What OS did you use before you found Ubuntu? When and how did you find Ubuntu?

[Condoulo]

Ok, how did you first find Ubuntu? And what Operating system did you use before installing Ubuntu?

I was first introduced to Ubuntu when my Dad gave my a disc back in August.... I finally got to using Ubuntu when I got my new Wireless card last month. Before I got Ubuntu, I used WIndows XP SP2.

[AusIV4]

I used Windows XP, 98 before that, 95 before that. My roommate last year was a fan of Linux, and I was amazed by some of the things he could do with his computer. At first I set it up on an old box I had lying around. Eventually I upgraded that box, later I put it on my primary laptop, and now I have a System76 laptop that's just awesome. I've been using Ubuntu for almost a year and a half, and I've been using it pretty much exclusively for about 3 months. Every once in a while I'll have to boot Windows up for obscure programs that I need for coursework or something, but it's pretty rare.

[Condoulo]

Awesome. Yeah, it's pretty awesome what you can do with Linux.

[Pugwash]

XP Media Center edition, woo....

It was slowly grinding to a halt, and about a month ago I decided enough was enough (its a new laptop as well). I've been hearing good things about linux for the last couple of years on the net and I tried an ubuntu livecd about a year ago which impressed me, so I decided to set up a dual boot system. I was also suffering from pc gaming addiction which was beginning to affect my studies and two weeks in I decided to totally wipe xp as I realised I could do everything I needed on ubuntu. Now I am free of MS, and I can get down to my studies without getting distracted by pc games.

[Condoulo]

Only version of XP I didn't ever use. :o

[etank]

I am pretty sure that I was using 2000 at the time. It's been a while though so I'm not real sure.

[Condoulo]

Dang. :P

I considered 2000 to be better than XP for a while. Dunno why, but I did.

[trash]

2000, osX and Yellowdog... all replaced with Ubuntu

[LMP900]

I used Windows 98SE, Windows XP, and Mac OS X - all on separate machines - before Ubuntu.

Windows 98 > Xubuntu (but hardly gets touched)

Windows XP > Ubuntu (my main machine)

Mac OS X... is not getting replaced anytime soon ;)

[Condoulo]

I've thought of getting a Mac for my video editing stuff.... since I haven't found good video editing software for Linux. And I heard iMovie is a awesome video editor.

[jkeyes0]

I was entirely XP at home, and I still am at work. I've got Ubuntu 6.10 on my desktop and laptop, and dapper on my file server.

[Condoulo]

Dapper seems like a good OS for the server cause it has Long Term Support, so you don't have to worry too much about upgrades. My Dad plans on putting Edubuntu Server on a IBM server and show it to the school.

[maxamillion]

There is no option for "Other linux distro" ... I came from debian because I find Ubuntu easier for my desktop needs.... before that I guess I was on win98se.

[Condoulo]

Yeah, I noticed that last night after I made it.... so yeah, before you found Linux I guess.

[etank]

I just added the choice to the poll for "Other Linux distro". I think that I would fall into that category as well.

[Condoulo]

Thanks.

[jbonll05]

Ubuntu 5.10 replaced Linspire as my Linux OS. Also ran SuSe 10.1 for about 6 months. Breezy replaced M$-XP 23 Dec.05. I still have the mfg HD for my laptop [June06] with XP, used seldom. It runs with Edgy on a 60Gb Toshiba HD.

[Condoulo]

Sounds like you've has expereince with other distrubutions. :P

[gorkur]

C64 -> DOS 6.22/Win 3.11 -> Win98 SE -> WinXP -> Ubuntu Dapper ;)

[arvster]

My OS history:

DOS>Win95>Win98>WinXP>Mandrake>Slackware>Vector Linux>Suse Linux>Ubuntu Edgy>Arch Linux
Though I am not running Ubuntu anymore, I was quite satisfied with it for the few month's that I spent with it.

--------
Damn, I didn't read on which part of the forum I was. Sorry, Kentucky LoCo Team. :(

[Condoulo]

It's ok. But hey, at least you don't use Windows. :P

[NJC]

Ok, how did you first find Ubuntu? And what Operating system did you use before installing Ubuntu?

In another forum I frequent, someone had "Ubuntu 6.06" in their signature. This was a few months ago and I had never even heard of it. As well, a few other folks on the same forum spoke highly of Ubuntu as a good distro ... did some research on the available "flavours" and decided to go for the LiveCD 6.06 install.

I have a dual boot config with 6.06 and Win98.

[Condoulo]

I remember windows 98.

[moore.bryan]

I remember windows 98.
my first experience with windows was updating to windows 3.1 on an eagle pc monochrome display... :-)

found ubuntu at an educational technology conference and never looked back.

[Condoulo]

Nice. Knowledge is power.

[rennen01]

Still use XP, but slowly getting myself off of it. Should be full Ubuntu here in the next month or so.

[jamienos]

Windows xp, and i had been useing various windows systems for over 6 years if not more, found out about ubuntu when a guy on another forum was saying how he installed it on his laptop and he including some pictures so i did a search got very intrested in it.

Installed it the first day i found out about it, and still loving it i have had it for around 4 days in total now so it hasent been long :) i am highly suprised at how fast it is in general compared to my old windows xp setup which took a good ol 5 minutes or more to start up ( lol i know.. )

[Condoulo]

Wow, 5 minutes? Dang.

[rennen01]

That is one of the things I love about Linux, it works on older PCs. =D>

[Condoulo]

Yeah, cause it doesn't need as many system files or the System Files in Linux don't take up as much space.

[jamienos]

That is one of the things I love about Linux, it works on older PCs. =D>

Yeah, this computer feel's like new again - on my old windows xp setup i had constant problems and sluggish-ness one of the annoying thing's i had with it was that the taskbar totally disapeared alot (which resulted in everything locking up if it dident load back up.. even then it took forever) and basic thing's like starting, rebooting, opening/closing programs switching programs etc took a long while all i can say is, asta la vista windows! :lolflag:

I don't think i'll go back to window's again after useing linux/ubuntu it's just simply awesome =D>

[Condoulo]

Ha! Nice pun. :P

Windows XP wasn't so bad on my Machine, but I have a eMachines I bought not to long ago. But XP also ran good on my old 7 year old Dell, so it depends all on the hardware.

And I'm with ya on the old Windows thing, now that I found Ubuntu, I'm never going back to Windows.

[rennen01]

I am currently building an ALL-Linux Server Infrastructure for a client. That is why I am using Ubuntu. I really love what I've seen so far. Hopefully more of my clients will do Ubuntu/Linux migrations.

[kostkon]

I was using Windows ME. It was full of trojans and I became fed up so I installed a relatively old, for that time, version of Mandrake that I found in a magazine. I wasn't satisfied with it, mainly because gnome was very slow, so I started looking for alternatives. I tried debian but I had problems with the graphics card. Then, I saw that everyone on the net was saying good words about a new distro called Ubuntu. Thus, on 5th of April 2005, according to uname, I installed Ubuntu for the first time and I was instantly impressed.

Thus, on April this year I will close 2 years using Ubuntu! :popcorn: That's a lot of time, for me at least, and I hope that Ubuntu will continue to be a very good OS, as it is now, and I believe that it will be my preferred OS for the next 2 years and on. :cool:

[Condoulo]

Wow, thats a pretty long time. I'm currently tryng KDE right now. I'm not too fond of KDE as I am GNOME though.

[bkingx]

Still running XP at work, but slowly converting to Ubuntu for all the computers in the house.

[xSauronx]

I used XP before. Over the years Ive tried a couple of other Linux distros, but found them too cumbersome to easily use. RH4 and Debian 3.0 are the two i remember best. Id always told myself that when I stopped gaming, Id go with linux.

Well, i got a divorce, she got the pc, and i grabbed a laptop since i needed one for work. I use Xubuntu because I wanted a distro known for being easy to set up and run since I only had one machine and needed it to work.

I have a new laptop in that came with Vista, Ill be using it for a week or two to try out some networking things between linux and vista, and to get used to how vista works since ill be supporting it from time to time with customers, and more and more as time goes on.

However, Im not sure yet what distro Ill put on it. Im thinking of Kubuntu or Ubuntu and playing with beryl, or maybe straight Debian with enlightenment, or perhaps *BSD for the sake of experience. Fedora Core and Gentoo are options, though they are at the bottom of the list for a number of reasons.

Until I switch, Ill keep xubuntu on this lappy, and enjoy it :)

[Condoulo]

Awesome. I'm trying to get my brothers wireless card to work in Ubuntu, so he could switch to Ubuntu soon. My Dad plans on switching soon as well.

[Condoulo]

I used XP before. Over the years Ive tried a couple of other Linux distros, but found them too cumbersome to easily use. RH4 and Debian 3.0 are the two i remember best. Id always told myself that when I stopped gaming, Id go with linux.

Well, i got a divorce, she got the pc, and i grabbed a laptop since i needed one for work. I use Xubuntu because I wanted a distro known for being easy to set up and run since I only had one machine and needed it to work.

I have a new laptop in that came with Vista, Ill be using it for a week or two to try out some networking things between linux and vista, and to get used to how vista works since ill be supporting it from time to time with customers, and more and more as time goes on.

However, Im not sure yet what distro Ill put on it. Im thinking of Kubuntu or Ubuntu and playing with beryl, or maybe straight Debian with enlightenment, or perhaps *BSD for the sake of experience. Fedora Core and Gentoo are options, though they are at the bottom of the list for a number of reasons.

Until I switch, Ill keep xubuntu on this lappy, and enjoy it :)

Good Luck on choosing a distro. If it were my choice, I'd choose one that uses GNOME by default. I'm not a big fan of KDE myself.

[Koji-Murasame]

I used Windows XP until about two years ago when I first learned about Linux from a friend. My friend gave me several distros to try including Ret Hat, Suse, and Slackware. I tried these and downloaded Knoppix also. I wasn't really satisfied with these distros mostly because most didn't work very well on a clean install. At that point my friend was trying out Ubuntu himself and told me about it. I put Ubuntu on an old IBM 390X laptop to try it out (there wasn't a live CD for Ubuntu then). I liked it so much I installed it on a separate hard drive on my desktop and dual booted. Another friend of mine told me that if I liked Gnome I should try KDE instead because it was easier to configure a wider variety of stuff, so I did and downloaded Kubuntu. Within the last year I have become attached to Xubuntu because of it's lightweight and minimalistic install and the fact it uses a lot of the applications I want.

[ashmew2]

WinBlows : 95,98,ME,XP,Vista
Red Hat , Mandriva , Fedora , Damn Small Linux and now im dual booting XP and Linux cuz of gaming addiction ;)

[Condoulo]

I used Windows XP until about two years ago when I first learned about Linux from a friend. My friend gave me several distros to try including Ret Hat, Suse, and Slackware. I tried these and downloaded Knoppix also. I wasn't really satisfied with these distros mostly because most didn't work very well on a clean install. At that point my friend was trying out Ubuntu himself and told me about it. I put Ubuntu on an old IBM 390X laptop to try it out (there wasn't a live CD for Ubuntu then). I liked it so much I installed it on a separate hard drive on my desktop and dual booted. Another friend of mine told me that if I liked Gnome I should try KDE instead because it was easier to configure a wider variety of stuff, so I did and downloaded Kubuntu. Within the last year I have become attached to Xubuntu because of it's lightweight and minimalistic install and the fact it uses a lot of the applications I want.

Sounds like you've had experience with quite a range of distros.

[Condoulo]

Ha, main reason anybody here uses XP anymore, unless they need it for specific software at work.

[xSauronx]

Good Luck on choosing a distro. If it were my choice, I'd choose one that uses GNOME by default. I'm not a big fan of KDE myself.

i have plenty of time. im going to get the ubuntu and kubuntu live cds today and see what i like, and probably a couple of others to see how i like the look and feel of them :)

after looking into BSDs a bit more today ill skip it. support for linux is good, but not as thorough for the BSDs, though if i ever get a chance to setup a LAN ftp server or a firewall or some such id probably play with one.

[ssavelan]

XP Media Center edition, woo....

It was slowly grinding to a halt, and about a month ago I decided enough was enough (its a new laptop as well). I've been hearing good things about linux for the last couple of years on the net and I tried an ubuntu livecd about a year ago which impressed me, so I decided to set up a dual boot system. I was also suffering from pc gaming addiction which was beginning to affect my studies and two weeks in I decided to totally wipe xp as I realised I could do everything I needed on ubuntu. Now I am free of MS, and I can get down to my studies without getting distracted by pc games.

DO NOT EVER:

sudo apt-get install tremulous

Really... don't

[JanEnEm]

This poll suggests I traded a system in to use Ubuntu, but I didn't. I simply added a machine to run Ubuntu Server and use VMware Server to run a few Windows servers, just to fool around with them. In the mean time i also added 2 playgrounds for Ubuntu! I AM getting the taste for it.

[Condoulo]

i have plenty of time. im going to get the ubuntu and kubuntu live cds today and see what i like, and probably a couple of others to see how i like the look and feel of them :)

after looking into BSDs a bit more today ill skip it. support for linux is good, but not as thorough for the BSDs, though if i ever get a chance to setup a LAN ftp server or a firewall or some such id probably play with one.

Have fun with that. :P Only problem I have with Kubuntu vs. other KDE versions of Linux is Kubuntu doesn't come with my favorite software packages such as GIMP or Firefox. So thats why I stick to regular Ubuntu and installed KDE afterwards. But for some reason, I just happen to stick to GNOME.

[enopepsoo]

I started with DOS 5.something, then had the old windows 3.0 and 3.1 and 3.11 and 95 ad nauseum. Once I finished University I decided that when my computer broke ("ntoskernel.exe not found, or something similar) that I would not be going back. I tried a few distros, the best were Fedora and Knoppix, but between my n00bishness and some minor frustrations I kept trying new distros until Ubuntu.

I found the #Ubuntu channel and they sorted me out. I don't plan on going back.

I still use the old XP at work though. We don't plan on moving to vista any time soon, but we will eventually, unfortunately.

[Condoulo]

Wow.

[Joule]

Windows XP here... my good friend, Isa, is a nut for Ubuntu. She's always talking about the wonderful things she can do with it.

Finally, I got fed up with XP running like complete crap on my desktop machine, so I took my desktop to her place and asked her to help me get started. She showed me around how to do basic stuff, and how to find the help I need to get things done.

And I couldn't be happier with it. I run a network in a public high school, and I just talked to the principal and the programming teacher, and we are going to set up a number of computers here in the school as dual-boot machines running Feisty as well as XP. I have already helped a number of my students switch over, who were curious about Linux.

[Condoulo]

Wow. Only person I got to move to Ubuntu so far was my brother

[JarG0n]

Ubuntu 5.10 replaced Linspire as my Linux OS. Also ran SuSe 10.1 for about 6 months. Breezy replaced M$-XP 23 Dec.05. I still have the mfg HD for my laptop [June06] with XP, used seldom. It runs with Edgy on a 60Gb Toshiba HD.

I'm curious. Why did you replace Linspire with Ubuntu? Ironically, Linspire is now moving to use Ubuntu as its base. :lolflag:

[JarG0n]

Still use XP, but slowly getting myself off of it. Should be full Ubuntu here in the next month or so.

Hence, only 5 cups of Ubuntu!

[Condoulo]

Ubuntu as a base, eh? Sounds like Ubuntu has become the Distro to use.

[rottenbreed]

My O/S usage over the years has went like this:

Win95 > Mac OS > Win98/WinMe > WinXP Pro > ZenWalk > MEPIS > Ubuntu

I've only been using Linux overall for about 1 month so I am still extremely new, still learning and such. Just testing different distros and so far Ubuntu has had less issues so I may stick around for awhile.

[Condoulo]

Learning what you need to do for certain stuff is easy and fun if you put some time into it.
And by far, most people have found Ubuntu to be the easiest.

[rusty4r]

I've used 3.1,95,98ndxp and then I moved and when my cable guy came over to install my cable and setup my modem he mentioned Ubuntu and said he had been windows free for over a year. When we spoke about the freedom from not only microsoft but also Norton or McAfee and how proprietary software seems to own you. It took me about a week of research until I agreed that Ubuntu Dapper should be my first Linux.

I 've also Installed Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu Edgy, SabayonLinux, and PCLinuxOS in order over the last two months. Now after trying these I mainly use Edgy. I don't like Gentoo or KDE so I'll probably replace SabayonLinux(Gentoo) and PCLinuxOS(KDE). Fedora is nice but the forums of Ubuntu are so helpful and respectful to new members that I can't see using anything but buntu.

[X86]

I went like this win 95, win 98, win 98SE, IMAC Mandrake,Redhat, took a break for 2 years
win XP, got virus and I wasn't doing nothing wrong and I couldn't figure out why I kept getting virus's
then I google linux and found Ubuntu
I think Ubuntu is the best Linux distro I have ever used I'm real happy with it

[golem3]

I had been wanting to move to Linux for a while, before I finally did last year (2006).

I was beta testing Vista, and I was using XP. I was very annoyed with Vista's performance and the bloat it placed on the computer. I knew it was time for me to move away from the crap M$ disseminates around the world....like a festering wound that won't heal...:lolflag:

[mngrif]

First computer ever was an Apple ][ that I had many enjoyable hours in with Oregon Trail, and I moved up to a Mac Classic which was just a really expensive PONG clone. Skip ahead until I'm 6 and I get given a brand spankin' new 486, complete with CD ROM drive. I turn 11 and hear about 4.4BSD, and subsequently find some Norse distribution of it. Had to change the keyboard layout and everything!

But I was hooked. It was like exploring the forest behind a new house for the first time. Eventually I was given a copy of RHL 5.2 (remember, 28.8 modems were hot stuff), and it actually made me go back to windows so I could figure out how to burn a CD of slackware. Then Debian for a solid 4 years, then Gentoo until it went mainstream, and now Kubuntu and I swear I will *NEVER* look back.

I love this OS. It simply works. I've had 40 hour long nonstop code sessions and not once had a single application give me any crap. Everything kept right on chugging like it was intended to do.

Good stuff.

[annihilus06]

WinXP. ran okay fro about three months, soon as I started programming in Ruby i made the switch to Ubuntu at work and then home. Now work is switching to OSX, but im sticking with ubuntu on my personal box.

[Condoulo]

WinXP. ran okay fro about three months, soon as I started programming in Ruby i made the switch to Ubuntu at work and then home. Now work is switching to OSX, but im sticking with ubuntu on my personal box.

OS X is awesome in my opinion if you're willing to spend the money on a Mac. I mean for Multimedia purposes, Apple pretty much owns that industry. Any time you watch a movie, it was edited on OS X

[jayarsantos]

I first got an installer of Ubuntu from my friend and installed it along with Windows XP in a dual boot configuration... I am using it more than I use XP now..

[YaroMan86]

Unfortunately, my OS before Ubuntu was Windows Vista Basic. What drew me to Ubuntu was the thought that I knew Vista wasn't the greatest, but I still wanted to give it a fighting chance. So I was looking for an OS to 'hold its hand' so to speak. First I considered Win98, but read far too many forum and blog posts about just how hard it is to dual boot an earlier form of Windows with a newer when the newer has already been installed. Then I stumbled upon the idea of installing Linux, which does recognize other operating systems easily enough at install time. In other word I found an operating system that would make dual-booting a breeze. Later I downgraded my Vista to XP, and all I had to do was go through GRUB on a chroot in the LiveCD to restore my boot. Now? I'm Ubuntu exclusive, the only Windows on my machine is virtualized and I only use that VM in the (exceptionally rare) circumstance that WINE can't run my Windows software.

[KJ55]

I've used various Operating Systems - DOS (IBM, MS and Novell), Linux (RedHat 6.0, Mandrake 6.0, Mandrake 7.2), Win95/98SE/2000/XP before trying Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS when it was originally released. I then Upgraded Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS to 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10 upon their releases.

I'm amazed how far Linux as a "desktop operating system" (GUI) has come; however, I feel it requires further development for more folks to use it as their primary OS. This is the reason I still have a dual boot Win XP/Ubuntu 7.10 PC.

But, after saying that, I do enjoy using Ubuntu and learning more about this extremely powerful and useful OS.

[Yoooder]

My OSes prior to Ubuntu were (in rough order)
Win 3.1-XP
Red Hat
Mandrake
SuSE
Slackware
Debian
FreeBSD
Gentoo
LFS
Solaris

Although prior to Ubuntu I was primarily XP/Gentoo, Ubuntu just bumped Gentoo

[RFalken]

On this computer iI used XP Pro.
But Microshaft tried to shaft me and up with that I shall not put.

Anyone lknow why CDs and DVDs wont play?

Oh yeah, the pc has a dual core processor and is fast as H. E. double hockey sticks.