one around in the house).

[cbm_redux]

I've used a number of GNU/Linux live CDs beginning with Knoppix. Until recently I swore by Kanotix. I probably heard about Ubuntu on the Kanotix forums. I gave it a try and was shocked that it automatically configured my laptop display at the correct resolution of 1440x900. Another reason that I've come over from Kanotix is because the principal language in their forums is German, which I cannot read. (I will say this for Kanotix, if you do have a problem and post to the forums, there is a very good chance that Kano himself will answer you at length.)

As a recovery tool Kanotix is still my goto... things aren't hidden the way they are with Ubuntu (e.g., the root account)

[Ek0nomik]

Someone told me about it in a political debate forum.

[IYY]

A friend gave me a CD. I was already using FreeBSD at the time, so I decided to give it a try.

[TBOL3]

I had been using for about 5 years. For the first two, I was using a SuSE liveCD. I liked it, including the KDE desktop. But it was mostly for the cool games. :) Then I got a new computer, and a person gave me a Fedora 4 core Install dvds. So I partitioned my harddrive, and vialo. I loved it. The Gnome desktop ran much smother then the clunky KDE one, but that's biast. But I couldn't for the life of me install anything but the 100 or so programs that come with it. Then while browsing the super tux fan page forums, I found Ubuntu. Popped in the liveCD. And fell in love. Now I use Windows for bantering, and complaining at all of Microsoft's problems. :)

[Spr0k3t]

I had been using Windows for years and was finally fed up with all the problems I kept running into. I've kept up with DistroWatch (which is where I first heard about Ubuntu) for years. After all this time I finally made the jump and haven't looked back.

[shareMenaPeace]

A network security specialist told me to use the live cd :) ( I love him!) that was end of 2006.

[ixus_123]

I heard about it on Distrowatch.com when it came out.

At the time everything out there was mostly KDE based & on 2 CDs. I was a Slackware user, using the excellent Dropline Gnome with it.

I had slow bandwidth at the time so a one CD download was excellent & as an added bonus I think Ubuntu was the first distro offering up the latest Gnome at the time. This was a godsend as Gnome is a major pain to install if it doesn't come with the distro.

Slackware runs faster for me & is great to learn on & mega stable but I'm lazy at heart & can handle the kick down in speed for the brilliant apt-get and the amazing forums - especially the how-tos where I am always finding out how to things I never knew I even wanted to.

Ubuntu 6.10 is my main desktop machine & I run a webserver on an old G3 Apple iBook using Dapper

[disturbed1]

I heard about Ubuntu during the Warty beta stage, when Pat (head Slackware guy) told all of us GNOME Heads that there will not be anymore GNOME in Slackware and to basically move on, so I did.

[karellen]

on the internet, I think it was 2005...I don't revember the exact circumstances, but anyway I was well aware of linux for some time before that. I had tryed slackware, suse (for almost 10 months or so)...then came ubuntu :)

[Skippy_X]

I got turned onto linux back around '99 while I was being run crazy by Win 98SE. I started out w/ Mandrake 7.1 and stuck with Mandrake through 10.x (can't remember exactly which). rpm = dependency problems (used to, anyways), and I was tired of chasing answers around the internet. Since I was already frequenting Newforge, /. and other sites, I had been hearing about Ubuntu for a while. What intrigued me was being able to use apt. No More Dependency Issues? Heaven. I'm on dial-up and upgrading is a pain in the butt, so I'm still using Breezy. Eventually I'll upgrade, either when Feisty is released or when I pick up a laptop - whichever comes first.

[Pikestaff]

I heard about the specific "Ubuntu" distro when I was telling my boyfriend about how I was getting interested in open source and Linux, and he suggested Ubuntu to me... he'd tried it out and had no problems with it. Intreagued, I decided to read up on it and learn about it and eventually try it out, and it ended up being the distro I chose.

Ironically I now use Linux exclusively and my boyfriend still uses Windows ;) Although he'd like to move to Linux sometime. But yeah I have to thank him for the intro to the distro :)

[sam81]

Back in March last year I got a new laptop with a SATA hard disc, I tried installing Debian (which I had been using for about 6 months), but had big problems, mainly because of the hard disc (it works now with etch), tried installing Fedora, but had problems with the video configuration. Then a friend of mine who's studying computer science told me "Why don't you try Ubuntu, it's basically the same as Debian, but somewhat easier to configure and with better hardware detection". So I installed Breezy at the time, and never left Ubuntu since. One of the main reasons I prefer it over other distros is the huge package repository which is the same as Debian, and the fast release cycle (free software develops quickly, and having the latest often brings significant improvements)

[nonewmsgs]

i was reading up on vista to decide which version to buy and whether i should buy it or stay with xp. i read about all the problems that it has with its EULA and genuine advantage failure and in a couple of the forums i'd see someone say "linux" and then the typical "linux is too hard" followed by a "im guessing you never heard of ubuntu linux then have you?"

now i was like ohhh, really? see i had tried linux before with very early red hat and suse, but i really wasnt impressed. it was a free alternative to windows, yes, but difficulties up the wazoo. graphics cards that couldnt be adjusted because the screen to change the settings went down so far that even if the window was at the top of the screen you couldnt get to the buttons you needed on the bottom. and of course it didnt support my modem (not a winmodem either. a nice external one). also the joys of mounting and unmounting cdroms everytime you wanted to be able to open them up, and the people who used them made you almost prove that you were trying to fix your problem before they would even help you, and god forbid that something was on a man page.

ubuntu is great. when i was first looking at it, i wanted to know if it could handle my needs, and it totally does. i have already turned this (my main desktop) and my one notebook to ubuntu (and hopefully before this weekend i will finally get my wireless card installed). and this community is absolutely wonderful. i cant say enough good things about how helpful everyone here is.

[StewieHead]

I started out with red hat in 03 and played with it for some while and was getting interested in debian after some time. At the gathering 05 I installed debian on my machine, but I also got a cd with something called 'ubuntu' (5.10 if I'm not mistaken) in my goodie bag. I tried it out, but didn't really think too much of it then - the sudo thing annoyed me and it wasn't debian etc etc. However, during the last year I've been finding myself using it a lot more and a lot of my friends use it exclusively, so now I'm hooked as well.

[purplearcanist]

My cousin told me about Ubuntu and even gave me the Edgy Eft live CD.

[ESPOiG]

i got a free copy of hoary... so long ago and i diverted from fc now i used ubuntu all the time besides for games and photoshop although im thinking of buying pixel thats a great program its almost just like photoshop

[AndyCooll]

I came across LInux when looking for free alternative applications for *******. I started out with Fedora Core, and then not long after ...Ubuntu.

:cool:

[Quillz]

I heard about Ubuntu when I was reading up on the Linux kernel, so I used the ShipIt service to receive the 6.06 CD. It was my first foray into the world of Linux, and I haven't left it since.

[hellmet]

I really don't remember how I got hold onto Ubuntu exactly. I actually somewhere
read about Shipit shipping free Breezy cds, and I felt I cudn't miss that offer. I had a capable internet connection, and I could have downloaded the ISO, but I didn't.
I was just not very interested. Having tried Red Hat before, I wasn't too interested in another Linux distro. After a few days, I received my CDs and it was then that I actually tried it. I was already quite familiar with pcs and partitioning and stuff, and never had partitioning or installation problems. The only problem was my LAN card, on which I spent weeks trying to install. I then gave up, for two reasons, One that I was new to Linux, and I mite not be able to handle it, and another that I read somewhere that the card didnt' work on Kernel 2.6 . I bought a D-Link and internet then worked. I no longer had to boot into XP for Internet. That was the turning point . I started looking into HowTos and this forum helped me a lot.
I actually tried Breezy when Dapper was almost complete. A few weeks later, I upgraded to Dapper, and now I'm on Edgy . So that sums up everything!!

[Deathshrimp316]

I'll first state that I have been a Windows user and I guess you could say a supporter of Microsoft for a long while now.

I heard about Ubuntu from many places, magazines, mates on msn, internet articles, etc. When I finally decided to install it I chose to do so because I had installed Vista on my PC. It's not that it was absolute crap (some may argue that it is) but it showed me that Microsoft was not interested in progress. It just pumped the same OS with a fancy GUI - no revolutionary features. So I thought I would get involved with something that supported progress, that supported change.

That's why I switched over to Ubuntu. I couldn't believe the community support behind it with so many maintained packages and such a good forum. I saw the potential that could be gained from joining a community like this, and have now begun encouraging other to do so. I reconfigured my own website from a Windows development forum to a forum dedicated to helping people switch from Windows to Ubuntu so that they too can experience what I am experiencing now. For people who are interested my site is www.virtual-nation.net

[frup]

I had been trying to use Linux since about 2000 but because i was on dial up at the time i could never really be bothered downloading more than 100mb... that would take a few days too... i tried some floppy version that claimed to use only 3 disks, it didn't work... Later my girlfriend ironically began using mandrake when she took an IT course... she stuck in it for one semester and i ended up doing all the assignments... later i got the Mandrake CD and installed it but it was old and Mandriva already existed so none of the repositories worked and i couldn't install any RPM's etc. etc. Luckily we had broadband by now and i somehow got a free voucher for Linspire... i tried that for a month and didn't really like it, Mandrakes GNOME was more comfortable... in this time i had got my younger brother off windows using Linspire and he found Ubuntu and we have both been using it since... we now have 5 computers between us all running Ubuntu. I am in the process of setting one up as an arcade machine, one will be for my girlfriend so she can get using Linux again. Her whole family is quite keen to try it so if they all like it theres 3 computers there which i will be installing Ubuntu on too..

[mostwanted]

I read about Ubuntu on osnews.com when the Warty Warthog was released and I liked the idea of a distro synced with Gnome releases offering free CDs, but I didn't order/download it just then. After a few weeks I read some more articles about Ubuntu and its benevolent dictator for life and I eventually gave in. Warty was very cool... Ubuntu was my first real Gnome distro.

[kevinlyfellow]

I first heard about it when it just came out. I was desperatly searching for a good distro, after I gave up on red hat during their "transition" into the fedora core project and I was running windows at the time. I tried a few distros but nothing suited me. I can't remember where I had heard it, maybe distrowatch or maybe I just googled for linux distros and found it. Either way, I knew it was going to be great once I installed Warty, and I've used every version since.

[wireddad]

First heard about Ubuntu via CNet video last quarter of 2006. I have to say that Ubuntu versions/derivatives are the best out there for learning/re-learning linux for everyday use. \\:D/

[energiya]

DistroWatch ... wanted to find a nice linux distro (hated Fedora), so I downloaded Ubuntu 5.04 I think. Liked the ideea, but... so back to win. Then tried 5.10 and shortly 6.06, that I kept until 6.10. Wanting a smoother working distro, had to give up Ubuntu and go for Zenwalk. Anyway, still running around the forums trying to help people...

[Bloch]

In the sauna.
I like to have a good steam once a week and sweat out all the badness. So I was there 20 minutes and getting pretty cooked when these regulars start talking computers and mentioned linux. I chipped in that I ran Libranet.

Naw, naw, he says, use ubuntu, it's a 100 times better. You know OS X? Well, OS X is like a poor copy of it. Then he went on to explain the difference between software copyright and softare patents (I swear, I'm not making this up) and invited whoever was within hearing range to some opensource conference currently running, telling people they could get free installation CDs etc.

Then he moved on to telling us how 4 weeks in a row he had put a suggestion in the suggestion box of the sports centre saying that the swimming lanes in the pool should be laid out in alternate up-down fashion so two swimmers in adjacent lanes swim the same direction and not against each other - to avoid a long-armed person clocking the other swimmer straight in the face. 4 times over several weeks and still nothing had been done - still swimmers' arms were colliding, and sometimes heads.

I went along next week and he wasn't there. But guess what? The swimming lanes were laid with alternate up-down arrows directing the swimmers. And everybody was swimming without collisions.

[dickinsd]

I've been using Ubuntu on and off for about 2 years I guess - I actually heard about it at a Fedora support site. Someone mentioned a really great live distro - I tried it - liked it - installed it (it didn't work) - I fixed it and used it for a little while before venturing off to try a different distro - I usually try each Ubuntu release - it really is one of the best distros out there (I'm preaching to the converted here I know) and is the distro I recommend to most people

[SEWi]

I saw the light in linux around 2001. I was tryin to rescue my win pc and did, so I kept reading and using. Now I use ubuntu(warty or brezzy)and pclinux os as my main distro.
I still use win xp .......sigh :( becuse other than my now almot guru uncle uses win. Oh almost for got hard to do online school in linux also.

[Sunflower1970]

I did a google search for something like "easy linux" or "friendly linux" and Ubuntu kept popping up. Finally found my way to distrowatch, noticed it was #1 and then decided to try it out.

[imagine]

Read a review (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/9/28/211242/712), downloaded the ISO-file and tried it out. I didn't use Ubuntu all the time since then, but well that's the first time I heard/read about it.

[happy-and-lost]

A friend gave me a 5.10 CD. I was using Mepis at the time so the text installer scared me too much. When I felt brave enough to wipe the recovery partition off my (then) new laptop, I thought I'd give the latest Ubuntu (Dapper) a whirl (Mepis having failed to detect my hardware very well). And I've been here ever since.

[thegoodsteer]

Actually, a user on this forum, Spockrock, had influenced me to try out Ubuntu.

[nyinge]

Well, I heard a lot of this phrase "just works," which I still hear now today, and I don't see how Ubuntu "just works" any more than any other distro. In fact, a lot of other distros could detect my monitors' optimal screen resolutions, but Ubuntu (even as of Edgy) cannot unless I manually add lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Nor does Ubuntu "just work" with Flash videos or MP3s (yes, for ideological reasons, but to a new user just coming off Windows, why would I care about that?).

Ubuntu now (in late 2006) can't even match Mepis of 2005 with an easy point-and-click way to install Grub, Nvidia drivers, or reliable mounting of partitions with correct permissions.

So, that's how Ubuntu disappointed me on the software front.

I'm with you here, Aysiu. Fedora detected my custom screen resolution and the RAID (software) and configured them automatically among other things. But it's the philosophy and the community that keeps me from going back. :)

[Dylnuge]

I was fed up with RedHat (which I heard about originally in a networking class). I searched for solutions and found distrowatch. I tried Gentoo first, but after four weeks, decided it was not worth it (still didn't have everything configured). Finally I tried Ubuntu.

I have never left. :-)

[pirothezero]

6-9 months ago on distrowatch. Then ran out of time/had no time to mess around with it took me til feb 2007 to get back into it.

[SunnyRabbiera]

It was around when I first truely started to experiement with linux, but it was basically a nobody back then with mandriva on top (it was Warty Warthog back then)
The name didnt start catching till it came onto the big scene, but I didnt have much interest in it as at the time Mepis was the distro for me.
Buntu was horrid to me at one point, up until dapper as Dapper was the one that appealed to me as it supported more of my stuff then other versions did.
Plus the live installer was a heavy bonus